This article is for System Administrators who are configuring leave management within Deputy with Deputy Payroll enabled.

How leave works with Deputy Payroll

As discussed in Introduction to Leave management with Deputy Payroll (AU) not all leave types can be managed in exactly the same way. The reason for this is:

• For some leave rules, it makes sense for employees to be able to monitor their leave balance and request leave, such as Annual or Sick/Personal Carer's leave. However, for other leave types, such as Paid Family and Domestic Violence leave, it may not be suitable to have this leave visible in Deputy as part of the regular leave request and approval process, but instead manage leave payments directly within Payroll.
• Once Payroll is enabled in Deputy, the source of truth for leave accrual will be Deputy Payroll for these three leave types:
  • Annual leave
  • Sick Personal/Carer's leave
  • Long Service Leave
• For other leave types in Deputy, leave timesheets will still automatically flow to payroll, but the manager must manage the leave balance for these leave types manually within the employee's profile, as they will not be accrued automatically within Payroll.

Let's look at each National Employment Standards leave type, plus a custom leave type in Deputy, and map out possible ways of managing leave in Deputy with Payroll enabled:

• Annual Leave
• Sick Personal/Carer's leave
• Long Service Leave
• Bereavement Compassionate Leave
• Community Service, Emergency Management, Jury Duty Leave
• Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave
• Parental Leave
• Custom leave type, such as Wellness Day

Note: for simplicity in displaying the information, each leave type example below only includes one day of leave, but it is acknowledged that many leave requests would normally involve multiple days of leave.

For information on the default STP codes assigned to each of the leave types in Deputy, see the table at the bottom of this article.

Annual Leave

Overview

Annual leave (also known as holiday pay) allows an employee to be paid while having time off from work.

The annual leave accrual rate is managed within Deputy Payroll, and employees can view their annual leave balance and request leave in their Deputy app. Approved leave timesheets automatically sync to Payroll during a pay run, and once the pay run is locked and completed, the annual leave balance will be updated in Deputy. You can also process Annual leave timesheets as part of an ad hoc pay run if necessary. 

Set up leave 

Annual leave is one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy. So you don't need to set it up, but it's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave ON
• Type is set to Holiday Leave - this is what maps this leave to annual leave in Payroll. IMPORTANT: No other custom leave types should be set up in your account as 'Holiday Leave' type, or else those leave types may incorrectly deduct from the annual leave balance.
• Visible to Team member ON (if you want the team member to be able to see their leave balance and request leave in Deputy).
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code - this is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to payroll when a pay run is processed.

Assign the annual leave entitlement to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Enter carried over annual leave (if required)

If your employee is a new hire, their annual leave balance will be 0 hours and they will begin to accrue leave as they start working.

However, if you are starting to use Deputy Payroll with employees who already have an annual leave balance accrued in another system, you will need to update their annual leave balance they are carrying over. You can also update this value in bulk if you have many employees. Please note that Deputy Payroll supports up to 3 decimal places for leave balances. Note: If you upload a file with more than 3 decimals, Deputy Payroll will truncate, not round, the amount before import. 

Accrual

Confirm the default rate of annual leave accrual for all employees in the Leave Entitlement settings in Business settings. The amount is shown as weeks of annual leave per year.

Note: this amount represents the annual leave amount for a full-time equivalent employee. If you designate an employee's Employment as part-time, then the pro rata amount of leave accrual will be automatically calculated. If you need to provide 5 weeks of annual leave for all your team members, you can change this setting to 5 weeks. 

Request and approval

If you have enabled the option to allow team members to view their Annual leave balance and have made annual leave visible to employees, then your employees will be able to:

• View their annual leave balance
• Request annual leave

Managers will also be able to:

• Approve and decline leave requests
• Add leave requests on behalf of employees

Timesheet export

If you approve an annual leave request for a date in the past, the leave timesheet will be automatically generated with Approved status and be displayed on the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages.

If you approve an annual leave request in the future, then the leave timesheets will not be generated and automatically approved until the day of leave has started. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved Status.

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export timesheets if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced to the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of annual leave.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved annual leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

If you have assigned an Annual leave loading percentage in this employee's profile, you will also see a line item reflecting this Annual leave loading on the employee's payslip. 

