Leave types

A leave type is a named category of leave, such as Casual Leave or Leave Without Pay, and its Type decides whether approved leave of that category costs the employee pay. You set up leave types once. Each leave request then names one, and when a payroll run is calculated, approved leave of an unpaid type that overlaps the payroll period becomes loss-of-pay days.

Overview

A leave type has three boxes: a name, an Entitlement Type and a Type. Two parts of xMatix read leave types:

The leave type's name also labels the bars on the Leave Requests by Type tile of the Attendance & Leave dashboard, and on the My Leave by Type and My Requests by Leave Type tiles of the My Attendance & Leave dashboard.

Nothing else depends on the leave type. xMatix keeps no leave balances, so a leave type has no allowance, accrual or carry-forward of its own.

When to use it

Set up leave types before you record leave requests, and before the first payroll run that should deduct unpaid leave. Add a new type when your leave policy adds a category. Check the Type of every category whenever payroll deducts too much or too little for leave.

How xMatix handles it

When you click Calculate on a payroll run, xMatix works out each employee's attendance:

1. It finds the employee's leave requests whose status is Approved and whose dates overlap the period's Start Date to End Date.
2. For each request, it looks at the request's leave type. The leave counts as unpaid when the type's Type or Entitlement Type contains one of these words: unpaid, LWP, LOP, loss of pay or leave without pay. The check ignores capitals and spaces, and it matches anywhere in the text.
3. Each unpaid request adds the days that fall inside the period. A half-day request counts as half a day.
4. Loss-of-pay days never exceed the period's total days. Payable days are total days minus loss-of-pay days.

Three things follow from this check:

• The leave type's name is not checked. A type named "Leave Without Pay" whose Type is Paid never reduces pay. Set Type to Unpaid.
• A word that merely contains a marker counts. "lop" is inside "Development" and "Envelope". A Type or Entitlement Type value containing such a word makes every approved request of that type unpaid.
• A request with no leave type is always paid. So is a request whose type has both boxes blank.

The leave type is read each time a run is calculated. If you change a type's Type, recalculate any unposted run for the affected months. A posted run keeps the figures it posted.

Prerequisites

• The Leave Type list must be reachable. No shipped app lists it, so either find it through the App Launcher search or have an administrator add it to an app (see Configuration).
• Your security profile needs access to the Leave Type entity. The shipped profiles give full access.
• For leave to reach payroll, leave requests must be recorded with a Status of Approved. The shipped leave-request form has only Resource, Leave Type, From Date and To Date. It has no Name, Status or half-day (Days) box, so an administrator adds those to the leave request form before requests can be recorded and approved on screen (see Configuration).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the leave type list

Open the App Launcher (the grid icon next to the xMatix logo) and type Leave Type in the search box. Select Leave Type under All Entities. The All Leave Types list opens. If your administrator has added Leave Type to an app, open it from that app's navigation instead.

Step 2 — Create a leave type

1. Click New in the list header.
2. In Leave Type Name, enter the name your employees know the category by, for example Casual Leave. This box is required.
3. In Entitlement Type, choose Fixed, Grant or Based on entitlement if you want to record how the allowance is granted. This is a label only: no allowance is calculated from it.
4. In Type, choose Paid or Unpaid. Choose Unpaid for every category that should reduce pay.
5. Save. The leave type is created and appears in the list, ready to be chosen on leave requests.

Step 3 — Change a leave type

The leave type's own page shows its values but has no buttons and no in-place editing. To change a type, go back to the All Leave Types list, open the row's actions and choose Edit. The edit form opens with the same boxes as the create form. Change the values and save.

If you changed Type, recalculate any unposted payroll run whose period contains leave of this type.

Step 4 — Remove a leave type you no longer use

In the All Leave Types list, choose Delete on the row, or select several rows and click Delete in the list header, and confirm.

Before you delete a type, think about the leave requests that use it. Once a type is deleted, payroll no longer finds it, so approved leave of that type is treated as paid in every later calculation, even if the type was Unpaid. Trainer-availability messages also stop naming the type. If the category is only retired, keep the record and stop choosing it on new requests.

Fields

Business rules

• Unpaid is decided by text. A type is unpaid when its Type or Entitlement Type contains unpaid, LWP, LOP, loss of pay or leave without pay, ignoring capitals and spaces. Nothing else on the type is read.
• Only approved leave counts. Payroll reads leave requests whose status is Approved. Other statuses never reduce pay, whatever their type.
• Half days. A half-day request of an unpaid type counts as 0.5 day for each day it covers.
• Read at calculation time. Changing a type changes the next calculation, not runs already posted.
• No balances. Leave types carry no allowance. Leave beyond a person's allowance is neither blocked nor flagged. Record extra days as a request on an unpaid type if they should be deducted.
• Deleting a type makes its existing requests count as paid in later calculations.
• No numbering and no validation. The name is typed by you; there is no duplicate check and no other rule on save.

Example

A company pays salaries monthly and grants paid casual and sick leave. Days taken beyond the allowance are unpaid.

1. The payroll administrator opens Leave Type from the App Launcher and creates three types:
   • Casual Leave, Entitlement Type Fixed, Type Paid
   • Sick Leave, Entitlement Type Fixed, Type Paid
   • Leave Without Pay, Type Unpaid
2. In November, one employee takes two days of Casual Leave and, later in the month, three days of Leave Without Pay. Both requests are approved.
3. On 26 November the payroll officer calculates the November run. The period has 30 days. The casual leave is paid. The three days of Leave Without Pay are loss-of-pay days, so the employee's payable days are 27 and the employee's pay is prorated by 27 ÷ 30.
4. A manager asks why another employee's "Development training" days were deducted. The administrator opens that leave type and finds its Type was set to a custom value, "Development". Because "Development" contains "lop", payroll treated it as unpaid. The administrator edits the type, sets Type to Paid, and the officer recalculates the November run before posting it.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox with Payroll set up, and with Name and Status added to the leave request form:

1. Create a leave type Practice Unpaid with Type Unpaid, and a second one Practice Paid with Type Paid.
2. For one employee on payroll, record a two-day leave request on Practice Unpaid and a one-day request on Practice Paid, both with Status Approved and both inside a payroll period that has a run in Draft.
3. Click Calculate on the run and open the employee's payroll run detail.

