Vacation Year Shift - A Step-by-Step Guide

For many of us who work with payroll administration, the vacation year shift is closing up. Do you have full control of the routine? Susanne Fagerström, Application Consultant Specialist, has created a checklist to help you make sure you don’t miss anything.

1. Finish the payroll that includes discrepancies up on to and including March 31.

   Usually, this is the April payroll. Also, make sure that all vacation days taken out have been reported and that all absences not qualifying for leave are reported.

2. Make sure all employees have the correct annual leave agreement and annual leave entitlement.
   If the employee gains a new annual leave entitlement during the year, this should usually be changed after the vacation year shift.

3. Take out the vacation debt.
   Take out the vacation debt for accumulated and paid-out days up to and including March 31.

4. Review and audit the number of vacation days.
   Make sure that the number of vacation days reflects the annual employee’s annual leave entitlement and that those who have had absences not qualifying for leave have a lower number of vacation days. Also, make sure that the employees have taken out at least 20 days and do not have too many saved days left. Verify that the values seem correct for employees who receive variable pay or percent of pay earned. You should also take a closer look at employees having had a lot of absences qualifying for leave.

5. Perform a preliminary vacation year shift.

   As the vacation year shift cannot be reversed once it is completed, if possible, you should always make a preliminary vacation year shift first to be safe.

6. Take a backup.
   If something should go wrong with the vacation year shift, it’s good to have a backup copy.

7. Perform the vacation year shift.
   Perform the vacation year shift in your payroll system. In case someone should have received the incorrect number of days. This can always be adjusted afterward.

When you have completed these seven steps, you are finished. Any remaining paid vacation days have been moved to saved days on the new vacation year, and new paid days have been calculated and made available.

Finally, Susanne, is there anything special you have noticed that people often miss during the vacation year shift?
- Yes, if an employee has had a long-term sick leave yet has had variable pay, you may have to manually adjust the variable holiday pay supplement. In this case, Susanne’s advice is: have a look at a similar employment and go from that when making the adjustments.

With Flex HRM Payroll you can easily handle different agreements in the vacation calculation and set up your own calculation formulas for the vacation agreements. You can also enter individual discrepancies concerning e.g. additional vacation days per year. Furthermore, our key ambition is to provide a clear overview of the company’s vacation debt.