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TOIL — FAQs and troubleshooting for admins
TOIL — FAQs and troubleshooting for admins

FAQ regarding TOIL account creation, viewing and editing balances, the transfer of hours and the supported functionalities and limitations.

Saad Saeed avatar
Written by Saad Saeed
Updated over a week ago

🎯 For admins looking to troubleshoot TOIL policies.

  • Disclaimer: It is your responsibility to ensure compliance with the relevant rules for leave and to configure Planday to be suitable for the particular circumstances of your organisation and employees. If you are unsure, please obtain professional legal advice.

  • See Planday's TOIL management to find out which set-up fits your needs.

  • Are you an employee? See How to apply for leave.

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding Time off in lieu (TOIL) account creation, viewing and editing of TOIL balances, transfer of hours to the TOIL accounts, supported functionalities and limitations.


Create TOIL accounts

Why am I receiving an astronaut stuck in orbit error when creating a TOIL account for multiple employees?

  • This could be if an employee in your selection already has a TOIL account. Head over to the account overview page and try to create the same selection by using filters and see which employee already has an account.

  • It could also be because you haven’t entered an initial balance in the TOIL policy or when creating the account. Write 0 if the balance should be zero at the start.


Why is there no data in my TOIL account as it only shows a dash (-)?

This is because the start balance in the TOIL policy set-up or when applying TOIL account was not defined. If you want to start from an empty balance, you should input a zero 0 there instead of no value.


Why can't I assign a TOIL account to an employee?

Is the employee already assigned an (inactive) TOIL account?

The system does not allow an employee to have 2 TOIL accounts whose periods overlap.

To check this, go to Schedule > Leave (or Absence) Accounts > Time off in lieu accounts. Then, set the filter to Inactive.

If the employee has an inactive TOIL account, you can:

  • Delete the old account and create a new one.

Deleting an account permanently deletes all related data.

Before deleting the old account, we recommend you make a note of the hours you wish to keep or export the data. An account should be completely "emptied" before you delete it.

  1. Reject all TOIL requests made through this account before deleting.

  2. Delete all TOIL entries in the employee profile under Time off in lieu by clicking on the red cross next to it.

  • Or reach out to the Planday Support team to have the account reactivated.

Do you want to assign an overtime account to several employees at the same time?

You may see an error message if there are employees who already have another account assigned. Employees cannot have two TOIL accounts whose periods overlap.

Check in the overview which employees already have an account and deselect these employees in the Create column.


View and edit TOIL balances and delete TOIL accounts

Why can't I delete a TOIL account?

If an account already has a TOIL balance, you cannot remove it from an employee unless the balance is clear. You can:

Deleting an account permanently deletes all related data.

Before deleting the old account, we recommend you make a note of the hours you wish to keep or export the data. An account should be completely "emptied" before you delete it.

  1. Reject all TOIL requests made through this account before deleting.

  2. Delete all TOIL entries in the employee profile under Time off in lieu by clicking on the red cross next to it.


The TOIL report shows all of the accounts - the TOIL and the vacation accounts

You would need to select the TOIL accounts in the filters when you are in Schedule > Leave accounts > Time off in lieu before you click on Export.


The balance in the employee’s TOIL tab is not the same as in the TOIL report

The balance that shows in the employee profile (TOIL tab) is different from the one you see in the TOIL report that you extract from Schedule > Leave requests > Export > Time off in lieu report.

In the employee profile, it’s not possible to choose the exact period for which you want to see the balance. You can only choose the year. The default period goes from 01/01 to 31/12 which means that if a TOIL account is across two years, for example, 01/04/2022 to 31/03/2023, the balance showing under 2023 will comprise the TOIL hours of 2022.

That is why we advise our customers not to put a reset date on the TOIL policy set-up so that there are no validity dates.
To have an accurate report of the balances for each account, you would need to export the TOIL report under Settings > Leave requests > Export.


I can’t see the TOIL balance of my deactivated employees

If you can’t see the TOIL balance of your deactivated employees in the TOIL account overview under Schedule > Leave accounts > Time off in Lieu accounts, it’s because their accounts are inactive. You would need to select the status “inactive” or “all” if you want to see their accounts in the list.

Note: When you reactivate an employee, the overtime account is not automatically reactivated.


Transfer of hours to the TOIL accounts

Hours have not been deducted from or added to the TOIL account as they should have.

Hours have not been deducted from the TOIL account although they were approved and the shift type Time off is set to deduct hours from the account. There could have been a change in the shift types that should count towards the TOIL account after the shift was approved so the solution would be to reapprove the shifts.


Hours have been deducted twice from the TOIL account but it should have been only once

You can see in the employee’s profile that their time off hours for the same day were deducted twice but they should have been deducted only once from the TOIL account.

This can be because the hours were transferred as undertime from the contracted hours page and the shift type Time off does not count towards the contract rule.
Then the hours were deducted a second time because the shift type Time off is connected to the TOIL account, therefore deducting hours.

To fix this, the shift type Time off should count towards the contract rule so that it doesn't look like the employee has been planned for two few hours.

Another solution is, if you’re using the contracted hours and transfer the hours as overtime and undertime to the employees’ TOIL accounts, disconnect the shift type Time off from the TOIL policy and only use the contracted hours page to transfer the hours.


How do I revert a transfer of hours?

You have transferred hours but it was a mistake. In that case, you can make a manual adjustment in the employee’s TOIL tab to either deduct or add hours. See this guide on How to manually adjust TOIL hours.


You’ve forgotten to transfer overtime hours onto last year’s TOIL account

You have forgotten to transfer some overtime hours onto last year’s TOIL accounts. If you go to the Contracted hours page to transfer them, these hours will unfortunately not be transferred onto the old TOIL account but will go to the new TOIL account instead because as the old account is inactive, no transfers nor adjustments can be made there.

That is one of the reasons why we recommend not setting a reset date to the TOIL account policy so that you can still deduct or add hours to the TOIL account if you’ve forgotten to do it the year before.


Supported functionalities and limitations

How can I pay out my employees’ overtime hours?

The easiest way is to set up contract rules supplements under Settings > Payroll > Payroll supplement.
Basically, the hours that exceed the employee’s contracted hours will show on the payroll report and will be paid out to the employee.

Other ways are:

  • to pay out the hours via a manual supplement;

  • or to add a shift in the schedule with the number of hours to be paid;

  • or to just add the overtime manually to your payroll system.

In that case for the three options mentioned above, you would need to make a manual adjustment to the employee’s TOIL account.


Will the remaining amount of the expired TOIL account be automatically carried over to the new account?

No, there’s no automatic carry-over. That’s why we recommend not setting a reset date to the TOIL account policy.


If I reactivate an employee, will their TOIL account be reactivated as well?

No, it won’t because even if you reactivate the employee, their TOIL account will remain inactive. You would then need to reach out to our Support team for assistance.


See related articles:

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