Annual Paid Leave

Setting up the annual paid leave rules involves:

• Setting up Annual Paid Leave Parameters
• Setting up Paid Leave Calculation Rules
• Setting up Extra Time off Calculation Rules
• Setting up Special Rules for Paid Leave Subtypes

Setting up Annual Paid Leave Parameters

To edit the Annual Paid Leave parameters, click the Edit Settings link in the Annual Paid Leave section settings box.

Fill in the form that opens with the following information: 

1. In the Accrual Period field, select when the vacation allowance will be granted. The following options are available:
   • Daily: the allowance will be accrued and granted every day.
   • Yearly: all the allowance days or hours will be generated at the beginning of the vacation year.
     
     Note

     Vacation year start date is specified under Settings > Settings and Configuration  > General  > Company Settings > Basic tab > Year Start Date.
   • Monthly Start: the allowance will be accrued monthly and will be granted at the beginning of the month (including the month that has already started). For example, the employee’s annual allowance is 12 days and the company vacation year starts on January 1. On January 1, the employee’s vacation allowance will be 1 day, on February 1 it will be 2 days and so on. In contrast to the Monthly Start (12 Periods) accrual method, this method does take into account calendar or working days (depending on the calculation type) of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be different each month depending on the number of calendar or working days in the months for which allowance is being accrued.
   • Monthly End: the allowance will be accrued monthly and granted at the end of the month (including the month that has just ended). If the employee’s annual allowance is 12 days and the company vacation year starts on January 1, on Jan 31, the employee’s vacation allowance will be 1 day, on February 28 (or 29) 2 days and so on. In contrast to the Monthly End (12 Periods) accrual method, this method does take into account calendar or working days (depending on the calculation type) of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be different each month depending on the number of calendar or working days in the months for which allowance is being accrued.
   • Bi-Weekly Start: the allowance will be accrued every 14 days and will be granted at the beginning of the 2 weeks period.
   • Bi-Weekly End: the allowance will be accrued every 14 days and will be granted at the end of the 2 weeks period.
   • Monthly Start (12 Periods):  the allowance will be accrued monthly and will be granted at the beginning of the month (including the month that has already started). In contrast to the Monthly Start accrual method, this method does not take into account calendar or working days of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be fixed each month (1/12 of the yearly accrual). However, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued).
     
     Note

     For the Monthly Start (12 Periods) and Monthly End (12 Periods) methods, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued). Factors (any or a combination) that may affect the number of working days per month and split the calculation:

      - The Calculate Annual Leave Based On Employment History is enabled and, for example, a work pattern was changed in the middle of a month. The Calculate Annual Leave Based On Employment History setting is not available by default and is added upon customer's request by the implementation engineer. Also, if this setting enabled, and the country and/or location is changed in the employment history, the annual paid leave will be recalculated according to the rules in the new country/location.
     - The Do Not Accrue Allowance During Unpaid Leave setting is enabled and the employee took unpaid during a certain month(s)
     - A change in the allowance calculation rules
     - Employee's employment or service date as later than the start of the accrual period (e.g. the employee was employed in the middle of a month
     - The employee termination (e.g. the employee was terminated in the middle of a month, and for that month only a portion of allowance will be calculated)

   • Monthly End (12 Periods): the allowance will be accrued monthly and granted at the end of the month (including the month that has just ended). In contrast to the Monthly End accrual method, this method does not take into account calendar or working days of each month and, therefore, the accrued allowance will be fixed each month (1/12 of the yearly accrual). However, a fixed amount will be accrued each month on condition that the employee worked all days during every month for which allowance has been calculated. If the employee didn't work all days during a certain month, for that month only a portion of allowance will be accrued on the basis of the number of worked working/calendar days (for other months, a fixed allowance number will be still accrued).
     
