Leave Group

A leave group is one class of employee's whole leave policy in one record. It lists the leave types they get, the quota of each, how it accrues, whether the balance carries forward, and whether it can be turned into money.

Where

Time Management › Setup › Leave Group

Who uses it

The implementation consultant, once per class of employee

When

After the leave types, before any entitlement is allocated

Needs first

Leave Type

What it is for

One group per class of employee whose leave policy is the same. A five hundred person manufacturing company usually needs three: management, staff and workers. Not one per department, and not one per person.

The Leave Type screen said what annual leave is. This screen says what this class of employee gets: twenty days, accruing monthly, weekends inside it not counted, ten days carrying forward, five of those encashable. Change the group and every employee whose Employee Policy Profile names it follows.

The screen has three parts and they do different jobs.

Leave Policy is the handful of choices that apply to the whole group, including when the leave year starts.

Absent Order is a short ordered list, and it is the most overlooked part of the screen. When Payroll Attendance works out that a man owes three days of deduction, it first tries to take those days out of his leave balance instead of his pay. This list is the order it goes through: casual first, then sick, then annual, or whatever order the client wants. Leave it empty and nothing is absorbed, so every deduction goes straight to pay.

Details is one line per leave type, and it is where everything numeric lives.

Every field, in plain words

Header

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Leave Group	The short code for this class of employee.	WORKER	Required. Two groups cannot share a code.
Name	What the group is called.	Factory workers	Required. It can be translated for a second language.
Block	Tick to stop the group being named on new employees.	Leave it unticked
Notes	A note on the whole group.	Per CBA 2025, factory staff only

Leave Policy

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Convert Absent To Leave	Tick to let an absent day be charged to a leave balance instead of to pay, in the order on the Absent Order tab.	Ticked	With it unticked, an absence always costs pay.
Leave Without Pay Type	Which leave type an absence becomes when there is no balance left to charge it to.	LWP	Pick from the list of leave types. Use the type whose Leave Category is Leave Without Pay and whose Paid Leave is unticked.
Comp Off Leave Type	Which leave type a comp off credit lands in for this group.	CPL	Pick from the list. It must be a type with Comp Off Leave ticked.
Leave Year Basis	What the group's leave year is counted on.	CAL	The three values are below.
Leave Year Start Month	The month the leave year starts in, when the basis needs one.	7 for a July to June year	Used with the fiscal basis. Leave it blank for a January start.

The Leave Year Basis values:

• CAL Calendar Year - the leave year runs January to December. The ordinary choice.
• FIS Fiscal Year - the leave year starts in the month named in Leave Year Start Month, so a Pakistani client on a July to June financial year puts 7 there.
• JOI Joining Date - the label promises each man his own leave year running from his joining anniversary, and it does not deliver it. Only the fiscal basis moves the leave year start. A group set to Joining Date begins its year on 1 January, exactly as the calendar basis does. Do not promise anniversary based leave years. If what the client wants is a July start for everybody, use FIS.

Absent Order

An ordered list. The first line is tried first.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line #	The line number, and the order.	Fills itself in the order you add the lines.	Add them in the order the client wants them consumed.
Leave Type	Which balance to take a deduction out of at this position.	CAS on line 1, ANN on line 2	Pick from the list.

Details

One line per leave type this group gets. Leave a type off the grid and this class of employee does not get it at all.

The quota and how it accrues

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line #	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Leave Type	Which leave this line is about.	ANN	Required in practice. Pick from the list.
Quota	How many days of it this group gets.	14	For a yearly method this is the year's figure. For a monthly method it is the figure per month.
Accrual Method	How the quota is handed out.	Y	The three values are below.
Accrual Assign On	Whether a month's accrual lands on the first or the last day of the month.	Start	Start credits it on the 1st, which is what a client who lets people take leave they have not quite earned wants. End credits it on the last day, which is stricter.
Allocate On	Whether entitlement starts at joining or at confirmation.	Joining for casual, Confirmation for annual	Joining starts the day he joins. Confirmation waits for his confirmation date, which is what most clients do with annual leave.
On Confirmation	Tick where the entitlement is tied to confirmation.	Use Allocate On in preference
Prorate	Tick so a man who joins part way through the leave year gets a share of the quota rather than all of it.	Ticked	A man joining in July on a 14 day January to December quota gets 7 days, not 14. Untick it only where the client genuinely gives the full quota whatever the joining date.
Quota Balance Limit	The most balance of this type a man may hold at once.	30	Leave it blank for no ceiling.
Leave Backdate Limit (Days)	How many days in the past an application for this type may be dated.	7	An application dated further back than this is refused. Leave it blank for no limit.

