The period in which leave accrues, and/or becomes an entitlement to take leave, varies for each country. In some cases, the leave year may also vary between different types of leave within the same country. To support that, FastTrack360 provides the ability to create configurable twelve-month periods that are known as leave years.
A leave year is created in the system by specifying an initial start date for the repeating twelve-month calendar period. For example, setting the start date to 1 February 2024 will result in the creation of an initial leave year period covering the date range 01/02/2024 - 31/01/2025, which is automatically flagged as the current open leave year. When that initial leave year is closed, the system automatically flags the next twelve calendar month period, in this case 01/02/2025 - 31/01/2026, as the current open period.
Multiple leave years can be configured, each with a different twelve calendar month cycle, for each country that your business manages leave for.
Once a leave year is configured, it can referenced by different condition types within specific leave rules for leave types that are configured in Leave > Maintenance > Leave Type, as described in the table below.
Rule Type | Condition Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Transfer Rule | Transfer On | This rule and condition type combination can be configured to reference a specific type of leave year so that leave that has accrued is transferred into an entitlement to take leave whenever that leave year is closed. For more information, see Closing a Leave Year below. |
Transfer After | This rule and condition type combination can be configured to reference a specific leave year so that once a defined qualification period has elapsed, and there has been an initial transfer of accrued leave into an entitlement to take leave, a transfer from accrual into entitlement will continue to occur once within the specified leave year from that point onward. | |
Rule Not Applied Before | This rule and condition type combination can be configured to reference a specific leave year so that leave that has accrued is transferred into an entitlement to take leave only once within the specified leave year. | |
Reset Rule | Reset On | This rule and condition type combination can be configured to reference a leave year so that the balance of accrued leave is reset (cleared down) whenever a specific leave year is closed. For more information, see Closing a Leave Year below. |
Allocation of Leave to a Leave Year
Leave accruals are allocated to a leave year based on the transaction date. For leave accrued in a pay batch, the transaction date is the end date of the pay period in which the leave accrues while for leave accrued via the Leave Service, the transaction date is the date on which the service triggers the accrual.
A leave balance that has been allocated to one leave year remains available to be used to pay leave that is taken in any pay period where the period end date falls within that leave year, even if that leave year has already been closed and therefore a portion of the remaining entitlement balance has been rolled over into the carryover pot for the next leave year and the remaining entitlement balance has been cleared down.
For example, consider a scenario where for the leave type Annual Holiday the leave year is equivalent to the calendar year (1 January to 31 December). Assuming a weekly pay frequency from Monday to Sunday, the last full pay period for the 2024 leave year is 23/12/2024 – 29/12/2024, which is not processed and paid until 01/01/2025. The leave year is closed on 31/12/2024, triggering a rollover of a maximum of 5 days of Annual Holiday leave into the carryover pot and the clearing down of any remaining entitlement balance that accrued in the 2024 leave year.
In this scenario, irrespective of the fact that the last pay period is processed after the close of the 2024 leave year, a payee’s leave balance for the purposes of paying any Annual Holiday leave taken during that last pay period of the leave year is based on the balance as at 29/12/2024. That is, the balance prior to the leave year close and resetting of entitlement balances that occurs on 31/12/2024 and prior to any leave that may have already accrued in the next period (30/12/2024 - 05/01/2025), which is allocated to the 2025 leave year.
Closing a Leave Year
If you have configured leave that is reliant on leave years, each leave year must be closed manually each time the corresponding twelve-month period concludes. That allows any leave Transfer or Reset Rules, which are configured to trigger on close of a leave year as described in the table above, to be triggered by the Leave Service so that leave balances can be transferred or cleared down respectively.
A leave year can be closed at any time (for more information see Allocation of Leave to a Leave Year above). However, generally this should be on the first day of the new leave year. For example, if the leave year runs 1 April to 31 March of the following calendar year, the leave year that has just been concluded should be closed on 1 April or as close to that date as practical.
How to Create a Leave Year
To create a leave year, follow the steps below.
Step | Procedure | |
|---|---|---|
1. | Navigate to Leave > Maintenance > Leave Year. The Leave Year screen is displayed. | |
2. | Click Add. The Leave Year Entry screen opens. |  |
3. | In the Country field, select the country to which the leave year applies or skip this step if the relevant country is already selected by default. | |
4. | In the Name field, key a descriptive name for the leave year. This name will appear in dropdown lists wherever a leave year can be selected, such as within conditions of leave transfer and reset rules. | |
5. | In the Leave Date field, key the date on which the first leave year cycle begins. This must be keyed in the format dd/mm/yyyy. Alternatively, click on the calendar button and use the calendar control to select the relevant start date. |  |
6. | Click Save. The leave year is created, the first twelve calendar-month cycle is flagged as open and the Leave Year Entry screen closes. |  |
How to Close a Leave Year
To close a leave year, follow the steps below.
Step | Procedure | |
|---|---|---|
Navigate to Leave > Maintenance > Leave Year. The Leave Year screen is displayed. | ||
In the Search section of the screen, key or select as much information about the relevant leave year and click Search. Existing leave years that match the search criteria you have specified are listed in the Results section of the screen. |  | |
Click Edit against the row in the search results that corresponds to the leave year that is to be closed. The Leave Year Entry screen is displayed. |  | |
Click Close Leave Year. A confirmation message is displayed, prompting you to confirm the closing of the current open leave year. |  | |
To continue to close the leave year, click Yes. Once a leave year is closed it cannot be reopened. The confirmation message closes, the current leave year is flagged as closes and the next leave year in the cycle is flagged as the current open leave year. |  |