How to prepare your QLeave quarterly returns from Xero

For employers and bookkeepers in contract cleaning and community services in Queensland. Building and construction has its own annual return, due 31 July, which isn't covered here. Last checked October 2026.

QLeave's contract cleaning and community services schemes both ask for gross ordinary wages for each worker every quarter, entered in a spreadsheet you export from the QLeave portal. Community services also asks for each worker's annual rate of pay, which is not the same as what they earn and is the part most often got wrong. This guide covers both schemes.

When the returns are due

Quarter	Return and levy due (both schemes)
July – September	14 October
October – December	14 January
January – March	14 April
April – June	14 July

Scheme	Levy
Contract cleaning	0.5% of ordinary wages, from 1 July 2026
Community services	1.35% of ordinary wages

QLeave sends a reminder if a return is late, and can apply penalties or prosecute after that, with a fine possible for each worker left off a return. QLeave's community services pages say levies aren't refunded once paid, so check the invoice before you pay it.

Who goes on the return: the 5-day rule

You only need to record service for workers who worked five or more days in the quarter. Workers with fewer than five days can be left off. In Xero this means counting days in Timesheet Details, which payroll totals alone can't tell you.

Contractors count too. QLeave says that for an ABN worker, the wages to declare are the invoiced amount, excluding materials and GST. Contractors paid through bills don't appear in Xero's payroll reports at all, so add them separately if they are covered workers.

What counts as gross ordinary wages

The two schemes use the same list. Community services adds sleepover allowances and salary sacrifice amounts.

Included	Excluded
Award and over-award wages, casual loading	Overtime
Weekend and public holiday penalty rates	Leave loading
First aid, shift, on-call, leading hand, refuse collection and toilet cleaning allowances (plus sleepover for community services)	Expense allowances for equipment, materials, protective clothing or a vehicle the worker provides
Annual, sick and long service leave, when taken as leave	Lump sums on termination: accrued annual, sick or long service leave, and pay in lieu of notice
Employer-paid parental leave; family and domestic violence, bereavement and personal/carer's leave	Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave
Workers' compensation paid by the employer; jury service	Workers' compensation paid directly by WorkCover or an insurer
Other payments made by agreement (community services: salary sacrifice too)	Superannuation, redundancy, Christmas bonuses and ex-gratia payments

A worked example

A cleaner on $30 an hour works 30 ordinary hours and 6 Saturday hours at $45, plus 3 hours of overtime at $60. They are also paid an $8 toilet cleaning allowance and a $12 allowance for protective clothing they supply.

Gross ordinary wages: 30 × $30 + 6 × $45 + $8 = $1,178.
Overtime ($180) and the clothing allowance ($12) are left out. The Saturday penalty is included in full.

Community services: the annual rate of pay

Each quarter, every worker on the community services return also needs an annual rate of pay. QLeave uses it for long service leave reimbursement claims, not for the levy. Since 5 August 2024 it is calculated from the minimum wage for the worker's classification level and pay point under their award or enterprise agreement, including any equal remuneration order:

If the instrument sets a weekly wage: weekly wage × 52
If it sets only an hourly wage: hourly wage × full-time hours × 52 (38 hours under the SCHADS award)
If no award or agreement applies: use the rate for SCHADS award Level 4, pay point 4.

It uses full-time hours even for part-time and casual workers, and it leaves out casual loading, over-award pay, overtime and allowances.

Why the Xero rate is the wrong starting point. A casual's hourly rate in Xero usually includes the 25% casual loading, and many workers are paid above the award. Multiplying that rate by 38 × 52 gives a higher figure than QLeave asks for. Look up the minimum rate for each worker's classification and pay point once, then update it when award rates change on 1 July.

Step by step

1. Export from Xero

Xero report	Why you need it
Payroll Activity Details	Every pay item for every employee in the quarter, with amounts. The source of ordinary wages.
Timesheet Details	Days worked, for the 5-day rule.
Employee Remuneration	Termination dates, and employee groups so you can leave out staff who aren't covered.

Xero reports pay runs by payment date. A pay run paid on 2 October for the last week of September falls into October–December. Pick one approach to 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 one against the table above. Typical traps are "Uniform" or "Laundry" allowances, which are excluded if they reimburse the worker's own costs, and "Time and a Half" items, which are overtime.

3. Total each worker and apply the 5-day rule

Sum the included amounts for each worker. Count the days each worker has in the timesheet; anyone under five days can be left off.

4. Fill in the QLeave spreadsheet

Log in to the portal, open the return and click Export / Import, then Export to Excel. Don't use the second Export link further down the page: that file is a receipt, and importing it fails.
On the Contributions sheet, columns A–G are pre-filled and must not be changed.
Contract cleaning: enter Gross Ordinary Wages in column H. Check Work Type (I) and Work Classification (J) haven't changed, and enter a Termination Date (K) for anyone who left.
Community services: enter Gross Ordinary Wages (H), Annual Rate of Pay (I) and any Termination Date (J).
New workers go on the New Workers sheet with personal and contact details, start date, work type codes, wages and annual rate of pay, not at the bottom of Contributions. A community services worker who started before 1 January 2021 gets 1 January 2021 as their registration date.
Don't add totals, rows, sheets or columns. Any change to the layout gets the file rejected.
Upload with Browse and Commit Import File, check the return, then Submit Return. QLeave emails the levy invoice.

Mistakes that cost time

Annual rate of pay from the Xero rate, with casual loading or over-award pay included.
Adding a totals row under the wages column, which makes the import fail.
Exporting from the wrong link on the return page.
Including overtime, leave loading or reimbursement-type allowances.
Leaving off contractors who are covered workers but invoice through accounts payable.
Adding new workers to the Contributions sheet instead of New Workers.

Do steps 2 to 4 in a few minutes
PLSL Return Helper reads your Xero exports, suggests how each pay item is treated, totals gross ordinary wages, flags workers under five days, and writes wages and termination dates into the Contributions sheet of the spreadsheet you exported from QLeave, without touching columns A–G. For community services, you enter each worker's annual rate of pay once; it is kept in the client's profile for next quarter and written to column I. 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

The helper only reads Xero payroll, so contractors paid by invoice need adding by hand, and new workers still go on the New Workers sheet yourself. It shows Xero's rate × 38 × 52 next to each worker for reference, but never writes that figure into the return.