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, irrespective of whether that leave year has already been closed and irrespective of any clearing down of leave balances that closing of the leave year may have triggered.
Closing a Leave Year
Each leave year that is used within any rules for a leave type must be closed manually each time the corresponding twelve-month period concludes. Closing a leave year has the following effects:
transfer rules configured to transfer leave accruals into entitlements on closing of a leave year are triggered when the next service or a pay batch is run
reset rules configured to reset leave accrual balances and/or leave entitlement balances are triggered when the next service or a pay batch is run
the current leave year is flagged as closed
the next leave year (i.e. the next twelve-month period) in the cycle is then flagged as open.
A leave year can be closed at any time but generally it should be closed once all pay batches for the last pay period that falls entirely within the leave year has been processed so as to ensure that all leave accruals for the concluded leave year have been factored into payees' leave balances before any transfer or reset of balances occurs when the leave year is closed.
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. |  |