In this example, Golly has an Annual leave loading of 17.5%, which reflects on the payslip as her ordinary rate multiplied by 0.175. 

Note: If you require the Leave Loading to be included in the superannuation calculation, you can change the Class by clicking on the pencil icon.

The annual leave balance will display with the amount of annual leave taken in this payslip deducted from the previous annual leave balance.

Leave balance updated

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on the Approve and Export timesheets pages.

The updated leave balance, as shown on the payslip, will sync automatically to the leave balance in the employee's profile.

Note: you can disable the display of annual leave balances on the employee's payslip if you wish, but it will still display for managers when reviewing payslips while completing a pay run.

This means that the annual leave balance is up-to-date immediately after a pay run has been completed.

The employee is now ready to submit leave for their next holiday!

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Sick Personal / Carer's leave

Overview

Sick Personal/Carer's leave lets an employee take time off to help them deal with personal illness, caring responsibilities, or family emergencies.

The Sick Personal/Carer's leave accrual rate is managed within Deputy Payroll, and employees can view their Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance and request this leave in their Deputy app. Leave timesheets automatically sync to Payroll during a pay run, and once the pay run is locked, the Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance will be updated in Deputy.

Set up leave 

Sick Personal/Carer's is one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy, so you don't need to set it up, but it's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave ON
• Type is set to Sick Leave - this is what maps the leave to Sick Personal/Carer's leave in Payroll. IMPORTANT: No other custom leave types should be set up in your account as 'Sick Leave' type, or else those leave types may incorrectly deduct from the Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance.
• Visible to Team member ON (if you want them to be able to see their leave balance and request leave in Deputy).
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code - this is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to payroll when a pay run is processed.

Assign the Sick Personal/Carer's leave entitlement to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Enter carried over Sick Personal/Carer's leave (if required)

If your employee is a new hire, their Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance will be 0 hours, and they will begin to accrue leave as they start working.

However, if you are starting to use Deputy Payroll with employees who already have a Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance accrued in another system, you will need to update their Personal leave balance they are carrying over. You can also update this value in bulk if you have many employees.

Accrual

Confirm the default rate of Sick Personal/Carer's leave accrual for all employees in the Leave Entitlement settings in Business settings. The amount is shown as weeks of Sick Personal/Carer's leave per year.

Note: this amount represents the Sick Personal/Carer's leave amount for a full-time equivalent employee. If you designate an employee's Employment as part-time then the pro rata amount of leave accrual will be automatically calculated.

Request and approval

If you have enabled the option to allow team members to view their Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance and have made Sick Personal/Carer's leave visible to employees, then your employees will be able to:

• View their Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance
• Request Sick Personal/Carer's leave

Managers will also be able to:

• Approve and decline leave requests
• Add leave requests on behalf of employees

Timesheet export

If you approve a Sick Personal/Carer's leave request for a date in the past, the leave timesheet will be automatically generated with Approved status and be displayed on the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages.

If you approve a Sick Personal/Carer's leave request in the future, the leave timesheets will not be generated and until the day of leave has started. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved status.

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export Sick Personal/Carer's timesheets at this point if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced to the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of Sick Personal/Carer's leave.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved Sick Personal/Carer's leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

The Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance will display the amount of Sick Personal/Carer's leave taken in this payslip, deducted from the previous Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance.

Leave balance updated

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on both the Approve and Export timesheets pages.

The updated leave balance, as shown on the payslip, will sync automatically to the leave balance in the employee's profile.

Note: you can disable the display of sick personal carer's leave balances on the employee's payslip if you wish, but it will still display for managers when reviewing payslips while completing a pay run.

This means that the Sick Personal/Carer's leave balance is up-to-date immediately after a pay run has been locked.

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Long Service Leave

Overview

An employee gets Long Service Leave after a certain period of working for the same employer.

The Long Service Leave (LSL) accrual rate is managed within Deputy Payroll.

It's up to the System Administrator to set whether employees can view their Long Service Leave balance and request that leave in Deputy.

Any approved Long Service Leave timesheets generated are automatically synced to Payroll during a pay run, and once the pay run is locked, the Long Service Leave balance will be updated in Deputy.

