Leave Year start date

Hi susanwarren, thanks for your detailed post. The leave year can start from any day in the month (in payroll settings, select leave categories > set 'leave year should start on' to 'the following date') - this is an overarching date that is applied to all pay categories and all employees. Can we check what your pay date is set to when running the December pay run? 

Hi Georgia, thank you for replying.

I wanted to use just one annual leave category for everyone, regardless of how they're paid, so the date for the Leave Category is 1/01/22, and I then change it in the individual's Leave Allowance Template - this is where I'm finding that the date can only be the 1st of the month (any month is fine, but only the 1st).

The pay date for the December pay run is 1st - 31st December. I have two schedules set up, one to pay on 31st December and one to pay on 31st January, both to cover 1st - 31st December (based on how people are paid).

I've been testing it as I want to be able to show people's annual leave balance for the year at the end of January's pay run - anyone paid for January in January is fine, those paid for December in January need their leave year to start on 1st December.

This is causing a problem for any leave they book in December - it's coming out of the new year's balance while any remaining balance from the old year is deleted, but we can get around that with a manual adjustment as we don't want to have leave carry forward automatically.

I just wanted to be able to set the leave year to start on 31st December as that should mean that any December leave comes out of the old year's balance.

If necessary we can have 2 leave categories - one for those who are paid in arrears and one for those who are paid in-month - I just need to know what the best way forward is as we have been so tangled with our leave structure for the past 2 years that we are testing it completely now before rebuilding the way we do it!

Hi there, @susanwarren.

I'll share a couple of details regarding the leave start date in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Yes, I agree with Georgia that the leave year can be started at any date of the month. 

However, any modifications we make to our leave category settings only apply to new hires. In this case, we must access the employee's leave allowances in their employee profile if you want to alter the leave settings for any of your current employees.

Furthermore, utilising leave allowance templates, we can:

• To make managing leave for employees easier, create pre-defined sets for leave accrual values.
• Apply predetermined leave accrual rates to both new and current employees.
• If accrual rates or procedures change, bulk updates the leave values for the affected employees.

For more information, check out this article: Add a new leave allowance template in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll. It also includes how to copy and delete a leave allowance template.

 If you need to adjust your employee's leave, visit this article for the detailed steps: Leave Adjustments in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll.

Alternatively, use this our year-end checklist to learn how to complete this year's payroll. This is to ensure that your year ends successfully: Year-end guide 2022/2023 for Advanced Payroll.

If you require further guidance with leave categories in QBO Advanced, tap me in the comment section. Have a great day.

Thanks Christine but I think you've misunderstood my issue.

I am very familiar with setting up Leave Allowance templates as we use them individually for every member of staff and have done so for over 2 years.

The issue I am having is that I cannot set their leave year to start on anything other than the 1st of a month. 

If I set the date as the 2nd, or later - then their allowance resets in the wrong month's payroll.

For example:

Leave year starts on 1st December: the pay run which includes 1st December resets the allowance.

Leave year starts on 2nd December: the pay run which includes 2nd December does not reset the allowance.

Leave year starts on 31st December: the pay run which includes 31st December does not reset the allowance.

Therefore - if I wanted to set someone's leave year to 31st December (so that it encompasses the full year), it will not be paid until the pay run which picks up 1st January - not the one which picks up 31st December.

I am not sure if this is deliberate, but it seems to be a fairly large flaw in the software, to suggest your leave year can start on any date, but it's fixed to the 1st of the month.

We have some staff who are paid for December at the end of January. If their leave year says 1st December, then the balance resets in the January pay run, but any leave booked for December comes out of the new year's allowance, and needs to be manually corrected to come out of the old balance.

If their leave year says 31st December, it doesn't actually change in the pay run until the end of February (when their January dates are paid) - which means people do not see their balance for the year until 2 months in to the year, which is not acceptable.

It may be possible to set the Leave Category start date to a different day - but most of our staff need the date to be the 1st January. We have around 25 staff who need a different date, so I will use the Leave Allowance Template for those individuals. However, I can only make the leave balance update in the correct pay run if the date is 1st December, not any other date in December. This causes their leave taken in December to be taken from the wrong year's allowance and need to be manually corrected.

Is this a deliberate feature or a bug? Surely I should be able to set their leave template to any date I choose, and it should update in the pay run where that date is paid, rather than the following pay run.

Hello Susanwarren, 

Welcome to the Community page,

So in QuickBooks payroll the leave templates only start from the beginning of the following month, you would have to do a leave adjustment for the month that it should have begun in. 

Hi Ashleigh

Please could you clarify what you mean?