Understand and Troubleshoot Balances in BitaBIZ
Short Article Description
This article explains how balances in BitaBIZ are structured and how Payroll Admin can investigate why a balance may not appear to be correct.
Short Answer
A balance in BitaBIZ is not just a single number. It consists of several movements, such as transfers, earning, manual adjustments, payouts, and planned days (Used).
If a balance doesn't match, Payroll Admin should first check the balance history via Payroll Admin → Calendar Access → View History.
Troubleshooting also requires knowing the rules activated on the employee's policy. A balance may look incorrect even if it is calculated correctly according to the selected policy setup.
Applies To
This article applies to Payroll Admin and for follow-up on these balances:
Vacation
Extra balance, e.g. other vacation, OK days, or 6th vacation week
Hour bank
Day bank, e.g. senior days, child's day, extra days off
Prerequisites
You must have access to Payroll Admin.
You must have access to the employee's calendar via Calendar Access.
If you want to compare with reports, you must also have access to relevant reports in HR Statistics → Report Library.
Step-by-Step
Go to Payroll Admin → Calendar Access.
Open the employee's calendar.
Find the balance you want to investigate.
Click on View History.
Review the movements included in the balance.
Pay special attention to transfers, earning, manual adjustments, payouts, and planned days or hours.
Check the employee's Year Calendar. This shows all registrations for a calendar year. Note that vacation and extra balance are settled over a period, e.g. 1/9-31/12 (the following year).
Check which policy the employee is linked to. Click "View Employee Info" under the employee's name to see which policy the employee is attached to.
Check which rules are activated on the policy. Click: Setup Admin -> Modules -> open the policy the employee is attached to.
Optionally, compare with relevant reports in HR Statistics → Report Library.
Check if the report's period, filter, or month is selected correctly.
Check if the employee has changed policy, standard hours, or earning period.
If the balance still cannot be explained, the BitaBIZ support team will need the employee's name, email, and expected balance per month or year to investigate the case.
Important to Know
Payroll Admin has an overview of employees' balances via Calendar Access.
The overview shows the variables that make up a balance.
A balance can consist of:
Transferred from previous period, applies only to vacation and other vacation
Manual reductions
Manual increases
Manual payouts
Earning according to the earning rules attached to the employee's policy
Planned (Used) days or hours
These movements together form the employee's remaining balance.
Click on View History to see the history behind a balance. Here you can investigate which entries have affected the balance and when they were registered.
If you are investigating a vacation balance with monthly earning, you can also benefit from clicking View Balance per Month. This shows whether planned vacation days are included in the active vacation year or in the next vacation year.
Policy Setup Affects the Balance
When troubleshooting a balance, you should always check which rules are activated on the employee's policy.
The policy can, for example, control:
whether the employee can use days or hours before they are earned
whether the balance can go negative
how earning is calculated
which period the balance follows
whether remaining balance can be transferred to the next period or deleted (applies only to vacation and extra balance)
public holidays that are not included in the vacation calculation if vacation is booked over a public holiday.
Therefore, always check the employee's policy before assessing whether the balance is miscalculated.
Permissions and Access
This troubleshooting is aimed at Payroll Admin.
Employees and approvers have different views and different access rights than Payroll Admin. If an employee or manager cannot see a balance or report, Payroll Admin should first check the user's role and access.
FAQ
How do I investigate why a balance changes?
How do I investigate why a balance changes?
Start by choosing the right tool.
If you are investigating a single employee's balance, start in Payroll Admin -> Calendar Access and open the employee's calendar.
If you are investigating balances for multiple employees, use the Report Library.
Troubleshooting depends on the balance type:
Hour bank: Use the Week Calendar to see registered work hours, standard hours, and daily/weekly hour bank movements. Use "View History" to see other variable movements such as increases, reductions, payouts, and fixed earning.
Vacation: Use "View History" and the "Year Calendar" to check earning, usage, adjustments, payouts, and remaining processing. Use "Monthly Balance" to see if there are vacation days that are a combination of new and old days in the transition period.