The Accrual Method values:

• Y Yearly - the whole quota is credited in one go, valid for one leave year. A mid year joiner gets a share of it in proportion to the months left.
• YM Yearly (Monthly Instalments) - the same yearly figure, handed out in whole number monthly slices that add up exactly to the year's quota. A quota of 26 goes out as 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2. All twelve slices lapse together at the end of the leave year. Use it where a client wants the balance to build through the year but still wants one year end.
• M Monthly - the quota is per month and each month's grant lapses a month later. Use it for a type the client does not want accumulating, for example a casual leave of one day a month.

A man who joins part way through a month starts accruing from the month after. Re-running an allocation on the same day cannot entitle him twice.

What counts as a leave day

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Include Holidays	Tick so a public holiday falling inside a leave is charged to the balance.	Unticked	Unticked is the normal setting. A man on leave from Thursday to Monday over a public holiday is charged for the working days only.
Include Weekends	Tick so a weekly rest day falling inside a leave is charged to the balance.	Unticked	Unticked is the normal setting, and it is also the more generous one.
Sandwich Rule	Tick so a weekend or holiday with leave or absence on both sides of it is charged too.	Ticked on the worker group where the client insists	This is the rule that stops a man taking Friday and Monday and getting the weekend free. Clients feel strongly about it in both directions, so ask rather than assume.

Going negative

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Validate Negative	Tick to refuse an application that would take the balance below what is allowed.	Ticked
Negative Balance Limit	How far below zero this type may be drawn.	2	With 2 here, a man with no balance may still take two days and go to minus two. A third application is refused. Leave it blank or zero to refuse anything beyond the balance.

Carry forward

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Carry forward	Tick so an unused balance survives the year end instead of lapsing.	Ticked on annual, unticked on casual and sick	This one flag is what most arguments about leave come down to.
Carry Forward On	Whether what carries is a number of days or a percentage of the balance.	Unit	Unit carries the number of days in Carry Forward Value. Percentage carries the percentage in Carry Forward %.
Carry Forward Value	The number of days that carry, when carrying on units.	10
Carry Forward %	The percentage of the unused balance that carries, when carrying on percentage.	50
Carry Forward Max Limit	A ceiling on what may carry however it was worked out.	10	Set it even when carrying on units, as a safety net.
Carry Forward Expires In	Whether the carried days expire after a number of months or on a day.	Months	Months counts from the start of the new leave year. Day is a fixed day.
Carry Forward Expires Value	How many months, or which day.	6	Carried days that are not used by then lapse. Leave it blank so carried days live as long as the new year does.

Encashment

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Encashable	Tick so a balance of this type may be turned into money.	Ticked on annual only	A type that is not ticked cannot appear on a Leave Encashment.
Encashment Max Days	The most days of this type one man may encash in a leave year.	10	Counted across every encashment in the year, so a man who encashed 6 in March may encash 4 more in December and no more. Leave it blank for no yearly cap.
Balance To Keep	How much balance must be left behind after encashing.	5	A man with 12 days and 5 here may encash 7. It is waived on a final settlement, because there is no later year to keep a balance for.
Encashment Rate Basis	Which salary figure one day's money is worked out from.	BAS	BAS Basic Salary uses his basic pay only. GRS Gross Salary uses his basic plus his allowances. Basic is the common choice and the cheaper one.
Encashment Divisor	How many days that salary figure is divided by to get one day's money.	26	Required for encashment to work at all. The usual Pakistani choices are 30, 26 and 22, and the difference between them is real money. See the maths for the worked comparison.

Applying for it

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Days Apply Limit	A limit on how many days may be applied for at a time.	10
Max Consecutive Days	The most days of this type that may be taken in one unbroken run.	10	An application longer than this is refused. Use it where a client wants annual leave taken in blocks rather than a month at a time.
Days Apply Before	How far in advance an application should be made.	7
Minimum Notice (Days)	The notice the application must give. An application made with less notice is refused.	7 on annual, blank on casual and sick	This is the hard version of Days Apply Before. Never put notice on sick leave.
Days Apply Interval	The gap required between two applications of this type.	30	Leave it blank for no gap.

