Time off new year troubleshooting

If your time off policy settings were not configured correctly, employees may have been able to carry over the wrong number of vacation/holiday days into the new year.

You can rectify these issues by following the steps below.

This article covers situations when employees:

1. Carried over more days/hours than they should have been able to.
2. Were not supposed to be able to carry over any days/hours, but did.
3. Carried over days that were supposed to expire after X months/weeks, but no expiration date was set.

Note: If both the carryover amount and the expiration settings were wrong you can combine Issue 1 and Issue 3.

Issue 1: Employees were able to carry over too many days/hours

Solution:

1. Create a Time off balance summary report with three columns:
   • Email.
   • Policy type.
   • Balance as of cycle.
2. In the report, set a time frame that matches the dates of the previous cycle and select the required policy type in the filter (holiday\sick in most cases).
3. Export the report as a .XLS file.
4. Open the .XLS file and:
   • Delete the rows of employees whose total balance at end of cycle is less than or equal to the maximum that they should have been able to carry cover.
   • Paste the maximum number in the total balance column for all other employees.

     Note: It is essential to paste the max number here. This is because it will change the number in the import file to the maximum allowed.

5. Import the .XLS file using the Import starting balances feature. The employees who carried over more days/hours will see their balance reduced to the maximum number of carried over days.
6. Edit the carryover limit in the policy settings:

   Note: This will ensure the correct maximum number of carryover days/hours will be in effect at the end of the current year, but it does not impact the previous year’s carryover settings. 

   • From the left menu, select Settings > Time off.
   • Select the Policies tab.
   • Click a row in the Policies grid to open the policy summary.
   • From the left menu, select Balance limits.
   • In Carryover, enable Set carryover limit.
   • In Maximum days/hours that can be carried over, enter the maximum number of days/hours employees can carry over at the end of this year.

Issue 2: Employees were not supposed to be able to carry over any days/hours but did

Solution:

Update all employees’ balances so they are set at 0, using the Import starting balances option.

1. Create a Time off balance summary report with three columns:
   • Employee identifier.
   • Policy type.
   • Carryover balance.
2. Import the .XLS file using the Import starting balances feature.
3. Make sure the Starting balance column has 0 in it for all employees.All employees will see their balance reduced to 0.
4. Edit the carryover limit in the policy settings:

   Note: This will ensure the employees will not be able to carry over any days/hours at the end of the current year, but it does not impact the previous year’s carryover settings. 

   • From the left menu, select Settings > Time off.
   • Select the Policies tab.
   • Click a row in the Policies grid to open the policy summary.
   • From the Actions menu, select Edit.
   • From the left menu, select Balance limits.
   • In Carryover, enable Set carryover limit.
   • In Maximum days/hours that can be carried over, enter 0.

Issue 3: Carried over days have the wrong expiration date, or no expiration date all

Solution:

Recreate the January 1st balance update with the same amounts and then it will automatically carryover the days/hours and include the expiry date.

Note: If both the expiration settings and the carryover amount were wrong you can combine Issue 1 and Issue 3.

1. Update the carryover expiration in policy settings
   • From the left menu, select Settings > Time off.
   • Select the Policies tab.
   • Click the row in the Policies grid to open the policy summary.
   • From the left menu, select Balance limits.
   • In Carryover, enable Set carryover limit.
   • In Carryover expiration, enter the number of months or years before the carried-over days/hours expire.
2. Create a Time off balance summary report with
   • Filters:
     • Time frame matching current cycle.e.g. if you are doing this in January and the cycle is monthly then it should be Jan 1 - Jan 31. Or if the cycle is annual then it should be Jan 1 - Dec 31.
     • Required policy type.
   • Include the Balance as of cycle start column. 
     
3. Import the balances using Import starting balances.