What's covered in this guide?
What are Starting Balances?
'Starting Balances' refer to the total Leave entitlement an employee receives at the start of their Leave Year. This can either be:
0 Hours or 0 Days for 'Hourly' Employees
Prorated entitlement for 'Part Time' employees
Yearly entitlement for 'Salaried'/'Full Time' Employees
Why use Starting Balances?
'Starting Balances' were introduced to provide additional insights for the Leave Balance Report as it allows users to visualise a complete understanding of their employees leave balances.
The types of balances the Workforce stores are:
The Starting Balance:
This can be at the start of the leave year or start of employment
The Current Balance:
The employees current available balance.
This is calculated as ((Starting Balance + Accrued Leave + Manual Adjustments) - Leave Taken)) = Current Balance
How are Starting Balances Calculated?
Workforce will store the Starting Balance for an employee and use this to automatically calculate the 'Current Balance'.
How to set an employees 'Starting Balance'
There are various ways to set a Starting Balance for an employee:
Individual instructions are below:
Employee Profile
To set an employee's starting balance from their profile:
Navigate to Staff.
Select the employee.
Open the Leave Balances tab.
Click + Add Leave Balance.
Select the appropriate Leave Type.
Enter the employee's Starting Balance.
Click Submit.
Once saved:
A leave balance is created for the selected leave type.
The employee's current balance is automatically calculated.
Any future accruals, leave taken, or manual adjustments will update the balance automatically.
💡 Tip: This method is best suited for updating individual employees.
Update starting balances from the Leave Balance Report
Starting balances can also be managed directly from the Leave Balance Report.
To update a starting balance:
Naviagte to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Balance Report
Locate the employee and leave type.
Double-click the Starting Balance cell.
Enter the new balance.
The employee's Current Balance will update automatically using the new starting balance.
📝 Important to note: Every starting balance update is recorded in the employee's balance history.
Import starting leave balances in bulk via CSV
Use CSV import when you need to update starting balances for multiple employees at once.
Before you begin
Before importing starting balances:
Ensure your Leave Year has been configured.
Confirm the required Leave Type has been created.
Prepare the starting balances for each employee.
📝 Important to note: Starting balances are imported separately for each Leave Year and Leave Type.
To import starting leave balances:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Balances
Select the Leave Year using the drop-down menu in the top-right corner.
Under Import starting balances, select the Leave Type.
Click Download template.
Open the downloaded CSV file and update the Starting Balance column for each employee.
Save the completed file.
Return to the Import starting balances page.
Upload the completed CSV.
Click Upload Starting Balances.
Once the import is complete, you'll receive a confirmation message showing how many balances were successfully imported.
Understand the import template
The downloaded CSV contains the following columns:
Column | Description |
Employee | The employee's name. |
Employee ID | The employee's unique identifier. |
Leave Type | The leave type being imported. |
Unit | Indicates whether the leave type uses Hours or Days. |
Starting Balance | Enter the employee's starting balance. |
📝 Important to note:
Do not edit the Unit column. It tells Workforce whether the leave type uses hours or days. Changing this value will cause the import to fail.
Only update the Starting Balance values before uploading the file.
Import balances for a future leave year
You can prepare balances before a new leave year begins.
To do this:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Balances
Select the future Leave Year.
Download the template for the required leave type.
Enter each employee's starting balance.
Upload the completed CSV.
These balances will automatically become available when that leave year begins.
💡 Tip: Importing balances ahead of time allows employees to submit leave requests for the upcoming leave year using their correct entitlement.
Download leave balance history
You can download a complete history of an employee's leave balance for a selected leave year.
To download the history:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Balances.
Select the appropriate Leave Year.
Under Download history, select the employee.
(Optional) Select a location.
Click Download CSV.
The exported file includes:
Starting balance
Accruals
Leave requests
Manual adjustments
Balance before and after each transaction
The reason for each balance change
This provides a complete audit trail of how the employee's current balance was calculated.
FAQs & Troubleshooting
Why did my import fail?
Why did my import fail?
Imports may fail if:
The Unit column has been modified.
Required columns have been removed.
The file format has been changed.
Invalid values have been entered for the starting balance.
Download a new template and try again.
Can I import balances for next year's leave?
Can I import balances for next year's leave?
Yes. Select the future Leave Year before downloading the template and importing your balances.
Do I need to import balances for every leave type?
Do I need to import balances for every leave type?
Yes. Starting balances are imported separately for each leave type.
What's included in the balance history export?
What's included in the balance history export?
The export includes:
Starting balance
Leave requests
Accruals
Manual adjustments
Other balance changes
The balance before and after each transaction
This provides a complete audit trail of how an employee's leave balance was calculated.