How to configure it

1. Build every Leave Type first.
2. Decide how many groups the client actually needs. Usually three, by class of employee, not by department.
3. Open the screen, type a Leave Group code and Name, for example WORKER and Factory workers.
4. On the Leave Policy tab tick Convert Absent To Leave, name the Leave Without Pay Type and the Comp Off Leave Type, and set Leave Year Basis. For a July to June client pick FIS and put 7 in Leave Year Start Month.
5. On the Absent Order tab list the types a deduction should eat into, in order. Casual first, then annual. Leave sick off it if the client does not want sickness absorbing lateness.
6. On the Details tab add one line per leave type this group gets.
7. For annual leave, Quota 14, Accrual Method Y, Allocate On Confirmation, Prorate ticked, Include Holidays and Include Weekends unticked, Carry forward ticked with Carry Forward On Unit and Carry Forward Value 10, Encashable ticked with Encashment Max Days 10, Balance To Keep 5, Encashment Rate Basis BAS and Encashment Divisor 26, Minimum Notice 7.
8. For casual leave, Quota 10, Accrual Method Y, Allocate On Joining, Carry forward unticked, Encashable unticked, Max Consecutive Days 3.
9. For sick leave, Quota 8, Carry forward unticked, Encashable unticked, no Minimum Notice.
10. For leave without pay, add the line with no quota so the type is available to the group.
11. Save, then name the group on each employee's Employee Policy Profile, then allocate the entitlement with Leave Allocation Run.

Scenarios

"Staff get twenty days annual leave, workers get fourteen"

Two groups, one leave type. Build STAFF with the annual line at Quota 20 and WORKER with the same line at 14. The Leave Type screen is untouched.

"Our factory is on a six day week and the office on five"

The working week itself is the Calendar, not this screen. What this screen decides is whether the one rest day a factory worker gets is charged to his balance when it falls inside a leave. Leave Include Weekends unticked on both groups and it is not.

Where the two do differ is the sandwich rule. A factory with one rest day a week loses less to a Friday and Monday leave than an office with two, so clients commonly turn the sandwich rule on for the office group and leave it off the factory group.

"A man takes Friday off and Monday off and gets a four day weekend"

Tick Sandwich Rule on that leave type's line. The weekend between two leave days is then charged to his balance as well. Be sure the client wants it, and be sure they know it also applies to an absence on both sides, which is the harsher half of the same rule.

"Unused annual leave should carry over but only ten days and only until June"

Carry forward ticked. Carry Forward On Unit, Carry Forward Value 10, Carry Forward Max Limit 10, Carry Forward Expires In Months, Carry Forward Expires Value 6. Anything above ten lapses at the year end, and the ten that carried lapse at the end of June if they are not used.

"Three lates cost a day, but take it from his leave not his pay"

That is the Absent Order tab. Tick Convert Absent To Leave and list the types, casual first. Payroll Attendance then takes the deduction day out of his casual balance, and only what the balance cannot cover reaches his pay.

What it is connected to

• Leave Type supplies the types this group lists.
• The Employee Policy Profile is what joins an employee to a group. A man with no group has no leave at all.
• Leave Allocation Run reads the quota, accrual, carry forward and expiry rules on every line, and so does the nightly job that does the same work unattended.
• Employee Request Leave and Employee Leaves check the balance, the negative limit, the notice and the consecutive day cap from here.
• Leave Encashment reads Encashable, Encashment Max Days, Balance To Keep, Encashment Rate Basis and Encashment Divisor.
• Payroll Attendance reads the Absent Order to decide which balance absorbs a deduction first.
• Changing a quota changes nothing already allocated. Allocation has to be run again for the change to reach anybody.

If something looks wrong

• "Nobody in this group has any balance" - the allocation has not been run, or nobody's Employee Policy Profile names this group, or Allocate On is set to Confirmation and nobody is confirmed yet.
• "I changed the quota and the balances did not change" - a quota change only reaches people the next time allocation runs.
• "It says the leave group has no encashment divisor" - the Encashment Divisor on that leave type's line is empty or zero, so a day rate cannot be worked out. Put 26 or 30 in it.
• "He may encash less than I expected" - Balance To Keep is holding days back, or Encashment Max Days has already been part used this year.
• "An absence went straight to his pay although he had leave balance" - the Absent Order tab is empty, or Convert Absent To Leave is unticked, or the type with the balance is not on the order list.
• "The leave year still starts in January" - Leave Year Basis is Calendar, or it is Joining Date. Use Fiscal with a Leave Year Start Month to move it.
• "Nothing carried forward at the year end" - Carry forward is unticked on that line, or Carry Forward Value and Carry Forward % are both empty.