Can I stop someone booking more leave than they have?

Su WM · ‎September 19, 2024

Hi, we're using Online Advanced Payroll and have come up against a question which I can't find an answer to.

Is there a way to stop staff being able to book more leave than they have available (i.e. avoid a negative balance)? At the moment, we have a member of staff who has booked an amount of leave which puts him into a negative balance, which has been approved as their manager didn't check.

While we can set things so that he is unpaid for the extra days, or he can change his booking, it would be better if we can either prevent him from booking more than he is entitled to, or at least flag more clearly when an employee's leave balance drops below 0.

I have tried using the Leave Balances report but it shows any leave booked but not yet taken in the balance - which I understand, and I think is why my staff member booked extra leave, his balance shows as 10 but that is currently all booked, he then assumed it was available and booked more.

I can't see anything which prevents staff from booking more leave than they have available, it just flags up at the point of booking that they are requesting more leave than they have - and the Leave Balance report doesn't actually show leave which has been booked but not yet taken. Again, I understand that this is because it can be cancelled and used differently, but it does make it hard to track who has booked more leave than they are allowed.

I am hoping to either find a way to prevent leave being booked if it puts them into a negative balance, or to have it show up in a report that their balance is below zero (we probably need them to be able to book ahead e.g. for next year before their allowance is set, otherwise no-one can book leave in January). Please can someone help?

GeorgiaC · ‎September 19, 2024

Hi Su WM, thanks for posting on the Community today

Have you already enabled the setting to Prevent negative leave balance in your leave settings? This prevents a negative leave balance against the leave category when applying leave requests in the pay run. If left unticked, employees can take holiday when they have none available/accrued.

You can view your leave settings by going to the Payroll > Payroll Settings > Leave Categories > Click on the category to review and edit.

Su WM · ‎September 19, 2024

Hi GeorgiaC, thanks for your reply.

I've had a look at that setting and it only seems to convert extra holiday into unpaid leave during the pay run - does it actually stop an employee from booking extra leave?

If it does stop them from booking more than they have in their allowance, what effect will this have on booking for next year?

We don't want to stop people from booking leave in Jan / Feb but that of course gives them a negative balance at this point for 2025.

AnneMariee · ‎September 19, 2024

Thanks for coming back to this thread, Su WM.

You're correct. Ticking the Prevent negative balances option doesn't prevent employees from booking leaves. Instead, it automatically applies the excess to a different leave category.

I can see how the option to stop employees from booking more leaves than their balances can benefit your business. However, this option is currently unavailable in QuickBooks Online Payroll. Thus, you can continue utilizing the Leave Balance report to obtain valuable information about your employees and their leaves moving forward.

Refer to these helpful resources for more details:

For future use. here's a guide all about using reports in QuickBooks: Run payroll reports.

I'm just one post away if you have other concerns, Su WM. Feel free to drop them in the comment section below.

Su WM · ‎September 20, 2024

Thanks AnneMariee.

We will continue using the Leave Balances report and checking what staff have booked, each month immediately after the pay run has been done. This should allow us to keep on top of any staff who have booked more than they are entitled to.

It is a shame that there isn't a report for leave which has been booked but not yet taken (e.g. my leave balance shows as 6, but I have 4 days booked currently, which means I can only book 2 more) - we have to pull every booking out manually to compare to the leave balance report - and will need to do this for every staff member after every pay run.

GeorgiaC · ‎September 20, 2024

Hi Su WM, thanks for your reply. We agree it would be useful to include an option on the report to factor for leave not yet taken. So that this can be considered by our Product Developers, please see the Feedback function in QuickBooks (located under the settings wheel). Thanks again.

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Can I stop someone booking more leave than they have?