Leave Allowance Templates

A leave allowance template will help make managing leave for employees much easier as you are able to create pre-defined sets of leave accrual values which can then be applied to new and existing employees. This then allows you to bulk update leave values for employees if the leave accrual rates or accrual methods change rather than having to update them individually for each new employee.  

Default leave allowance templates

Leave allowance templates are managed via the 'Payroll settings' > 'Leave Allowance Templates' page.

In a new business, there are default leave allowance templates configured that work in conjunction with tiered leave templates. The default leave templates have been designed in accordance with the legislated leave entitlements for Annual Leave, Sick Leave & Hospitalisation Leave, in terms of when the leave entitlement applies to employees, as follows:

Sick Leave - Full time 

Sick Leave - Part time 

NB: Part time employee's are not entitled to accrue hospitalisation leave

Annual Leave - Full time

Annual Leave - Part time

If you assign employee a tiered leave template, the leave allowance template will pre-populate for that employee, based on the employee's length of service. Otherwise, you can choose to manually assign a leave allowance template to an employee. If however, your staff accrue leave in accordance with the legislated minimum entitlements we strongly suggest assigning the default tiered leave template - this will eliminate the need to remember to manually change the employee's leave allowance template upon the anniversary of each leave entitlement change.

An explanation of the leave accrued for each default leave allowance template is as follows:

• First 2 years of service (FT): Annual leave accrues per pay run with a maximum 8 day entitlement for the year. Additionally, a maximum of 14 sick leave days and 46 hospitalisation leave days will accrue. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• 2 to 4 years of service (FT): Annual leave continues to accrue per pay run with a maximum 12 day entitlement for the year. A maximum of 18 sick leave days and 42 hospitalisation leave days will accrue for this month. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• thereafter (FT): Annual leave continues to accrue per pay run with a maximum 16 day entitlement for the year. A maximum of 22 sick leave days and 38 hospitalisation leave days will accrue for this month. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• First 2 years of service (FT up front): The accruals are the same as the 'First 2 years of service (FT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• 2 to 4 years of service (FT up front): The accruals are the same as the '2 to 4 years of service (FT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• Thereafter (FT up front): The accruals are the same as the 'Thereafter (FT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• First 2 years of service (PT): Annual leave accrues per pay run with a maximum 6 day entitlement for the year. Additionally, a maximum of 10 sick leave days, however there is no accrual for hospitalisation leave days. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• 2 to 4 years of service (PT): Annual leave accrues per pay run with a maximum 8 day entitlement for the year. Additionally, a maximum of 13 sick leave days, however there is no accrual for hospitalisation leave days. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• Thereafter (PT): Annual leave accrues per pay run with a maximum 11 day entitlement for the year. Additionally, a maximum of 15 sick leave days, however there is no accrual for hospitalisation leave days. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• First 2 years of service (PT up front): The accruals are the same as the 'First 2 years of service (PT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• 2 to 4 years of service (PT up front): The accruals are the same as the '2 to 4 years of service (PT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.
• Thereafter (PT up front): The accruals are the same as the 'Thereafter (PT)' template, however, the total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be paid upfront in the employee's first pay run. Thereafter, no further leave will accrue for the rest of the year. Any unused leave days from the previous year will not carry over.

You can use these templates as is or change the settings within to suit your business. Alternatively, if you have provided your staff with leave entitlements that are above the minimum, you can create your own tiered leave templates and leave allowance templates.

The above leave templates are set up to use the employee's leave year start date as set in their employee record, within the Leave Allowances screen. This date is set to the employee's start date by default. Which means the leave balances will automatically adjust when the employee reaches their employment anniversary.

If you wish to use a fixed date such as 1 January for the leave year, you can apply this to individual employees by changing their leave year start date, as shown below: 

Alternatively, you can apply a fixed date to the leave template.

The next setting in place is the Leave anniversary option. This setting is what triggers the tiers to change in the employees Leave Allowances page. The options you have to select from are the employees start date, calendar year or you can select a specific date. This applies to leave categories that accrue automatically and will take affect from the second year onwards. 

Adding new leave allowance templates

To add a new leave allowance template, click on the "Add" button located on the right hand side of the screen. Here you will see a list of the existing Leave Allowance Templates and will display the number of employees that are linked to that template:

You can click on the number of employees linked to the template 'link' to see the details of all active and terminated employees linked to the template: 

Then complete the following:

• Template Name: This will be the name of the leave allowance template that appears when setting up employees (via the employee wizard and import file) and also appears in some reports. As such, if you plan on setting up a few templates ensure they are named in a way that can be differentiated easily.
• Leave Year Settings: Click on the drop down menu and select either employee's own setting, employee start date or a specific date. If the date will vary by employee, it is safer to select 'use employee setting'. This way, the leave year can then be configured at the employee level via the employee's Leave Allowances screen.
• Enabled leave categories: Select which leave categories you want made available to employees when they apply for leave.
• Configure each leave category as required.
• You will notice above that each leave category listed under Leave Allowances has an override button. Clicking on override will allow you to enter different values to that of the default. When you click on the left of the 'x' to activate the override, the default values will disappear and then you are able to enter a new set of values for that specific leave category. For any leave categories that automatically accrue but are not to be included in the leave allowance template, ensure to enter '0' units so that no leave accrued is incorrectly accrued for any employee attached to the leave allowance template.
• Then click on "Save". 

Editing a leave allowance template

If you need to make changes to the values in a leave allowance template, you can do so. Click on the leave allowance template name so that the details expand and make the relevant changes. Once you click on "Save" you’ll be notified if there are employees already linked to the leave template and you’ll be asked if you want to apply the changes to all linked employees:

Click on "OK" to confirm you want the updates applied to existing staff. Click on "Cancel" to not apply the updates to existing staff. This means the changes will only start to apply to employees assigned tot he leave allowance template thereafter. 

Copying a leave allowance template

You are able to copy a leave allowance template, which is handy if you need to create another slightly different template. 

In order to copy the template, hover over the template that you want to copy. Click the 'copy' icon as shown below: 

Once you do that, another template will be added underneath with the same name, appended by 'copy'.  

Just change the name of the template, make the required changes and then click on "Save". 

 If you have any feedback or questions, please send us an email at support@yourpayroll.io.