Retrospective leave

Before managing or applying for retrospective leave, it is important to understand how it works. Please consider the following points before deciding which method is best for you.

• If the payslip is in a draft state, approving a leave application will add those hours to the payslip. You will not need to reprocess the payslip. 
• If the payslip has been processed, when approving or submitting a leave application, you will be presented with 2 options: Handle manually or Deduct from the employee.
  • Handle manually - This option will approve the leave application and take no further action. No hours will be deducted from the employee's entitlement balance, and the payslip will not be updated. 
  • Deduct from employee - This option will approve the leave application. It will also deduct the leave hours from the employee's entitlement balance. The payslip will not be updated.

When managing retrospective leave for your salaried employees, there there are 3 processes available to you. The process you choose will depend on your business considerations and how you would like to handle the leave. 

To manage leave applications that come through after you have processed your payroll, you can either:

• Handle manually (after approving a leave application).
• Deduct from employee leave balance (automatically when approving a leave application).
• Add directly to a payslip (with no leave application).
  
    Hot tip: If you pay your employees monthly, the process for handling retrospective leave will be the same as what is mentioned in this guide.

Handle Manually

When approving a retrospective leave application, you can opt to handle it manually. The same is true for when you submit a retrospective leave application on behalf of an employee.

When you choose to handle this manually, the following actions will happen:

• The leave application will be approved.
• The leave hours will not be deducted from the entitlement balance.
• The payslip will not reflect that leave has been taken.
• The employee will not be paid for the leave specifically. 

The manual process to handle the leave application, is to:

1. Locate and approve the pending leave application. When doing this, ensure you select the option to 'Handle manually'.
2. Navigate to Payroll > Pay and locate the employee's Generated payslip.
3. From the drop-down next to the payslip number, select Edit.
4. Select Adjust Entitlements and adjust the entitlement balance. 
   • Doing this will update the entitlement balance on the employee's profile, and
   • Provide visibility to the employee by showing the leave deducted on their payslip. 

Before manually handling the retrospective leave application and payslip, consider the following:

• You are not able to edit the payslip and add Leave Redeemed hours as well as approve the leave application. This would result in duplicate hours being reported in the Time Off menu for the employee and in reporting. That is why we opt to adjust the balance and write a note.
• If your salaried employee needs to be paid Leave Loading, this process would not be best suited. Instead, refer to the 'Added to payslip' process below.

Deduct From Employee Leave Balance

When approving a retrospective leave application, you can opt to have the system deduct from the employee's leave balance. The same is true for when you submit a retrospective leave application on behalf of an employee. 

When you choose to deduct the leave balance, the following will be actioned:

• The leave application will be approved.
• The leave hours will be deducted from the entitlement balance.
• The payslip will not reflect that leave has been taken.
• The employee will not be paid for the leave specifically. 
   

To deduct from the employee's leave balance:

1. Locate and approve the pending leave application. When doing this ensure you select the option to 'Deduct from employee leave balance'.
   • Doing this will update the entitlement balance on the employee's profile.
2. Review the entitlement balance on the employee profile, to confirm that hours have been deducted correctly.
   • This step is not required, but is recommended to double check that the action has been processed correctly. 

Before selecting to deduct from the leave balance, consider the following:

• You are not able to edit the payslip and add Leave Redeemed hours as well as approve the leave application. This would result in duplicate hours being reported in the Time Off menu for the employee and in reporting. 
• This method removes the need to adjust the entitlement balance as it is handled automatically. It does then remove some of the visibility offered by having that present on the payslip.
• If your salaried employee needs to be paid Leave Loading, this process would not be best suited. Instead, refer to the 'Added to payslip' process below.

Add directly to a payslip

If your salaried employee has not submitted a leave application, but you need this to reflect on their payslip and reduce their entitlement balance, this can be actioned by adding the leave hours directly to the employee's payslip rather than actioning it from the Time Off menu. 

When you choose to add leave to a payslip, the following will be actioned:

• The leave hours will be added to the Time Off menu in an approved state.
• The leave hours will be deducted from the entitlement balance.
• The payslip will reflect that leave has been taken.
• The employee will be paid for the leave specifically. 
   

