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ℹ️ Important read: Get to know Planday's leave management to find out which leave set-up fits your needs.
✅ Required steps: How to create a fixed leave policy ; How to create an accrued leave policy ; How to create leave accounts.
How to set up carry-over
Carry-over is a function that allows you to transfer the unused leave balance from an expiring account period to the next.
The settings of your Leave policy determine when the carry-over date will take place.
You can set up carry-over in step 3 of 3 (Accrued or Fixed) when creating a new leave policy, or by editing an existing policy. Edit your leave policy by going to Settings > Leave & Overtime (or Absence, Overtime, Vacation) > Policies.
Select Allow carry-over for the next period to activate the function.
Define how many hours/days can be carried over.
If you want to limit the carry-over balance to be spent until a specific date, select Set limited time for carry-over. Enter a date under Limited until. If you leave it blank, the carry-over account will be valid for 12 months.
How does carry-over work?
If carry-over is activated, the system will automatically create a new carry-over account at the end of the vacation year and transfer the carry-over balance to it.
The newly created carry-over account:
will appear in your overview and can be used for leave requests by the employees who were assigned the previous account. Requesting leave from the carry-over account is only possible after the account is created - not before.
is not meant to replace the main leave account but exists separately from it. You can renew your main leave account by A) having Renew automatically selected in the policy or B) manually applying the policy again.
will have priority so that its balance gets spent first. This means that employees will not be able to request absence from a leave account as long as a carry-over account for this account type still has a balance.
However, employees can ask their manager using the comments field to allocate the leave to their other accounts, such as Sick leave account, if necessary.
will be named “(old account name) + Carry over“, for example, Leave - Carry over.
Note: Selecting the carry-over option in a leave policy does not affect already created accounts from that policy. Therefore, you need to manually edit each employee’s leave account to enable the carry-over settings.
Make sure that you do this before the leave accounts expire
Make sure that all the leave requests for these accounts have been approved or denied
Example of a carry-over account
⬆️ The screenshot above shows an expired leave account and an example carry-over account that has been generated.
An employee has the Leave account named "Leave" that expires on Dec 31st and allows a maximum of 5 days carry-over that expires on Mar 31st.
Before the account expiry – On Dec 31st, the employee has 8 leave days left. If this leave is not used, (requested and approved by a manager) and the account expires, the leftover leave balance, up to maximum of 5 days, as defined in the employee’s leave account, will be moved to a new carry over account.
After the account expiry – On Jan 1st, the system creates a new account called Leave - Carry over with a spending period from Jan 1st to Mar 31st. 5 leave days are carried over as specified in the employee’s leave account. The unused 3 days will expire, and the lapsed Leave account can no longer be used for requesting leave.
Best practice before the Leave account expires
To ensure a smooth transition from one account period to the next, there are a few recommendations you can follow:
Collect and take action on leave requests
Remind your employees in advance before the end of your leave year to submit their leave requests, possibly by giving them a deadline. If you have other managers in your organisation, ask them to act on all leave requests in their Departments before the leave account expiry.
Corrections will not be possible after the expiration date – Therefore, it is essential to review the accounts and leave requests earlier and make any necessary adjustments.
Get an overview of the Leave account settings
To do this, navigate to Schedule > Leave accounts. Here you can Filter by Account names and/or search for employee names using the search bar. After selecting an account, you review and modify its settings:
if the carry-over is enabled.
how many days/hours can be carried over to the next period.
will the carry-over account have an expiry date.
If you want to edit the Limited until date (deadline by which carry-over balance can be used), you can do so in the existing account settings for each employee. Repeat this step for other employees.
For future accounts, change the settings in the policy by navigating to Settings > Leave & Overtime (or Absence, Overtime, Vacation) > Policies > choose the policy > edit the Carry-over settings accordingly.
Download a leave overview report
If you need an overview of all balances on the last day, you can get it by downloading a Leave accounts report. Go to Schedule > Leave accounts (or Absence accounts) > Export. The report will be an excel file, which you can filter or sort by Account name, Valid from and Valid until to see the relevant results.
How to disable carry-over
You can disable carry-over in your holiday policy by deselecting Allow carry-over for the next period. To edit your existing policies, go to Settings > Leave & Overtime (or Absence, Overtime, Vacation) > Policies.
If you need to disable carry-over on your existing leave accounts, you must manually edit each employee’s leave account to prevent carry-over from happening. Select the account > scroll to Max allowed carry-over to next period > enter 0 (zero) > click Save.
Good to know:
Deselecting the carry-over option in a policy does not affect already created accounts from that policy.
You can’t disable carry over on an already expired account.
Disabling carry-over means that any unused balance will not be transferred to a new account and will expire. If you decide to utilise this leave later, download a report with the existing leave and manually add the carry-over leave to each employee by doing a manual adjustment to the account.
If you are unsure or need help, please contact our support team before your leave account expiration date.
See related articles:
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🎄 If your leave account expiration date is 31 December and you need assistance, it’s essential to contact the support team before the holiday season.