Policy Change

This article explains what happens when an employee needs a new policy, and when a policy change requires special actions.

A policy change may be relevant in the following cases:

Hourly paid → fixed paid employee
Fixed paid employee ↔ part time employee
Apprentice → fixed paid employee
Expats switching between countries

A policy is a set of rules that governs the rules for employees' balances.

Important to Note

When changing a policy, you must always consider whether the existing employee profile can be used, or if a new profile needs to be created.

A new employee profile must be created when:

the employee receives a new employment contract with a new employment date,
or
the policy change results in a switch to a new period (new vacation year)

In these cases, the existing employee profile is made inactive, while history and statistics are preserved. A new profile is created for the new contract or period.

Balances and Policy Changes

When an employee changes policy, not all balances are affected.

The table below shows:

which balances may be affected by a policy change

the difference between a change within the same period (vacation year) vs. a change to a new period (vacation year)

whether changes in standard hours are relevant

where it is important to pay attention to the employee profile

Impact on Balance When Changing Policy

Balance - is it affected?	Change within same period (vacation year)	Change to different period (vacation year)	Change in standard hours	Notes
Vacation	No	⚠️ Yes – converted to new period	No	Always in days, regardless of standard hours.
Other vacation	No	⚠️ Yes – converted to new period	⚠️ Yes - if settled in hours	Used days keep old standard hours. Remaining days are calculated with new standard hours.
Day bank	No	No	No	Not linked to period.
Hour bank	No	No	No	Historical standard hours per day are saved; balance is not changed retroactively. Future registrations keep old standard hours if created before the change.

⚠️ The balance is affected - in these cases, you cannot simply change the employee's policy. A new employee profile must be created.

Change of Period (Vacation Year)

A policy change can alter the calculation basis for vacation and other vacation balances.

Why Can the Balance Change?

Vacation and other vacation are calculated based on several period-specific variables:

Earning
Used days
Payouts
Write-downs / write-ups
Transferred remaining days

All variables belong to a specific period, e.g., 9/1 – 8/31.

👉 Therefore, a change of period can affect the vacation and other vacation balances.
👉 Hour bank and day bank are not affected, as they are not tied to periods.

	Change in balance?	Actions	Examples
Policy change within same period	No	No change to balances The period continues unchanged	Fixed paid employee → part time employee Hourly paid → fixed paid employee Apprentice → fixed paid employee
Policy change within same period - But change from 12 to 16 months	No	The old period is closed New vacation period takes effect with the same start date (e.g., 9/1) and applies from the active vacation year - not created retroactively	Annual earning (9/1–8/31) → monthly earning (9/1–12/31)
Policy change with new period	⚠️ Yes - balance changes	The old vacation period is closed and converted Only registrations in the new period count No registrations in the old period	Earning 1/1–12/31 → earning 9/1–12/31

⚠️ The balance is affected - in these cases, you cannot simply change the employee's policy. A new employee profile must be created.

Examples – Deciding on Employee Profile When Changing Policy

Hourly paid → fixed paid employee

When an employee changes from hourly paid to fixed paid employee, the change must be handled as a policy change, but since the employee receives a new contract and thus a new employment date, a new employee profile must be created.

Important:
The existing employee profile with the old policy must be made inactive before creating a new employee profile.

How to do it:

Manually make the existing hourly paid employee profile inactive
– the profile is not deactivated automatically
– history and statistics are preserved on the old profile
Then create a new employee profile in BitaBIZ with the relevant fixed paid employee policy
The creation of the new profile depends on your user management:
- Manual user management
  You can create the new employee profile with the same email address as on the previous, inactive profile.
- Automatic user management
  The email address cannot be reused as long as it exists on the inactive profile.
  You must therefore contact BitaBIZ, who can remove the email address from the old, inactive user before the new profile can be created.

The new employee profile will have a clean calendar and new balances suitable for fixed paid employment.

Fixed paid employee ↔ part time employee

When an employee moves from fixed paid employee to part time employee or vice versa, this is generally a policy change – not a new employment.

What should you do?

Keep the existing employee profile if:
- the employment date does not change
- the vacation period (vacation year) does not change
Switch the employee to the relevant part-time policy
Update standard hours (hours per week)

When should a new profile be created?

