Leave balances - What is a balance and when do I assign one?

A balance must be recorded for all staff types to ensure their annual leave entitlement is correctly calculated. For casual and variable hours staff, their leave calculation will also be based on what leave they accrue on their hours approved.

Along with a 'Pay Code Access Group' and 'Work Schedule', a Balance must be assigned every time a new appointment is recorded, eg new starter, promotion, additional appointment, secondment, regrade, move from fixed-term to permanent contract etc.  

If you have assigned a balance and want to understand the system calculation further, refer to the 'Checking assigned balances' guidance. 

The Assign a balance section will explain how to assign a balance, but this section will provide an overview of which balance to assign.

The Balances titles are made up of:

• the individual’s role/ grade followed by their:
  • personal leave entitlement
  • observed UK bank holidays
  • observed University fixed closure dates
  • University long service rules.  

Note: The exception to this is TUPE balances which have a prefix of ‘TUPE’ followed by their previous employer and default weekly hours.

The personal leave entitlement stated in the balance title eg 27 days, refers to the total number of FTE days the individual has the ability to book.  This is the contractual number, eg 38 days entitlement, minus the bank holidays and fixed closure dates, which are automatically booked by the system.  
 

Please refer to the key below for key explanations on wording and abbreviations used in the balance titles, there is visual reference in the next section which states the specific bank holidays and fixed closure dates automatically booked by the system for the current leave year. 

The following table states which bank holidays and fixed closure dates are observed based on the titles of the balances available:  

System calculation

PeopleXD displays a holiday entitlement per staff appointment. This entitlement is calculated based on:

• the holiday balance assigned to their appointment (*see further details below).
• the point in which they join/ leave during a holiday year.
• their working pattern, eg if they are part-time or reduce/increase their hours during a holiday year.
• the specific bank holidays/ fixed closure dates deducted from their balance type.  
• the contract duration, eg is their contract is due to end in the current annual leave year.

* A holiday balance entitlement is made up of several functional/ configured elements within PeopleXD, which consist of: 

• Holiday scheme - the bank holiday and fixed closure dates observed.  
• Balance entitlement - default holiday leave entitlement, eg 38 days plus the default working hours per week, eg 36.5 and the default working hours per day, eg 7.3. 
• Long service entitlement - there are various rules based on the type of role/ grade and their eligibility.

System calculation vs University Policy (and University calculator)

The following briefly explains the difference in the University policy and the system calculation.  The University's holiday calculator matches the University's policy, which is generous in it's offering of bank holiday entitlement.  The system follows the industry standard, which less generous for bank holiday calculations.  This means that in most cases, there will be a difference in the calculation and you will need to make a balance adjustment to align to the University's policy.