Leave Requests

Leave Management

How do we manage if variable hours are worked?

You would put the hours in that leave request that you rostered this person on (if already rostered) or what you would usually roster this person on.

If an employee requests leave and it comes up as a day, do I have to enter the times in to get the right hours or does the system do it for me?

The system will try to select hours for you based on their select award, however, you should double-check these when approving the leave and adjust the time if necessary.

If an employee submits a leave request as a "Non-Working Day" - can you change it to Annual Leave without declining and resubmitting?

The field that the employee submits is just a recommendation for the manager. When the leave request is being approved, the manager can select any leave type they wish on the actual days, which is what will generate the appropriate leave timesheets.

I have an employee who works different start/finish times on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. How do I add a leave request for her so that the different hours are captured for each day? At the moment when I add multiple days it defaults to a standard 7.6 hours for each day.

You can adjust the start and end times of each of the leave days in a leave request. If they have a day of leave that isn't 7.6 hours, you can change the times and it will adjust the leave length.

If an employee works Tuesday and Friday and then takes 2 weeks off. Do they have to click on each day or can they just mark the 2 weeks off?

They can just mark the 2 weeks off and put all the days in between as "Non-working Days" and then Tuesdays and Fridays as leave.

If you are pre-approving leave for the future why is there not a meal break section?

Leave requests are put in and exported without the meal breaks in it.

If the schedule is already built and published but the employee subsequently requests leave which is approved - does this open up the scheduled shifts for that employee so that we're notified to schedule someone else into that open shift?

If the shifts are already created and published Deputy will give you the option to either open the shift up, find a replacement, leave the shift empty or delete it.

How do I enable/disable employees to change or cancel leave once it has already been approved?

Employees can change or cancel approved leave only if managers allow it.

From the right-hand side drop-down menu, select Business Settings

Click on the Leave tab and Toggle ON the Allow Employees to amend or cancel their approved leave request. Then click Apply Changes. Click on the Leave tab and Toggle ON the Allow

Viewing Leave

Who can see the Leave Management dashboard?

Only a Location Manager or System Administrator will be able to see the Leave Management dashboard.

Can you make annual leave visible to staff and sick leave not visible?

Yes, you can make individual leave types visible for employees and others not visible. You can turn that setting off within the leave type settings.

How do you show leave in the schedule?

You can switch to any of the "Employee views" in the schedule and it will show you all leave & unavailabilities in the schedule.

Leave Types

Can I create my own leave types?

Yes, custom leave types can be created in the Business Settings and activated in the notifications and integrations tab.

Why is a leave type that is entitled to an employee not showing for them when they try to request leave?

Please read setting up leave entitlements in Leave Management. You need to toggle that leave type to "Visible to Employees" in the Leave Settings. Sliding this to be ON will enable two things:

If it is an entitlement that the employee is assigned, the leave type will now appear for them to select when they apply for leave
If it is an entitlement that the employee is assigned, and leave balances overall are toggled to be visible in Business Settings, the employee's leave balance for this leave type will now appear for them in their smartphone app

How do I delete a leave type from my business?

You will need to make sure none of your staff has it as an entitlement in their profiles

To check this, you can go to your Leave Management Dashboard and filter for the leave type you are checking and filter for who is entitled to it.

You will need to remove the entitlement from each of these individuals' profiles

In the Leave Settings you can use the Red Cross to delete the leave type

Open the Leave Settings (either via the Business Settings or the blue button in the Leave Management dashboard).

The Red Cross will appear if there is no one who has that leave entitlement assigned to them.

Click this button to remove the leave entitlement.

I seem to have 3 "Annual Leave (Vacation)" leave types showing when I got to the leave request. Any ideas how this could've happened?

This can happen if the export code from the “original” annual leave was changed in the past and then it duplicated the annual leave when exporting to the payroll software.

Can you change the leave default name eg. Annual Leave (Vacation) to just Annual Leave?

Yes, you can change the name. Just be aware to only change the export code of this leave type if you're NOT using Xero or MYOB as your payroll software. If you use one of these two, please don't change the export code.

Can Deputy accrue Long Service Leave?