Expected result: Loss Of Pay Days shows 2. The paid day is not deducted. Then edit Practice Unpaid, change Type to Paid, and calculate again: Loss Of Pay Days goes back to 0. Delete both practice types and requests afterwards.

Quick reference

• Leave types live in no app by default. Find them through the App Launcher search under All Entities.
• Type: Unpaid is what makes leave cost pay. The name does not matter.
• Payroll also reads Entitlement Type, so keep custom values free of the words unpaid, LWP, LOP, loss of pay and leave without pay unless you mean them.
• Watch for hidden matches: "Development" contains "lop".
• Only Approved leave requests count. Half days count as 0.5.
• Edit from the list row; the record page has no Edit button.
• After changing a type, recalculate unposted runs.
• Deleting a type makes its requests count as paid.

Permissions

Leave types follow the ordinary entity permissions on the user's security profile: read access to see the list and records, and create, edit and delete access for the matching list actions. The shipped profiles give full access to Leave Type. To stop non-payroll users from changing what counts as unpaid, remove create, edit and delete access to Leave Type from their profiles under Setup → Security. A user without read access does not see Leave Type in the App Launcher search. Leave types have no server actions that need a separate grant.

Configuration

• Menu entry. No shipped app lists Leave Type or Leave Request. To give payroll staff a menu entry, go to Setup → Design Studio → Apps, open the app they use (for example Payroll), choose Manage Items and add Leave Type. See Create an entity (step 7).
• Picklist values. Type ships with Paid and Unpaid, and Entitlement Type with Fixed, Grant and Based on entitlement. You can add values from the field's row menu with Manage PickList Values (see Create an entity, step 3). A new Type value counts as unpaid only if its text contains one of the unpaid words, so a value such as "Half-paid" is treated as paid.
• Leave request form. Leave types only matter through leave requests. The shipped leave request form shows Resource, Leave Type, From Date and To Date. Add Name, Status (values Pending, Approved, Rejected, Cancelled) and Days (the half-day tick box, despite its name) in the layout designer, and add Leave Request to an app with Manage Items as you did for Leave Type. Payroll counts only requests whose Status is Approved.
• Form layouts. The create form (also used by Edit) and the record view each show Leave Type Name, Entitlement Type and Type. The record view header has no buttons. To offer Edit or Clone on the record page, add them to the view layout's page header in the layout designer.
• Payroll proration. Loss of pay only applies when the payroll period has both a Start Date and an End Date; see Payroll periods.

Common problems

Approved unpaid leave was not deducted

Check, in order: the leave request's status is Approved; the request names a leave type; that type's Type is Unpaid (or contains one of the unpaid words); the request's dates overlap the payroll period; and the period has both a Start Date and an End Date. Fix the cause and click Calculate on the run again before it is posted.

Leave that should be paid reduced pay

The type's Type or Entitlement Type contains one of the unpaid words, possibly inside a longer word such as "Development". Edit the type, choose Paid in Type and a plain value in Entitlement Type, and recalculate the run.

A type called "Leave Without Pay" does not reduce pay

Payroll ignores the name. Edit the type and set Type to Unpaid.

I cannot find Leave Type in any menu

It is in no shipped app. Search for Leave Type in the App Launcher, or ask an administrator to add it to an app with Manage Items. If the search does not list it, your security profile has no read access to it.

There is no Edit button on the leave type page

The shipped record page has no header buttons. Edit the type from the All Leave Types list row instead.

Old leave stopped reducing pay after a type was deleted

Payroll no longer finds a deleted type, so its requests count as paid. Recreate an unpaid type and change the affected requests to it, then recalculate any unposted run.

Common questions

Does a leave type hold an allowance or a balance?

No. A leave type is a category and a paid/unpaid flag. Entitlement Type records how the allowance is granted, but nothing calculates an allowance, an accrual or a balance from it, and nothing checks a request against an allowance. The separate Leave Entitlement record can state an allowance as policy, but nothing enforces it either. If an employee goes over their paid allowance, record the extra days as a request on an unpaid leave type, and the payroll run deducts them.

Can I make a leave type half-paid?

No. Payroll treats a type as either paid or unpaid; there is no percentage. A half-day request of an unpaid type deducts half a day, which is the only partial deduction. For a policy such as half pay during extended sick leave, keep the leave type paid and enter the reduction as a payroll adjustment for the period.

Does the leave type affect field attendance or check-in?

No. Screens and rules that check whether someone is on leave look at the leave request itself, not at its type. The only places that read a leave type are payroll's loss-of-pay check, which reads the paid or unpaid setting, and the trainer-availability message and leave dashboards, which show the type's name.

Does changing a type change payroll that is already posted?

No. A posted run keeps its figures, and reversing its journal does not unlock it. Correct a past month with a payroll adjustment in the next period. Runs that are not yet posted pick up the change the next time you click Calculate.

Related topics

• Leave requests
• Running payroll
• Payroll periods
• Payroll adjustments
• Attendance
• Holidays
• Leave Type reference
• Leave Request reference
• Leave Entitlement reference