Set up leave 

Long Service Leave is one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy, so you don't need to set it up, but it's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave ON
• Type is set to Long Service Leave - this is what maps the leave to Long Service Leave in Payroll.
• IMPORTANT: No other custom leave types should be set up in your account as 'Long Service Leave' type, or else those leave types may incorrectly deduct from the Long Service Leave balance.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to see their leave balance and request leave in Deputy - if you toggle it to OFF then managers can still request Long Service Leave on the employee's behalf when they are entitled. You can also remove the Long Service Leave balance from displaying on the employee's copy of the payslip as well if you need.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code - this is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to Payroll when a pay run is processed.

Assign the Long Service Leave entitlement to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Enter carried over Long Service Leave (if required)

If your employee is a new hire, their Long Service Leave balance will be 0 hours, and they will begin to accrue LSL as they start working.

However, if you are starting to use Deputy Payroll with employees who already have a Long Service Leave balance accrued in another system, you will need to update their Long Service Leave balance they are carrying over. You can also update this value in bulk if you have many employees.

Accrual

Confirm the default rate of Long Service Leave accrual for all employees in the Leave Entitlement settings in Business Settings. The default LSL accrual rate is one week of leave accrued for every 60 weeks worked.

Note: this is the default amount that represents the LSL leave amount for a full-time equivalent employee. If you designate an employee's employment as part-time or casual then the pro rata amount of leave accrual will be automatically calculated.

The default amount can be changed to meet your business needs based on the state or territory entitlements. 

If you need to manually update an employee's Long Service leave balance, you can do this in the employee's profile. This is a "point in time" update, which means the new leave balance figure will be reflected on the employee's payslip in the next pay run (or you can reprocess the employee's payslip to have this new leave balance figure apply immediately). 

Important Note: Deputy does not provide advice on employment law or taxation matters, including payroll specifics. Please seek professional advice from your legal/tax adviser if you are unsure what to select in this field.

Request and approval

If you have enabled the option to allow team members to view their Long Service Leave balance and made Long Service Leave visible to employees, then your employees will be able to:

• View their LSL balance
• Request LSL leave

If you don't make the Long Service Leave visible to employees, when an employee becomes entitled and wants to take LSL, the manager will have to add the LSL requests on behalf of employee.

Timesheet export

Once the manager adds and approves a LSL leave request for the future, the leave timesheets will not be generated until the day of leave starts. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved status.

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export timesheets if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced to the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of LSL.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved Long Service Leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

The LSL balance will display the amount of LSL taken in this payslip, deducted from the previous LSL balance.

Leave balance updated

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on both the Approve and Export timesheets pages.

The updated leave balance, as shown on the payslip, will sync automatically to the leave balance in the employee's profile. Note: this balance will only be visible to the manager and not the employee if you have configured the leave type to not be visible to employees.

Note: you can disable the display of LSL leave balances on the employee's payslip if you wish, but it will still display for managers when reviewing payslips while completing a pay run.

This means that the Long Service Leave balance is up-to-date immediately after a pay run has been locked.

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Compassionate and Bereavement Leave

Overview

The National Employment Standards (NES) provide all employees, including casuals, with an entitlement to compassionate leave, also known as bereavement leave. As per the NES:

• Employees are entitled to 2 days of Compassionate leave each time they meet the criteria.
• Employees can take Compassionate leave as:
  • a single continuous 2 day period
  • 2 separate periods of 1 day each
  • any separate periods as agreed with their employer.

Employees don't accumulate Compassionate leave, and it's not a part of their Sick Personal/Carer's leave entitlement. Therefore, there is no setting to accrue Compassionate leave within Deputy.

It's up to the System Administrator to set whether employees can view and request the Compassionate leave entitlement in Deputy, or whether it would be submitted on their behalf by the manager.

Any approved Compassionate leave timesheets generated are automatically synced to Payroll during a pay run.

Set up leave 

Paid Compassionate leave

Paid Compassionate leave is one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy as Bereavement (Compassionate) Leave. So you don't need to set it up, but it's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave is ON (for team members other than casuals. You'll need to create a separate unpaid compassionate leave for casual team members)
• Type is set to Bereavement. IMPORTANT: make sure you check this field and change it from Holiday (default) to Bereavement, otherwise all paid Compassionate leave timesheets will incorrectly deduct from the Annual leave balance in Deputy Payroll.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to request this leave in Deputy. If you toggle it to OFF, managers can still request paid Compassionate leave on the employee's behalf.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code - this is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to payroll when a pay run is processed.
  
