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Configuring individual employee leave settings

Customising leave entitlements for specific employees.

Updated over 3 months ago

Most leave settings are inherited from the organisation’s default leave code configuration. However, employees sometimes have different contractual entitlements, additional accruals, or corrected anniversary dates. SmoothPay allows these variations to be configured individually.

This article explains how to:

  • Adjust leave settings for one employee

  • Understand which settings can be customised

  • Apply additional entitlements correctly

  • Avoid changes that could corrupt balances


Accessing Individual Leave Settings

To configure leave for a specific employee:

  1. Go to the Staff screen

  2. Select the employee

  3. Select the Leave tab

  4. Select the Entitlement tab

  5. Select the leave type from the code list

  6. Click the edit button

  7. Make required changes

  8. Click Save

The employee-specific settings appear on the right side of the screen.


Settings You Can Adjust Per Employee

These options function the same way as they do under Codes → Leave codes, except they apply only to the selected employee:

Accrue and consume

Controls how the leave is measured (hours, days, weeks).

Accrual rate

Overrides the default annual, weekly, or percentage accrual rate.

Capped at

Specifies a maximum balance for this employee only.

Cost centre

Sets a default costing allocation.

Counts towards RDO/Flexi-time

Includes or excludes this leave type from automatic TOIL/RDO accruals.

These settings override the organisation defaults for this employee only.


Additional Settings Unique to Individual Employees

Last anniversary date

This is the employee’s actual last anniversary date for the selected leave type. SmoothPay uses this date to:

  • Determine when the next annual entitlement is due

  • Calculate to-date balances

  • Align accruals with employment commencement

This date usually matches the employee’s start date, unless:

  • A migration from another system occurred

  • An incorrect date was entered on setup

  • A country-specific rule adjusts the alignment

Important warning

Changing the last anniversary date can significantly distort:

  • Anniversary balances

  • To-date balances

  • Valuations

  • Accrual timing

If you are unsure, contact Support before making this change.


Additional annual accrual of

This setting allows you to add a second annual entitlement that accrues separately.

Appropriate uses:

  • Additional leave entitlement for senior staff

  • An extra annual allocation required by policy or agreement

  • A second entitlement that accrues at a different point in the year

Do not use this field:

  • To adjust the standard annual accrual

  • To “top up” an employee’s balances

  • To fix a misconfiguration in the main leave code

Improper use will cause inaccurate leave calculations.


Best Practice

  • Only override employee settings when genuinely required

  • Keep a record of why changes were made

  • Avoid altering anniversary dates unless correcting an error

  • Use additional annual accruals only for separate entitlements

  • Review the employee’s Leave → History tab after changes

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