Deputy is rolling out a new leave management system which is currently only available to select customers in the UK before being made available more widely later this year.

This article is intended for Deputy customers using the new leave management feature. If you are a Deputy Premium customer in the UK and not using the new system yet, please read Preparing to migrate to the new leave management experience.

New leave management experience rollout

What are the main features of the new leave management experience compared to the existing system in Deputy?

System Administrators can create and configure more tailored leave policies in their Deputy account with many more settings available to assist them with ensuring their team members receive their correct leave entitlements.
There are three new default UK-specific leave policies that will be loaded into your account that may assist with calculating leave for teams in the UK.
Depending on the legislation you need to comply with, it's now easier to set up leave policies that assist with accruing leave:
Depending on the legislation you need to comply with, it's now possible to calculate the average working hours per day for a team member who may work varied shift lengths over a past reference period in your organisation so that you can determine how many hours a 'day of leave' such a team member is entitled to.
Unlike the previous leave management system in Deputy, an important feature of this new leave management experience to note is:
- leave policies that accrue leave based on a team member's worked hours will only accrue leave once the worked timesheet is approved AND marked as paid.
- similarly, any leave timesheet that is created will only deduct leave from the team member's leave balance once the leave timesheet is approved AND marked as paid.

Note: If you have a Scheduling-only plan, you will need to manually amend the team member's leave balance. There is no automation of leave balance accrual/deduction available.

Who has access to this new experience?

Currently, only a select group of customers in the UK are on the new leave management experience. If you are a Premium customer in the UK and aren't yet on the new leave experience you can migrate over to it now.

How can I tell if I have the new leave management experience enabled in my account?

System Administrators can open Business settings and click on the Leave tab. If they can see the Leave Policy Builder NEW as shown below, then they have the new experience.

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If I don't have the new leave management experience enabled in my account where can I get help on leave management in my Deputy account?

Please see our collection of Leave Management help articles or contact Support.

Leave policy set up

If the leave policies already set up in my Deputy account don't fit my situation can I create my own?

Yes, see How to set up leave policies (UK only) for more information.

How do I delete a leave policy I set up but no longer want?

For data integrity purposes it is currently not possible to delete an existing leave policy. This feature may be introduced in the future.

Can you change the leave default name eg. Annual Leave (Vacation) to just Annual Leave?

Yes, you can change the policy name but be mindful of any connected payroll systems before you consider altering the leave export code.

Requesting, approving or changing leave

Why is a leave type not showing up for an employee to request it?

If the leave policy exists in your Deputy account but the employee can not see it then either:

1. It is not assigned to them in their employee profile OR

2. The leave type is set as not visible to team members by the System Administrator of your Deputy account

When a Location Manager or System Administrator approves leave they can see all the leave policies in the Deputy account not just those assigned to the employee in their employee profile, why is this?

This is correct. This feature is available so that Location Managers and System Administrators have the discretion to assign a leave type to a leave request where that leave type may not be visible to the team members, such as bereavement leave.

If a team member requests leave and it comes up as a day, do I have to enter the times in to get the right hours or does the system do it for me?

The start and end times and shift length populated for a 'day of leave' defaults to the default shift length entered in the location setting (less the default break time) until the manager selects the leave type. Then, once the manager slects a leave type or that day of leave Deputy will look at a number of factors to suggest a standard shift time and length for this employee. These factors are discussed in more detail in Setting standard hours for a work day when managing leave.

Regardless of what shift times or shift lengths Deputy suggests for the day of leave, they can always be overwritten by the manager approving the leave if required.

If a team member submits a leave request with the wrong leave type can you change it to Annual Leave without declining and resubmitting?

The leave type that the employee submits in their leave request is just a recommendation for the manager. When the leave request is being approved, the manager can select any leave type they wish on the actual days, which is what will generate the appropriate leave timesheets.

I have an employee who works different start/finish times on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. How do I add a leave request for her so that the different hours are captured for each day? At the moment when I add multiple days it defaults to a standard 7.6 hours for each day.

There are two ways you could address this:

set up regular fixed hours for this team member so that when they request leave the shift times will be automatically populated
the manager can manually adjust the start and finish time of each shift in the leave request during approval.

If a team member usually works Tuesday and Friday but wants to take two weeks' leave off do they have to submit a leave request for each day separately or can they just submit a leave request for the two weeks?

