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 this, FastTrack360 provides the ability to create configurable twelve-month periods known as leave years.
What is a leave year?
A leave year is created in the system by specifying an initial start date for a repeating twelve-month calendar period.
For example, setting the start date to 1 February 2024 creates an initial leave year covering 01/02/2024 – 31/01/2025, which is automatically flagged as the current open leave year. When that leave year is closed, the system automatically flags the next twelve-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-month cycle, for each country that your business manages leave for.
Leave years and leave rules
Once a leave year is configured, it can be referenced by different condition types within specific leave rules for leave types configured in Leave > Maintenance > Leave Type. The table below describes each rule and condition type combination.
Rule type | Condition type | Description |
Transfer Rule | Transfer On | Can be configured to reference a specific 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 Rule | Transfer After | Can be configured to reference a specific leave year so that once a defined qualification period has elapsed and an initial transfer of accrued leave into an entitlement has occurred, a transfer from accrual into entitlement will continue to occur once within the specified leave year from that point onward. |
Transfer Rule | Rule Not Applied Before | 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 | 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. For leave accrued via the Leave Service, the transaction date is the date on which the service triggers the accrual.
A leave balance allocated to one leave year remains available to pay leave 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 the leave year may have triggered.
Closing a leave year
Each leave year 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 pay batch is run.
Reset rules configured to reset leave accrual balances and/or leave entitlement balances are triggered when the next service or pay batch is run.
The current leave year is flagged as closed.
The next leave year in the cycle is flagged as open.
📌Note: A leave year can be closed at any time, but it should generally be closed once all pay batches for the last pay period that falls entirely within the leave year have been processed. This ensures that all leave accruals for the concluded leave year have been factored into payees' leave balances before any transfer or reset of balances occurs.
Create a leave year
You can create a new leave year by specifying a country and a start date for the twelve-month cycle.
Navigate to Leave > Maintenance > Leave Year.
Click Add.
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.
In the Name field, enter 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.
In the Leave Date field, enter the date on which the first leave year cycle begins. This must be entered in the format dd/mm/yyyy. Alternatively, click the calendar button and use the calendar control to select the relevant start date.
Click Save.
An overview of leave years in FastTrack360, including how to create and close a leave year.
Close a leave year
You can close a leave year once all pay batches for the concluded period have been processed.
⚠️Important: Once a leave year is closed, it cannot be reopened.
Navigate to Leave > Maintenance > Leave Year.
In the Search section of the screen, enter or select information about the relevant leave year, then click Search.
Existing leave years matching your search criteria are listed in the Results section of the screen.Click Edit against the row in the search results that corresponds to the leave year to be closed.
Click Close Leave Year. You will see a confirmation message is displayed, prompting you to confirm the closing of the current open leave year.
Click Yes to confirm.
The confirmation message closes, the current leave year is flagged as closed, and the next leave year in the cycle is flagged as the current open leave year.