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Create and manage an open-ended leave type and request

Updated

Available for the following plans: Employment Plus, Employment Unlimited
Available for the following user access levels: Employee, Manager, Admin

The HR platform allows employees to create open-ended leave requests, in which they will not specify a return date. This can be especially useful for parental, sick or bereavement leave.

To manage your employees' open-ended leave requests, follow the below instructions.

This article explains each step that both the employee and the employer will need to take to fully action an open-ended leave request.

Step 1

Step 1: Employer creates an open-ended leave type

Warning

The employer only actions this step. An employee cannot action this step.

  1. Log into your Employment Hero HR platform.
  2. Click the Settings menu.
  3. Click the Leave Settings submenu.
  4. Click the Add Leave Type button.
    click on add leave type
  5. Complete the following fields:
    • Leave Type Name 
    • Leave Balance Tracking:
      • Select Track balance accruals and leave taken if you want to add a policy to your leave type. A policy determining the balance and rules that should be assigned to the leave type if track balance accruals and leave taken is selected, the leave type in payroll automatically becomes an Entitlement Based Leave type.
      • Select Only track leave taken if you do not wish to track a balance against this leave type. If Only track leave taken is selected, the leave type in payroll automatically becomes a standard leave type.
    • Leave type setup:
      • Entitlement-based.
      • Per pay run.
      • Timesheet accrual.
    • Unit Type:
      • Select Days if your employees take their leave in days.
      • Select Hours if your employees take their leave in hours.
  6. On Require an end date on leave request submission, select No.
    create open ended leave type require end date select no
  7. Select whether to Show leave after confirmed date.
  8. Select whether a Leave reason is required.
  9. Click the Save button.
  10. To add a leave policy, complete the following fields:
    • Leave Policy Name
    • Accrual Starts
    • Amount Accrued 
  11. Add an additional tier if you award an additional balance to your employees based on length of service.
    • Carry-Over Amount - choose from None, Unlimited or up to X number of days
    • Carry-Over Date (Note: your holiday calendar year will default here) 
    • Pro-Rata for Part Time/Casual Employees (select this option if you want your part-time workers to receive a pro-rated amount of leave) 
    • Leave Balance for New Employees
      • Select Do not apply leave balance to employees on assignment if you want to manually assign balances to your new employees
      • Select Apply full balance amount on employee assignment if your employees should receive the full amount of leave assigned to this policy
      • Select Apply a pro rata amount on employee assignment if you want your employees to receive a pro-rated leave entitlement based on their start date in the current holiday calendar year (Note: the calculation is based on calendar days in a year) 
  12. Click the Save button.
    open ended leave and add a leave policy
  13. To assign the policy to certain employees, drag their name from the Available column to the Selected column.
    assign employees to leave policy by dragging and dropping or by clicking the rightward facing arrow

    Helpful Hint

    You can click the >> button to move all employees to the Selected column.

  14. Click the Save button.
    assign employees to leave policy then click save

Helpful Hint

Once saved in the Employment Hero platform, this new leave type will automatically sync to the payroll platform.

Step 2

Step 2: Employee creates an open-ended leave request

Warning

The employee only actions this step. An admin, manager or employer does not have to action this step.

  1. Log into the Employment Hero HR platform.
  2. Click on Time in the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on the Leave option.
  4. Click on the + Add New Leave Request  button.
    employee clicks on add new leave request button
  5. Fill in the following:
    • Add the Open-ended leave type from the dropdown menu.
    • Start date
    • Note (optional)
    • File uploads (optional)
      employee selects open ended leave type
  6. Click Submit.
    employee submits open ended leave type

Important

An open-ended leave request will not appear on the leave calendar nor on a rota at this stage.

Step 3

Step 3: Employer approves open-ended leave type

Warning

The employer only actions this step. An employee cannot action this step.

  1. Log into the Employment Hero HR platform.
  2. Click on Time in the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on the Leave Management option.
  4. On the open-ended leave request, click on Actions.
    Employer click on actions
  5. Click on Edit.
    employer click on edit leave request
  6. Click Approve or Decline.
    employer Click on approve or decline

Important

An open-ended leave request will not appear on the leave calendar nor on a rota at this stage.

Step 4

Step 4: Employer processes a pay run with an open-ended leave request

Warning

The employer only actions this step. An employee cannot action this step.

  1. Log into your payroll platform.
  2. Click on Pay Runs on the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on Create a new pay run.
  4. Click on the Leave Requests tab. 
  5. Find the employee with the open-ended leave request. Ensure that the end date of the leave is the last day of the pay run and the request says Open.
    payroll pay run leave requests says open
  6. On the entry by the employee with the open-ended leave request, click on Actions.
    in pay run click on actions
  7. Click on Apply.
  8. The open-ended leave request has now been applied to the pay run.
  9. Click on the Actions tab in the top left-hand side of the screen.
  10. Click Finalise Pay Run.
    in pay run click on actions
  11. Click Finalise in the pop-up box.
    click on finalise in the pop-up box

Important

If the open-ended leave request spans multiple months, you will need to apply the open-ended leave request to the pay run for each month.

Step 5

Step 5: Employee confirms an end date to their open-ended leave request

Warning

The employee only actions this step. An admin, manager or employer does not have to action this step.
Once the employee knows their end date, this is the process to enter the end date into their open-ended leave request.

  1. Log into Employment Hero.
  2. Click on Time in the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on the My Leave option.
  4. On your open-ended leave request, click on Actions.
    In my leave click on actions
  5. Click on Edit.
    in my leave requests click on edit
  6. Enter ‌your end date into the To field.
    enter in your end date to Open Ended leave into the to field
  7. Click on Save.
    enter in your end date to Open Ended leave into the to field then click save

Step 6

Step 6: Employer closes the open-ended leave request in a pay run

Warning

The employer only actions this step. An employee cannot action this step.

  1. Log into your payroll platform.
  2. Click on Pay Runs on the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on Create a new pay run.
  4. Click on the Leave Requests tab. 
  5. Find the employee with the open-ended leave request. Ensure that the end date of the leave is the last day of the pay run and the request has the end date that the employee has now added to Employment Hero.
    in pay run click on actions
  6. On the entry by the employee with the open-ended leave request, click on Actions.
    in pay run click on actions
  7. Click on Apply.
  8. The open-ended leave request has now been applied to the pay run.
  9. Click on the Actions tab in the top left-hand side of the screen.
  10. Click Finalise Pay Run.
    in pay run click on actions
  11. Click Finalise in the pop-up box.
    click on finalise in the pop-up box

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