Setting up Leave Priorities

Leave Priorities are a means of automatically pushing employees to take another leave type when they have used up their available balance of leave type that was applied for. In this way a company can ensure that certain leave types are exhausted before others, and that employees do not go into a negative leave balances.

Leave Priorities work by trying to take from the top leave type first, regardless of what leave type is requested (as long as the requested leave type is part of the leave priority). If the balance for the first level type is insufficient, the system will automatically move to next leave type in the priority list, provided sufficient balances are available.

Leave priorities can be set up with two or three levels.

The first and second levels must be from earn-and-take leave type.

The third leave type should always be a Take leave type (e.g. LWOP). The bottom leave type is always a Take because these leave types do not have a balance and therefore can never have a negative balance, allowing them to catch all remaining leave hours requested. For this reason, Take leave types cannot exist anywhere but the bottom in a leave priority. 

Leave Priority Workflow Example:

First Level: Time In Lieu Taken Second Level: Annual Leave Taken Third Level: Leave Without Pay (LWOP) Taken

Scenario 1

Request: 1 day of Time In Lieu
Balances: Time In Lieu (0.25 days), Annual Leave (0.25 days), LWOP (unlimited days).

1. The system deducts 0.25 days of Time In Lieu.

2. Next, it deducts 0.25 days of Annual Leave.

3. Finally, 0.5 days of LWOP is applied to complete the request.

Scenario 2

Request: 1 day of Annual Leave.
Outcome: The leave priority settings do not apply.

This request does not match the first-level leave type (Time In Lieu).

A new leave priority (Annual Leave > Leave Without Pay) needs to be created to support this workflow.

Creating Leave Priorities in Datapay

To create a new Leave Priority, navigate to the Company tab > Leave Types > right – click on the Leave Type you wish to create the Leave Priority for and select “Create Leave Priority Group”

A new Leave Priority will appear as a new section beneath your existing Leave Types.

To add further Leave Types to this, simply click on the Leave Type and drag it down to the correct position within the Leave Priority and release.

Add and reorder further Leave Types as required until you have the desired order and then save your screen.

Enable Leave Priorities in Timesheets 

Payroll Administrators have the ability to enable Leave Priorities for use in Timesheets.

This setting can be found in the Pay Group tab > Timesheets, as shown below.

PS: You can create Leave Priorities as required, however be careful not to have conflicting priorities set up. As a general guide, Take leave types can be in multiple Leave Priorities, however Leave Types that hold a balance should only be in one.