Extra balance: Use "View History" and the "Year Calendar" to check earning, usage, adjustments, payouts, and remaining processing.
Day bank: Use the calendar, history, and setup to check registrations and balance movements.
If the balance still cannot be explained, use the Balance Log in the Report Library. The Balance Log shows the movements included in the balance.
What does a balance consist of?
What does a balance consist of?
A balance consists of movements such as transfers, earning, manual adjustments, payouts, and approved usage. You can see the movements via Calendar Access → View History. You can see all registrations in the Year Calendar.
Why doesn't the balance match?
Why doesn't the balance match?
Check the balance history. Pay special attention to transfers, earning, approved days or hours, manual adjustments, payouts, and the selected policy setup.
The vacation report shows something different than the balance in Calendar Access?
The vacation report shows something different than the balance in Calendar Access?
Check if the report shows the same period and the same month. The vacation report always shows vacation earning at the start-of-period of a month. Your policy may be set up for end-of-period earning. End-of-period earning moves the employee's earning one month forward. This means vacation earned in one month can only be planned in the following month. But in the vacation report - balance per month always shows earning at the start-of-period.
Why can a balance go negative?
Why can a balance go negative?
The vacation balance can go negative if the rules on the employee's policy allow it.
The extra balance cannot go negative.
The hour bank balance can go negative if the employee's work hours are on average below standard hours. Or if more time off is taken than earned.
The day bank balance can go negative if more minus days are planned than the balance earns.
Why isn't extra time added to the hour bank?
Why isn't extra time added to the hour bank?
Check if the employee's time registration is actually linked to the hour bank. An employee can have an hour bank balance without daily time registration automatically adjusting the hour bank.
Why isn't a day without time registration deducted from the hour bank?
Why isn't a day without time registration deducted from the hour bank?
The hour bank is affected by registered work hours or absence. If a working day is missing registration, it is not automatically treated as negative time.
A notification flow can be set up under Notifications & Rules -> Time Registration to send a message to the employee if a day is missing a registration.
Where can I see how the hour bank is calculated?
Where can I see how the hour bank is calculated?
Use Calendar Access -> Open the employee's calendar:
annual overview showing all registrations (plus and minus registrations)
weekly overview showing the hour bank's movements for a week. Here you can see the daily hour bank movements in the hour bank, as well as the week's total movement.
View History shows manual increases and reductions as well as any payouts or fixed earning.
Check the policy -> Working Week
Check the employee's standard hours. This is the basis for the ongoing calculation of the hour bank balance. Standard hours can be set up on the policy or the employee's master data card.
Check if ongoing earning is linked to the hour bank balance.
Use the Report Library -> Time Registration - with hour bank
The Balance Log shows all movements included in an hour bank balance, registrations, manual adjustments, payouts, earning.
Balance per selected month shows the total balance at the end-of-period of a selected month.
An employee's extra balance (e.g. other vacation, OK days) is calculated incorrectly. What could be the reason?
An employee's extra balance (e.g. other vacation, OK days) is calculated incorrectly. What could be the reason?
There is a difference between whether the extra balance is settled in hours or days.
Use Calendar Access -> Open the employee's calendar:
annual overview showing all registrations
View History shows manual increases and reductions as well as any payouts, registrations (Used), and fixed earning.
Check the policy -> Open the Other Vacation & Working Week tabs
Check the employee's standard hours if the balance is settled in hours. This is the basis for calculating the extra balance. Standard hours can be set up on the policy or the employee's master data card.
Check if remaining hours are automatically transferred or deleted at the end of the period
Regardless of whether the balance is settled in days or hours, you must enter the number of days the employee should earn per year. If settlement is set to hours, the system converts days to hours using the entered standard hours.
Use the Report Library -> Other Vacation
The Balance Log shows all movements included in an extra balance, registrations, manual adjustments, payouts, earning.
Balance per selected month shows the total balance at the end-of-period of a selected month.
An employee's vacation balance doesn't seem correct. What should I do?
