Deputy is rolling out a new leave management system in the US!
Some US Deputy customers have already been using this new experience but if you are in the US and still using the old experience it's time to migrate over to the new experience.
This guide will step you through the migration process:
- What is the new leave management experience in Deputy?
- I am currently not subscribed to Deputy HR. Will this impact my accruals going forward?
- Does Deputy only support leave if I’m subscribed to HR?
- How do I know if I'm currently using the old or new Leave management experience on Deputy?
- Do I have to migrate to the new experience?
- When is the best time to migrate?
- How long will it take me to migrate?
- Can I still use Deputy while I'm migrating?
- What do I need to do in my account before I migrate?
- How to migrate or update to the new leave management experience
- What if I have an error during migration?
- What do I need to do after I migrate?
What is the new leave management experience in Deputy?
Deputy has started rolling out a new leave management experience in Deputy for US customers that assists businesses to:
- configure their own leave policies within Deputy in better detail
- easily monitor team member's leave entitlements
- comply with the relevant legislation regarding leave.
Read more at Introduction to Leave Management (US only). Please note that leave accrual functionality has moved to Leave management+, for which a valid Deputy HR subscription is needed.
Note: after migrating to the new leave management experience the old Deputy leave accrual extension will be removed from your account as leave accrual is now managed directly within each leave policy setting and, as such, leave accrual will need to be configured for each policy after the migration process is complete.
I am currently not subscribed to Deputy HR. Will this impact my accruals after the migration?
Yes, you will need a Deputy HR subscription in order to reconfigure accruals after the migration.
If you are currently not subscribed to Deputy HR, then upon migration, your old accrual extensions will be deprecated, and leave will no longer accrue on your account until you sign up for Deputy HR.
If you are currently subscribed to Deputy HR, you can simply reconfigure your leave accrual policies once the migration is complete and leave will continue to accrue for your team members.
Does Deputy only support leave if I’m subscribed to HR?
Customers can still build leave policies, assign export codes, manually manage balances, send leave requests to managers, and approve leave for employees without having to subscribe to Deputy HR.
The functionality that comes with Deputy HR (under Leave Management+) is summarized in the table below:
Do I have to migrate to the new experience?
Yes, eventually all US customers' accounts using the old leave management experience will be updated to the new one.
Initially, you will be able to choose when to opt into the migration at a time that best suits your business.
However, if you have not migrated by 30th April 2025, then your account will be automatically migrated to the new experience from the 1st of May 2025 onwards.
Note: Accounts on annual or Enterprise plans will be excluded from auto migration.
How do I know if I'm currently using the old or new leave management experience on Deputy?
If you aren't sure which leave management experience you are currently using, System Administrators in your account can click on Business settings > Leave.
If you see the screen below then you are on the old experience and will need to migrate/update your account:
If you see the screen below then you are already on the new leave management experience and you do NOT need to migrate. You can read more about using the new Leave Management experience in this collection of help articles.
When is the best time to migrate?
The best time to migrate is when you are not under any time pressure. For example, we suggest NOT migrating immediately before a pay cycle is due.
Some functionalities in Deputy will be locked during the migration so choose a time to migrate when you are less likely to need to perform these functions in all locations of your Deputy account. If you have multiple business locations in your Deputy account, be sure to let all your locations know beforehand, that you are performing a leave management migration and there may be some functionalities temporarily unavailable in their Deputy accounts.
There is also some configuration involved immediately after the migration so allow yourself some time to complete these tasks as well.
How long will it take me to migrate?
Most Deputy accounts will only take a few minutes to migrate but for larger accounts, it could take a few hours.
There is also some configuration involved immediately after the migration so allow yourself some time to complete these tasks as well. How long this task takes to complete will depend on how many leave policies you have to review and configure.
Can I still use Deputy while I'm migrating?
While you are migrating, your team members will be able to clock in and out for shifts as usual and request or approve leave but you and your team will be blocked from performing the following actions during the migration:
- editing your team member's leave balances (neither individually nor using the bulk actions menu on the People page)
- importing leave balances
- creating new leave rules
- enabling new leave accrual extensions
Note: Any integrations you have connected to your account that can alter the leave balance of your team members will also be temporarily disabled during the migration to ensure leave balances are not modified during the migration period.
When you are blocked from performing an action in the above list during the migration, the button will be grayed out and a banner will appear to let you know why such as in the example below.
What do I need to do in my account before I migrate?
Before you migrate:
- ensure your timesheets are approved
- your team members' leave balances are up to date and accurate
- ensure you have an understanding of what leave rules are currently configured in your Deputy account and how your team's leave is accrued. Please check and record the details of any leave accrual extensions you have activated in your account as the leave extensions will be removed as part of the migration process.
- back up / export your leave balances to a spreadsheet (you will be given the option to do this at the start of the migration process)
How do I know what leave accrual extensions are configured in my account?
1. Click on Integrations in the menu under your name.
2. Click on Deputy Extensions
3. Scroll through your list of Active extensions and look for the Approved Timesheet/Leave Request > Accrue and Deduct Leave Balance extension. You will need to click Edit to open each extension individually.
4. Open each extension you have configured and record:
- The Leave rule the extension applies to. In the example below it is Annual Leave (Vacation).
- If the Accrual option is selected then record the corresponding Leave Accrual Rate.
Record this information for every leave extension you have activated in each location in your account.
It is important you record this information as the leave extensions will be removed during the migration process and you will not be able to access this information again to retrieve it.
If you do not have any accrual extensions activated in your account then you may proceed with the migration.
How to migrate or update to the new leave management experience
1. When ready to migrate, System Administrators can click on Business settings in the menu under their name.
2. Select the Leave tab then click on Update.
3. Click on the links to Download existing leave rules and Download existing leave balances to a CSV file on your computer before you start the migration. For the existing leave rule information you download, ensure you have also checked whether there is a leave extension configured for each one to automatically accrue leave for that leave rule. If there is, please record the leave accrual rate that is configured so that you can later use this rate to configure your new leave policies after the migration.
Once you have done that and confirmed that you are happy with the information in the downloaded file, click Update.
Note: once you click Update, all System Administrators in your account will receive an email to notify them the leave migration process in your account has begun.
4. The migration will now begin and take from as little as a few minutes to a few hours depending on the size of your account. While the migration is IN PROGRESS you will see the screen below in Business Settings. You can leave this screen while the migration is running to continue working in Deputy but be aware that certain functionalities will be blocked or disabled.
5. Once the migration is complete, all System Administrators in your account will receive an email to let you know the migration is complete and the Business setting Leave tab will display the following screen.
Note: the number of leave policies in your account may be different from that shown in the example below depending on how many leave rules you had configured in your Deputy account before the migration.
Click on View leave policies.
6. You will see your leave policies listed. You will still need to configure them to accrue leave as the old Accruing leave extension in your Deputy account has been retired. To configure your accrual rates and other settings for your leave policies after migration please follow the steps in this article.
What if I have an error during migration?
If the migration fails you will receive an error as shown below. Please retry the migration again but if the failure persists, please get in touch with Support.
Your data is automatically backed up before the migration to prevent data loss in case of migration issues.
Note: if there is an error during migration all System Administrators in your account will receive an email to advise this including steps to follow to rectify the issue.
What do I need to do after I migrate?
Once the migration is complete, System administrators will receive an email to notify them the migration process has been completed successfully.
There are now a number of configuration steps to complete to ensure leave management is set up correctly in your account.
Please now continue to follow the steps in Setting up the new Leave experience once you have migrated (US Only).