---
title: Importing Existing Leave Balances
description: When bringing over an existing employee to Thankyou Payroll, you need to input their existing leave balances. This article shows you how.
---

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# Importing Existing Leave Balances

## When bringing an existing employee over to Thankyou Payroll, you will have to input their existing leave balances. This article walks you through these calculations.

*Updated: March 2024*

When importing an existing employee, you will need to enter the following information:

- the employee's current leave balances (the focus of this article), and
- [the employee's pay history to date (follow link to help article on this)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/entering-previous-pay-history-for-an-employee?hsLang=en).

Entering the employee's leave balances will help the system accurately calculate leave entitlements, accrual and leave liability. Entering employee leave balances can be problematic when migrating from other systems. Their measurement used for the leave balance could be hourly, daily or weekly. This could mean additional calculations are needed to convert the different leave balances to days for our system. That is where this article makes things simple. Let's start.

- [Calculating the existing annual leave balance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/importing-existing-leave-balances#Migrate_AL)
- [Calculating the existing sick leave balance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/importing-existing-leave-balances#Migrate_SL)
- [Calculating the existing alternative leave balance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/importing-existing-leave-balances#Migrate_AltL)

---

### Calculating the Existing Annual Leave Balance - Permanent Employee

In our system, a permanent employee is set up with the 'Rate as per the Holidays Act' leave setting. Let's take a look at preparing the existing annual holidays balance to be entered into Thankyou Payroll.

In our system, two figures make up an employee's annual leave balance:

![Migration\_AnnualLeaveBalance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/screensteps/Employee%20Settings/Migration_AnnualLeaveBalance.png?width=470&height=148&name=Migration_AnnualLeaveBalance.png)

1. **Days** allocated annual leave: These are the minimum of 4 weeks of annual leave allocated on each leave anniversary, minus any leave taken in advance or cashed out. 
     1. This can be a negative number if the employee has taken leave in advance since the last allocation on the anniversary date.
2. Accrued leave: The 8% of the employee's gross earnings accrued since the last leave anniversary till now, when you are setting them up in our system.

If your previous system combined these figures into one, **you need to separate them** as they are entered in different areas in our system.

![Info - Blue Block (1)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/CalloutIcons/Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png?width=52&height=52&name=Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png)Thankyou Payroll calculates allocated annual leave **in days**, so if your previous system calculated using hours or weeks you have to convert this into days. You do this using the employee's standard work pattern.

Let's look at a calculation example:

| Your employee, Trish, has worked for you for the last 3 years as a permanent employee. She works 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. Her leave anniversary date is 10 January (start date: 10 Jan 2021). You are entering her in the Thankyou Payroll system on 10 March 2024. 1.  Calculating allocated leave balance:  - (Allocated leave - leave in advance & cashed up = current allocated balance) - 4 weeks allocation per year x 3 anniversary dates x work pattern **in days** - 4(3x5) = **60 days in total** annual leave allocation over the 3 anniversary dates, now I need to deduct leave she already took or cashed up. - In her 1st year, she took 10 days leave in advance \| second year took 5 days leave \| 3rd year took 15 days and cashed up 1 week of leave (which is 5 days). - 10 + 5 + 15 + 5 = **35 days** of leave used - Allocated total - leave taken = balance in days  - 60 - 35 = **25 days** allocated balance Complete the [Leave tab](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/understanding-leave-settings-tab-in-employee-profile?hsLang=en) of the Employee Profile as follows: ![Migration\_ExistingAnnualLeaveBalance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/screensteps/Employee%20Settings/Migration_ExistingAnnualLeaveBalance.png?width=688&height=637&name=Migration_ExistingAnnualLeaveBalance.png) - Leave anniversary is Trish's original start date - The **25 days allocated leave balance** just calculated is entered in the next block - She did not take leave in advance since her most recent leave anniversary, so zero - The date of her most recent leave anniversary was 10 Jan 2024. 2.  Now to calculate her annual leave accrual, which is the 8% of gross since the last leave anniversary we need [her pay history](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/entering-previous-pay-history-for-an-employee?hsLang=en). - Go to Trish's **History tab** in her **Employee Profile** and enter her gross amounts per pay cycle going back to her last leave anniversary. When setting accrued balances, no other information is needed apart from the gross pay amounts. ![Migration\_ExistingAccrualLeaveBalance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/screensteps/Employee%20Settings/Migration_ExistingAccrualLeaveBalance.png?width=688&height=292&name=Migration_ExistingAccrualLeaveBalance.png) - Enter her gross for each pay as per the example (1). - Update the dates for each line to correlate with the pay periods entered. There will be a line for each pay period going back to the last leave anniversary date. (2) - **The last 'pay start date' we need entries for must be the day after the most recent leave anniversary.** - For Trish, the last line completed must have the start date of '11 Jan 2024'. - Check that the return period month is correct for each line (3). Update if needed. |
| --- |

