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Time off balance for an employee is wrong
Time off balance for an employee is wrong

What to check for in your settings if a time off balance for an employee doesn't look correct.

Oliver Cook avatar
Written by Oliver Cook
Updated over a week ago

If you find that the time off balance for an employee doesn't match what you think it should be, this can be down to many different reasons.

To narrow down the cause run through the checks below. Once you make these checks, you may discover why the balance sis what it is, and how to resolve it if needs to be different.

There are checks you need to make both in the employee's profile and in your time off settings.


Things to check on the employee's profile

Go to the relevant employee's profile, then on the profile menu click Time off. Here you can see their time off summary, time off details, and time off history,

What is the time off policy that you think shows an incorrect balance?

It is important to know what the time off policy in case you later need to check the settings of that time off policy.

Are there any duplicates of the incorrect time off policy?

It is possible that a time off policy has been duplicated, with the employee assigned to both, and time off taken split between them both.

Check time off history

It is worth checking the time off history to see whether it tallies up. It could be that some time off was never entered, or entered in by mistake.

Check for any cancelled or declined requests

It is possible that time off balance is wrong because time off that was assumed to be approved was actually cancelled or declined by the time off approver.

To check this, under Time off history filter from All statuses to either Declined or Cancelled.

Note down the employee's employment start date

Before you check your time off policy settings note down the employment start date for the employee. This could be relevant for certain settings that may or may not have been applied.

To see the employment start date:

  1. On the employee profile menu, click Employee.

  2. Under Employment start date is the relevant date.

    You may also want to note down the years, months and days shown next to it which is their length of service.


Things to check in Time Off settings

To get to time off settings:

  1. Click on your name on the top right, click Settings.

  2. On the Settings menu click Time off.

Check individual allowance for employee

It is possible that the employee's individual allowance for a time off policy is different to the default allowance for the time off policy.

  1. Click Time off on the settings menu.

  2. Click Individual allowances.

  3. Next to the relevant employee, and under the relevant time off policy, note down their allowance number.

  4. On the time off settings dropdown, click Policies.

  5. Click the Settings button for the relevant time off policy.

  6. Check how many hours is allocated for the policy. If the individual allowance is different, and it should not be, go back to the individual allowance and amend it.

Check weekends and public holidays in time off policy settings

If the time off policy is based on calendar settings, it is possible the time off balance is affected by weekends and/or public holidays being included as workdays.

  1. Click Time off on the settings menu.

  2. Click Policies, then click the Settings button on the relevant time off policy.

  3. Scroll down and click on General to expand the options.

  4. If Count weekends as workdays and Count public holidays as work days are incorrectly selected, then deselect them. If not selected when they should be, then select them.

    📎NOTE: Count weekends as workdays uses the weekend days (non-working days) you have selected for employees in Settings > Employee Data > Employment Statuses - Read more >

  5. Scroll down and click Save.

This changes the time off balance for all those assigned to this policy.

Check default working hours

If the time off policy is based on calendar settings, if the default working hours is set to the wrong number, this can be why a time off balance is wrong.

  1. Click Time off on the settings menu.

  2. Click Policies, then click the Settings button on the relevant time off policy.

  3. Scroll down and click on General to expand the options.

  4. Check the number next to default working hours, and amend if necessary.

  5. If you make a change, scroll down and click Save.

Check time off policy conditions

It is possible the time off balance is affected by the conditions set in the time off policy.

  1. Click Time off on the settings menu.

  2. Click Policies, then click the Settings button on the relevant time off policy.

  3. Scroll down and click on Conditions to expand the options.

  4. Check to see if you have Enable probation period correctly or incorrectly selected.

    If you do have it selected check to see what has been chosen as the probation period, and whether an employee can accrue leaving and/or request time off during probation.

  5. If any corrections are made, scroll down and click Save.

Check time off policy allowances

It is possible the time off balance is affected by the allowances set in the the time off policy.

  1. Click Time off on the settings menu.

  2. Click Policies, then click the Settings button on the relevant time off policy.

  3. Scroll down and click on Allowances to expand the options.

  4. Check whether the following notable options are rightly selected or not selected.

    • When employee is terminated, recalculate remaining days in the current period

    • Enable allowance based length on service.

      📎NOTE: Allowance based on length of service is accumulative. For example, if someone has worked for 8 years, and you you have it set that 5 years service gives an employee an additional 1 day, and that 7 years gives them an additional 1 day, they have in total an additional 2 days holiday a year.

    • Enable allowance based on number of children.

    • Look at what allowance is based on e.g. give allowance depending on their start date

  5. Any corrections made, scroll down and click Save.

Check working pattern

If the time off policy is based on a working pattern, check the employee's working pattern against the time off they have taken. This can explain why the time off balance is what it is, as the days and hours on the working pattern are what is used to deduct the time off allowance.

  1. On the settings menu click Employment statuses & Working patterns, then click Working patterns.

  2. Scroll down to Working patterns.

  3. Click the pencil icon to see the details of the relevant working pattern.

  4. Check the days selected and the hours entered.

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