Payroll remediation · Enterprise agreement systems

Read the agreement in full.
Build the system to match.
Explain every payment.

BTQAI builds the methods, data capabilities and platform that turn Australian industrial instruments into payroll obligations that systems can run, teams can test and boards can defend. Our advisory firm, True Meridian, delivers them inside large employers.

Request a briefing See the platform at work
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A$2.5B+Payroll remediation disclosed by large Australian employers, 2019–2025
1 Jan 2025Intentional underpayment became a criminal offence under the Fair Work Act
2027SAP ECC mainstream maintenance ends, bringing payroll re-platforming to the large-employer base
Two problems, one discipline

Remediation looks back. Implementation looks forward. The work is the same.

Whether an organisation is correcting past pay or configuring a new agreement on a new payroll platform, the task is identical: establish what each instrument requires, for whom and when, and carry that rule through data, calculation and configuration to a payment that can be explained.

Payroll remediation

Did payroll give effect to every rule?

For every affected employee, in every period, and can the organisation demonstrate it. The programme must be scoped, sequenced and evidenced to the standard the regulator has published, with the method written down before analysis begins.

Enterprise agreement system implementation

Will the new agreement pay correctly from the first cycle?

On Workday, ADP, SAP or Oracle, and can that be shown before go-live. Every new agreement and every migration is an interpretation event; the configuration is only as right as the reading behind it.

Instrument wordingWhat does the clause require?
Employee populationWho does it apply to?
Effective dateWhich version applies?
Available dataCan payroll identify the facts?
Calculation logicWhat should be paid?
System configurationHow is it implemented?
Evidence recordCan it be demonstrated later?
Remediationtraces a payment back along the chain to the words that required it, and shows where a link failed.
Implementationcarries the words forward along the chain to the configuration, and proves each link before the first pay run.

Configuration is only as right as the reading.

A rate table can be correct and still apply the wrong rule, to the wrong population, on the wrong evidence. Payroll-ready agreements come from reading the instrument completely and specifying each obligation in the terms the system uses, before the first cycle runs.

What payroll-ready means
  • Every obligation identified and stated: what must happen, for whom and when
  • Populations, periods and instrument versions defined
  • Data, calculation and configuration implications specified for the platform in use
  • Tests and evidence designed before go-live, and kept after it
What we do

Strategy and technique, and the capability to run them.

BTQAI works at the start of a programme, where its shape is decided, and underneath it, where the data and the platform run. Delivery inside the organisation is led by True Meridian.

1

Remediation strategy

Programme shape before analysis begins: scope, sequence, operating model, evidence standard and governance under privilege. The method is written down first.

2

Remediation data platforms

The pipeline, the certified dataset and the remediation record a programme runs on, designed so historical pay can be analysed in days and every figure traced to its source.

3

Agreement system implementation

Payroll-ready agreements for Workday, ADP, SAP and Oracle: obligations specified as requirements and configuration, tested against the instrument before go-live, and assured through the implementation.

4

Obligation intelligence

Tenor, the platform that reads instruments in full and keeps the obligation baseline current. Licensed into engagements and demonstrated live.

Each engagement adds to a library of obligation patterns, failure patterns, calculation modules and delivery playbooks built in live work, so each programme starts further ahead than the last.
The platform

Tenor reads the whole instrument, and keeps reading.

Tenor turns enterprise agreements, modern awards, legislation, contracts and policy into a versioned baseline of payroll obligations: traceable to the clause, with coverage that can be demonstrated, and current as the instruments change.

ReadInstrument comprehension

Reads the instrument in full: its structure, defined terms, cross-references, the employee groups it addresses and the entitlements it creates.

DefineObligation baseline

States each obligation as what must happen, for whom and when, linked to the clause that created it and the instrument version it belongs to.

CoverCoverage assurance

Shows what has been read, what has been found and what remains, so completeness is demonstrated rather than assumed.

VersionChange over time

Holds every instrument across its life, so the rule for any pay period is the rule that applied in that period, and regulatory change is absorbed as a difference rather than a restart.

ConfigureSystem semantics

Expresses each obligation in the terms of SAP, ADP and Workday: the data it needs, the calculation it implies and the configuration that gives effect to it.

RecordDecision provenance

Records every interpretation, confirmation and override at source, with who decided and on what basis, prepared on the assumption that it may be read by a regulator or a court.

MeasureEvaluation gauge

Measures the platform’s reading against specialist-confirmed references before any output is relied on. Nothing is adopted on intuition.

What accumulates with every engagement
Payroll ontologyObligation libraryFailure patternsCalculation modulesInstrument corpusEvaluation gaugeDecision provenanceDelivery playbooks
How AI is governed

The model reads. People decide.

No model is asked to decide who was underpaid or how a system should be configured. It works inside a controlled process that surfaces, structures and routes the work to payroll, industrial relations and legal specialists.

Breadth

AI reading

Reads, compares and traces large volumes of source material.

Control

Deterministic checks

Test structure, completeness, consistency and evidence gaps.

Judgement

Specialist confirmation

Payroll, industrial relations and legal specialists confirm every judgement point.

Record

Evidence trail

Every material decision is linked to its source and its impact.

Your data remains in your environment.

Where payroll or personal data is in scope, the work runs inside your perimeter, on your platforms, under your controls.

The method is documented and counsel-governed.

The methodology is written down before analysis begins. Decisions are recorded at source, and every artefact is prepared on the basis that it may one day be read by a regulator or a court.

Where to start

Three ways in.

Each is bounded, each takes weeks or less, and none commits the organisation to a programme.

Briefing

One session for directors, CHROs and heads of IR: the obligation question, the regulatory standard, and how a defensible programme or implementation is shaped.

Platform session

Tenor at work on a public instrument, live, with your payroll and IR specialists in the room. See what a full reading produces.

Diagnostic

One agreement, mapped and tested, in weeks, delivered by True Meridian inside your environment. The first phase of a programme, or the assurance step before go-live.

Know what every instrument requires, build the system to match, and keep the capability to show it.
Contact

Start the conversation.

For a briefing, a platform session, or an introduction to True Meridian, write to us.

contact@btqai.com

Sydney, Australia · Engagements delivered inside the client’s environment.