How to Record Parental Leave

According to the Holidays Act 2003, employees may continue to accrue annual holidays while on parental leave. An employee's time on parental leave is considered continuous employment, and taking parental leave does not affect the accrual of annual leave. Employees will still be entitled to a minimum of four weeks of annual holidays.

If an employee has unused annual holidays that they were entitled to before going on parental leave, the standard calculation for annual holidays applies to those holidays, regardless of when they are taken. These hours are paid at the higher of ordinary weekly pay or average weekly earnings at the time the annual holidays are taken.

If an employee becomes entitled to annual holidays:

• During parental leave, or
• Within the 12 months following their return from parental leave,

Their annual leave pay is calculated based on their average weekly earnings over the past 52 weeks, with no comparison to ordinary weekly pay. This means their leave pay rate may be lower.

It is important to record the employee’s actual leave hours within the employee timesheet so that the system can accurately calculate future annual leave pay rates.

From the "Time & Income" page, select "Parental Leave" from the "Action" dropdown menu. Enter the "Leave Hours", then click "Save".

You can save time by using "Leave Periods", which is available on the right-hand side of the "Time & Income" page.

This feature allows you to preload parental leave records within a specified date range.

Select "Leave Periods", then click "Add".

Set the leave type to "Parental Leave". Enter the leave start date and end date (or an estimated return date), then click "Save".

The leave record will be saved in the leave period, and the system will auto-populate the data when you open the pay period.