We can accrue leave within Deputy but there are limitations and this needs to be done individually in your account. Please reach out to our 24/7 support chat for further assistance.

Leave type

Click Add type to add more leaves as needed.

You can set vacation rules based on 2 types of leaves (unlimited and limited leave).

1.Unlimited leave

Unlimited leave means that there's no limit on the leave length, such as personal leave, compensatory leave, etc.

You only need to fill in basic info to set an unlimited leave, including name, scope, restriction on new employees' leave, minimum leave unit, and calculation method of leave duration.
Name: You can enter any name but it can't be the same as existing names.
Scope: Select the department or users to whom the leave applies. If the employee is out of scope, the employee can't see this leave type.
Vacation restriction on new employees: You can set that new employees aren't allowed to request the leave when their employment duration is less than a certain period. For example, some employees in probationary period can't use annual leave.
Minimum leave unit: You can select a day, half-day, hour, or minute as the minimum leave unit. The statistics report will use this unit as well.

Leave duration calculation: You can select a working day, calendar day, or customize it. The working days will exclude weekends and public holidays by default (if the Attendance app is used, scheduled dates set by attendance rules shall prevail).

Finally, select Unlimited and Save settings.

2.Limited leave

Limited leave means that there's a limit on the leave length and employees can't exceed the limit when using it, such as annual leave, marriage leave, etc.

In addition to basic info, you need to set issuing method, issuing date, issuing rules, etc. for limited leaves. There are 4 types of issuing methods:

Method 1 - Annually

The system automatically issues the leave, such as annual or home leave, at a fixed time each year.

Issuing date: You can set the leave to be issued based on a calendar year (for example, issuing on January 1st of each year). Or, you can set the leave to be issued according to each employee's date of employment. You can also select whether to calculate the balance day by day according to actual working hours.
Issuing rules: You can issue the leave based on each employee's seniority or working years. You can also issue the leave at a fixed quota (for example, 12 days per year).

Note: The employees' seniority/working years can be set on Leave Management - Leave Balance page in Approval Admin.

Valid period: It can be set to become invalid according to the issuing date (become invalid after a period from the issuing date, and remain valid for a period beyond the valid period), or be valid for a long time.

Method 2 - Monthly

The system automatically issues the leave at a fixed time each month, such as paid sick leave, monthly prenatal check-up leave, etc.

Issuing date and rules: You can set to issue the fixed quota leave on a certain day of each month.
Valid period: It can be set to become invalid according to the issuing date (become invalid after a period from the issuing date, and remain valid for a period beyond the valid period), or be valid for a long time.

Method 3 - Import balance

The system issues the leave according to the leave balance imported on the Leave Balance page.

Valid period: It can be set to become invalid on a fixed date of each year (remain valid for a period beyond the valid period), or be valid for a long time.

Method 4 - Overtime duration are automatically converted to leave balance

This leave is mainly used for the automatic conversion of overtime hours, such as compensatory leave. If the overtime rules set by the administrator allows the overtime hours to be counted as leave duration, overtime duration will be converted to leave balance after employees worked overtime.

Valid period: It can be set to become invalid according to the issuing date or a fixed date (remain valid for a period beyond the valid period), or be valid for a long time.
Finally, select Unlimited and click Save to complete settings.

Leave Balance

Does the system reduce accrued or total leave balances once a paid leave is taken?

Yes, it does.

What is the difference between leave balance and leave remaining?

Leave balance is the total balance of leave that is left after leave has been taken. This would be the amount that is owed to the employee should they decide to end their employment tomorrow.

Leave remaining is the indicative balance of leave that is left allowing for leave that has been taken as well as future leave that has been requested and approved, but is yet to have been taken.

Can my employees view their leave balances?

Employees are able to see their approved leave requests, and their leave balance.

Note: that their leave balance is only updated once a leave timesheet has been submitted (i.e. not the same as leave remaining in the report).

Leave Accrual

Can we set standard hours per day for employees?

You can now edit the standard hours per day for your employees on a Premium account.

Can I keep track of leave in hours?

Yes, you can track employee leave in hours or days. Please read How to Change from Tracking Leave in Hours to Days

What is the leave accrual rate?