     Note

      - In cases where Monthly End or Bi-Weekly End accrual methods are used, the system will generate the vacation allowance for the last accrual period of the vacation year at the beginning of the period, so that employees can use up their allowance before the vacation year ends.
     - For details on the allowance generation based on different accrual methods, please refer to Allowance Generation Formulas and Examples.
2. Use the Accrual From field to define whether the employees’ allowance will be generated based on the company vacation year or based on the employment date. The following options are available:
   • Company Year Start Date: all employees who are assigned this absence plan will have the same vacation year, which starts on the company Year Start Date (defined under Settings > Settings and Configuration  > General  > Company Settings > Basic tab > Year Start Date) and lasts for 12 months. The employee's allowance will be generated on the first date of the company year and on the last date of the company year the number of unused days regulated by the Carried Over Max Units settings will be carried over to the next year. If this scheme is used, the number of days is prorated in relation to the employment date.
     For example:
     • the company vacation year is January 1 – December 31
     • the vacation allowance is 24 days
     • the Accrual Method is Yearly
     • an employee has joined the company on July 1
     Under these conditions, the new employee will be entitled to 12 vacation days before the end of the vacation year and a new allowance of 24 days will be generated at the beginning of the next accrual period, i.e. on January 1.
   • Employment Date: each employee has his or her own vacation year that starts on the employment date and lasts for 12 months, after which a new allowance is generated and unused days are carried over
   • Service Date: each employee has his or her own vacation year that starts on the service date. The service date is manually specified by HR for each employee. This can be done in the Service Date field of the employee card. The service date can be the end of probation period or any other date starting from which the employee is entitled to accruing the annual leave allowance. Note that the Service Date field is not available on the employee card by default and must be added using the employee card designer.
3. Use the Spending Year Shift Months field in case the company policy states that the vacation allowance spending period is shifted in relation to the accrual period start date. For example, if the company (vacation) year starts on Jan 1 and the vacation allowance accrual starts on this date, but can the accumulated vacation allowance can be used only starting from May 1, set the Spending Year Shift Months field value to 4.
4. Use the Carried Over Max Units field to set the maximum number of unused days or hours that can be carried over to the following vacation period.
5. If carried over days or hours are only valid for a limited period, use the Carried Over Expiration Months field to set the expiration period in months. In this case, the carried over must be booked and used before they expire.
6. Select the Carried Over Auto Approval check box to have the system approve the carried over days/hours automatically. If the checkbox is blank, the carried overs have to be manually approved by managers or HR.
7. Select the Allow Overbooking check box if employees are allowed to book more days or hours than their vacation allowance. In case overbooking is allowed, the number of allowance days will become negative and the overused days will be deducted from the next year’s allowance. If the allowance is equal to 0 and Allow Overbooking check box is checked, the system considers the allowance as Unlimited Time Off. In this case allowance value on My Absences page and holiday statistic report displayed as N/A, not as a negative value, and no carried over time off is generated for such and allowance.
8. Use the Units drop-down list to select whether vacation allowance is generated and tracked in days or hours.
9. Use the Period Calculation Type drop-down list to select whether the absence time in the vacation requests is calculated based on calendar days or working days.
   
   Note

   Please note that the Period Calculation Type setting must correlate with the Absence Allowance Accrual Type setting in the Time & Attendance settings (Settings > Settings and Configuration > Time & Attendance, the Advanced tab). Absence Allowance Accrual Type defines how the absence allowance is generated and written off - based on working days or calendar days. If allowance is accrued and written off based on working days, the absence request time must be calculated based on working days as well. If calendar days are selected as a basis for allowance accrual, Calendar Days must be selected for the Period Calculation Type, correspondingly.
   
   If the Period Calculation Type is set to Calendar Days, the days of the company holidays will be still excluded when calculating annual leave duration. To include the days of company holidays into the calculated duration, select Vacation in the Ignore Company Holidays for Absence Types field of the Advanced tab under Settings > Settings and Configuration > Time & Attendance.
10. Time & Attendance Storage: select whether to store Time and Attendance data in SharePoint or in a SQL database. By default, Time and Attendance data storage is set to SharePoint.
11. Click Save.

The next section of the annual paid leave setup is regular paid leave calculation rules, which are the rules applied by default.

Setting up Paid Leave Calculation Rules

To add a new rule for paid leave allowance generation click the Add Paid Leave Calculation Rule button. 

Fill in the form that opens with the following data: 

1. Specify the number of paid leave days/hours that will be accrued according to this rule in the Number of Days or Hours field.
2. Specify the start of the age or seniority range to which this rule will be applicable in the Range Start field.
3. Specify the end of the age or seniority range to which this rule will be applicable in the Range End field.
4. Choose the basis for the range in the Calculation Type field. There are three options available:
   • Age: the allowances will be generated based on the employee's age
   • Seniority: the allowances will be generated based on the number of years the employee works in the company.
   • Length of Service: the allowances will be generated based on the number of years that passed from the employee's service date (specified in the Service Date field of the employee card). Note that the Service Date field is not available on the employee card by default and must be added using the employee card designer.
5. Click Save to create the rule.

