How to Carryover Unused Employee Leave


By Jeffery Morrow
Redcort Software

There seems to be no shortage of things to worry about at the end of the year. And if your employee benefits are based on the calendar year, nothing seems to concern staff more than how many vacation hours they can carry over into the next benefit year. Of course, the key to knowing how many vacation hours an employee can carry over is in knowing how much vacation time they have left!

As you know, Virtual TimeClock software automatically calculates and tracks the accrual and use of all paid and unpaid leave benefits. Awards are given to each user for each leave category as either an annual award (80 hours per year) or a calculated award (1 hour paid leave per 40 hours worked). Since Virtual TimeClock Pro time and attendance software is already tracking this information for you, it's easy to carry over unused leave balances into the next benefit year.

The Accrued and Used Leave report is a helpful tool for determining how much leave employees have remaining at the end of their benefit year. Since this report contains everything you need to successfully carry over leave balances, let's review the important components of this employee time clock report. The date range the report encompasses is listed beneath each worker name on the report, and may be different for each worker depending on when his or her leave award benefits begin. The beginning date is the award anniversary date that starts the current benefit year for the worker. The ending date is the accrued through date that was chosen when the report was generated. All of the worker totals on the report are based on this date range that may be unique for each worker. Let me give you a quick example. If a worker's award anniversary is January 1, then running the Accrued and Used Leave report through 12/31/10 would show you totals based on 01/01/10 - 12/31/10. However, if a worker's award anniversary is June 1, then running the report through 05/31/10 would show you totals based on the 06/01/09 - 05/31/10 benefit year. For accrual purposes, leave benefits may cross calendar years depending on your particular business rules.

The report also lists the total non-leave regular and overtime hours worked for the date range. These are the same totals that are used when determining hours accrued for calculated awards, and may be different from the totals reflected on worker timecard software reports for the same date range if you are including paid leave hours as regular hours worked and not in a separate column on your worker timecards.

The Carryover column lists the amount of hours that were carried over from the previous benefit year for each leave category listed. The Accrued column lists the amount of hours that have been accrued during the current benefit year. Remember, accrual can be based on either an annual award or a calculated award. The Used column reflects the total number of hours of leave taken during the current benefit year. All leave must be entered using the leave entry tool in order to be included in used hours. The Balance column tells you the number of remaining leave hours for the current benefit year in each leave category listed.

Here's the year-end leave carry over process based on a January 1 leave award anniversary:
  • Run the Accrued and Used Leave report through 12/31 for all or a selected worker.
  • The Balance column should reflect any carryover from the previous benefit year, plus accrued hours for the current benefit year, minus the used hours for the current benefit year for each leave category.
  • Open up the Leave panel in the user record for a selected worker. Enter the new carryover hours (Balance) in the Carryover Hours section for each leave category.
  • Update any accrual rates based on your business rules. For example, employees with 5 years of service receive an extra week of paid vacation.

If the Balance is negative, this means the worker has used more leave than what was accrued for that leave category. You can still enter the carryover hours as a negative balance to be included in the totals for the new benefit year. If your business rules do not allow the carry over of unused leave, then there's nothing further you need to do. Accrual of leave benefits will automatically begin again with the new benefit year.

If you're not using your time clock software to track the accrual and use of employee time off benefits, then the beginning of a new year is the perfect time to start!


Revised and updated May, 24, 2010


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