Frequently asked questions

Our Always On Compliance solution only requires configuration -rather than construction - which comes from a combination of assumptions, rules and interpretation principles that are applied to your data. The platform does not need to be constructed from the ground up, nor is it dependent on a substantial number of people to run it.

We recommend the following:

• A dedicated internal project manager and sponsor to oversee and make decisions.
• A single person authorised to provide instructions to Yellow Canary
• A dedicated Pay Rules and Data contact

After the onboarding process, maintaining the platform on an ongoing basis takes up minimal resource; usually less than one FTE.  

Payroll underpayments are a result of antiquated processes and systems. The cause cannot be the cure. Traditionally, pay reviews are carried out using humans, manual calculations and spreadsheets. Yellow Canary automates this process, eliminating any chance of more human error – all at a fraction of the traditional timeline.

Another key differentiator for us is that we recommend reviewing 100% of employee payments; as opposed to sampling data. Previously, there were no tools available to automate the pay review process and employers faced significant costs to perform pay reviews. Instead, many employers choose to only review a sample of the workforce and extrapolate results.  

This approach is problematic because:

• It assumes all employees work the exact same hours which does not reflect the actual variations in working patterns;  
• Sample groups of less than 40% are too small to deliver a statistically relevant result; and  
• In the event that staff are required to be reimbursed for underpayments, individual calculations for each employee would need to be completed separately, resulting in further work and potential inaccuracies.  

Our automation first approach allows 100% of employee payments to be accurately recalculated, eliminating the need for sample-based estimates obtained through manual reviews.

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Yellow Canary employs secure software development to ensure security if built in from the start. We incorporate security into every phase of the software development lifecycle.

No, we do not require any employee Personal Identifiable Information as part of our audits.

Auth2.0 is used for secure authentication into our software.

Yes, data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.

All data is hosted in Australian data centres.

At Yellow Canary, we are continually developing our people benefits, some of which include truly flexible and hybrid working, flexible office spaces for remote Canaries, and an inclusive parental leave policy to support all parents on their parenting journeys. We also support our Canaries in setting up their home office, and with growth and development opportunities.

Yellow Canary's systems are hosted in our secure cloud environment hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Yellow Canary hosts quarterly in-person team days to encourage team bonding and ensure our teams are aligned on our business goals and values. In addition to this, Yellow Canary regularly hosts in-office and remote team social events, giving all Canaries the opportunity to connect with one another.

Yellow Canary is a hybrid-model workplace, and we have employees located all over the East Coast of Australia. We encourage flexibility and allow our employees to choose what’s right for them and their personal situation. Our main HQ is in Sydney, and we have flexible office space available in other locations in Australia.

Data gaps have appeared in every engagement we have had. We work with employers and their legal counsel to include data assumptions to ensure a more fulsome review. We can also refer you to one of our partners to help transform your data into the correct format if needed.

We’re committed to ensuring Yellow Canary is a happy, fair and safe place to work. Our Glassdoor rating is 4.7 and we’ve also obtained certification as a Great Place To Work, with over 93% of employees attesting to this.

When our clients choose to carry out remediation, we work in 2 phases.

To empower you to quickly gain insight into your compliance status and address any ongoing issues of non-compliance, we suggest commencing AOC for one cohort as the first step.

Having Cohort 1 live on AOC first will enable you to gain insight into your compliance status faster, allowing you to address gaps early and establish a strong foundation to demonstrate compliance.

Once you have the comfort of having Cohort 1 live on AOC we will commence the Remediation phase for Cohort 1. We will then repeat this process with the remaining cohorts.

Yellow Canary’s Always On Compliance platform is technology agnostic and compatible with any payroll, timesheet and/or employee management system. We work with our clients during onboarding to develop a consistent file format so any system is easy to handle.

No problem! We have processes in place to help with changes and updates during any Always On Compliance subscription.

Always On Compliance provides proactive visibility into potential underpayments or overpayments down to the individual employee. The dashboard identifies key drivers of variances to enable you to remediate where needed, improve compliance processes going forward and optimise workforce planning.

Payroll teams also find our dashboard handy for automating pay query checks from employees. Payroll managers can drill down into the individual employee via our dashboard to provide answers to payroll queries straight away, rather than having to go through multiple systems to work out the answer manually.

Yellow Canary’s Always On Compliance subscription offers a purpose-built calculator configured to your business needs. Using advanced technology, Yellow Canary creates a fast and scalable solution that simplifies the payroll verification process.

Yellow Canary adds an extra layer of accuracy and confidence where your payroll system rules may not be sufficient. We work with you and your legal counsel or compliance expert to confirm your agreed pay rule interpretations. We then use this interpretation as the source of truth for all pay reviews. Our automation technology eliminates any risk of human error that is common with manual review methods.

During the onboarding period, we will brief you on all the details you need to provide get started. We will work with you to transfer your required data via your preferred data transfer method. We then configure rules, import your data, and get you set up on our platform.

We respect your time is precious and we want you to know that business as usual will not be impacted. Our experience shows that customers appreciate, and prefer, a written fortnightly status update, supported by calls on request and when we deliver results during onboarding. However, we are open to different approaches based on client reference.

Yellow Canary’s clients are some of Australia’s most recognisable employers with workforces from 500 to 100,000 across a range of industry sectors including banking, insurance, retail, hospitality, manufacturing and health services.

Yes. Yellow Canary’s flexible technology configures to any modern award, enterprise agreement or industrial instrument agreed with your legal counsel or compliance advisor.

Australian businesses are under more pressure than ever to maintain and demonstrate workforce compliance. Non-compliance with workplace laws can result in payroll underpayments. This isn’t just bad for business; no matter the intent, underpaying workers can lead to decreased employee morale and lack of trust in the employer. Regular compliance reviews are essential for employers to ensure they’re meeting legal and ethical obligations and that issues do not compound over time.

State specific wage theft laws in Queensland and Victoria mean that employers in those states can face criminal charges and convictions as a result of wage theft.

Under the Closing Loopholes Act 2023, intentional wage theft will carry severe penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines reaching $1,565,000 for individuals and $7,825,000 for corporations, or three times the value of the underpayment – whichever is higher.

The Closing Loopholes No.2 Act 2024 includes civil provisions. Serious contraventions will cover recklessness as well as intentional acts, with the maximum fine increasing to $4,696,000, or three times the underpaid - whichever is higher. These reforms are prompting employers to think ahead about their compliance strategies, to avoid penalties resulting from missteps in wage compliance processes.

While remediation seeks to correct past errors and concerns, it does not necessarily address current issues, nor assist with ongoing compliance. Focusing only on the past leaves businesses exposed to the risk of continuing non-compliance. This in turn does not enable businesses to do the right thing by their employees.

Yellow Canary's Always On Compliance empowers businesses to achieve this objective by utilising automation to detect and resolve payment variances on a monthly basis.

We offer remediation as an add-on to our Always On Compliance solution to cover both historical and proactive reviews.

Yellow Canary challenges the traditional approach to workforce compliance. Their automated solutions are designed to support companies navigating the complexities of the Australian industrial relations system, and to enable ongoing compliance due diligence.

Yellow Canary is a growing RegTech scale-up that enables Australian employers to achieve compliance confidence across employee payments, entitlements and Long Service Leave. Supporting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) obligations, Yellow Canary’s Always On Compliance platform automates regular reviews, comparing payments to obligations, and providing rapid actionable insights.

Yellow Canary was founded in 2018 by Marcus Zeltzer and Brenton McSweyn to address under-serviced and widespread workforce compliance issues in Australian businesses.