  

Unpaid Compassionate leave

Unpaid Bereavement/ Compassionate Leave is not one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy, so you'll need to set it up. It's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave is OFF
• Type is set to Unpaid Leave. IMPORTANT: make sure you check this field and change it from Holiday (default) to Unpaid Leave, otherwise all unpaid Compassionate leave timesheets will incorrectly deduct from the Annual leave balance in Deputy Payroll.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to request leave in Deputy. If you toggle it to OFF, managers can still request unpaid Compassionate leave on the employee's behalf.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Do not export for Payroll. This means that Unpaid leave timesheets will not show in the Export Timesheets page, but they will still be automatically pulled into the relevant pay run when the Unpaid leave timesheet is approved. 

Assign the Compassionate leave entitlement to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Accrual and leave balances

Employees do not accrue or carry over Compassionate leave as it is taken on an 'as needed' basis. Therefore, there is no need to confirm any accrual rates or set a leave balance for Compassionate leave in Deputy. You can leave the balance at 0 hours.
 

Request and approval

If you have made paid or unpaid Compassionate leave visible to your team members, they will be able to:

• Request Bereavement Leave

If you haven't made Compassionate leave visible to employees, a manager will have to add Compassionate leave requests on behalf of the employee .

Timesheet export

If you approve a Compassionate leave request for a date in the past, the leave timesheet will be automatically generated with Approved status and be displayed on the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages.

If the manager adds or approves a Compassionate leave request for the future, the leave timesheets will not be generated until the day of leave starts. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved status.

Note: Unpaid Compassionate leave timesheets will not appear on the Export timesheets page, but they will still be automatically pulled into the relevant pay run when the Unpaid leave timesheet is approved. 

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export Compassionate leave timesheets if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced into the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of Compassionate leave.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved Compassionate leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

Timesheet and payslip updated as paid

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on both the Approve and Export timesheets page.

The employee will also receive a payslip to let them know that Bereavement Compassionate leave has been paid.

Note: Unpaid Compassionate leave will not appear on the employee's payslip.

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Community Service, Emergency Management, Jury Duty Leave

Overview

As part of the National Employment Standards (NES) all employees, including casual employees, can take Community Service Leave for activities such as voluntary emergency management activities or jury duty.

An employee is entitled to take Community Service Leave while they are engaged in the activity and for reasonable travel and rest time.

Employees don't accumulate Community Service Leave, Therefore, there is no setting to accrue Community Service Leave within Deputy.

It's up to the System Administrator to set whether employees can view and request the Community Service Leave entitlement in Deputy, or whether it would be submitted on their behalf by the manager.

Any approved Community Service Leave timesheets generated are automatically synced to Payroll during a pay run.

Set up leave 

Paid Community Service Leave

Paid Community Service Leave is one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy, so you don't need to set it up, but it's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave is ON
• Type is set to Training. IMPORTANT: make sure you check this field and change it from Holiday (default) to Training, otherwise all paid Community Service Leave timesheets will incorrectly deduct from the Annual leave balance in Deputy Payroll.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to request leave in Deputy. If you toggle it to OFF, managers can still request Community Service Leave on the employee's behalf.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code - this is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to payroll when a pay run is processed.
   

Unpaid Community Service Leave

Unpaid Community Service Leave is not one of the default leave rules already loaded into Deputy, so you will need to set it up. It's important to note that for this leave rule to sync with Deputy Payroll and operate as expected, you should ensure:

• Paid leave is OFF
• Type is set to Unpaid Leave. IMPORTANT: make sure you check this field and change it from Holiday (default) to Unpaid Leave, otherwise all paid Community Service Leave timesheets will incorrectly deduct from the Annual leave balance in Deputy Payroll.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to request leave in Deputy - if you toggle it to OFF then managers can still request Community Service Leave on the employee's behalf.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Do not export for Payroll. This means that Unpaid leave timesheets will not show in the Export Timesheets page, but they will still be automatically pulled into the relevant pay run when the Unpaid leave timesheet is approved. 
   

