An employee's leave year start date (LYSD) is the date their leave year starts each year. Payroll uses it to decide when leave entitlements are added to an employee's balance:
- Annual holidays: 12 months after the date, then every 12 months.
- Sick leave and family violence leave: 6 months after the date, then every 12 months.
If the date is incorrect or misaligned, an entitlement may accrue in the wrong pay run.
What has changed
- Settings now follow one order: Business, then Leave Allowance Template, then employee. If a template controls an employee's dates, those fields are locked on their Leave Allowances page. If an employee falls out of line with their leave allowance template, a warning will appear with a link to sync them back within the employee’s leave allowances.
- Company-wide annual holidays date: If you have an annual closedown, you can now set this date on a template as well as for the whole business.
- Earlier dates are allowed: A leave year start date can be before an employee's start date, for example when they have moved between entities.
- Unpaid annual holidays: Leave without pay of more than one week is calculated more accurately. New employees default to moving their anniversary date out.
- Warnings and pay slips: Pay run warnings and pay slip leave balances use each employee's actual date.
Where to set it
- Business: Payroll Settings > Leave Categories
- Template: Payroll Settings > Leave Allowance Templates
- Employee: Employee > Leave Allowances
You can start the leave year on the employee's start date, on one specified date for all leave categories, or on a different date for each leave category.
Warnings you may see
After the release you may see warnings where an employee's dates don't match their settings. They don't stop you saving.
- Differs from the template: click Sync with template, then save.
- Annual holidays date doesn't match the start date: click Sync with the employee's start date, then save. Or choose Leave category specific dates to keep the date you have.
- In a pay run, "may have missed leave entitlement": check the employee's date. See Managing Annual Holidays.
Download the leave year start dates file from Payroll Settings > Import Employee > Employee leave year start dates import > Data Extracts. The Warnings column shows what to fix. Including an employee in an import re-applies their template, which can overwrite their dates, so leave out anyone you want to keep as they are. See Data Extracts for further guidance on the LYSD import function.