Opening Balances

This feature allows you to insert/view/delete the opening leave balance for an employee. Opening Balances are used to bring forward leave balances and is really applicable to cumulative leave (e.g. vacation leave) as well as if the leave calculation is incorrect e.g. in cases of missing leave records (for older employees). The opening leave balance will be used as the starting point for future calculations.

Opening balances cannot be used to enter leave (cumulative or non-cumulative) entitlements.

Although you are allowed to enter opening balances for noncumulative leave types, this option should only be used when absolutely necessary (see section on Non-Cumulative Leave).

An employee can have only one (1) opening balance record for each leave type.

How it works?

1. An Opening Balance is entered for an employee as at a specific date.
2. A recalculation (Leave Transactions>>Recalculate Leave Balances) MUST be done in order for the override records to be effected. The recalculation is done AFTER the override records have been entered and saved.
3. A history of Leave Overrides is NOT kept by the system. Once a record is deleted, the history is gone and a new override (if the record exists) takes it place or the generic rules apply.
4. Override records are specific to employees whose leave entitlements may differ from or who may be exempt from the generic leave rules.
5. The employee's Leave Entitlement and Leave history can be verified on the Leave Entitlement screen.

Opening Balances for Vacation or Other Cumulative Leave

An Opening Balance MUST be entered for all the employees within a company using the Leave Module on HRplus to calculate Vacation Leave entitlements. It should also be noted that this will apply to all other cumulative leave as well. This is to ensure that when the recalculation of the Vacation Leave is done in the scheduler, that the date used is the one entered in the Opening Balance screen and NOT the employee's hire date. This will allow the calculations to be processed faster based on the more current date in the opening balance screen.

It is important to note that no leave entitlements/balances will be calculated before the opening balance date.

The date for the Opening Balance must be set based on the Reset Leave on configuration on the Leave Type. Options to set the Leave Opening Balance Date are:

Option 1

1. If the leave reset date is based on anniversary year, the employee's Anniversary Date is used as as the Opening Balance date.
2. For the Starting Balance, enter the number of days of brought forward Vacation leave from the previous leave year. N.B. This must NOT include leave which has not yet been earned for the current leave year.
3. Upload all leave taken records for the employee for the Vacation Leave Type until a chosen date. This chosen/set date must be used as the cut off date for leave taken transactions to be uploaded for ALL employees. Note that any Vacation Leave Taken after this date, must be entered directly on HRplus to maintain proper records and ensure the employee's balance is accurate.
4. Manually recalculate the Vacation Leave for the employee. ( Alternatively this leave type can be set to recalculate in the scheduler, but this should only be done as the LAST task during the configuration to allow ALL employee records to recalculate automatically overnight.)
5. View leave entitlement screen to verify that the employee's leave has been recalculated and their available balance is correct.

Option 2

1. If the leave reset date is based on a set date (e.g. January 1st), this set date is used as as the Opening Balance date.
2. For the Starting Balance, enter the number of days of brought forward Vacation leave from the previous leave year. N.B. This must NOT include leave which has not yet been earned for the current leave year.
3. Upload all leave taken records for the employee for the Vacation Leave Type until a chosen date. This chosen/set date must be used as the cut off date for leave taken transactions to be uploaded for ALL employees. Note that any Vacation Leave Taken after this date, must be entered directly on HRplus to maintain proper records and ensure the employee's balance is accurate.
4. Manually recalculate the Vacation Leave for the employee. ( Alternatively this leave type can be set to recalculate in the scheduler, but this should only be done as the LAST task during the configuration to allow ALL employee records to recalculate automatically overnight.)
5. View leave entitlement screen to verify that the employee's leave has been recalculated and their available balance is correct.

Option 3

1. A date is selected that the client will go "LIVE"with the Leave Module. This is the opening Balance date.
2. Opening Balances will be submitted up until that date. The formula for the amount submitted as employee starting balances is:
   1. Leave Opening/Starting Balance = (Rolled over leave ( From leave reset date of of anniversary date OR calendar year) + Leave earned (Up until the opening balance date) ) - Leave Taken ( For the current leave year until opening balance date)
      • Note that if this option is used, it means that the employees will NOT see the leave which was taken before the opening balance date as this would have been included in the formula for the starting balance number. This has the potential to result in numerous queries from the employee as to how their balance was calculated, as there is less transparency.
3. HRplus will pro-rate the employee's leave entitlement for the rest of the leave year.
4. Note that any Vacation Leave Taken after this date, must be entered directly on HRplus t maintain proper records and ensure the employee's entitlement is accurate..
5. Manually recalculate the Vacation Leave for the employee. ( Alternatively this leave type can be set to recalculate in the scheduler, but this should only be done as the LAST task during the configuration to allow ALL employee records to recalculate automatically overnight.)
6. View leave entitlement screen to verify that the employee's leave has been recalculated and their available balance is correct.