They can just submit a leave request spanning the two weeks and then select all the days in between in as 'Non working Days' and then Tuesdays and Fridays as leave.

If you are pre-approving leave for the future why is there not a meal break section?

Leave timesheets are created and exported as the shift length less the usual meal break as there is no meal break while on leave.

If the schedule is already built and published but the team member subsequently requests leave which is approved - does this open up the scheduled shifts for that employee so that we're notified to schedule someone else into that open shift?

If the shifts are already created and published Deputy will give you the option to either open the shift up, find a replacement, leave the shift empty or delete it when you are approving the leave request.

How do I enable/disable team members from changing or cancelling leave once it has already been approved?

Team members can change or cancel approved leave only if System administrators allow it.

When logged into the website Systemen administrators can click on the drop-down menu under their name and select Business Settings.

Click on the Leave tab and Toggle ON the Allow Employees to amend or cancel their approved leave request.

Then click Apply Changes.

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Viewing leave

Who can see the Leave Management dashboard?

Only a Location Manager or System Administrator will be able to see the Leave Management dashboard.

Can you make annual leave visible to employees and bereavement leave not visible?

Yes, you can make individual leave types visible for employees and others not visible. You configure visibility settings in the leave policy builder.

How can managers see leave in the schedule?

There are two ways you can see leave while in the schedule page:

Select the "Team member view" in the Schedule and it will show you all leave & unavailabilities for the locations and date period you have selected.
Select the "Area view" in the Schedule to toggle on and off leave and unavailability visibility as an Area at the top of the Schedule.

Leave balance

Does the Deputy reduce accrued leave (or the leave balance) once a paid leave is taken?

Yes, it does but only after the leave timesheet is approved and marked as paid will the leave be deducted.

If you decide to unmark the timesheet as paid the leave that was deducted will be restored to the leave balance.

What is the difference between leave balance and leave remaining?

Leave balance is the total balance of leave that is in the system for this leave entitlement. This would be the amount that is owed to the employee should they decide to end their employment tomorrow.

Leave remaining is the indicative balance of leave that is left allowing for leave that has been taken as well as future leave that has been requested and approved, but is yet to have been taken.

Can my employees view their leave balances?

Employees are able to see their approved leave requests and their leave balance but System Administrators can disable this option is required in Business settings on the Leave tab.

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What happens if I manually update the leave balance for an employee first and then later mark a previous timesheet from last month as paid and that triggers a 'per hour worked' accrual of leave as well? Which leave amount will be applied to the employee?

The manual update of the leave will apply and the accrual is overwritten as Deputy considers the manual update today as the most up-to-date entry for the leave balance.

To avoid confusion, it is recommended to ensure all relevant timesheets are marked as paid and all leave accrual applied before manually updating an employee's leave balance.

Leave accrual

Is leave accrued in hours or days?

That is up to the System Administrator to decide when configuring the leave policy.

Note: once you create a leave policy in either hours or days and assign it to a team member to begin accruing leave it is no longer possible to switch between tracking in hours or days. If you have found you have made a mistake in this respect you will need to set up a new leave policy and assign it to the team member and remove the incorrect tracking one.

What is the leave accrual rate?

System Administrators can configure a leave accrual rate per hour worked or a fixed leave accrual according to the leave entitlement legislation that they need to comply with, or their business needs.

Can I set up a leave accrual to reset after a fixed period?

Yes, System Administrator can configure leave policies that reset on a specific date such as 1st January or on the anniversary of team member's hire date.

Can I set up a maximum accrual amount for a leave entitlement?

Yes, System Administrator can configure leave policies that with a maximum leave balance amount so that team member will no longer accrue leave once they reach this amount.

If I have set up a policy where a fixed amount of leave was released on 1st January this year and then I have a new employee start in February, will they automatically accrue leave for this leave policy?

Yes, if you have configured the leave policy to allow this. Please read Set up a leave policy with pro rata leave assigned for employees that join part way through the year.

Do archived team members accrue leave?

If you decide to archive a Team member, then all leave accruals and deductions based on:

per hour worked
fixed release accrual
agreed hours

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.

Public holidays

Does Deputy pick up public holidays automatically?

No, not automatically, due to all the different countries that we operate in. You can add public holidays manually in the schedule.

How does the leave accrue if an employee is working a public holiday?

If you are using a 'per hours worked' or 'fixed' accrual rate setting in your leave policy, it will accrue leave the same as any other worked day and does not differ based on the type of day worked.