In this training, we'll be exploring topics like requesting different leave types, managing & syncing leave balances and general time-saving tips & tricks. This training session is best suited for managers new to Deputy and/or experienced users looking to optimise their account practise in Deputy.
Due to the number of questions and demand, we created this Help guide containing the training recording and the live questions and answers.
Visit Deputy.com/training for more free training videos and helpful tips and tricks!
Q & A Topics
Setting Up Leave & Leave Balances
Adding, Approving, Declining Leave
Setting Up Leave & Leave Balances
How can we import leave balances to Deputy?
You can currently import leave balances from Xero, MYOB AR, Flare and Gusto. Use our Integrations menu to set up the integrations with your chosen Payroll software.
How does the balance of different leave type set up?
This is done in the People tab, underemployment settings. Check out this article.
Will I get a notification if the employee doesn't have enough leave?
When approving the leave request you will be able to see the leave balance and if they're in negative leave. If you do not want them to be in negative leave, you can decline the leave request.
Does the future balance take into account future accruals?
The balance does not include future accruals, only actual leave accrued.
TOIL - my understanding is that Deputy doesn’t keep track of TOIL and suggest that the payroll system (e.g. Xero) keep track of TOIL. Can Deputy send through +ve hours under TOIL to payroll system when staff work more then contracted hours and -ve ours when TOIL leave is taken and recorded in Deputy?
By law leave has to be shown correctly in your payroll software, therefore we usually recommend to accrue leave in your payroll software.
Only two leave types are appearing in the list of leaves from a staff user's point of view, instead of the list of leaves that are set for each user. How can we fix this from our end?
Leave types are assigned to your employees individually, via the people tab. If you assign no leave types to your employee, they will be able to select ALL leave types by default. Therefore, I suggest you always assign at least one leave type (even if it’s “unpaid leave”), so that your employees can only choose that option. Check out this article.
How do you bulk change the shift hours in leave (we have many different shift lengths)? How do you do this is the roster has not been completed yet i.e. asking for Christmas Leave.
You can set Standard hours for each employee, which is the number of hours that make up a day of leave. When the employee requests a day of leave, it will automatically deduct the number of 'Standard hours' from their balance. You can edit the standard hours for an individual employee or add Standard Hours in bulk.
If I do not want staff to be able to select certain leave options, how do I make them not visible to those staff?
You will be able to select which leave entitlements should be visible to specific employees by navigating to the profile > Employment > Edit > Leave Entitlements.
What if we have different ‘standard days’ i.e. work hours for all our employees. They range from a 3 hours shift to a full working day of 9 hrs
You will be able to set up standard hours (the number of hours that would be payable for a Day of leave). For more information, refer to this link.
If an employee is usually working on a Wednesday, how do you get the time to come through for what they are entitled to? If F/T or P/T?
You can set Standard hours for each employee, which is the number of hours that make up a day of leave. When the employee requests a day of leave, it will automatically deduct the number of 'Standard hours' from their balance. You can edit the standard hours for an individual employee or add Standard Hours in bulk. Find out more here.
Can we suppress certain leave types even though they were previously used?
Yes, you would need to go into the employee’s employment settings and unassign any leave types that you no longer want available to the employee.
Is there method to limit accrual to ordinary hours rather than setting accrual based on accrual for each hour of work? i.e. a fixed per week accrual?
No, leave tracking can only be in hours or days.
How does the balance of the leave sync to deputy from the payroll software?
The leave balances sync once every 24 hrs if the “leave sync” is turned on. You can also run it manually whenever you require.
My concern is leave is already set up on Deputy, that is where we see our staffs balance. When I set up connect on Deputy, it won't change the information on Xero will it?
Once the connection is set between Deputy and Xero, you can pull through the leave balance from Xero in Deputy (reference link) Now when leave is request and approved Deputy will generate a leave timesheet that can be exported into Xero on your next payment process and this will update the leave balance in Xero and thus in Deputy as the 2 systems are linked.
So the leave does not automatically update from the payroll software connection? It would need to be a weekly or monthly task to go in and manually adjust or import the csv with leave balances?
The leave balances sync once a day (overnight) with payroll software, however you can run the sync manually at any time you need.
When are leave requests sent from Deputy to Xero? Is it every night or only when timesheets are exported? Likewise, if a leave request is entered in Xero, is that synced to Deputy?
Leave balances are synced once a day at night. The Xero integration is for Balances and not requests. If a request is added to Xero, the Xero balance will sync with Deputy but the leave details will not be imported.
Adding, Approving, Declining Leave
Can you put through leave for an employee or do they have to do it themselves?