A new employee profile must be created if:

the employment date changes
the vacation period changes
the calculation basis changes

Apprentice → fixed paid employee

When an employee moves from apprentice to fixed paid employee, this is generally a policy change to be made, unless a new contract with a new employment date is issued.

What should you do?

Keep the existing employee profile if:
- the employment date does not change
- the vacation period (vacation year) does not change
Switch the employee to the relevant fixed paid employee policy
Update standard hours and terms as needed after permanent employment

When should a new profile be created?

A new employee profile must be created if:

a new employment date is given
the vacation period changes
the calculation basis changes

Table of Impact When Changing Employment Type

Use case / situation	Change of employment date	Change of period (vacation year)	Keep profile	New profile	Clarification
Hourly paid → fixed paid employee	⚠️ Often yes	No	❌	✅	The change often involves a new contract and new employment date
Fixed paid employee ↔ part time employee	No	No	✅	❌	Same employment relationship
Apprentice → fixed paid employee	No	No	✅	❌	Continuation of existing employment
Re-employment	✅ Yes	No	❌	✅	New employment date
Change of vacation year / expat change between countries	⚠️ Often yes	✅ Yes	❌	✅	New vacation year gives a new calculation basis for vacation and other vacation. For expats, a new contract and employment date often follow

When Does a Policy Change Take Effect?

The earning method determines when a policy change takes effect:

Vacation and supplementary balance (e.g. FF days, OK days, other vacation) monthly earning: applies from the 1st calendar day of the next month.
Vacation and supplementary balance (e.g. FF days, OK days, other vacation) annual earning: applies from the date the policy is changed.
Standard hours: applies from the first calendar day after the change. For example, if the change is made on a Wednesday, it takes effect from Thursday.

ℹ️ It is not possible to change the date when a policy change takes effect to a date back in time. Or to a future date. The standard rules described above always apply.

Critical policy settings

Even if the employment date and vacation period remain unchanged, certain changes to the policy may still require creating a new employee profile.

This is because these changes alter the calculation basis for vacation and other vacation and cannot be handled correctly on an existing profile.

When do you need to create a new employee profile?

You must always create a new employee profile if any of the following policy settings are changed:

Earning principle
- End-of-period → Start-of-period
- Start-of-period → End-of-period
Vacation setting
- Salary deduction → Advance or Max
- Advance → Salary deduction

In these cases, the existing profile cannot be reused, even if the employee continues in the same employment and vacation year.

Changing standard hours

Changing standard hours can affect the other vacation balance if it is calculated in hours:

Example: Other vacation in hours when changing standard hours

An employee has 37 hours/week = 5 other vacation days.

Allocated: 5 days = 37 hours
Used: 4 days × 7.4 hours = 29.6 hours
Remaining: 1 day = 7.4 hours

The employee's standard hours are changed to 30 hours/week = 6 hours per day:

Earning is adjusted to 5 × 6 = 30 hours
Used remains = 29.6 hours (old standard hours)
New remaining = 30 − 29.6 = 0.4 hours

👉 The employee still has 1 other vacation day left, but the system now requires 6 hours to take a full day.

The balance only shows 0.4 hours, so a full other vacation day cannot be taken without a manual adjustment.

FAQ

Can I change an employee's policy back in time?

No. A policy change cannot be used to change vacation earning back in time. When an employee is moved to a new policy, the new vacation earning applies going forward. If the employee should have had a different vacation balance from an earlier date, the balance must be corrected manually by decreasing or increasing it.

Example: If an employee switched from full-time to a 4-day week from February 1, but is only moved to a part-time policy later, the employee should be moved to the correct part-time policy going forward, and the incorrect vacation earning for the period from February 1 to the change must be corrected manually.

When can I use the existing employee profile when changing policies, and when must I create a new one?

You can use the existing employee profile when a policy change occurs within the same vacation period and the employee continues under the same employment contract. In these cases, balances are not changed, and history and records continue as normal.

You must create a new employee profile when:

the policy change involves switching to a new vacation period
(e.g. from having 1/9-31/8 as the vacation year to having 1/1-31/12),
or
the employee gets a new employment contract with a new employment date

In these cases, the old profile must be manually set to inactive. History and statistics are preserved, and a new profile is created to match the new period or employment date.

