Shift It vs Shift Log+ - Australian Award Pay vs US Overtime Rules
Shift Log+ has genuine multi-employer support but uses a US overtime framework. For Australian shift workers under Modern Awards, the pay calculation is wrong by design.
If you searched for the best app to track pay across multiple employers, you probably came across Shift Log+. It’s one of the few apps that genuinely treats multi-employer pay as a first-class feature — most shift calendar apps are built around a single job. But there’s a significant caveat for Australian and UK workers that the search results don’t mention.
What Shift Log+ does well
Shift Log+ supports multiple jobs natively. Each employer gets its own hourly rate, schedule, and deduction rules, with hours and pay tracked separately. You can set daily overtime thresholds, weekly overtime after 40 hours, and double time rules per job. It’s offline-first with no ads, cloud backup, multi-device sync, and a 45-day free trial before a $9.99/year subscription kicks in. For what it does, the execution is clean.
The problem for Australian workers
Shift Log+’s overtime model is built around the US framework: overtime after 8 hours in a day, double time after 40 hours in a week. Australian pay rules don’t work like that.
Under Australian Modern Awards, overtime isn’t triggered by a weekly hours threshold — it’s triggered by shift length, rostered hours, and specific award clauses. Penalty rates for weekends, nights, and public holidays aren’t overtime at all; they’re separate loadings that stack on top of your ordinary rate depending on when you work, not how much you work. A Sunday shift under the SCHADS Award is 200% of ordinary rate regardless of whether you’ve worked 5 hours that week or 45. A night shift under the Nurses Award attracts a loading based on when those hours fall, not whether they cross a daily threshold.
None of that is in Shift Log+. You can set custom rates per job, but you’re doing the award interpretation yourself. The app calculates hours times rate; the penalty rate structure is your problem.
How Shift It handles the same problem
Shift It’s multi-job support works the same way Shift Log+’s does at the surface — each job has its own colour, rate, and pay tracking — but the pay calculation underneath is different. Each job is linked to your specific award or enterprise agreement. Pay Check applies the correct penalty rates for each shift automatically: Sunday at 200%, Saturday night into Sunday crossing midnight splitting at the boundary, public holiday stacking. You don’t set the rates yourself; the award does.
For a nurse working at two hospitals under different enterprise agreements, or a SCHADS worker with two NDIS providers under the same award but different pay points, this distinction is material. Shift Log+ will give you a figure; Shift It will give you the figure your award says you’re entitled to.
Roster import
Shift Log+ has no roster import. Every shift is entered manually. If either of your employers publishes a spreadsheet roster — which is extremely common in healthcare and community services — you’ll be transcribing it by hand.
Shift It imports directly from spreadsheets. Free users get two imports per month; Pro is unlimited. You can also use the Roster Wizard to generate repeating patterns without any file at all.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Shift It | Shift Log+ |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple employers / jobs | Yes | Yes |
| Spreadsheet import | Yes (2/month free, Pro unlimited) | No — manual entry only |
| Award-based pay calculation | Yes (Pro) — Australian awards | No — custom rates only |
| Penalty rate handling | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Payslip comparison | Yes (Pro) | No |
| Overtime model | Award-based (AU/UK) | US framework (daily/weekly thresholds) |
| Live Pay counter | Yes (Pro) | Yes (freemium) |
| Multi-device sync | No (v3.1 coming) | Yes |
| No ads | Yes | Yes |
| iOS and Android | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing (paid tier) | Similar to Shift Log+ | $9.99/year after 45-day trial |
Who should use which?
Shift Log+ is a well-built app for workers who need to track hours across multiple jobs using simple hourly rates — particularly in the US, or in AU/UK roles with genuinely flat pay where penalty rates don’t apply.
If you’re an Australian or UK shift worker whose pay depends on when you work, not just how many hours, Shift Log+ will give you the wrong number. The US overtime framework it’s built around doesn’t map to Australian Modern Awards or UK NHS contracts. Shift It’s Pay Check is built specifically for award-based pay compliance. For workers juggling two jobs under different awards, that’s the difference between knowing your entitlements and guessing at them.
Know what you're owed.
Shift It checks your pay against your award automatically. Start free — upgrade when it catches its first mistake.