How leave available is worked out
The payslip balance, less approved leave that hasn't been paid yet.
What this is for
The number that matters is the leave someone can still book, not the balance on their payslip. A payslip is as at the last pay run and doesn't know about leave already approved for next month, which is how leave gets double-booked. Sign OS takes the payroll balance and subtracts every approved day that hasn't been paid yet.
What is on this screen
Each part of the screen above, top to bottom, and what changing it affects.
How your leave adds up (on My leave and a person's Leave tab)
- On your last payslip (date)
- The payroll balance, as at the payslip date.
- Less … lines
- Each approved leave not yet paid through a pay run. Leave booked straight into Xero is marked (booked in Xero).
- Available to book
- What's left, in hours and roughly in days. This is the big number on the tile, in the request form and beside each request for the approver.
- Read from Xero …
- When balances come from Xero, when they were last read, or what Xero last said if it failed.
Before you start
- Your shop has the HR add-on, and its balances are set up under Settings → Team → HR & safety → Leave.
Step by step
- 1
Kept by hand: HR types each person's balance off their last payslip with the payslip date as the As at date. Every approved leave day after that date comes off on screen. Update the balances each time you get new payslips.
- 2
Xero Payroll (Australian shops): connect Xero with payroll access, match the leave types and match each person to their Xero employee. Sign OS reads Xero's balance and takes off leave that's approved but not paid yet.
- 3
Approved leave in Sign OS is sent to Xero as a leave application, so payroll pays it without anyone typing it twice. Leave typed straight into Xero is read back and counted too, and never counted twice.
- 4
Once a pay run pays the leave, Xero's balance drops and the leave stops being counted as not yet paid, so the number available doesn't move.
Tips & gotchas
- Sign OS doesn't work out leave people will earn between now and their leave. That's payroll's job.
- Xero is re-read when a leave screen opens, if it's been more than ten minutes, and every night.
- Staff only see their own number if your shop has See their own leave available switched on.
- QuickBooks' Australian payroll can't be read by other apps, so QuickBooks shops keep balances by hand.