Some manual adjustments and checks are needed when adding an alternative leave day taken to your fixed-term employee's timesheet. This article will take you through the process.
Updated: August 2023
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As Fixed-Term Employees have the '8% of Gross Earnings (temp and irregular scenario)' leave setting, their alternative leave calculations should be checked and manually adjusted if needed.
The Thankyou Payroll system does not reference back to their 'otherwise working day' set-up in the Employee Profile to calculate the day size with this leave setting.
An alternative leave day, also called alternative holiday is a reward earned by permanent and fixed-term employees for working any amount of hours on a public holiday that falls on their otherwise working days. Alternative leave must be taken on otherwise working days or may be cashed up after 12 months if not used. As fixed-term employment contracts are generally shorter than 12 months, unused alternative leave will be paid out as part of the final pay.
Adding Alternative Leave to the Timesheet when it is Taken.
Alternative leave is added the same way you add standard pay into a timesheet. It is a legislated leave type that forms part of your employee's Leave and Time Record that must be kept for a minimum of 7 years.
*The alternative leave balance is calculated in days.
In this example, the employee works Mondays to Thursdays, so the alternative leave taken on the Thursday falls on their otherwise working day:
- If you have completed the 'default entries for standard pay row' in the Employee Profile, the 'Standard Pay' row of the timesheet will be pre-populated. Add a new row to the timesheet by clicking on the green + sign.
- Select the payment type: 'Alt Hol (-)' from the dropdown menu on the left of this row.
- For the alternative leave entry, fill in the number of hours the employee normally works on the day in question.
- Adjust the 'Standard Pay' row entry for the corresponding day. Remove any entries from this day's box to ensure that the employee is not paid twice for the same day.
- If you wish to cash out alternative leave, keep the standard pay row entry intact. This article will show you how to cash out alternative leave as part of final pay.
- Update and Save this timesheet. The timesheet boxes will be green when the timesheet has been saved, as in the example.
- Check the 'Gross balance' for the pay period to ensure that this is correct.
- The 'Pay day transfer' amount is what the employee will receive in their bank account.
- To check that the alternative leave is calculated at the expected rate, left-click in the green timesheet box for that entry. Follow this link for a walkthrough on how to check this cost calculation.
If you have multiple entries of the same type, remember to check each entry's costing screen for updates. Changing one entry does not automatically change all of the entries.
That is it! You have now successfully loaded an alternative leave day taken to your fixed-term employee's timesheet.
If you want to find out more about Alternative Leave, check the Employment New Zealand website.
They also have a useful otherwise working day calculator.