Assign the Community Service Leave entitlements to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Accrual and leave balances

Employees do not accrue or carry over Community Service Leave as it is taken on an 'as needed' basis. Therefore, there is no need to confirm any accrual rates or set a leave balance for Community Service Leave in Deputy. You can leave the balance at 0 hours.

Request and approval

If you've made Community Service Leave visible to your team members, they'll be able to:

• Request Community Service leave

If you haven't made Community Service leave visible to employees, a manager will need to add the Community Service request on behalf of employee .

Timesheet export

If you approve a Community Service Leave request for a date in the past, the leave timesheet will be automatically generated with Approved status and be displayed on the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages.

If the manager adds or approves a Community Service Leave request for the future, the leave timesheets will not be generated until the day of leave starts. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved status.

Note: Unpaid Community Service Leave timesheets will not appear on the Export timesheets page, but they will still be automatically pulled into the relevant pay run when the Unpaid leave timesheet is approved. 

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export Community Service Leave timesheets if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced to the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of Community Service Leave.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved Community Service Leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

Note: When we configured this Leave policy, you will remember we needed to select the Training leave type. On the payslip, you'll now need to edit the name of the payment from Training to "Community Service" or "Jury Duty" or a suitable payment type. To do this, click on the pencil icon on the far right of the Training payment line.

Click on the Title field and type the name of the more accurate Community Service leave title and then click Update Payment.

You will see the Community Service leave payment now appears in the payslip.

Timesheet and payslip updated as paid

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on both the Approve and Export timesheets pages.

The employee will also receive a payslip to let them know that the Community Service leave has been paid.

Note: Unpaid Community Service leave will not appear on the employee's payslip.

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Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave

Overview

All employees are entitled to 10 days of Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave each year. This includes full-time, part-time and casual employees.

An employee’s paid leave entitlement is available in full immediately and resets on their work anniversary. It doesn’t accumulate from year to year.

Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave is a standalone leave entitlement. This means employees get it separately from other types of leave, such as annual leave or paid sick and carer’s leave.

Full-time and part-time employees are paid their full pay rate for the hours they would have worked if they weren't on leave.

Casual employees are paid their full pay rate for the hours they were rostered to work.

IMPORTANT: The Fair Work Ombudsman advises that there are rules about information that must not be included on an employee’s payslip relating to Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. This is to reduce the risk to an employee’s safety when accessing Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.

Employers need to keep a record of leave balances and any leave taken by employees. However, payslips must not mention Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave, including any leave taken and leave balances.

An amount paid to an employee for taking Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave has to be recorded on a pay slip as:

• ordinary hours of work, or
• another kind of payment for performing work, such as an allowance, bonus or overtime payment.

However, if an employee requests it, their employer can record time taken as Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave as another type of leave on their pay slip (for example, Other Leave).

If an employee has taken a period of Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave, it is best practice for their employer to record this on their payslip in a way that makes the payslip look as close as possible to how it would have looked if the employee had not taken the leave.

For this reason, it may be appropriate for your organisation to manage Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave directly from within Payroll.

To add Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave to an employee's payslip, you can add the leave as an extra payment line in the payslip. This can be done multiple times in a payslip if you want to make it look as close as possible to how it would have looked if the employee had not taken the leave.

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Parental Leave

Parental leave lets employees take time away from work for the birth or adoption of a child. The term ‘parental leave’ can include:

• unpaid parental leave under the Fair Work Act (FW Act)
• government-funded Parental Leave Pay
• employer-funded Paid Parental Leave

To set up Paid or Unpaid Parental leave for Deputy Payroll, follow this guide.

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Custom leave policy, such as Wellness Day

Overview

A custom leave policy is a leave entitlement that the organisation configures itself from a blank template.

This would usually be to provide a leave type not required by the NES leave entitlements, but instead it might be used to manage extra time off benefits offered to employees, such as a 'Wellness day' or a 'Birthday leave' day.

In this example, we will work through the example of setting up a custom leave entitlement of 2 paid Wellness Days per year for each employee.

Set up leave 

To create a new custom leave in Deputy, System Administrators can click on Business settings in the drop-down menu under their name.

On the Leave policies tab, click on Leave Rules.

Click on New Leave Condition.