Managers can also add leave for an employee. This can be done in the Employee profile in the People tab. You must have a Supervisor, Location Manager or System Administrator Access level to do this. You can find out more here
When you notify managers to approve leave, can we set it up so the system sends an email to the manager
Absolutely. Your managers will receive a notification on their app when someone requests leave. They can even approve/decline the leave from their mobile phone. If this doesn't answer your question, please send a follow up :)
If an employee doesn't select a particular 'leave type', can I amend as administrator or should I decline & ask them to resubmit?
As a System Administrator, you will be able to amend the employees’ leave details. You will also be able to submit their leave on behalf of them.
Can you approve a leave without notifying the employee?
Unfortunately, it's not possible to turn off the approval notification.
I have team members who have taken leave over Christmas and the last pay period and no leave was requested in Deputy. As a manager can I backdate leave for the last pay period. Going forward I would be having team members applying for leave.
You will need to request for the leave and export the timesheets from that date period - if needed.
Can manager with system administrator access level modifies employee's leave type after it has been approved? (upon mutual agreement)
System Administrators will be able to un-approve a timesheet for the leave, amend the leave, and then re-approve.
Can the system send email notifications for leave approvals to multiple managers (i.e. if I wasn't the manager to approve the leave)?
Unfortunately, we do not have a setting for email notifications to be sent to another individual. Any leave requests will show in your ‘Me’ tab, whether you're using the desktop or the phone app. If this is a functionality that would be useful to you, we would suggest filling out a feedback form. Our product development team gets these and makes changes to Deputy as a result. The information for how to send feedback is here.
Can you reverse an approved leave request?
An approved leave request can be unapproved by a System Administrator and a Location Manager. A supervisor will be able to un-approve a leave request for employees only.
How do we add doctors' certificates to sick leave requests?
It's not currently possible to attach documents to leave requests. An alternative would be to create a 'Training' module for 'Sick leave- Doctors certificate'. This would allow you to assign a specific date (the dates of the leave) and attach the certificate.
If leave is approved, and then later needs to be cancelled, how do we remove it?
You will be able to un-approve the Leave Request and then Decline it. You can find out more here.
Is the only way to cancel someone's leave to unapprove it?
Once it’s approved it can then be edited as well. Also, any leave shifts will create a leave timesheet, which we can edit before approving.
Can we disable unavailability for full time or part time employees who should apply for leave?
System administrators have the ability to prevent users with employee level access from submitting unavailability if desired.
As a workforce manager, I am checking on leaves to manage the number of staff who are scheduled for work. there are times that I'm declining leave if the available slot for a certain day is already exhausted but what the declined staff will be doing is to file again and forward it to a different approver. is there anyway to remove the access of other approvers to micro manage the staffing?
One way to bypass this is to limit the number of people that can approve leave, or to be sure to communicate to your team that they can only request leave approval from their Direct Managers.
Is it possible to block a certain date to other employees once there's employee who has been firstly approved? e.g. a notification that employees can't take leave all on the same day.
The dates cannot be blocked from being requested, however the Manager approving the leave will receive a warning if any other employees have already have the day off. The request can be declined and a comment made to tell the employee why.
Leave Reporting
How is it possible to see all approved staff leave in the same place rather than employees individual profiles
We would recommend to use reports such as the Time Off & Schedules Report and the Leave Management Report
Why do we get all the casuals in a Leave Management Report when casuals don't have leave? Also, under People, can we sort by permanents only?
Many casuals do have leave, and in fact, we would always recommend ensuring your casuals have at least one leave type assigned (even if it’s ‘unpaid leave’) so that they don't have the option to choose any other leave types. Regarding your second question - we don't believe this is a display we have by default.
Can leave requests be displayed so employees can see what each other have requested (eg year view by month) - but with no associated pay rates for confidentiality reasons.
It's not possible for employees to view each others requested or approved leave.
Can we make a report on the Date Leave was requested, the time the leave was approved, and the time the leave was targeted for?
Unfortunately, the time requested and approved is not available in reports.
Can we print the 'Time Off and Schedules' Report? Currently we can only print the screen.
There is a print button at the top of the report, next to the date selector
Is there a report that will show us leave type and dates?
You can use the Custom Report Builder and select the Leave report template. This will show you the Leave type and dates requested/approved. Find out more about our Custom Report builder.
Timesheets
Does approved leave export onto the timesheets to be uploaded to the payroll software?
Yes, when Leave has been approved, it will appear on the Timesheets when the Leave date occurs. The Leave will need to be approved on the Timesheet to then be exported to any payroll software.
When I export the employee excel the leave request does not show in the excel spreadsheet - how can I fix this?
Only paid leave requests will appear in the export. In the case where your paid leave requests are not appearing, please reach out to our 24/7 support for further assistance. Thank you.
