Shift of the vacation year HRM Payroll: April - What do I need to do before the shift of the vacation year?

Procedure for the shift of the vacation year on 1 April

Import template and import file for changed annual leave agreement and/or annual leave entitlement
 
Import template and import file for payment of excess days

Checklist for shift of the vacation year

Procedure for the shift of the vacation year on 1 April

1. Create the payroll run for April and collect/register all absence for March. It is common to do the shift of the vacation year in the ordinary April payroll run so that the new holiday days appear on the payslip; in this case, vacation calculation is done as the last step in the April payroll run.

   Alternatively, the shift of the vacation year can be done in an extra payroll run for all employees without importing any payroll transactions; the advantage of this is having more time for reconciliation and controls before implementing the changes for annual leave.

2. In the ordinary April payroll run, take out a vacation debt report under Payroll > Debt management, using the calculation type Reconciliation of the shift of the vacation year, to prepare for and check the shift of the vacation year.

   
   
   
   Click on Calculate.
   
   
   You will then get a specification that you can check. If you click on Value or the field Days for each employee, you can see how the calculation was made.
   
   
   
   
   You can also generate the report Vacation balance (via Reports > Payroll > vacation balance) to get an overview of the employees’ remaining holiday days before the shift of the vacation year.
   
   If the employee has had varying contractual working hours during the accrual period that will affect the holiday pay, an average contractual working hours is calculated for the entire accrual period, ie. contractual working hours * number of calendar days that employment rate applied. The values are then summed and divided by the total number of calendar days in the vacation debt period. Days with 100% absence do not affect the calculation. See calculation example below:
   
   Please note that any absence part time may be set in the annual leave agreement to be included in the calculation as well.
   
   Under Administration > Actions processed > Annual routines > Shift of the vacation year there is the function for making a shift of the vacation year.
   
   Here you first create a specification for the shift of the vacation year.
   
   
   
   When you click on Create a specification is created that you can then review and check.
   
   
   
   
   When you scroll to the right in the specification you see all the parameters that form the basis of the holiday calculation.
   
   
3. A red highlight on the left, to the left of the employee column, indicates if the employee has excess annual leave according to the annual leave agreement. In the right-hand columns you can also see which days the system is warning for.
   
   
   
   
   If there are remaining holiday days/saved days from the last year that can no longer be saved, it is common to pay them out before the shift of the vacation year. This should then be done in the ordinary April payroll run by manually entering the pay code for vacation payment in the payroll processing or, alternatively, by creating and importing a file in the payroll preparation (see the section on Import template and import file for payment of excess days further down in this article).
   
   If the employee is to be paid the current year's paid days, you need a separate pay code so that these are settled against the correct balance, i.e. the current year's paid days rather than saved days.
   
   
   
   If payment is not done in the ordinary run for April, all days will be moved to saved days; the remaining paid days for the year will be placed on saving year 1 and, when payment is made in upcoming payroll runs, saved days from the last saving year are paid out first, the second to last year in the second hand, etc. This means you may have to adjust the balances for saved days before or after the payment is made to ensure the correct allocation across the saving years.
   
   Before payment:
   
   
   After payment of 4 days belonging to saving year 1 (i.e. not yet taken paid days) + 5 days from saving year 2018 (all have been settled against saving year 2019 and 2020) if no adjustment of balances has been made.
   
   
   
   We therefore recommend paying out excess paid days in the ordinary payroll run, but you can wait until a later payroll run to pay out the excess saved days.
   
   Please note! If you have paid out excess holiday days, it is important that you update the specification for the vacation change by completing the specification. This is important so that the number of annual leave days paid out is reduced, and so that the employee does not get too many days when applying the change. You can do this for all employees or only for those you paid out holiday for by making a selection during completion.
   
   
4. If the shift of the vacation year is to be done in an extra payroll run, you now reconcile the ordinary payroll run. Then you create an extra payroll run where you include all employees but no transactions. (If the shift is done in the ordinary payroll run, payroll is not to be reconciled, continue with step 6).
   
   
   
   
5. Now go back to Shift of the vacation year to do the final check and apply the shift of the vacation year.
   
   When you have reviewed the specification, click on Check all, or tick employees one at a time as inspected directly in the list. You can remove the check mark if you want to adjust something as long as the vacation change has not been applied.
   