The Leave Accrual Rate controls the speed with which leave accrues, for each hour of work approved on a timesheet for the employee. As an example, if your rate is set to 0.1, the employee will need to have 10 hours approved to accrue 1 hour of leave (if the leave type is in hours).

Can I set up my leave to accrue per hour?

Yes, leave types can be set up to accrue and deduct, or just deduct.

How many leave accrual extensions can I create?

You can activate a leave accrual extension for each leave type you create.

How and when does the accrual extension update leave balances?

Once you've activated accrual extensions for each leave type that requires accrual and/or deduction of leave balances, employee leave balances will update with any new approvals of leave timesheets (to deduct leave balances) and work timesheets (to add accrued leave to leave balances).

Extensions will run to update leave balances once overnight, every night. You can also manually trigger the leave balances to be updated. You can do this with the "Run" button in the extension, to update balances for work/ leave timesheets that were approved in the last hour, week, 2 weeks or a month.

Can I keep track of leave in days?

Yes, you can track employee leave in hours or days. Please read How to Change from Tracking Leave in Hours to Days

Can my employees request leave in hours and days?

Employees can request leave in days or hours. A day of leave will allow for the default standard hours per day in premium. Hours will allow the employee to custom select how many hours they are taking in a 24 hour period.

Will leave balances on mobile update after a leave request is approved?

Yes. Leave balances on mobile will reflect leave allocations minus any leave that's already been taken as well as approved leave requests in future.

Why don't leave balances show for my staff on their smartphone apps?

In Leave Settings you can use the toggle to switch it on. This will allow the leave balances module to be visible to employees in their smartphone apps. Note you will need to then enable individual leave types to either be visible or not visible to employees - you can do this by editing individual leave types in the Leave Settings.

Can I export a Leave Management report?

At the moment, the Leave Management report is currently not able to be exported.

Can I set up a leave type to reset at the end of a year?

Yes, you can do this in Leave Settings, click Reset on Schedule dropdown, and select how you'd like it to reset.

I have an active system integration - how will Deputy’s Leave Management feature work for my business?

Leave Management with Deputy provides a great way to track and manage all of your team’s leave in the same, central dashboard.

With an active system integration, we strongly recommend that you don’t enable the leave balance sync (Import Leave Balance > Sync Leave Balance in the Notifications and Integrations tab), as this will affect the accuracy of balances that appear for your employees in their Deputy accounts.

You will still be able to export leave timesheets, and regular timesheets to Deputy as usual, and the leave balances will be updated in system as well as Deputy.

How can I find out the accrual rate I need to set for my employees’ leave entitlements?

Please refer to the HMRC website for the correct rate that you need to set for your leave type.

Why aren't the leave entitlements I have allocated appearing for my employee?

When you're setting up leave for your business, make sure you have set up pay rates for each employee (including a pay rate amount if they are not a salaried worker) for any leave entitlements to be enabled for the employee.

To allow the leave type to be visible to the employee, make sure you have set the leave type to be "Visible" in the Leave Settings.

Currently, when employees are applying for leave, they should be able to see all leave types that are set as "Visible" in the Leave Settings (can access this via the Leave Management dashboard or via Global Settings). Note that this currently doesn't filter out for leave types that the employee is not entitled to.

Currently, when employees are viewing leave balance on mobile (will only be visible if enabled in Business settings > Leave tab), they will be able to see leave balances for leave types that they are entitled to if those leave types are marked as "Visible" to employees in the Leave Settings, and if there is a balance entered for those leave types.

How can I provide feedback?

If there are any features that you think may make Deputy better for you, click the ‘Give us feedback’ link. This will redirect you to a form where you can enter your suggestions or feedback. These are forwarded directly to the relevant Deputy team who can explore your suggestions further.

Public Holidays

Does Deputy pick up public holidays?

Not automatically due to all the different countries that we operate in. You can add public holidays manually in the schedule. We’ll show that later in the Q&A section. Otherwise, you can also find help here for Public Holiday

How does the AL accrue if an employee is working a public holiday?

If you are using Deputy's leave accrual feature, it will accrue leave based on hours worked and does not differ based on the type of day worked.