| ![Did You Know - Green Block (1)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/CalloutIcons/Did%20You%20Know%20-%20Green%20Block%20(1).png?width=52&height=52&name=Did%20You%20Know%20-%20Green%20Block%20(1).png) | We have created the following flow diagrams to help walk you through this process, step by step. Have a look: - [Transferring and Importing Existing Employee Balances](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hubfs/Resources/Transferring%20Leave%20Balances/Transferring%20and%20importing%20existing%20employees%20balances.png?hsLang=en) - [Setting the Annual Leave Anniversary Date or Holiday Pay Balance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hubfs/Resources/Transferring%20Leave%20Balances/Setting%20Annual%20Leave%20Anniversary%20Dates%20or%20Holiday%20Pay%20Balance.png?hsLang=en) |
| --- | --- |

---

### Calculating the Existing Sick Leave Balance

![Info - Blue Block (1)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/CalloutIcons/Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png?width=52&height=52&name=Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png)The Thankyou Payroll system calculates the sick leave balance **in days**, so the existing leave balance should be entered as a day value in the Employee Profile.

If your previous system calculated sick leave in hours, the existing balance must be converted into a day value. This is done using the employee's regular work pattern.

Let's look at an example:

| The payroll system you are migrating from calculates sick leave in hours. The employee's leave summary shows that Trish has an available balance of **18 hours** of sick leave.  You need to convert that into a day total for the Thankyou Payroll system. According to Trish's work pattern, she works 5 days a week at **8 hours per day**. So your calculation will be:  - balance in hours / regular work hours = sick leave day value - 18/8 = 2.25 days sick leave balance Complete the [Leave tab](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/en/understanding-leave-settings-tab-in-employee-profile?hsLang=en) of the Employee Profile as follows: ![Migration\_ExistingSickLeaveBalance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/screensteps/Employee%20Settings/Migration_ExistingSickLeaveBalance.png?width=688&height=621&name=Migration_ExistingSickLeaveBalance.png) - Enter the number of days sick leave per year as per the employment agreement - The **2.25 days sick leave balance** just calculated is entered in the next block. Use a full stop when entering part days. - The date of her most recent sick leave anniversary was 10 July 2023. - The maximum carry-over balance in the system is 20 days as per the Holidays Act. You can update this if your employment agreement offers more. |
| --- |

| ![Did You Know - Green Block (1)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/CalloutIcons/Did%20You%20Know%20-%20Green%20Block%20(1).png?width=52&height=52&name=Did%20You%20Know%20-%20Green%20Block%20(1).png) | This flow diagram will walk you through the steps, one at a time. - [Transferring Sick Leave Balances](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hubfs/Resources/Transferring%20Leave%20Balances/Transferring%20sick%20leave.png?hsLang=en) |
| --- | --- |

---

### Calculating the Existing Alternative Leave Balance

![Info - Blue Block (1)](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/CalloutIcons/Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png?width=52&height=52&name=Info%20-%20Blue%20Block%20(1).png)The Thankyou Payroll system calculates the alternative leave balance **in days**, so the existing leave balance should be entered as a day value in the Employee Profile.

If your previous system calculated alternative leave in hours, the existing balance must be converted into a day value. This is done using the employee's regular work pattern.

Let's look at an example:

| The payroll system you are migrating from calculates alternative leave in hours. The employee's leave summary shows that Trish has an available balance of **16 hours** of allocated leave.  You need to convert that into a day total for the Thankyou Payroll system. According to Trish's work pattern, she works 5 days a week at **8 hours per day**. So your calculation will be:  - balance in hours / regular work hours = alternative leave day value - 16/8 = 2 days alternative leave balance![Migration\_ExistingAltLeaveBalance](https://help.thankyoupayroll.co.nz/hs-fs/hubfs/KnowledgeBase/screensteps/Employee%20Settings/Migration_ExistingAltLeaveBalance.png?width=427&height=188&name=Migration_ExistingAltLeaveBalance.png) Enter this balance in the Employee Profile: |
| --- |

---

 

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