Managing leave accurately is critical for payroll compliance and a smooth employee experience. Roubler supports UK leave management using the correct unit types—days or weeks—ensuring accurate leave balances are recorded and passed seamlessly to the pay engine. This reduces manual intervention and ensures consistency across systems.
 

Key Concepts of Leave Accrual in the UK

Two Accrual Methods

• Entitlement-based (most common): Employees receive their full annual leave allowance up front at the beginning of their leave year (e.g. 28 days for full-time staff).
• Accrual-based: Leave accrues progressively—usually monthly or per pay run. This method is often used for casuals or employees with irregular hours.

Accrual Units and Display

• Leave accrues in days or hours, depending on business configuration.
• Balances appear on pay slips and in employee portals.
• Pro-rata rules apply for starters and leavers to ensure fair entitlement allocation.

Public Holidays

• May or may not be included in annual leave entitlement depending on the employment contract.

For Leavers

• Any unused leave is calculated and paid out on a pro-rata basis using the appropriate method based on their accrual type.
   

Key Differences: UK vs Australia Leave Accrual
 

System Setup Overview

To ensure consistency across Roubler and the pay engine, use the following configuration settings:

In the Pay Engine

• Set Leave Units to Days or Weeks
  Go to: Payroll Settings > Pay Run Settings > Leave Categories
  Ensure each leave type is correctly set to days or weeks as applicable.
  
• Manually Convert Existing Balances
  If previously tracked in hours, leave balances must be manually updated to reflect the correct units—especially at the end of he UK leave year.
• Enable “52 Weeks Average” Calculations
  For casual or variable-hour staff, enable this setting to ensure leave pay is based on average earnings over the past 52 weeks.
  
• Disable “Require Start/End Times on Timesheets”
  This ensures leave entries are not split into hourly blocks when using day/week-based accruals.

In Roubler

• Match Leave Units
  Configure each leave type in Roubler to use days or weeks, aligned with your pay engine setup.

• No Need to Sync Standard Hours
  Standard hours are no longer needed for leave tracked in days or weeks, simplifying your configuration.

How Leave Pushes to the Pay Engine

When leave is entered in Roubler, it pushes through to the pay engine in the same unit.
Example: If an employee takes 2 days of annual leave in Roubler, their balance is reduced by 2 days in the pay engine.

This ensures accurate and seamless leave tracking without manual conversions.

Setting the Leave Year

To align all employees with a standard leave year (e.g. starting 1 April):

1. Go to Management > Payroll > Payroll Settings > Leave Types
2. Select the relevant leave category
3. Set to “Automatically Accrues”
4. Choose “Based on the employee’s leave year”
5. Save changes

Then, update employees individually:

• Go to Employee File > Leave Allowances
• Set the Leave Year Start Date
• Confirm accrual is based on the employee’s leave year

Note: These settings only auto-apply to new employees. Existing employees must be updated individually or via a Leave Allowance Template.

Creating and Editing Leave Categories

To create or configure a leave category:

1. Go to Management > Payroll > Payroll Settings > Leave Types
2. Select a default category or click Add
3. Configure the following fields:
   • Name
   • Category Type (e.g. “Standard”)
   • Tracked / Not Tracked
   • Leave Units (Days or Weeks)
   • Automatic Accrual (e.g. ongoing or leave year-based)
   • Capping and carryover rules
   • Visibility on pay slips and employee portal
   • Termination rules (e.g. payout or deduction settings)
   • Payment type (paid, unpaid, or linked to custom earnings)

Best Practices

• Standard Days Per Year
  Use this setting to ensure accurate accruals when leave is tracked in days.
• Manual Adjustments
  For employees who don’t work a full month, manual adjustments may be needed as accruals in days are not pro-rated by default.
• Upfront Accruals
  You can choose to accrue the full leave entitlement at the start of the year if this suits your business model.

Default Leave Categories (UK)

Your system includes the following default categories:

• Annual Leave
• Sick Leave
• Statutory Maternity Leave
• Statutory Paternity Leave
• Statutory Adoption Leave
• Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave
• Statutory Sick Leave

You can also create and customise additional leave categories as needed.

If you have any questions about this topic or anything else related to Roubler, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at support@roubler.com