An employee's vacation balance doesn't seem correct. What should I do?
Use Calendar Access -> Open the employee's calendar:
annual overview showing all vacation registrations
View History shows manual increases and reductions as well as any payouts, registrations (Used), and fixed earning.
Check the policy -> Open the Vacation tab
Check Rules. Is the employee attached to Max, Deduction, or Advance. These three methods affect how Availability is calculated.
Check Period. Is the employee attached to the correct settlement and earning period.
Use the Report Library -> Vacation
The Balance Log shows all movements included in a vacation balance, registrations, manual adjustments, payouts, earning.
Balance per selected month shows the total balance at the end-of-period of a selected month.
Should I check country-specific vacation rules when troubleshooting vacation balances?
Should I check country-specific vacation rules when troubleshooting vacation balances?
Yes. When troubleshooting vacation balances, you should always be aware of whether the employee's vacation policy follows country-specific rules. Rules for vacation year, earning, vacation left, decimal vacation, and how balances are displayed can vary from country to country.
If the employee follows a Danish vacation policy, pay special attention to the Danish vacation year's overlap between 1/9 and 31/12, vacation left, decimal vacation, and the difference between “Earned” and “Available”. See the article “Setup: Vacation Policy - the Danish Vacation Year”.
If the employee follows Norwegian or Finnish rules, note that Saturday may be set to count as a workday in the vacation calculation according to the standard rules for those countries.
Why doesn't the balance change when I change the working week, days off, or holidays on a policy?
Why doesn't the balance change when I change the working week, days off, or holidays on a policy?
Problem
An employee's registration does not count the expected number of days. For example:
A full vacation week only counts as 5 days, even though Saturday is now set as a workday.
A vacation day on a holiday is not counted after the holiday has been removed from the policy.
A registration is affected by a fixed day off that was later removed from the policy.
Reason
When an absence registration is created, it is calculated based on the policy settings that were in effect at the time of registration.
If you later change:
the working week (e.g., make Saturday a workday)
fixed days off
holidays
existing registrations are not automatically recalculated.
Historical registrations therefore keep the calculation that was valid when the registration was created.
Solution
If existing registrations need to follow the new settings, they must be re-registered.
Example
An employee registers a full vacation week while Saturday is marked as a day off in the policy. The registration therefore counts as 5 days.
If Saturday is later changed to a workday, the existing registration will still count as 5 days. Only new registrations will count as 6 days.
The same applies if a holiday or a fixed day off is later added or removed from the policy. Registrations that have already been created will not be recalculated.
An employee has changed country or vacation policy, and the vacation balance is incorrect. What could be the reason?
An employee has changed country or vacation policy, and the vacation balance is incorrect. What could be the reason?
If an employee has switched to a new policy with a different vacation period, for example from a Norwegian vacation policy with a calendar year to a Danish vacation policy with a 16-month planning year, the vacation balance may be affected.
The same applies if the employee changes country and thus gets new holidays. New holidays may overlap with vacation that was already registered under the old policy. Existing vacation registrations are not automatically recalculated according to the new holiday rules, because the registration was created based on the rules that applied at the time of registration.
Therefore, as a rule, the employee should have a new employee profile when the change means a new vacation period, new vacation rules, or a new country policy. The old profile is made inactive, and the new profile is created with the correct policy for the new country.
Therefore, check:
If the employee has changed policy.
If the new policy has a different vacation period.
If the employee has changed country and thus holidays.
If there were already vacation registrations in the calendar before the policy change.
If a new employee profile should have been created instead.
It is not recommended to correct this type of error by only making manual balance adjustments. Use the article “Change of Policy” to assess whether the employee should have a new profile.
Troubleshooting:
What you experience: The vacation balance is incorrect after a country or policy change
Typical reason: The employee has a new vacation period or new holidays on the existing profile
What you should check: Policy change, vacation period, holidays, and existing vacation registrations
What you expect to see: There may be a need for a new employee profile instead of a manual balance adjustment
An employee cannot register vacation. What could be the reason?