Is it possible to have annual leave loading as an automatic allowance to a permanent staff member' timesheet. I.e., staff members takes four hours of annual leave on one day, so four hours of annual leave loading is automatically added to the timesheet prior to export.
This cannot be automated. The employee can either request for annual leave which will create a timesheet to export. Or if the employee is working some hours of the day and has taken a few hours for annual leave then manage this in the timesheet.
Adding leave via the timesheets - does this work by deducting from leave balances or not? It seems when adding leave via ‘people’ > ‘leave’ > ‘leave requests’ that this is automatically added to timesheets with a bolt/ lightning symbol next to it, however when adding through the timesheets section, this symbol does not show. Does this mean it doesn't work via timesheets?
The lightening bolt in the timesheet indicates that the Leave timesheet has been automatically created and approved. The annual leave must have been approved (and not pending approval) to create a timesheet. If you create Leave in the timesheet section then it will not show the lightening bolt because you will be approving the Leave timesheet when you add it. The lightening bolt only indicates whether the timesheet is auto approved or not.
Our business has people work split shifts, when people request leave for the whole day it does not take into account both shifts the person was rostered and will only give the total leave amount of one of the shifts. Can I fix this?
If your employee is requesting leave for the whole day, it should cover all shifts for that day. If that doesn't seem to be working properly, I would speak to Support - they’ll be able to jump into your account and see if there are any settings that need tweaking, or whether this is a more serious issues that needs more troubleshooting
If someone has not turned up to work, how do we go back and enter in the leave?
You can do this in the Approve Timesheet section. You can still have the shift to show in Timesheets by Importing from the schedule. Once you have imported the scheduled shift you can amend the 'Pay rates' box and change the rate to select the specific type of leave you require (e.g. Sick leave, Unpaid leave)
Other
How is the schedule affected if an employee has requested leave? Are they still on the schedule for that time?
Yes the employee will remain on the schedule if the leave request is still pending. When the Manager reviews the leave request, they will see a warning that the employee is scheduled for a shift, and will be able to choose what to do with the shift.
How do you get the unavailability and leave to show in the schedule? E.g. purple and red shifts
The Time Off section shows at the top of the schedule.
Is there a Public Holiday Leave sub type?
Please refer to the following link which will show you how to set up Public Holiday
We will also show you how to enter in a new leave type in this webinar.
How do we set up a public holiday to create a timesheet to pay the permanent staff who have taken that day off?
You can create a specific area (or location if you prefer) and call it something like "Public Holiday not worked" and then put all your public holidays into the schedule and then reach out to our 24/7 support and they can turn off the public holiday rates in that specific area or location.
For Public Holiday Not Worked - can employees put in a number of hours rather than the time of day worked?
For us to take into account the Public Holiday not worked Deputy needs a timesheet and for that the employee needs to clock in and out or the manager can create a un-rostered timesheet.
How do we add a day in lieu for when an employee works a public holiday?
You can add this to their leave balance in the employee profile. The employee can then request for time off using TOIL but ensure this is visible to the employee via business settings.
Can we differentiate in our staff list who is Permanent and who is Casual for other Admin staff know their status?
You can use the Training function to label you staff as FT, PT or Casual. Simply create a training module for each and then you can apply the training in bulk. This will allow you to see in the People tab who is is permanent and who is Casual. You'll also be able to see this in the schedule. You read more about using training here.
Can I change the base rate pays across employees i.e. if a person works in numerous stations across the business and those positions have a variety of pay rates?
This is a new functionality called “Pay by Area”. We're currently rolling this out across all of our accounts, and our Australian customers would have access to this very soon! For more info, check out this article.
I'm unable to view the leave entitlements section when I navigate to 'Employment'. Is this because I've integrated with Xero?
This is an account-specific question, please reach out to our 24/7 support team
Is there any way we can add staff who has been converted from casual to part-time employment?
If you have any Casual Conversions you will need to update their Pay rate in Deputy to ensure they have the correct part-time award.
Can you block time off requests in bulk?
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to block time off requests for a date span. It can only be done per day. However, this is a great feature request. We’ll be passing this on to our product team.
Can staff apply for leave or add unavailability via the app? The screen is showing the desktop version.
Yes absolutely, staff can request leave and unavailability in the App
Can we disable the leave function for casuals?
This would be a case of adding leave types to your employees. We would always suggest adding at least one leave type to your casuals - for example, “Unpaid leave”. Once you've assigned one leave type, none of the other leave types will be available for that employee to select.
Do the shifts have to be entered before approving leave? Some staff work varied hours and their allocated hours may not be the same for different days during the leave. Can I set a timesheet for each employee?
No, you do not have to have the schedule prior to leave being requested. You can manually select the number of hours for the day of annual leave either when approving the leave request, and also when approving the Leave Timesheet.