   
   
   
   When everything is done, click on Apply the specification and the shift of the vacation year is done. The employees have now received their new days, which you can see both in the employee register and in payroll preparation.
   
   
6. The last step is now to settle the preliminary payroll run. If you also use HRM Time, we recommend exporting the vacation balances there so that employees can immediately see their new annual leave days in the time report balances. This is normally done immediately on settlement of the payroll run.
   
   After this the vacation change is completed!
   
   

Import template and import file for updating the annual leave agreement / annual leave entitlement in the employee register

If you have employees with changed annual leave agreements/entitlements in connection with the shift of vacation year, you can import this change into the employee register using an import template and import file.

Import template

The import template is set up under Administration > Settings > Import/export > Import templates.

Select Import type: Employees - Users, fill in the field delimiter and any number of rows to be skipped (= header rows), and choose the fields to be imported.

Please note: as the date for the annual leave agreement is managed via the employment period, you must first create a new employment period with the effective date in the employee register. Include this date in the import.

Example showing an import template for reading a file of comma-delimited (csv) type where the top row is a header that should not be imported:

Import file

Create an import file matching the import template and save it in .csv format.

In the example, we have an employee who from the shift of the vacation year 2026 receives a new annual leave entitlement of 32 days instead of the previous 30. The annual leave agreement remains the same as before and does not need to be changed; instead, the new entitlement will create a personal discrepancy on the existing agreement. Therefore, the annual leave agreement field is left blank.

Import file

Import your file under Actions processed > Service routines > Import.

Select your import template and the saved import file, then click Import.

Import template and import file for payment of excess days

To import a file with the days to be paid out due to not being allowed to save them, you need an import template and a file with the number of days to be paid out.

Import template

The import template is set up under Administration > Settings > Import/export > Import templates.

Select Import type: Payroll transactions - ongoing import, fill in the field delimiter and any rows to be skipped (= header rows) and choose the fields to be imported.

Example showing an import template for reading a file of comma-delimited (csv) type where the top two rows are headers that should not be imported:

Import file

Then download the shift of the vacation year list in Excel to create an import file.

You can now edit the Excel file.

If there are days for payment in all three columns (Paid days, Saved days last year, Total saved days) you will need to create three import files (see below) and import them to the payroll preparation.

Delete all columns except for Employee and the excess annual leave days. Leave the two header rows as they are.

Add an empty column before each balance where you will fill in the pay code for payment.

Then remove the employee's name in column A so that only the employee number remains.

Finally, save the file as a comma-delimited file.

Alternatively, you can create a file where you move down Saved days last year and Total saved days to new rows and add employee number and correct pay code. Then you only need to import the file once.

Complete the payroll run where the days are to be paid, click on New file and select your csv file and the import template. Then click on Completing payroll run. Now the paid days in column C are imported to payroll.

To import the remaining days in columns D-G, you need to create new versions of the file.

Open your import file and delete columns B & C (Paid days) so that the file now contains the pay code and amount for saved days in columns B & C instead. Resave the file as csv with a new name (e.g. Saved last year) and import it again. Now the saved days from the last saving year will be imported.

Open the import file again and once more, delete columns B & C (Saved days last year) so that the file now contains the pay code and amount for Total saved days in columns B & C. Resave the file as csv with a new name (e.g. Total saved) and import again. Now the saved days that are over the maximum for saved days are imported.

Checklist for shift of the vacation year

When the change is applied in the ordinary payroll run:

• Start ordinary payroll run and import discrepancies
• Create vacation debt report "Reconciliation of the shift of the vacation year"
• Create a specification for the shift of the vacation year
• Pay out excess days
• Complete, check, and apply the shift of the vacation year
• Settle the payroll run and export balances to Time

When the change is applied in an extra payroll run after the ordinary run:

• Start ordinary payroll run and import discrepancies
• Create vacation debt report "Reconciliation of the shift of the vacation year"
• Create a specification for the shift of the vacation year
• Pay out excess days
• Settle the payroll run
• Open an extra payroll run
• Complete, check and apply the shift of the vacation year

• Settle the extra payroll run and export balances