Setting Up Employee Leave - Elevate Your HR Processes

Setting Up Employee Leave Overview

There are many types of employee leave however the main ones we have outlined here are Pro Rata Leave, Annual Leave, Carer/Personal Leave and Long Service Leave. SapphireOne includes leave tables for the following Leave types.

  • Carer \ Sick Leave
  • Annual Leave
  • Long Service Leave
  • Other Paid Leave (Continuous Service)
  • Unpaid Leave
  • Rostered Day Off
  • Other Paid Leave (Non-continuous Service)
  • Parental Paid Leave
  • Unpaid Parental Leave
  • Public Holiday
  • Toil
  • Bereavement Leave
  • Domestic Violence Leave
  • Alternative Leave
  • Defense Leave
  • Community Service Leave
  • Compassionate Leave
  • Family Leave
  • Firefighting Service Leave
  • Gardening Leave
  • Jury Duty Leave
  • Personal Leave
  • RSPCA Leave
  • State Emergency Service (SES) Leave
  • Study Leave

Pro Rata Leave

Pro Rata Leave is a method for calculating accrued leave between anniversary dates. 

To enable Pro Rata Leave it must be activated in the Master Defaults Screen in Controls menu by navigating to the Utilities > Controls > Master Defaults > Payroll/HR page.

If SapphireOne is running in Client Server mode the data file on the server will have to be quit and then re-started. 

After Pro-Rata leave is enabled the SapphireOne user may then set up the pro rata leave for the employees at Payroll/HR > Administration > Award Entitlements Inquiry. Once established, in an Employee Inquiry the Employees Leave, Accumulators and Award Entitlements screens will have updated to reflect this change within the pages in the inquiry. 

Annual Leave

Payroll/HR > Administration > Award Entitlements Inquiry > Annual Leave page.

Override Employees Leave Settings must be enabled to enter leave details at Payroll/HR > Administration > Award Entitlements Inquiry > Annual Leave page.

Settings to Note

  • Use Start Date – The employee’s Start Date is used as the anniversary for their Leave. 
  • Use Other Date – Some other date may be used as their anniversary for example 1st of January. The Year is ignored. A calendar pops allowing you to select the date. 
  • Use Financial End of Year – The last Year end done in payroll is used for the anniversary. 
  • Accumulate Leave to 
  • Next Anniversary – Leave is accumulated to the next Entitlement Date using the Date set above. 
  • Current Date – Leave is calculated as at today’s date regardless of when Last Paid. 
  • Paid to Date – Leave is calculated up to the Paid to Date as read from the employee. This date is updated each pay run from the end of pay dates used on the 2nd screen of the Pay Run. 
  • Reset Holiday Leave at End of Year – Leave is set to 0 each year. 
  • Accumulate Pro Rata from Anniversary – The leave calculated from the last anniversary as calculated by Accumulate Leave to is Pro Rata instead of current. 
  • No Pro Rata after x years – After x years from start date Pro rata is no longer calculated for this employee and all leave will be current instead. 
  • Pay Leave Loading in First Year – If leave is taken in the first year then leave loading will be calculated based on the leave, Regardless after the first year leave loading will be calculated as set by the employee settings. 
  • On Termination Pay Don’t Pay Leave Loading for Pro Rata – On termination pay using the Termination screen from working transactions Pro rata is not used for calculating Leave Loading. 

Carer/Personal Leave

Payroll/HR > Administration > Award Entitlements Inquiry > Carer/Personal Leave Page 

Settings to Note

In many ways the sick leave screen works similar to the Annual Leave screen, so only the differences will be documented to follow. 

  • Accumulate Leave to… Completed Months – The last month paid will be used to calculate the leave. 
  • Accumulate applies to 1st Anniversary only – The Accumulate Leave to settings, displayed on the left had side of the screen, will only be used until the first entitlement date is reached, after that the setting on the right hand side of the screen as to Accumulate Leave to then take over. 
  • Maximum Sick x Hours – You can limit the sick leave accumulated to a certain number of hours or days, alternatively you can limit the sick using Maximum Sick in Years. This will calculate based on the entitlement dates how much leave as been accumulated and limit it to the maximum number of hours or days on that basis. 

Employee’s Long Service Leave

Payroll/HR > Administration > Award Entitlements Inquiry > Long Service Leave Page 

Settings to Note

In many ways the Long Service Leave screen is similar to the Holiday Leave screen, only the differences will be documented. 

  • X Hours Extra Thereafter Per x Years – The leave can be applied in blocks of multiple years and if pro rata is enabled will be pro rata for that time. 
  • Accumulate Pro Rata from Anniversary after x years – This allows you to have no pro rata component until x years when all the leave accrued until that date is accrued as Pro Rata. 

In the example above the employees would have No Leave for the first 5 years of Service, A Pro Rata component of their leave based on 5 years service until 15 years and after that the Pro Rata leave will be accrued as Current leave and Pro rata will only relate to the current year. 

Employee’s Accumulators

Once the awards have been set up the employees will need to be reconciled. 

This can be reconciled by going to Payroll/HR > Administration > Employee Inquiry > Accumulators Page 

You can assign any value from 0 and the employees Start Date to the current Date and their leave as at today. It is recommended you start at some fixed point in time such as the Start of the entitlement year. 

Payroll will automatically assign a starting amount and date for Leave based on the employees History. Leave will then be calculated forward from this amount to the conditions as set by the award. 

Employee’s Leave

Finally the employee’s Leave can be seen by going to Payroll/HR > Administration > Employee Inquiry > Leave Page 

Screens will not update until either a new Pay Run has been started or System Date is one day later than Setup Date. 


You can review our Blog and YouTube channel for additional information and resources on SapphireOne ERP, CRM and Business Accounting software.

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