What's covered in this guide?
What does automating statutory entitlements do?
If you give staff the UK statutory holiday entitlement, you can let Workforce set up their holiday balances for you. Choose Automate Statutory Leave Balance Behaviour for this Leave Type when you set up a leave type.
You then choose whether the leave balance accrues or deducts:
Leave balance accrues: the balance starts at 0 and builds up at 12.07% of every ordinary hour worked. This suits zero-hour, casual and shift-based staff.
Leave balance deducts from a Starting Balance: the balance starts with the statutory entitlement of up to 28 days, and leave is taken from it. This suits salaried, full-time and regular-hours staff.
Why 12.07%? Everyone is entitled to 5.6 weeks’ holiday a year. That leaves 46.4 working weeks (52 − 5.6), and 5.6 is 12.07% of 46.4.
Why 28 days? The statutory minimum for someone working 5 days a week is 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days, including bank holidays.
Before you start
Enable Leave Years must be on. You’ll find it in Settings > Feature Management. It’s on by default for UK accounts.
Workforce Payroll customers: leave types created here don’t export to Workforce Payroll. Set up payroll leave types in Payroll instead. See Leave Types (UK Payroll).
Set up Automatic Statutory Entitlements
To set up Automatic Statutory Entitlements, create a new leave type via:
Go to Time & Attendance > Compliance > Customise Your Setup, then click Manage next to Leave types.
Click New, or open an existing leave type.
Fill in 1. Basic Leave Details and 2. Costing Configuration.
In 3. Balance Configuration, choose Automate Statutory Leave Balance Behaviour for this Leave Type.
Under Does this leave balance accrue, or is it deducted from a Starting Balance?, choose Leave balance accrues or Leave balance deducts from a Starting Balance.
Complete 4. Advanced Settings and save.
💡 Tip: To show and request the leave in days instead of hours, tick View and request this leave type in days in 4. Advanced Settings. To give staff a new balance each leave year, turn on the option to reset the balance at the start of the leave year in the same step.
To learn more about automatic deductions or automatic accruals, see here.
How deducting leave types work
Each employee gets a starting balance based on the days they’re contracted to work:
5 or more days a week: 28 days.
Fewer days: 5.6 × their contracted days a week. For example, someone contracted for 3 days a week gets 16.8 days.
The entitlement is capped at 28 days. In hours, it’s those days × the employee’s contracted hours per day, so someone who works long days can get more than 224 hours. If an employee has no contract, they get 224 hours.
If someone starts partway through the leave year, their entitlement is prorated from their start date. If their contract changes, the entitlement is recalculated for the current and future leave years.
You can also tick Create future approved time-off for Bank Holidays to book upcoming bank holidays as approved leave automatically. This only works if Leave applies on in 1. Basic Leave Details includes public holidays.
How accruing leave types work
Each employee starts with a balance of 0, which builds up at 12.07% of every ordinary hour they work.
Hours are added to the balance when the timesheet is exported. If the timesheet is unlocked again, those hours are taken back off.
You can also tick Accrue leave when taking leave of this type, so employees keep building up holiday while they’re on holiday.
Accrue holiday during statutory leave
You can choose whether an accruing holiday leave type keeps building up while an employee is on statutory leave, such as maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, bereavement, neonatal care or sick leave (SSP).
Open the leave type and go to 3. Balance Configuration.
Make sure Leave balance accrues is selected.
Tick Accrues during statutory leave.
Save the leave type.
Approved statutory leave then builds up the holiday balance at the same rate as hours worked: 12.07% if you automate it, or the accrual rate you set if you configure it manually.
📝 Note: This is off by default, so turn it on for each holiday leave type that should keep accruing. It only shows on leave types that accrue, not ones that deduct.
This only applies to leave set up as statutory leave, with a statutory pay type. Ticking the box doesn’t change balances that already exist. It applies to timesheets exported from then on.
Who gets a balance automatically?
Balances are only created automatically if the leave type applies to tagged staff. They’re created for employees who have one of those tags.
For deducting leave types, employees also need:
an employment start date, and
a leave year start date, either on their profile or set for your organisation in Settings > Time Off.
When you save an automated leave type, Workforce creates the missing balances in the background. Employees who already have a balance for this leave type keep their existing balance.
Custom accrual rates or starting balances
If you give more than the statutory entitlement, choose Manually Configure Leave Balance Behaviour for this Leave Type instead. You can then set your own Leave accrual rate or Starting Balance Entitlement, and choose whether to Automatically create a balance of this type for employees.
Leave accrual rate is in hours of leave per hour worked. For 12.07%, enter 0.1207, not 12.07.
Starting Balance Entitlement is in hours.
⚠️ Important: Leave types use the rate or entitlement saved on them. If your policy or the law changes, review your leave types and update them yourself.
FAQs and Troubleshooting
Why can’t I see Automate Statutory Leave Balance Behaviour?
Why can’t I see Automate Statutory Leave Balance Behaviour?
Check that Enable Leave Years is on in Settings > Feature Management. The UK balance options only show when it is.
Why hasn’t an employee got a holiday balance?
Why hasn’t an employee got a holiday balance?
Check:
the leave type applies to tagged staff, and the employee has one of those tags
for deducting leave types, they have an employment start date, and a leave year start date on their profile or in Settings > Time Off
Balances are created in the background, so give it a few minutes after saving.
Why is a part-time employee’s entitlement less than 28 days?
Why is a part-time employee’s entitlement less than 28 days?
Deducting leave types give 5.6 weeks of the days each employee is contracted to work. For example, someone contracted for 3 days a week gets 16.8 days. If their contract changes, their entitlement is recalculated.
Why hasn’t an accruing balance gone up after a shift?
Why hasn’t an accruing balance gone up after a shift?
Accruing balances update when the timesheet is exported. If the timesheet hasn’t been exported yet, or was unlocked, the hours won’t show in the balance.