Introduction to handling vacation left

This article describes the process for handling vacation left when the vacation year changes.

The process involves transferring, paying out, or deleting leftover days
Processed vacation left (transferred, deleted, or paid out) is used in several places in the system:
- in the calculation of the vacation balance
- in Report: Vacation - Vacation left – per selected month
- in Report: Vacation - Balance log
- in the employee's calendar → View history

This article only covers how the process is carried out (Payroll admin → Vacation left transfer). The mentioned reports show the result of the process.

Note that vacation left can only be processed once the vacation year has ended.

An employee's vacation left is processed when a vacation year changes and therefore depends on the specific country's vacation law, vacation year, and setup. See more in the specific country articles.

Ways to handle vacation left at the end of the vacation year

Vacation left can be handled in three ways

Transfer vacation left
Pay out vacation left
Delete vacation left

All transferred and paid out leftover days are logged:

Vacation balance → View history
Report -> Vacation - Balance log
Report -> Vacation left per selected month

1. Transfer vacation left

Vacation left is transferred to the next vacation period.

The employee keeps their remaining days
The balance is added to the employee's starting balance in the next period

2. Pay out vacation left

Vacation left is paid out via the payroll system.

The system first transfers the leftover vacation days to the new vacation year
The payout reduces the balance and automatically sends the days for payment

3. Delete vacation left

Vacation left expires at the end of the period.

Days are deleted automatically
The employee loses the remaining days

How to process vacation left

As a payroll admin, you can handle vacation left. This is done under Payroll admin → Vacation left transfer:

Select the employee(s) with vacation left to be processed
Click Process selected users
Choose a method for handling vacation left
- Delete
- Pay out
  Enter the number of days to be paid out
- Transfer to next period
  Enter the number of days to be transferred to the next period
Click Execute

Example: Payout of vacation left days

If you want to pay out an employee's vacation left and the setting is set to max 5 days, the following happens:

The employee's vacation left is paid out with a maximum of 5 days – if the employee has less vacation left than 5 days, the amount they have left is paid out
If the employee has more than 5 vacation days left, the excess is deleted
The employees' balances are reduced using the Pay out method
Days reduced via payout are sent to the payroll file and can be transferred directly to your payroll system

FAQ

I accidentally transferred too many vacation left days – what should I do?

If too many vacation days were transferred during vacation left processing, the balance can be corrected manually via calendar access by reducing the excess days.

1. Identify the incorrect transfers

Go to:
HR Statistics → Report Library → Vacation → Balance log

Select Type = Transferred
Select the start date for the new vacation period (e.g. 1/1)

Transferred vacation days are always registered with the start date of the new period – even if the transfer was made later.

Export the report to Excel to get an overview of affected employees.

2. Correct the vacation balance

Go to:
Payroll Admin → Calendar access

For each affected employee:

Open the employee's calendar
Click Reduce at the vacation balance
Reduce the number of days that were transferred in excess
Add a note (e.g. “Incorrect transfer – corrected manually”)

The note is saved in View history and also appears in the balance log as documentation.

When the adjustment is saved, the vacation balance is automatically updated to the correct number of vacation days.

Tip:
You should only use calendar access to make manual adjustments for the affected employees.

Use Balance log or View history to document changes.

Can I transfer vacation left days more than once?

No. Vacation left can only be processed once per vacation period.

Once vacation left has been processed (transferred, paid out, or deleted), the days are removed from the vacation left list and cannot be processed again.

How do I handle employees who need both transferred and paid out vacation left?

If an employee needs both transferred and paid out vacation left days, you should first transfer the total number of vacation left days.

That means you transfer both:

the days to be kept
and the days that should later be paid out

After this, the payout is handled manually:

Pay out the number of days that should not be carried forward
The balance is reduced accordingly after the payout

The order is important: Always transfer first – then pay out.

Why can't I process vacation left?

This is usually due to one of the following:

There is no vacation left to process
Vacation left has already been processed (transferred, paid out, or deleted)
The vacation year has not yet ended
You do not have the necessary permissions

Vacation left can only be processed once per employee per vacation period.

Why doesn't an employee appear in the vacation left transfer?

If the employee does not appear in the vacation left transfer, it is usually due to one of the following:

The employee had no vacation left days at the end of the vacation year
The employee is assigned to a different vacation period
Manual adjustments have been made to the balance
There have been policy changes after the period change

To investigate further, you should check the employee's balance and history:

Go to: Payroll Admin → Calendar access → Open the employee → Click “View history” under the vacation balance.

In the history you can see:

balance at period change
transferred days
all transactions

Calendar access is the main place to check why an employee is not included in the vacation left transfer.

Payroll Admin: Processing Vacation Left