In short:

Same period and same contract → use existing profile
New period or new contract → create new profile

Situation / change	Change of employment date	Change of period (vacation year)	Create new employee profile	Explanation
No changes	No	No	❌ No	Same employment and same vacation year - use existing profile
Employment date changes	Yes	No	✅ Yes	New employment requires new profile
Period (vacation year) changes	No	Yes	✅ Yes	New calculation basis for vacation and other vacation
Employment date + period change	Yes	Yes	✅ Yes	New employment and new period

How do I move an employee to a new policy?

Before changing an employee's policy, make sure that the policy the employee is to be switched to is already created in the system and whether the policy change may require creating a new employee profile

How to open the employee's master data card and change the policy:

Go to Setup admin
Select Employees
Click Create / edit employees
Find the relevant employee on the list
Click Edit to open the employee's master data card
Under the Policy field, select the policy the employee should be switched to
Save the change

When you save, the policy change is completed.

How do I make an employee profile inactive and create a new one for the same employee?

The old employee profile must be manually set to inactive. This is done by:

Go to Setup Admin → Employees
Open the employee's master data card
Click Make user inactive
Important: If you select Delete employee, all master data and records are permanently deleted and cannot be restored.
Select termination date for the date the old policy is valid until
Click Save

When the employee is made inactive, history and records are preserved, but the employee can no longer be used actively in the system.

How the new employee profile is created depends on your user administration.

If you have manual user administration

If you have automatic user administration
Read more about automatic user creation here

How can I see if an employee has received a new vacation balance period?

If you are unsure whether an employee has received a new vacation balance period, you can check this on the employee's master data card.

Here you can see when the relevant vacation policy is valid from – this is called the policy effective date.

If an employee has received a new vacation balance period, the policy will be valid from the start date of the new vacation balance period, for example 01.09.2024.

Note that a vacation balance is locked for changes (including registrations and adjustments) for periods before the policy effective date.

I have moved an employee from another country to Denmark, and now the balances don't match – what should I do?

When an employee is moved from one country to another, you must create a new employee profile with a policy that matches the new country (e.g. Denmark).

It is not enough to simply change the policy on the existing employee profile. The reason is that vacation year, earning method, and balance setup may differ from country to country, which can cause the balances to no longer match.

If the policy has already been changed on the existing employee profile and the balances are therefore incorrect, the employee profile must still be made inactive, and a new employee profile must be created with the correct country policy.

It is not recommended to try to fix the problem by manually adjusting balances and totals.

Can I change an employee's public holidays from one country to another?

The most important question is whether the employee will get new vacation rules and a new vacation period if the policy is changed. If yes, then the employee's active profile must be made inactive and a new profile must be created with the new public holidays and vacation period.

If the employee's vacation rules and vacation period are not changed by the new policy with the new public holidays, then you can change the policy to the new public holidays. However, you should be aware that vacation planned over the old public holidays will not count in the vacation balance. With a new country's public holidays, it may therefore be necessary to review the employee's calendar to check if a manual adjustment of the vacation balance is needed.

I need to change an employee from fixed paid employee to part time employee – how do I do that?

In this case, the vacation period and vacation rules typically do not change. Therefore, you can safely change the policy without risking issues with the vacation balance.

When you change the policy, please note the following:

Monthly vacation policy:

Changes to vacation earning take effect from the 1st date of the next month
Changes do not affect vacation already earned under the old contract.

For annual vacation policy:

Changes take effect for the active vacation year.

Hour bank:

If the employee has an hour bank (flex time). Changes to standard hours take effect from the next working day. Historical standard hours are not changed back in time. Remember that standard hours can be managed either from the policy or the employee's profile.

A group of employees has not previously had a supplementary balance (e.g. other vacation, FF days, OK days). Can we move employees to a policy with a supplementary balance without affecting their vacation balance?

If the new policy with a supplementary balance has the same vacation period/vacation year as the old policy without a supplementary balance, you can move employees to the new policy. For example, if you move from the vacation year 9/1–12/31 (the following year) to the same vacation year 9/1–12/31 (the following year).

If the new policy has a different vacation period—for example, if the old policy follows the calendar year 1/1–12/31 and the new policy follows 16 months 9/1–12/31 (the following year)—then employees will need a new profile.

Change of Policy