How do you manage public holidays for full timers? They get paid but do not have a shift in the schedule.

You can create a specific area (or location if you prefer) and call it something like "Public Holiday not worked" and then put all your public holidays into the schedule and then reach out to our 24/7 support chat and they can turn off the public holiday rates in that specific area or location.

If you choose Public Holiday for a particular day and someone doesn't work it because the office is closed, but needs to be paid at their normal hourly rate, not the P/H hourly rate. Can Deputy accommodate this? I'm concerned if I choose P/H for a certain day for all office employees that they will end up being paid a higher rate for that day when they are not entitled to it.

Could you also do public holiday not worked as a leave type?

Yes, you could set up a leave type for public holiday not worked and then attach it as a leave entitlement to the relevant employees and then don't put the public holiday into the schedule but if you're having employees who are working on a public holiday and get public holiday rates it wouldn't work so this is only an option if your entire staff is NOT working on public holidays.

What if a full timer works a public holiday but they get paid the normal rate but they earn a TOIL?

You have to create a specific location and call it something like "Public Holiday not worked" and then put all your public holidays into the schedule and then reach out to our 24/7 support chat and they can turn off the public holiday rates in that specific location. After that you can turn the location setting (in Notifications & Integrations) that accrues TOIL in that specific location.

Leave Timesheets & Export

Does the system add accrued leave to each pay run?

Deputy doesn't add accrued leave to each pay run. You can accrue leave through the location settings (Notifications & Integrations) but otherwise we only send leave timesheets into your payroll software where the leave accrual happens. For assistance in your specific account please reach out to our 24/7 support chat.

I'm still to put leave hours into Deputy. Do you recommend to wait for a completed pay run and then put in the leave entitlements?

You don't have to wait, but we would recommend it if you have leave timesheets in the current pay run as your syncing over the correct balances after the pay run is completed.

When an employee went home early - it looked like it still paid them 3 hours work as they were required to have a minimum working time on a Sat - that is not how it should work if that occurred, right?

This was an example in our test account where the employees are set up with the GRIA award where you have to pay a minimum shift engagement of 3 hours. Depending on if you're using an award from our library and which award you're using - this could be different in your account. Please reach out to our 24/7 support chat for further assistance.

Does any retrospective leave have to be entered in the timesheet section?

Yes, any retrospective leave has to be put in through the timesheet section.

Often when I am approving timesheets, approved leave days do not display - what can i do to get them to do this?

When you are approving a leave request, it's important to ensure that the days that will be paid leave are selected. Approving just the date range won't be enough to generate Timesheets. If you see there are no leave timesheets, find the Employee's leave request, unapprove it, add the days that you want to pay leave for and then re approve the request. If the days are in the past, the leave request will automatically create the leave timesheets for you. Days in the future will generate leave timesheets on the day it occurs.

We have a problem with our export file when we have leave timesheets entered for the same day using two methods of creating the leave timesheet. That is a leave request is entered for part of the day and then a timesheet is created with a leave type for the remainder of the day. Only one timesheet will show on the export file.

We recommend that all leave is put through a leave request in order for Deputy to appropriately create the leave timesheets for you.

How is leave calculated for Part Timers? Where do I place their Ordinary Time so that Leave and OT is calculated correctly?

This is hard to answer without looking into your individual account and seeing if you accrue leave in Deputy, if you use our awards, which payroll software you're exporting to etc. Please reach out to our 24/7 support chat for further assistance.

System

Could you please advise if leave balances are accurate in Deputy when integrating with system?

The leave balances sync once every 24 hrs if the “leave sync” between your locations & system is turned on. Within that setting (which you can find in the location settings) you can run the sync manually as well. We’ll provide more resources about that in the email afterwards.

Is there a way to sync the leave balances with system as ours haven't been syncing for 6 weeks or more?

When does the approved leave export into system?

It gets exported into Xero as a leave timesheet when you export the all the timesheets in the pay run.

Once the approved leave is exported to system, does it automatically reduce the hours in system too?

Yes, it does.

Can all employees approve leave?

No, only access levels with management functionality can approve leave like Supervisors, Location Managers & System Administrators.