How to prepare your LeavePlus quarterly return from Xero

For Victorian construction employers and their bookkeepers. Covers the Workers Days and Wages (WDW) return for the 2026–27 financial year. Last checked October 2026. Every rule here comes from the scheme's own published guidance, linked under Official sources. If anything differs, the scheme's guidance is what counts; please email me and I'll correct it.

Each quarter, LeavePlus asks for two figures for every registered worker: the days of covered service and the ordinary pay for those days. LeavePlus counts days rather than hours, and the way days are counted depends on whether the worker is full time, part time or casual. Xero has no report that does this, so the work is in turning pay runs, timesheets and leave into days. This guide walks through it.

When I asked bookkeepers in the Xero community where the time goes, a bookkeeper with two LeavePlus clients put it plainly: printing a report for each employee, copying the right wages into a spreadsheet, then working out days across full-timers, several part-timers and unpaid leave. The days are the hard part, so most of this guide is about them.

When is the LeavePlus quarterly return due?

14 days after the end of each quarter. LeavePlus emails a reminder when the return is ready in the portal.

Quarter (2026–27)	Due	Maximum days
July – September 2026	14 October 2026	66
October – December 2026	14 January 2027	66
January – March 2027	14 April 2027	64
April – June 2027	14 July 2027	65

The maximum is the number of weekdays in the quarter, public holidays included. The return is keyed into the portal worker by worker (My WDWs); there is no spreadsheet upload, so it pays to have a clean list ready before you log in.

How are days counted for LeavePlus?

Worker	Days to report
Full time	Every day of their normal working contract: the quarter's maximum, less any days of unpaid leave or non-covered work. Annual leave, paid sick leave, public holidays and RDOs are not taken off.
Part time (set hours)	Days worked, plus days of paid leave, public holidays and RDOs on their normal working days.
Casual (no set hours)	Hours worked each week (Monday to Sunday), counting only the first 38, divided by 7.6. LeavePlus's casual timecard rounds each month up to a whole day.

What is the LeavePlus 5-day month rule?

Service is only reported for a calendar month in which the worker did more than 5 days of covered work. If a casual worked 4 days in November, November's days and November's pay are both left off the return, while October and December are reported as normal. This rule is the one most often missed, and Xero won't flag it for you.

Unpaid leave, WorkCover and long service leave

Leave without pay is not reported anywhere. For a full-time worker it is the only common reason to report fewer than the maximum days.
WorkCover and unpaid sick leave (after paid sick leave runs out) go in the separate WorkCover / unpaid sick leave column, up to 104 weeks per injury or absence, with no wages.
Long service leave is not reported in that column either.

What counts as ordinary pay for LeavePlus?

Payment in Xero	Ordinary pay?
Ordinary hours, salary, casual loading	Yes (casuals: only the first 38 hours each week)
Shift loadings; penalties and loadings within a casual's first 38 hours	Yes
Annual leave taken, paid sick leave, RDOs	Yes
Site, merit and skill-based allowances	Yes
Overtime and work beyond contracted hours, including on-call allowances	No
Fares, travel and car allowances, meal allowances, living away from home allowance	No
Annual leave loading	No
WorkCover payments, redundancy, pay in lieu of notice	No
Long service leave taken where LeavePlus paid the benefit	No

Leave paid out on termination. LeavePlus's page lists "wages upon termination (including annual leave and RDOs accrued but not taken)" as excluded, but its section on terminations says annual leave or RDOs paid out on termination must be reported, days and wages, even if that takes the worker over the quarter's maximum. The termination section is the more specific instruction; if it matters for a worker, confirm with LeavePlus before lodging.

Apprentices and the two-thirds rule

VRQA-certified apprentices report days only, no wages, for the first four years (1,040 days). Traineeships are not apprenticeships and are reported in full.
If at least two-thirds of a worker's employment in the period is covered work, report all of their days and pay. If it is two-thirds or less, report only the covered days and the pay for them.

Worked examples (October – December 2026)

Full time, took a week of annual leave, a Melbourne Cup public holiday and 3 days of leave without pay: 66 − 3 = 63 days. The annual leave and the public holiday stay in.
Casual, paid a flat $45 an hour including loading, works four Monday–Sunday weeks in October of 44, 30, 38 and 20 hours: counted hours are 38 + 30 + 38 + 20 = 126, so 126 ÷ 7.6 = 16.6, rounded up to 17 days. Pay is 126 × $45 = $5,670 (the 6 hours over 38 in the first week are left out).
The same casual works only 4 days in November: nothing is reported for November, days or pay.

