Manage Leave for a Future Year

In this topic, you will learn how to identify a leave for a future year, learn about approving of such a leave, and about negative leave balances in the next year.

Identifying Leave for a Future Year

Leave for a Future Year is any leave record of any type that is booked for a period after the current reporting year (i.e. any leave to be taken after the next rollover date).

E.g. For Annual Leave and Personal/Carer’s Leave accruals, the current reporting year is the current company year (from 1 July to 30 June).

E.g. For Long Service Leave accruals, the current reporting year is the current anniversary year (from their last anniversary date to their upcoming anniversary date).

This means that any leave records that take place after the current company year or anniversary year is a leave for a future year, regardless of the leave type.

Approving Leave for a Future Year

When booking leave for a future year, the amount allowed is only limited by the maximum amount that can be accrued that future year.

What this means for HR, managers & leave approvers:

• When employees book leave for a future year, approvers will need to verify whether the employee will have sufficient leave accrued on the future date when the leave begins to prevent the employee’s balance from becoming negative.
• If an employee already has leave booked in a future year, that leave will not be taken into account when the system assesses overbooking in the current year (as future leave is not deducted from the current year’s balance). It is up to the approver to verify if the employee has sufficient leave to prevent the employee’s balance from becoming negative.

Example

Tom accrues 150 hours of Annual Leave per year. It is June 10 and he has 20 hours left in his balance. Tom “should” only be able to book 20 more hours for the current reporting year. However:

• The system will not stop Tom from booking the full 150 hours of leave for the first day of the next reporting year (1st of July). It is up to the approver to determine that he will not have 150 hours of leave on July 1 next year.
• If Tom books 20 hours he has left for the first day next year on July 1, this amount is NOT deducted from his current reporting year’s balance. 
• If Tom has already booked his remaining 20 hours starting on July 1 next year, because that amount is not deducted from his current reporting year’s balance, the system will not prevent Tom from booking additional 20 hours for the current reporting year.

Negative Leave Balances in the Next Year

When a leave is booked for a future year, this can cause an employee’s leave balance to appear to be negative at the start of the next year.

Scenario 1: The employee has sufficient leave balance but appears negative:

This occurs when an employee books leave for a future year, and the start date is in the middle of the year, and the amount booked includes leave that is not yet accrued.

On the first day of the next year, the booked amount will appear to be deducted immediately from their balance, even though they have not yet taken that leave. However, by the end date of their booked leave, they will have accrued sufficient leave to cover the amount of leave they have taken.

In this scenario, there should be no cause for concern as you will be able to verify that the employee has sufficient leave, by forecasting that their leave balance will not not be negative on the end date of their booked leave.

Scenario 2: The employee had insufficient leave balance to book leave for a future year

This will occur if an employee books a leave amount for a future year that they do not have. This scenario is explained in the example under Approving Leave for a Future Year (first bullet point).

This is treated as leave approved by mistake. It is up to HR to determine the next course of action.

Scenario 3: The employee booked leave for a future year, then re-booked that amount in the current year

When leave for a future year is booked, that amount is not immediately deducted this year. If the employee subsequently books more leave for the current reporting year, they will no longer have enough leave balance for the leave they booked next year. This scenario is explained in the example under Approving Leave for a Future Year (third bullet point).

This is treated as leave approved by mistake. It is up to HR to determine the next course of action.