The leave balance should be kept in one system: the HR system or the scheduling system, never both. Which system that is, you decide before the integration is built; the integration then keeps the other system in line, so the employee sees the same balance in the scheduling app as on the payslip.
Sounds simple, but in practice balances drift apart as soon as two systems both record leave. This article shows why that happens, how to make the choice and which limitations of the systems themselves sometimes make that choice for you.
Why balances drift apart
Without an integration, leave that HR approves does not reach the roster. The planner schedules someone who is off. The other way round, the payslip shows the balance from the payroll system and the scheduling app shows a different one. The employee asks which number is right, and nobody knows for sure.
On top of that, systems calculate leave differently. AFAS books leave in minutes, UKG and Shiftbase in hours or days. Loket calculates leave entitlement with its own schemes. Quinyx shows balances on trackers and has a separate statutory balance for the Netherlands. Two systems that each keep their own balance therefore almost never arrive at the same result.
How to choose which system leads
Usually the payroll or HR system remains leading and the scheduling system shows the same balance. Leave taken in the scheduling system then goes back to HR as a leave booking, and the new balance is in the scheduling system the next morning.
Sometimes the HR system cannot receive leave. Then the scheduling system becomes leading. A few questions help with the choice:
- Where does the employee request leave, and where does the manager approve it?
- Where are the leave schemes, such as statutory and non-statutory leave?
- Can the other system receive a balance or a leave booking?
Whichever side it becomes: only approved leave counts. A request that is still pending or has been rejected does not affect the balance. If leave is withdrawn, it disappears from the roster and the balance is correct again.
What the systems themselves allow
The choice is not always free. A few systems impose limitations you want to know about in advance.
- Protime and YouForce. In Protime and through the API of YouForce, balances can only be read. There, the scheduling system records the absence and the HR system keeps the balance, or the other way round.
- Deputy. A new balance replaces the old one. The integration therefore always sends the full balance per leave type, never just that week's leave taken.
- Planday. Planday does not accept a balance as a fixed number, but it does accept bookings. With Workday with Planday, the integration compares the balance from Workday with the one in Planday and books only the difference.
- Nmbrs. Nmbrs has four leave types per employee, Protime often more absence codes. Each code becomes a leave type in Nmbrs, becomes sickness absence, or is dropped if it is not relevant to pay.
If the scheduling system cannot receive balances at all, we say so in advance. Two options remain: an opening balance at the start of the year, or a fixed division of tasks between the systems.
Balances in the right place in the scheduling system
A balance is more than one number. AFAS keeps statutory and non-statutory leave separate. HiBob keeps balances per leave policy, SuccessFactors per time account and Workday per leave plan and country. Each balance lands in the scheduling system on the tracker that belongs to it, so statutory leave does not get lumped together with non-statutory leave.
The unit has to be right too. A leave day of 7.5 hours becomes 450 minutes in AFAS. If that conversion goes wrong, the balance is off by a factor of sixty. With an integration of Quinyx with AFAS or Deputy with AFAS, that conversion is part of the integration.
Leave that changes
Leave is moved, withdrawn or rejected after it was already on the roster. With HiBob with Shiftbase, the scheduling system adjusts as soon as that happens in Bob. A daily check looks back over a short period, so a missed notification still reaches the roster within a day.
A roster per day versus a roster per week also needs attention. From YouForce to AllSolutions, the daily roster is added up per week, and leave goes along per leave type through a mapping table.
How KoppelHet builds this
KoppelHet builds the integration per organisation on its own platform. Which system keeps the balance is something we answer in the design, well before go-live. Leave balances can also be added later as an extension to an existing integration of employees and hours; how that first step works is described under employees and contract hours to scheduling.
The full explanation of this topic is on leave balances and absence in scheduling, and the whole process on leave, absence and time. If it is about sickness reports to the occupational health service, look at absence reporting via SIVI.