An employee cannot register vacation. What could be the reason?
If an employee cannot register vacation, it is typically due to rules in the employee's vacation policy, insufficient balance, or another registration in the same period. Or the employee is trying to register vacation back in time.
First, check:
If the employee has enough vacation days available.
If the max rule is enabled, so the employee can only use earned or allocated vacation days.
If there is already another registration type in the period that blocks vacation.
If the period consists only of holidays.
If the employee is covered by the correct vacation policy.
If the employee's policy has been changed, so access to absence has changed.
If the employee is new, and vacation days are only allocated after the employment start date or after an earning period.
If the employee is trying to register vacation back in time. Vacation must be planned on the day or in the future.
If it concerns advance vacation, the employee can only take vacation as long as the balance can be earned before the end of the vacation year. The balance must not become so negative that it cannot be balanced before the vacation year ends.
If the employee receives an error message, you should use the error message to find the specific reason.
Where can you see that time off has been balanced in the hour bank?
Where can you see that time off has been balanced in the hour bank?
Payroll Admin can troubleshoot hour bank balances via Calendar Access.
Go to: Payroll Admin → Calendar Access → Weekly View
In the weekly view, Payroll Admin can see the hour bank calculation day by day.
Here you can see, among other things:
the day's standard hours
registered work hours
registered absence
time off
how much the hour bank was adjusted each day
the total hour bank adjustment for the week
The weekly view is therefore the best place to check why an hour bank balance has gone up or down in a particular week.
If an employee has registered Time Off, you can see in the weekly view that the time off affects the hour bank as a minus:
If you need a complete list of registrations and postings, you can also use the report:
HR Statistics → Report Library → Time Registration - with Hour Bank
An employee's vacation balance is incorrect after a policy change
An employee's vacation balance is incorrect after a policy change
If a vacation balance looks incorrect after a policy change, it is often because the new policy is not compatible with the employee's historical registrations.
Typical reasons are:
1. The rules on the new policy are different
The new policy may have different rules than the old one, for example:
advance vacation is no longer allowed
a max limit has changed
earning rules have changed
Registrations that were valid under the old policy may therefore give an incorrect balance on the new policy.
2. The vacation or balance period has changed
If the new policy uses a different vacation or balance period than the old one, existing earnings and registrations can no longer be calculated correctly.
3. The date of employment has been moved forward
If the date of employment is changed so that there are registrations before the date of employment, the balance will be incorrect.
An employee must not have registrations before their date of employment.
When should a new employee profile be created?
In the above situations, it is recommended to create a new employee profile rather than changing the existing one.
This typically applies when the employee:
changes from hourly paid to fixed paid employee (new date of employment)
changes from one country to another (new vacation year, new period, and often new earning rules)
gets a new employment where the history no longer matches the new policy.
The old profile is kept as history, while the new profile starts with the correct rules.
Why doesn't previous months' vacation earning change when I change an employee's vacation policy?
Why doesn't previous months' vacation earning change when I change an employee's vacation policy?
If an employee has monthly vacation earning, changes to vacation earning only apply going forward.
This means that vacation already earned in previous months is not automatically recalculated when you change the employee's policy or number of vacation days per year.
Example:
If an employee's vacation earning is changed from 25 to 20 vacation days per year after the start of the vacation year, the months where earning has already been created with 2.08 days per month/25 days per year will continue to follow the old earning. Only future months' earning will follow the new setup:
If the change should apply back in time, the balance must be corrected manually.
Typical situations:
the employee changes from fixed paid employee to part time employee
the employee changes from part time employee to fixed paid employee
the employee should have more or fewer vacation days per year
the vacation policy is changed after the start of the vacation year
How to correct the balance:
Go to Payroll Admin → Employees → Calendar Access, open the employee's calendar from the drop down, use Increase or Reduce to manually correct the difference. Add a note to indicate why the balance was adjusted.
Important to know:
Historical earning is retained, so previous months will continue to reflect the policy that was in effect when the earning was created.