A week that runs across the end of a month is split by day: days in October count towards October, days in November towards November.

Step by step

1. Run four reports in Xero

Xero report	Why you need it
Payroll Activity Details	Every pay item for every employee, with units and amount. The source of ordinary pay.
Timesheet Details	Hours per day, so you can count days worked (part time) and apply the 38-hour weekly cap (casuals).
Leave Requests, all leave types	The only place Xero shows unpaid leave. Each request is one line with a start date, end date and total units, so a request that spans a month or quarter end has to be split by day.
Employee Remuneration	Employment basis (full time, part time, casual), start and termination dates, and the employee group for leaving out non-covered staff.

Set each report to the quarter and run it for all employees, then export to Excel.

Xero reports pay runs by payment date. A pay run paid on 2 October for the last week of September lands in October–December. Pick one way of handling pay runs that straddle the quarter end and keep to it.

2. Decide how each pay item is treated

List the distinct pay items in Payroll Activity Details and mark each against the table above. Construction businesses often have their own names for site allowances, RDO accruals and tool allowances, so check any you don't recognise against a payslip or the enterprise agreement.

3. Count days per worker, month by month

Full time: count the weekdays they were employed in each month and take off unpaid leave days.
Part time: count the days in Timesheet Details, then add paid leave days and public holidays that aren't already there.
Casual: total hours per Monday–Sunday week, cap each week at 38, then total per month, divide by 7.6 and round up.
For each worker, cross out any month with 5 days or fewer, and take that month's pay out too.

4. Total ordinary pay

Add up the pay items that count. For casuals, take out pay for hours beyond 38 in a week. For months removed by the 5-day rule, take out that month's pay.

5. Key it into the portal

Log in, open the return in My WDWs, find each worker by name or registration number, and enter days and wages. Add new workers with their details (a worker-specific email is required, not a shared office address) and report only this quarter's service for them. Enter an employment end date for anyone who left. Review, submit, and keep the lodgement receipt until the invoice is paid.

Mistakes that cost time

Missing the 5-day month rule. It mostly catches casuals and people who started late in a month, and nothing in Xero will warn you.
Reporting full-time workers below the maximum for annual leave, sick leave or public holidays. Only unpaid leave and non-covered work reduce it.
Not capping casual weeks at 38 hours, for days or for pay.
Including overtime, travel or fares in ordinary pay.
Putting leave without pay in the WorkCover column. That column is for WorkCover and unpaid sick leave only.
Reporting wages for VRQA apprentices (days only, for the first four years).
Keying from a spreadsheet in a different order to the portal. Sort your list the way you'll work through the portal, with registration numbers beside the names.

Get the entry list in a few minutes
PLSL Return Helper reads the four Xero exports, works out full-time, part-time and casual days with the 38-hour cap and the 5-day month rule, spreads leave requests over the right days and months, and gives you a list sorted by surname with registration numbers, days and ordinary pay, ready to key in. It runs in your browser and your payroll data never leaves your computer. Free for up to 5 workers; press Try it with sample data to see it first.
Open the helper

In the helper's list, apprentices' pay is still shown, so leave it out when keying in for VRQA apprentices; and paid-out leave on termination follows however you set that pay item.

Quick answers

When is the LeavePlus quarterly return due?

14 days after the end of each quarter: 14 October, 14 January, 14 April and 14 July.

How are LeavePlus days counted for full-time workers?

The quarter's maximum (the number of weekdays, for example 66 for October to December 2026) less days of unpaid leave or non-covered work. Annual leave, paid sick leave, public holidays and RDOs are not taken off.

How are LeavePlus days worked out for casuals?

Hours worked in each Monday to Sunday week, counting only the first 38, divided by 7.6. The LeavePlus casual timecard rounds each month up to a whole day.

What is the LeavePlus 5-day month rule?

Service is only reported for a calendar month in which the worker did more than 5 days of covered work. For a month with 5 days or fewer, neither the days nor the pay for that month are reported.

Do VRQA apprentices report wages to LeavePlus?

No. VRQA-certified apprentices report days only, for the first four years (1,040 days).