In order to update an employee's leave allowances you first need to go into their Employee File. You access this by clicking on the 'Employee' tab on the payroll dashboard and selecting an employee from the employee list or using the search field to find them.
You'll then need to click on the 'Leave Allowances' link on the left-hand side of the screen.
On this page, all the leave categories that have been set up will appear. You can then manage the following for each employee:
- Whether or not you want the employee linked to a leave allowance template - This setting can also be configured from the employee's pay run defaults page. If the employee is on a leave allowance template, you will not be able to change any specific leave values from here because it will be locked. Instead, you'll need to go to the Payroll settings Leave Allowance Templates page and update it from there. Once you save that update, you'll then be able to apply the update to all linked employees. The updated details will then be evident on this page. From Monday 19 October 2026, this includes the leave year settings the template controls. If an employee's settings drift out of line with their template, a warning appears on this page with a link to sync them back to the template.
- The employee’s leave year - The 'leave year should start on:' setting is utilised on each accruing leave category as you are able to choose to accrue leave based as per an 'ongoing basis', or 'based on the employee's leave year'. With regards to what date is used for the 'leave year', you can select from the ‘Employee's start date’, 'The following date' or ‘A category specific date’ which can be a custom date for each tracked leave category. From Monday 19 October 2026, for employees with continuous service across employing entities, the leave year start date can be earlier than the employee's start date.
- A category specific date This will allow you to set a specific date for each tracked leave category. The system will default to the employee start date plus the number of months set in the ‘Leave entitlement to start after’ field for each leave category i.e. sick leave is set to start after six months so the default will be the employee start date plus six months. The dates can be overridden if another date is required.
The below settings are directly relating to specific leave categories and how they will behave for the employee. The name of the leave category is in bold, and depending on how the actual leave category has been set up, you will see the following options:
- Whether or not it accrues automatically - This setting is configured on the Payroll settings Leave categories page and cannot be changed here. If it is not accruing automatically the employees balance will not accrue without a manual adjustment being made;
- Unit Type - set whether the entitlement accrues on a weeks per year, days per year, hours per hour worked, or hours per pay run basis. For annual holidays the recommended setting is weeks and for the daily based leave such as sick leave, alternative leave and family violence the recommended setting is days;
- Can Apply For Leave - you can switch on/off any leave category that the employee can access when applying for leave. If it is switched off, the employee will not see this option within the portal or Swag when they go to apply for leave.
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Override - this determines whether an employees leave allowance can be overridden or not. If the override is set to no, you will see that the fields are blocked and cannot be changed. To activate an override of a leave category, simply click on the left of the override box.
An example of the above 3 settings is below:
Then, for other leave categories you may see the below settings:
- Units - set the entitlement amount for each leave category. If you click on the calculator icon you'll be able to view a breakdown of accrual amounts, and can view different results by entering a different figure for the hours per day and employee would work;
- Accrues - This can be set to either accrue on an ongoing basis, or to accrue according to the employee's leave year. If you select 'on an ongoing basis' you'll then only have the option of whether to limit or not limit the accruals for the leave. There will be no settings past this point. The most common setting is to Accrue ‘Based on the employee’s leave year’
If you select to accrue the leave according to the employee's leave year, you'll have more settings in which to specify the conditions. These include:
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Leave entitlement to start after? - You are able to enter a period of time for which leave will not accrue. Once that time has passed, leave will then start accruing. You are able to configure this field in 3 different places:
- The Employee file > Leave allowances page. Configuring it here can only be done if they are not on a leave allowance template. It allows you to set an entitlement date on an individual employee basis.
- The Payroll settings > Leave allowance template page. You'll need to update any leave allowance templates here. Once you save changes here, any linked employees will then be updated.
- The Payroll settings > Leave categories page. If you set the entitlement period here it will automatically populate for all new employees going forward. However, it will not change the setting of any existing employees. For that, you'll need to follow either of the first 2 options.
- Accrue in advance - The total amount of leave owed to the employee within the leave year will be accrued in the pay run where their leave year start date plus the number of months set in the ‘Leave entitlement to start after’ falls in i.e. employee ‘Leave year should start on’ is set to the employee start date and the ’Leave entitlement to start after’ is set to 12 months so if the employee had a start date of 06/06/2023 the employee will receive their full entitlement on their 12 month anniversary which would be 06/06/2024. The employee will then continue to accrue their full entitlement on that date each year.
- Accruals for this leave category are - You can select from 'limited to' or 'not limited to’ and enter the required number of days.
- Carry over - You can choose to have only a maximum of X hours leave (accrued from the previous year) to be carried over upon commencement of a new leave year. If an employee's balance is greater than those hours, the balance will be adjusted in the pay run.
Once you have finished making any adjustments, click 'Save' to the employee's leave allowances.
To see specific examples of these settings in practice, please see the below articles:
From Monday 19 October 2026, we're releasing improvements to how NZ payroll stores, syncs and uses each employee's leave year start date (LYSD). The LYSD determines which pay run grants annual holidays, sick leave and family violence leave entitlements, so these changes help make sure entitlements are granted in the correct pay run.
What's changing?
- Leave Allowance Templates now lock the leave year settings they control on the employee's Leave Allowances page. If an employee drifts out of line with their template, a warning appears with a link to sync them back.
- A company-wide common annual holidays entitlement date can now be set on a Leave Allowance Template, as well as at business level.
- A new leave year start dates export and import lets you audit and bulk-update dates, with warnings that flag inconsistent data.
- A leave year start date can now be earlier than an employee's start date for employees with continuous service across employing entities.
- Unpaid annual holidays of more than one week are calculated more accurately, for both Move anniversary date and Reduce AWE divisor. New employees now default to the Move anniversary date. The anniversary date moves when the pay run is finalised and reverts if the pay run is unfinalised.
- Pay run warnings and pay slip leave balances now use each employee's actual leave year start date.
After the release
Once released, warnings may appear on employees' Leave Allowances pages and in the exported file where existing dates don't match an employee's settings. They're there so you can review those dates.
After the release, download the leave year start dates file for each client business, review any warnings and correct inconsistent dates. The Data Extracts article will be updated with each warning and how to fix it.