To add directly to the employee's payslip:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Pay and locate the employee's existing Generated payslip.
2. From the drop-down next to the payslip number, select Edit.
3. Reduce the hours paid by the amount that will be covered by leave.
4. Select Add entitlements to add in the entitlement used and the amount redeemed.
5. Once the payslip has been updated, select the payslip number to view the updated Generated Payslip.

Before adding Leave directly to the employee's payslip, consider the following:

• You are not able to edit the payslip and add Leave Redeemed hours as well as approve the leave application. This would result in duplicate hours being reported in the Time Off menu for the employee and in reporting. 
• If you have a leave application in Time Off and want to follow this process, you can delete the application. 
• If your salaried employee needs to be paid Leave Loading, this process is best suited. 

Before managing or applying for retrospective leave, it is important to understand how it works. Please consider the following points before deciding which method is best for you.

• If the payslip is in a draft state, approving a leave application will add those hours to the payslip. You will not need to reprocess the payslip. 
• If the payslip has been processed, approving a leave application will create a new draft payslip for the period end the leave falls in. 
• Leave added to a new draft payslip will not affect the award interpretation of the hours already processed.

When managing retrospective leave for non-salaried employees, it is slightly more straightforward with only 2 process options available to you. The process you choose, depends on your business considerations and how you would like to handle the leave.

To manage leave applications that come through after you have processed your payroll, you can either:

• Approve the leave application.
• Add directly to a payslip.

Approve leave application

Retrospective leave can be submitted and approved through the Time Off menu at any time after processing payroll. 

When you approve a retrospective leave application, the following will be actioned:

• The leave application will be approved.
• A new draft payslip will be created with the leave hours on it. 
• Once the draft payslip is processed:
  • The leave hours will be deducted from the entitlement balance. 
  • The payslip will reflect that leave has been taken.
  • The employee will be paid for the leave. 

To approve and pay a retrospective leave application:

1. Locate and approve the pending leave application.
2. Navigate to Payroll > Pay and locate the new Draft payslip that would have been created upon leave approval.
3. Follow your regular payroll steps to generate the payslip and pay the employee. 

Before approving the retrospective leave application and generating a new payslip, please consider the following:

• The draft payslip must be processed for the leave to be paid and the entitlement balance to be deducted.
• The employee will have 2 payslips for the period. 
• The leave will not affect hours already paid.
  • If the award interpretation would be different with the inclusion of leave hours, this is not handled automatically. 
  • If leave should be paid instead of hours worked, those hours will need to be manually removed.
     

Add directly to a payslip

Leave hours can be added directly to a payslip instead of being actioned through the Time Off menu.

When you choose to add leave to a payslip, the following will be actioned:

• The leave hours will be added to the Time Off menu in an approved state.
• The leave hours will be deducted from the entitlement balance.
• The payslip will reflect that leave has been taken.
• The employee will be paid for the leave specifically. 
   

To add directly to the employee's payslip:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Pay and locate the employee's existing Generated payslip.
2. From the drop-down next to the payslip number, select Edit.
3. Select Add entitlements to add in the entitlement used and the amount redeemed.
4. Once the payslip has been updated, select the payslip number to view the updated Generated Payslip.
   
     Please note: If adding leave redeemed increases the employee's net pay, a new ABA File will be created with the value of the difference, for you to upload to your financial institution.

Before adding directly to the employee's payslip, please consider the following:

• You are not able to edit the payslip and add leave redeemed hours as well as approve the leave application. This would result in duplicate hours being reported in the Time Off menu for the employee and in reporting.  
• If you have a leave application in Time Off and want to follow this process, you can delete the application. 
• An adjustment payslip can be created instead of editing the original if you prefer.
  • This will then provide your employee with 2 payslips for the pay period.
• If the award interpretation would be different with the inclusion of leave hours, this is not handled automatically. However, editing the payslip or creating an adjustment allows you to handle this all in one go.