When a signed-off rota comes into Paycircle from Rotaready, the integration needs to know which Paycircle pay element to use for each type of payment. It does this by matching the name of the pay element in Rotaready against the pay elements set up in Paycircle. This matching is fully automatic and based entirely on the element name. There is no manual mapping tool. If the names do not match, the data will not come through.
The matching rules
Matching is on the element name, and it is not case-sensitive. Spacing and punctuation do need to match.
Rotaready element name | Paycircle element name | Result |
Regular Hours | Regular Hours | Match; data will flow |
Regular Hours | Regular hours | Match; capitalisation is ignored |
Overtime | Over time | No match; a space has been added |
Mileage | Mileage Allowance | No match; the whole name must agree |
The one exception: Holiday Pay
Holiday is the exception to the rule above. Your Paycircle pack must contain an element named exactly Holiday Pay, and this match is case-sensitive; Holiday pay or HOLIDAY PAY will not be recognised. That element also needs to sit against an overtime-type adjustment in your pack.
Where two elements share a name
Where your Paycircle pack contains more than one element with the same name, the integration decides which to use based on whether the amount is positive or negative — a negative amount selects the deduction, a positive one the addition.
What happens when an element does not match
The name does not match anything: an error
⚠️Important! Where no pack entry matches the Rotaready element name, the import produces an error. On a rota sign-off, an error stops that whole import — nothing is written for any employee in it. The pay period keeps the pay elements from the last successful import.
The name matches, but the direction is wrong: a skip
Where a pack entry matches the name but is configured in the opposite direction to the amount being imported, that element is skipped rather than erroring. The import completes, everything else comes through, and a warning is recorded against the event. But that payment does not appear at all.
⚠️Important! This is easy to miss, for two reasons. The import reports success, and the compatibility check screen will show the element as matched — that screen compares names only and does not check the payment or deduction direction.
Holiday
A missing Holiday Pay element causes holiday to be skipped for every employee, with a warning, but the rest of the import still processes.
How to check for mismatches
During setup, the integration displays a pay element compatibility check screen listing any Rotaready elements that do not have a matching element in Paycircle.
⚠️Important! This screen shows warnings only. It is not a mapping tool, and there is no way to link elements manually. The only way to resolve a mismatch is to create or rename the element in Paycircle.
How to fix a mismatch
Click Settings, then click Edit on Time and Attendance.
Click Go to mapping.
Note down the pay element name of any pay element warnings.
Click Settings, then click Pay Elements.
Find the correct pay element and click the Cog icon.
Click Duplicate element.
Enter the name exactly as displayed in step 3.
Enable or disable settings as required.
Click Save.
Repeat for each unmatched pay element.
Ongoing considerations
Once you are live, pay element mismatches can still occur if a new pay element is added in Rotaready that doesn't exist in Paycircle, or an element name is changed in either system after the initial setup.
Overtime pay elements
The integration recognises five overtime multipliers: 1x, 1.25x, 1.33x, 1.5x and 2x. Where overtime in Rotaready uses any other multiplier, the hours are added to the ordinary shifts element instead of appearing as overtime, and a warning is recorded naming the multiplier.
What the integration doesn't support
TRONC payments don't flow through the integration and must be processed manually, regardless of how they are named.
There is no tool to map elements with different names between the two systems. Name matching is the only mechanism available.
Cross-site cover shift cost attribution is supported. When an employee works a shift at a different site, the business category of that site is automatically applied to the relevant pay element — the cost is attributed to where the work was done, not the employee's home site. See Cross-Site Cover Shift Processing and Business Category Mapping for Rotaready Entities for details.
Departments are not set by the integration. Each employee receives the single business category mapped against their site and payroll calendar. A department is not populated alongside it.