This section includes important details you should be aware of when configuring leave types and other leave maintenance items under Leave > Maintenance.
Topics in this section:
Leave Type Configuration - Accrual Rule Continuous Employment Conditions
Leave Type Configuration - Deduction Rule Entitlement Balance Conditions
Leave Type Configuration - Entitlement Balance Conditions
Leave Type Configuration - Accrual Rule Continuous Employment Conditions
Continuous employment conditions can be configured on accrual rules for a leave type to make accrual of leave subject to payees' tenure. For example, a continuous employment condition can be configured to make accrual of leave subject to a payee having worked continuously for a period of 12 or more months.
A limitation of continuous employment conditions is that the system applies the conditions independently for each leave set, irrespective of whether a payee has already accrued leave by satisfying the continuous employment conditions for the same qualification period. This can result in a payee accruing leave multiple times when they are only entitled to accrue once.
Example scenario
Consider a leave type configured so that a payee accrues leave once after each 12 months of continuous tenure:
A payee completes their first 12 months of tenure and accrues the leave.
Before the payee completes their next 12 months of tenure, the accrual rate for the leave changes.
Because the original accrual rule has been used, it cannot be updated, so a new leave set is added with a new accrual rule that defines the updated accrual rate. The new accrual rule defines the same continuous employment condition.
When the new leave set and accrual rule are added, the payee accrues the leave again - despite not completing another 12 months of tenure since the last accrual. This is because the continuous employment condition on the new accrual rule ignores the fact that the payee has already accrued the leave by meeting the continuous employment condition on the original accrual rule.
Recommendation
To avoid this problem, if you need to update the configuration of a leave set that includes accrual rules with continuous employment conditions, update the existing leave set instead of adding a new leave set where possible.
⚠️Important: If there are already leave transactions linked to the leave set, the leave set will be locked and you will be unable to update it manually. In this case, FastTrack can run a script to update the configuration of your existing leave set. Please contact FastTrack Customer Service if you require this.
Leave Type Configuration - Deduction Rule Entitlement Balance Conditions
Deduction rules, which are defined on leave sets that belong to a leave type, determine if, when, and at what rate leave can be paid.
Entitlement balance conditions can be defined on deduction rules to determine if and how leave is to be paid when a payee has insufficient leave balance to cover the entire duration of leave taken. There are two entitlement balance condition options:
Sufficient - pays up to the leave entitlement balance, even if the entitlement is insufficient. For example, if the leave entitlement balance is 5 hours but 8 hours of leave is taken, 5 hours will be paid and the remaining 3 hours will be unpaid.
Insufficient - pays the difference between the available leave entitlement balance and the balance required to pay the leave in full, if the entitlement balance is insufficient to cover the duration of the leave. For example, if the leave entitlement balance is 5 hours but 8 hours of leave is taken, 3 hours will be paid and the remaining 5 hours will be unpaid.
The Insufficient option is designed to be used in conjunction with the Sufficient option.
Example configuration
Consider the following two deduction rules for leave taken, both belonging to the same leave set:
Deduction Rule 1:
Leave Rate Type = Payee Rate.
Entitlement Balance Condition = Sufficient.
Deduction Rule 2:
Leave Rate Type = Agreement Rate.
Entitlement Balance Condition = Insufficient.
If a payee had a leave entitlement of 5 hours but took 8 hours of leave, this configuration would result in the following:
5 hours of leave paid at the payee rate.
3 hours paid at the agreement rate.
Recommendation
Note the following about the Sufficient and Insufficient entitlement balance conditions:
While the two options are designed to work together, multiple deduction rules for leave taken can be configured under the same leave set without defining an entitlement balance condition on some or all of the deduction rules. However, if an entitlement balance condition is not used on a deduction rule for leave taken, the entire duration of leave taken is paid irrespective of a payee's entitlement balance.
If you require leave to be paid when taken irrespective of a payee's entitlement balance, it is recommended that you do not configure multiple deduction rules for leave taken under the same leave set. Instead, configure one deduction rule for leave taken without an entitlement balance condition.
⚠️Important: If multiple deduction rules for leave taken are configured under the same leave set without entitlement balance conditions, leave payments for leave taken may be overpaid.
Leave Type Configuration - Entitlement Balance Conditions
Entitlement balance conditions can be added to deduction rules for leave taken to determine if and how leave is to be paid depending on a payee's entitlement balance. There are two types of entitlement balance conditions:
Sufficient
Insufficient
Sufficient condition
The Sufficient condition pays up to the available entitlement balance. For example, if a payee has an entitlement balance of 3 days as of the end date of the payroll processing period in which the leave is paid, but the duration of the leave was 5 days, the Sufficient condition will pay 3 days.
⚠️Important: An exception applies to leave configured to accrue based on Hours with Rate, which is commonly used to manage Rostered Day Off (RDO) leave in Australia.
For such leave types, a Sufficient condition will only pay leave if the entitlement balance is sufficient to cover the entire duration of the leave taken. In the example above where 5 days are taken but the entitlement balance is only 3 days, the entire duration of the leave taken would be unpaid because the payee does not have sufficient balance to cover it.
Insufficient condition
The Insufficient condition pays the difference between the entitlement balance that is available and what is needed to cover the remainder of the leave taken. For example, if the entitlement balance is 3 days but the payee has taken 5 days, the Insufficient condition would pay the 2 days for which there was insufficient entitlement balance, and the payee's entitlement balance would be -2 days after the leave is paid.
⚠️Important: Insufficient conditions do not work with leave configured to accrue based on Hours with Rate, which is commonly used to manage Rostered Day Off (RDO) leave in Australia. For such leave types, leave taken is only paid if there is a sufficient entitlement balance to cover the entire duration of the leave taken.
Using entitlement balance conditions
A deduction rule for leave taken can only have one entitlement balance condition, with the entitlement balance type being either Sufficient or Insufficient. However, separate deduction rules can be configured at the same leave hierarchy level, each with a different entitlement balance type and, optionally, a different rate type. This allows the sufficient and insufficient portions of leave taken to be paid at different rates of pay if necessary.
Except for leave configured to accrue based on Hours with Rate - which requires a Sufficient condition to be set on all deduction rules for leave taken - it is not mandatory to use entitlement balance conditions. Where no entitlement balance condition is selected on a deduction rule, the system will pay the entire duration of leave taken irrespective of the payee's entitlement balance.