Configure your custom leave rule including:

• Name your custom leave. In this example it's called 'WELLNESS DAY' but you can call it whatever leave name is suitable for your organisation.
• Paid leave is ON
• Type is set to Training  - IMPORTANT: Do not use the leave types Holiday, Sick or Long Service Leave for creating custom leave rules as these leave types are linked to the accrual of Annual leave, Sick Personal/Carer's Leave and Long Service Leave in Deputy Payroll. Doing so will mean your employees will accrue leave types inaccurately.
• Visible to Team member ON or OFF. This is the choice of the System Administrator whether you want employees to be able to request leave in Deputy. If you toggle it to OFF then managers can still request Wellness Day leave on the employee's behalf.
• Export Rule for Payroll is set to Export using Export code, and please enter an export code such as "Wellness" used in this example- this export code is what tells Deputy to send leave timesheets to payroll when a pay run is processed.

Click on Save This Leave Condition.

Assign the Wellness Day leave entitlement to eligible employees in their profile or by bulk action.

Accrual and leave balances

Custom leave types do not have automatic accrual rules in Deputy, so you have two options to monitor Wellness Leave balances: 

• 'Frontload' the accrual of the leave. That is, on a nominated date - say January 1st of each year - have the manager manually add the equivalent of two days' of Wellness Day Leave to each team member to request and use as required. You can even import this leave balance in bulk if you have lots of employees.

• Alternatively, if you decided that you wanted to make the leave type not visible to employees when you set it up, you can leave the balance at 0 hours, and managers can submit leave requests on behalf of employees for Wellness Day Leave.

Request and approval

If you have enabled the option to allow team members to view their Wellness Day leave balance and you have made this leave entitlement visible to your team members, they'll be able to:

• View their Wellness Day leave balance
• Request Wellness Day leave

If you did not make the Wellness Day leave visible to employees, the manager will have to add the Wellness Day request on behalf of the employee .

Timesheet export

If you approve a Wellness Day leave request for a date in the past, the leave timesheet will be automatically generated with Approved status and be displayed on the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages.

If the manager adds or approves a Wellness Day leave request for the future, the leave timesheets will not be generated until the day of leave has started. They will appear on both the Approve timesheet and Export timesheet pages with automatic Approved status.

IMPORTANT: There is no need to export Wellness Day Leave timesheets if you have Deputy Payroll enabled in your account. The leave timesheets will be automatically synced to the employee's payslips when you process the pay run for the relevant dates of Wellness Day leave.

Payslip review in the pay run

When you process a pay run, any relevant approved Wellness Day leave timesheets for the date period will be automatically synced to the employee's payslip.

Note: when we configured this, you will remember we needed to select the Training leave type. Now you will need to edit the name of the payment from Training to "Wellness Day" or a suitably named payment type to reflect your custom leave type. To do this, click on the pencil icon on the far right of the Training payment line.

Click on the Title field and type the name of the more accurate Wellness Day leave title and then click Update Payment.

You will see the Wellness Day leave payment now appears in the payslip.

Timesheet and payslip updated as paid

When you complete the pay run and lock it, this is the trigger for the leave timesheet in Deputy to be marked as paid on both the Approve and Export timesheets pages.

The employee will also receive a payslip to let them know that the Wellness Day leave has been paid.

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This table shows all the default leave policies in Deputy and what each leave type's STP code will default to in Deputy Payroll.

 

Leave Type	STP Code
1 - Sick Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
2 - Annual Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
3 - Long Service Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
4 - Parental Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type P
5 - Bereavement Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
6 - Carers Leave - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
7 - Unpaid leave - All unpaid leave types	not reportable
8 - Time In Lieu - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O
9 - Training - Paid	Paid Leave - Type O

 

 If you need to change the STP code, you can do this during the pay run in the employee's payslip.

 Click the pencil icon to the far right of the pay line and select the correct code from the STP drop-down.

Important Note: Deputy does not provide advice on employment law or taxation matters, including payroll specifics. Please seek professional advice from your legal/tax adviser if you are unsure what to select in these fields. 

It is your responsibility to ensure that you are correctly classifying and reporting payment types through Single Touch Payroll. It is also your responsibility as an employer to ensure that you are paying your employees correctly in line with applicable legislation, award/s and industrial instrument/s and so it is important that you carefully review (and if necessary, make any adjustments to) the payslips generated for each of your team members before "completing" the pay run.
 

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