This guide is for Admin/HR users.
We've created this guide to assist you in navigating the process of changing your holiday year.
There are two options to choose from to complete this process.
We recommend that you follow the process for Option One, which will either shorten or extend your current holiday year by creating a transition year.
Detailed below, the full details of each process to change your holiday year.
Option one
If you are changing your Holiday year and would like to shorten or extend your current Holiday year, creating a transition year, this section will take you through the process step by step...
To change your Holiday year, head to the menu options...
Configure > Settings > Holiday year > Press the edit (blue pencil) icon
1. Select the "Yes" option under the text 'Would you like to shorten or extend your current holiday year?'
Please note that if you select "no" you will not be able to shorten or extend your current Holiday year and will need to follow the instructions in this article to change your holiday year.
2. Enter your new Holiday year start date
The Blue text box above confirms that you are creating a transition year, in this instance from 1st January 2025 to 1st April 2025 (3 months)
3. Confirm the Adjustments you would like to make for your current holiday allowances for the transition year
You will be presented with a list of your current holiday allowances below the blue text box.
Enter the Holiday allowance for your transition year in these boxes. In the example below, the transition year is 3 months long, therefore, the figures entered are a quarter of the full year's allowance.
As another example, if an employee's annual entitlement is 20 days and the transition year is restricted to 9 months, provide 15 days of leave entitlement for that period.
You can use our handy Holiday calculator to help work out the figures for your specific dates.
Please note that if you have the Length in service rule set up in your Holiday allowances, you will be required to enter new allowance figures for each year in each allowance for your new transition year to complete this process.
4. Press the "Change Holiday year start" Button
You will be shown a red Warning pop-up to confirm that you are sure you want to change the start date of your holiday year.
Please note that this process is irreversible, and the change is permanent
5. Press confirm to process the Holiday year start date change
The system will recalculate your Holiday year start date and create your transition year.
This can take a few minutes, therefore you can leave this page and come back to it later.
When you come back to the Holiday year page, you will see that your holiday year has now changed...
Configure > Settings > Holiday year
Option two
Select the "No" option under the text 'Would you like to shorten or extend your current holiday year?'
Before you proceed with this option, take note of the following:
Only the Admin user can perform this action.*
The holiday year reflects a 12-month period. Any adjustment will result in the 12 months moving backwards or forward.
Changing the holiday year will erase all adjustments and TOIL, but booked holidays will remain. Please make sure you have a record of adjustments and TOIL before beginning.
Altering the holiday year impacts all previous years retrospectively, previous data will change.
When looking to change your holiday year, ensure your new intended holiday year has begun before initiating the change. Once confirmed, pro-rata the amount between the start of your existing holiday year and the new one.
In our example, let's consider changing from a current holiday year of January to December to April to March.
Remember, wait until your new holiday year start date has begun before making this change (April in this example).
1: Calculate the pro-rata leave entitlement for the months added to the new holiday year
This will be the point between the beginning of the old Holiday year start date (January in this example) through to the beginning of when the new holiday year begins (April in this example).
Note: Jot this figure down but do not make any adjustments to the allowance at this point. If you're having trouble calculating the pro-rata amount use our helpful Holiday tool here: Breathe Holiday Calculator
2: The Leave overview report
Run the leave overview report from January to March of the current holiday year.
This report can be ran by going to: Reports > Absence reports > Leave overview
Make a note of any leave taken during this period.
3: Change the holiday year
The Admin user of your account can change the holiday year by going to: Configure > settings > absence settings > holiday year
*Please see below if your company uses carry-over
4: Make an adjustment to the employee allowance
Adjust the allowance for the amount calculated in Step 1 minus the taken amount in Step 2.
e.g
If the pro-rata amount calculated = 5 days
and taken leave = 3 days
then 5 minus 3 = 2 days to be added.
What if we allow carryover for our staff?
Run the holiday allowance report to determine if carryover has been applied to each individual by going to: Reports > Absence reports > Holiday allowance
Add this amount to the pro-rata figure calculated in Step 1, excluding any expired carry-over that wasn't used.
Before changing the holiday year (Step 3), generate a temporary holiday allowance without carryover and move employees to this allowance. This prevents the system from auto-generating carryover during the holiday year change.
Change the holiday year and assign employees back to their original allowance, then proceed to Step 4.
Here are some related guides that you may find useful:
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