Before you start
This article describes the features in Deputy that allow you to configure automatic leave accrual for your team members. To use the features described in this article, your organisation will require an add-on subscription to Deputy HR to access Leave Management+.
Note: If you do not have an add-on subscription to Deputy HR, the leave policies you configure will not automatically accrue leave and you will instead need to use one of the methods detailed in 'Managing your team members' leave balances (US only)' to update your team members' leave balances in Deputy.
Before you begin setting up leave policies that accrue leave, ensure you have:
- Read 'How to set up your leave policies in Deputy'
- Set up your Team member's pay rates
- Assigned the relevant leave entitlements to each Team member
- Updated or entered any existing leave balances for each Team member (if required).
How do Team members accrue leave?
Once your leave policies are configured and the leave entitlements assigned to your team, how do they start earning leave? The answer to that question depends on how you've configured the leave policy:
Accruing leave based on the hours worked - hourly
When setting up your leave policy that accrues leave based on the hours your team works, under the Accrual options section select Hourly.
You then have two choices - per hour worked or per threshold worked:
Per hour worked
To accrue leave according to the hours worked, click on Per hour worked.
You can set:
- the rate at which this policy will accrue leave (numerical entry)
- whether the rate is accrued as straight hours or as a % of hours that the team member has worked
- whether you want team members to accrue this leave on overtime hours they work in addition to ordinary hours worked.
- tenure based rules.
When you assign this type of leave entitlement to a team member then Deputy will begin accruing leave for them based on the hours in the timesheets they work, after the timesheets are approved.
Example:
Graham has an "Annual Leave" entitlement assigned to him that accrues 0.1207 hours of annual leave per hour of leave worked. In this employee profile, we can view his leave balance to see he currently has an existing leave balance of 2 hr 42.9 min (or 2.715 hours).
His most recent timesheets with 37.5 hours of paid work from the previous fortnight are then approved on the Approve Timesheets tab.
Now when we return to the leave balance in Graham's employee profile, we can see that the leave balance has increased 4.526 hr. This amount is added to the existing balance of 2.715hr to give a total new leave balance of 7.241 hr or 7 hr 14.5 min.
Per threshold worked
To accrue leave according to a threshold of hours worked, click on Per threshold worked.
You can set:
- the amount of leave that is accrued (in hours or days according to how the leave policy has been configured)
- The number of hours that need to be worked to reach the threshold to accrue the leave
- whether you want team members to accrue this leave on overtime hours they work in addition to ordinary hours worked.
- tenure based rules.
When you assign this type of leave entitlement to a team member then Deputy will begin accruing leave for them based on the hours in the timesheets they work, after the timesheets are approved.
Example:
Amal has a "Threshold" entitlement assigned to her that accrues 1 hours of annual leave for every 30 hours worked. In her employee profile, we can view the leave balance to see she currently has an existing leave balance of 3 hours.
Amal's most recent timesheets with 30 hours of paid work from the previous fortnight are then approved on the Approve Timesheets tab.
Now when we return to the leave balance in Amal's employee profile, we can see that the leave balance has increased to 4 hours to include the hour accrued for working 30 hours of approved timesheet hours.
Accruing leave as a fixed amount over a set time period
You can set up a leave policy that specifies that leave will be accrued as a fixed amount over a specific time period as shown below:
When you assign this type of leave entitlement to an employee then Deputy will begin accruing leave for them on the date specified when the policy was configured which will be either:
- a specific date, such as 1st January OR
- the employee's hire date
Note:
- You must set the policy up and assign it to your team members before the nominated date if you want the leave to automatically accrue for the next fixed leave period. Learn more.
- Deputy has the option to accrue pro rata leave for team members who start mid way through a fixed leave period.
- If you have configured a policy to reset its balance on the same date as it has been set up to accrue leave then Deputy will always reset the balance first and then accrue leave.
Accruing leave based on a Team member's regular working hours
You can set up a leave policy that specifies that leave will be accrued based on a team member's regular working hours.
When you assign this type of leave entitlement to an employee then Deputy will begin accruing leave for them on the date specified when the policy was configured which will be either:
- a specific date, such as 1st January OR
- the employee's hire date
Maximum yearly accrual
When setting up your leave policy that accrues leave based on the hours your team works, under the Balance options section select Max yearly accrual.
You can turn on and set an optional maximum yearly accrual for the maximum amount of leave your team members can accrue for a leave policy.
1. Click Max yearly accrual.
2. Type the amount of leave you wish to set as your maximum yearly accrual in the field below. The limit resets on January 1.
Note: this setting can be enabled independently of Max leave balance level, or in conjunction with it.
Archived Team members
If you decide to archive a Team member, then all leave accruals and deductions based on:
will no longer be applied to the archived team member.
Managers may still amend an archived Team member's leave balance as long as they are entitled to the leave.