Changing Policy

This article explains:

How to change a policy for an employee
What happens when an employee gets a new policy
When a policy change is not possible

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 moving between countries
A group of employees needs a new time registration

A policy is a set of rules that governs the balances and registration access for employees.

⚠️ 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 date of employment,
or
the policy change results in a new period (new vacation year)

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

Permissions

You must be a Setup Admin to change an employee's policy, deactivate a profile, and create/edit employee profiles.

How to change a policy

Go to Setup Admin
Click Edit to open an employee's profile
Click "Change" policy on the employee's master data card
Click the drop down to select a new policy
Click Select policy
The new policy is now selected. The new accesses and rules are shown on the profile.
When the profile is saved, the new accesses and rules are activated.

The image shows the flow for changing a policy:

Important rules when changing policy

It is not possible to move an employee to a new policy if the new policy:

has a different vacation year.
has a different supplementary balance year (e.g. other vacation, OK days, etc.)

If the new policy has a different vacation year or supplementary balance year than the current policy, the employee should not be moved to the new policy on the existing profile. Instead, create a new employee profile.

Vacation balance limitation:

It is not possible to move an employee to a new policy if these vacation rules change from the old policy to the new policy:

Salary deduction → Advance
Salary deduction → Max
End-of-period earning → Start-of-period earning
Start-of-period earning → End-of-period earning

Supplementary balance limitation:

Changing standard hours can affect the other vacation balance if it is calculated in hours, and the new policy has new standard hours.

Used days keep the old standard hours. Remaining days are calculated according to the new standard hours. Therefore, a manual adjustment of the balance may be needed.

Example: Supplementary balance 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 change 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.

Limitations with new date of employment

If an employee gets a new date of employment, a new profile must be created.

Use the table to assess whether an employee needs a new profile:

Situation	New date of employment	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 date of employment
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 date of employment
Change of vacation year / expat change between countries	⚠️ Often yes	✅ Yes	❌	✅	A new vacation year provides a new calculation basis for vacation and other vacation. For expats, a new contract and date of employment 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: takes effect from the 1st calendar day of the next month.
Vacation and supplementary balance (e.g. FF days, OK days, other vacation) annual earning: takes effect from the date the policy is changed.
Standard hours: takes effect 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.

💁 Currently, you cannot schedule a policy change for a specific future date. A feature for future policy changes is under development, but is not yet available.

A policy change can affect an employee's registration access

When an employee changes policy, it can affect which types of registrations the employee has access to in BitaBIZ.

The policy controls access to:

absence
time registration

Access to absence is 100% controlled by the policy and cannot be changed manually directly on the employee's user profile.

Access to time registration is also controlled by the policy by default.

However, a Setup Admin can manually change the employee's time registration method and thereby override the default access from the policy.

The following registrations are controlled manually on the employee's user profile:

custom registration types
day bank
mileage

If an employee suddenly has changed access to time registration or absence, you should first check if the employee's policy has been changed.

FAQ

Why has an employee's access to time registration or absence changed?

An employee's access to absence and time registration can change if the employee has switched to a different policy.

The policy controls access to absence and time registration. Absence is always controlled by the policy and cannot be changed manually on the employee profile.

Time registration is controlled by the policy by default, but Setup Admin can manually change the employee's time registration method and thereby override the default access from the policy.

Custom registration types, day bank, and mileage are controlled manually on the employee's user profile.

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 with a reduction or increase.

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 registrations 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 9/1-8/31 as the vacation year to having 1/1-12/31),
or
the employee receives a new employment contract with a new date of employment

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 date of employment.

In short:

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

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

How do I move an employee to a new policy?

Before you change 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 potentially requires creating a new employee profile.

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

Go to Setup admin
Find the relevant employee on the list
Click Edit to open the employee's master data card
Under the Policy field, click the "Change" button to select a new policy for the employee
Save the change

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 choose Delete employee, all master data and registrations 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 registrations 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.

A screenshot of a computerDescription automatically generated

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 sufficient 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 towards 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 in vacation earning take effect from the 1st day 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 staff group 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 the 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 the employees to the new policy. For example, you move from 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 the employees must have a new profile.

Do I need to create a new employee profile if an employee changes from hourly paid employee to salaried employee?

Yes, you often need to create a new employee profile when an employee changes from hourly paid employee to salaried employee.

The key factor is not just that the employee changes employment type. The key factor is whether the change results in:

- new employment contract with new date of employment
- new vacation period or new vacation year

If the employee gets a new date of employment or switches to a new vacation period, the old employee profile must be made inactive, and a new employee profile must be created.

If the employee continues under the same employment contract, same date of employment, and same vacation period, the employee can generally remain on the existing profile, and the policy can be changed on the profile.

In short:

- New date of employment or new vacation period → create new profile
- Same date of employment and same vacation period → use existing profile and change policy

This rule applies, for example, when:

- changing from hourly paid employee to salaried employee
- changing from hourly employee to fixed paid employee
- changing from hourly paid employee to fixed paid employee
- changing employment type
- new contract with new date of employment

Is the hour bank recalculated retroactively if we change the employee's policy?

No. If an employee's policy is changed, the change only applies going forward.

BitaBIZ does not automatically change historical registrations, standard hours, or hour bank calculations back in time when an employee is assigned a new policy.

This is important because the history must be preserved. Registrations, balances, and calculations from previous periods must continue to reflect the setup that was in effect at that time.

Example:

A part time employee should have had Fridays off, but was mistakenly assigned a policy where Monday was the day off.

If the employee registered work hours on Mondays while Monday was set as a 0-hour day, all work hours were added to the hour bank. This is because work hours on a 0-hour day count 100% in the hour bank.

If the policy is later changed so that Friday is the day off going forward, previous hour bank calculations are not automatically recalculated according to the new policy.

This means:

Policy changes do not automatically correct historical hour bank calculations.
Historical registrations are preserved.
The new policy applies going forward from the time of change or the date the change is set to take effect.
Any errors in a previous balance must be manually adjusted via Payroll Admin calendar access.

What should we be aware of when an employee switches from full-time to part-time?

When an employee switches from full-time to part-time, you should check whether the change affects the employee's balances.

Pay special attention to:

Vacation: If the employee reduces their hours but still works 5 days a week, the vacation balance usually doesn't need to be changed. If the employee gets a fixed day off, we recommend reducing the vacation balance by 5 days for each fixed weekly day off, based on 25 vacation days per year.
Supplementary balance: If the supplement is calculated in days, the balance is handled the same way as vacation. For 5 annual days, reduce the balance by 1 day per fixed day off.
If the supplement is calculated in hours, a manual adjustment may be needed, since the value of, for example, 5 other vacation days changes when working part-time.
Hour bank: The hour bank generally does not need to be adjusted. The new standard hours only apply going forward, and the existing hour bank balance does not change automatically.

Also check if any future time off or supplementary days (such as other vacation, OK days) have already been registered, as they may have been calculated based on the employee's previous standard hours.

Change of Policy