Carry over annual leave, with expiry options
By Kieran - Founder
Want to let employees carry unused allowance into the new year. Absentia supports carry over with flexible expiry rules.
Flexible Carry Over: Give Your Team the Time They Deserve
Don’t let a busy year-end mean your team loses their hard-earned time off. With Absentia, you can automate how unused leave rolls into the next year, keeping your policy fair and your admin workload light.
How Carry Over Works for You
When your leave year ends, you don't need to manually calculate balances or update spreadsheets. Absentia runs an automated background process to move unused days into the next period based on the rules you set.
Simple, Fair Calculations
You decide the limits, and the system handles the math. At the end of the year, the system:
- Checks remaining balances: It looks at what is left in an employee’s allowance.
- Applies your cap: If you allow a maximum of 5 days to roll over, the system automatically clips anything above that.
- Prevents negatives: If an employee is overdrawn, their carry over simply starts at zero.
Accuracy by Default
To ensure your data is always realistic, Absentia counts both approved and pending leave as "used" time. This prevents employees from carrying over days they’ve already requested to take, giving you a truer picture of your liability.
Use It or Lose It: Setting Expiry Dates
If you want to encourage your team to take their carried-over leave early in the new year, you can set an optional expiry window.
- Define your window: Choose how many days (e.g., 90 days) the carried-over leave remains valid.
- Prioritize usage: The system automatically "uses up" the carried-over balance first for any leave taken within that window.
- Automate the cleanup: Once the expiry date passes, any unused carry over is removed automatically.
Complete Admin Control
You can manage carry over at a company-wide level or get granular with individual settings.
| Feature | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Max Carry Over | Set a company-wide limit on how many days roll over. |
| Leave Year Start | Align carry over calculations with your specific fiscal or calendar year. |
| Individual Overrides | Set custom leave years or manual carry over values for specific employees. |
| Expiry Rules | Choose if and when rolled-over leave should expire. |
Frequently Asked Questions
When exactly does carry over happen?
It isn't instant at midnight. Shortly after the leave year ends, an automated process runs to calculate and apply the final values to the new year.
What happens if I change my policy mid-year?
Carry over is calculated once at the end of the year. If you change your company cap later, it won't retroactively change balances for years that have already closed.
Can I manually edit an employee's carry over?
Yes. You can find the Carry Over field in any employee’s Allowance tab. While the system populates this automatically, you can jump in and adjust the number if you need to make an exception.
Does editing an old absence trigger a recalculation?
No. Once a carry over value is calculated for a finished year, it is treated as final. Updating an absence in a previous year will not automatically change the carry over balance in the current year.