Why is the amount paid for a day of leave $0 on this timesheet?

When timesheet entries and what is entered in the Employee Profile do not match up, this can cause havoc on leave calculations. Let's unpack what happens.

An employee can only take leave on days that are otherwise working days for them. So how does any system know which days are otherwise working days for an employee? You input this data in a specific field.

In the Thankyou Payroll System, the otherwise working day input is done in the Standard Pay Tab of the Employee Profile.

Basically, the entries in the 'Set default entries for standard pay row of timesheet' is what the system classifies as otherwise working days.

In this example, the employee can only take leave (any kind of leave) from Monday to Thursday as these are the only days the system will recognise as otherwise working days. Leave entered for Friday to Sunday will misbehave (see below).

So what happens when leave is entered in the timesheet on days that have open blocks in this 'Set default entries' setting?

• The system will reduce the leave balance according to the timesheet.
• The system will pay $0 for the day of leave entered in the timesheet as there are no paid hours connected to this day. The RDP for this day is $0.  The exception to this is Annual Leave, which will pay because it is calculated using weekly values (the greater of OWP or AWE), not day values.

Let's look at an example of such a timesheet.

1. This Sick Leave entry is on a Friday that we've seen is not an otherwise working day in the 'default standard row' table of the Employee Profile.
   - Click in the green box of the Friday sick leave entry to view the cost tracking for this day - 
2. The 7.5 hours entered in for this Friday on the timesheet are reflected under Ordinary Pay in the Cost Tracking for that day. Note that this is not 0 hours as you would expect.
3. However, when looking at the cast tracking calculations for this day, meaning the amount that will actually be paid to the employee, this is $0.
4. The days deducted from the employee's sick leave balance is 1 full day for this $0 transaction. 

How do I fix this?

If you discover this error before the pay has run, there are two options to correct this:

• Option 1: If the leave was entered in the timesheet by mistake and the work pattern remains the same: 
  • Simply delete the timesheet entry for the day that is not an otherwise working day. Update and save the timesheet.

• Option 2: If the employee's work pattern has changed and this day should be an otherwise working day, you need to update their Employee Profile in 2 places to show the new work pattern. Follow these steps to ensure you update all fields:
  • Step 1: Delete the leave row from the timesheet and save the timesheet.
  • Step 2: In the Employee Profile, go to the Standard Pay Tab and update the 'Set default entries for standard pay row of timesheet' to reflect the new work pattern. If there are other updates needed on this page, for example, the days to complete a week/hours to complete a day fields, update them as well.
    • SAVE the updates.
  • Step 3: In the Employee Profile, go to the Leave Tab and update the days in a typical week/hours in a typical week fields. This should reflect the new work pattern.
    • SAVE the updates.
  • Step 4: Now re-enter the leave in the timesheet and save the timesheet. 

You've done it! Your employee should be paid correctly for their leave taken and their leave balance should be updated accordingly.