For example, the company policy states all employees who work less than 5 years have 25 paid leave days. All employees who work more than 5 years have 30 paid leave days. For this policy two rules are needed:

Rule 1:

Number of Units = 25
Range Start = 0
 Range End = 5
 Calculation Type = Seniority

Rule 2:

Number of Units = 30
Range Start = 6
 Range End = 100
 Calculation Type = Seniority

There can be as many rules as needed.

To edit a rule, click the Edit link next to the rule in the rules table.

The next section is Extra Time Off Calculation rules, which are rules applied in special cases, for example, anniversaries.

Setting up Extra Time Off Calculation Rules

To add a new rule for extra days generation click the Add Extra Day Calculation Rule button. 

Fill in the form that opens with the following information: 

1. Specify the title of the extra time off rule in the Title field.
2. Specify the number of days/hours that will be added as an extra vacation allowance in the Number of Days or Hours field.
3. Specify the number of years the rule will be applicable for in the Anniversary field.
4. Choose the basis for the calculation in the Calculation Type field. There are three options available:
   • Age: the allowances will be generated based on the employee's age
   • Seniority: the allowances will be generated based on the number of years the employee works in the company.
   • Length of Service: the allowances will be generated based on the number of years that passed from the employee's service date (specified in the Service Date field of the employee card). Note that the Service Date field is not available on the employee card by default and must be added using the employee card designer.
5. Select the rule repetition type from the Occurrence drop-down list. The following options are available:
   • Once: the extra time off will be added once
   • Recurring: the extra time off will be added periodically, i.e. once every specified number of years
   • Incremental: the extra time off will be added incrementally, i.e. the number of units for extra time off will be increased by the specified number every specified number of years
6. In the Carried Over Type field, specify whether the carried over extra time off should expire on the regular basis or an employee can use them without any period limitations.
7. Click Save.

For example, the company policy states that an employee normally has 20 days paid leave and receives 5 extra days every 5^th year of work in the company, i.e. every 5^th year of work the paid leave duration is 25 days and on the 6^th year it is reverted to 20 days. The rule needed for this kind of policy is:

Number of Units = 5
Anniversary = 5
 Calculation Type = Seniority
Occurrence = Recurring

To edit a rule, click the Edit link next to the rule in the rules table.

The last section is the Special Rules section.

Setting up Special Rules for Paid Leave Subtypes

Special rules define how absence allowance is accrued for custom absence subtypes, in this case – for custom paid leave subtypes. Allowance accrued by special rules is separate from the general absence allowance. This means that it is not displayed on the My Absences page, and booking an absence with a custom absence subtype will subtract absence allowance from the accrued allowance granted by the related special rule, and not from the general allowance, except the case when the employee overbooks the absence with the custom absence subtype (books more than the maximum allowed number of days/hours accrued by the special rule) – in this case the number of days/hours that the employee overbooks will be subtracted from the general accrued allowances.

To learn how to create custom absence subtypes, refer to the Absence Subtypes topic.

The Special Rules table is filled in automatically with the vacation subtypes from the Vacation Types list. The subtypes, for which the rules have not yet been created, have the Create Rule link next to them and the existing rules have the Edit link. Be aware that editing a special rule will not affect absence allowances that have already been accrued by the existing rule – the changes will take effect for the next period/case.

To create a rule for a vacation subtype, click the Create Rule link next to it. 

Fill in the form that opens with the following information: 

1. Specify the number of days/hours the employee can have for this custom vacation subtype in the Number of Units field.
2. Specify the rule type for this vacation subtype generation in the Rule Type field. The following options are available:
   • Per Case: the days/hours for this vacation type are accrued on the per case basis, i.e. only once when this an absence with this custom absence subtype is registered and approved.
   • Per Year: the days/hours for this custom absence subtype can be used every year.
3. Select the Allow Overbooking check box in case the employees are allowed to book more days or hours than the allowance for this vacation type. Any number of days/hours that they overbook (book more days/hours than the number specified in the Number of Units field) will be subtracted from the general allowances.
   
   Note

   For example, an employee has vacation allowance of 20 days per year (general allowance) and there is a special rule that 5 days can be taken per year for the Personal Reasons custom absence subtype. If the employee registers a 10 days with the Personal Reasons custom absence subtype, 5 days (accrued by the special rule) with be taken from the special rule absence allowance and 5 days (overbooked) will be taken from the general allowance, and, as a result, the employee will have 15 days of vacation (general allowance) available and 0 days available (with the Per Year special rule type) for this Personal Reasons custom absence subtype. With the Per Case special rule type, 5 days would be available for this Personal Reasons custom absence subtype for the next absence case.
4. Click Save.

After setting up annual paid leave allowance proceed to the Annual Paid Sickness Leave setup section.