March 27th 2024, Release Note: WFM UK | Payroll & Pensions: Carried-Over Holiday Added to Holiday Accrual Journal, Statutory Paternity Leave Enhancement

Summary

Release date for all features: March 27th 2024

Carried-Over Holiday Added to Holiday Accrual Journal

• Enabled by default? - Yes
• Set up by customer admin? - No
• Enable via support ticket? - No
• Affects configuration or data? - Yes, carried-over holiday values applied to accrual amounts in the export

What's Changing?

The Holiday Accrual Journal export is now inclusive of carried-over holiday values.

Reason for the Change

Legislation implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that holidays could be 'carried over' into following years. This legislation has and will remain in place, meaning Fourth has committed to updating reports and exports to include carried-over holiday.

Customers Affected

All customers using the Payroll module.

Release Note Info/Steps

To locate and run this export:

• Go to: Payroll > Reports > Exports > Holiday Accrual Export
• Enter search criteria and then select Run Export

Fig.1 - Holiday Accrual Journal Export page

• Once downloaded, open the file

Fig.2 - Holiday Accrual Journal export in Excel

- A 'Carry Over Holiday' column has been added to highlight the number of holidays carried into the holiday year.

- The 'Accrual' column has been updated to 'Accrual + Carry over holiday' so that carried-over holiday is included in employees' total holiday available to take.

Fig.3 - Holiday Accrual Journal Export (magnified) - 'Carry over holiday' and 'Accrual + Carry over holiday' columns

- The 'SalariedTakenNotAccrued', 'SalariedAccruedNotTaken', 'RotaPaidTakenNotAccrued', and 'RotaPaidAccruedNotTaken' columns have also been updated to include carried-over holiday into the calculations.

Fig.4 - Holiday Accrual Journal Export (Magnified) - 'Not Accrued' and 'Not Taken' columns for salary and rota-paid employees

Statutory Paternity Leave Enhancement

• Enabled by default? - Yes
• Set up by customer admin? - No
• Enable via support ticket? - No
• Affects configuration or data? - No

What's Changing?

The addition of a 'read-only' date range showing the period in which an employee can take their paternity leave.

Reason for the Change

In line with the new legislation, the Statutory Paternity Leave functionality has been updated so that employees taking paternity leave can book it within 52 weeks from the baby's birth date (unless born earlier, in which case 52 weeks from the due date). Upon the initial release of updates to the Statutory Paternity Leave functionality, there was no way to see what that 52-week range looked like. 

Customers Affected

All customers using the Payroll module.

Release Note Info/Steps

To see this new date range, go to:

• Payroll > Employees > Employee List > search for and select an Employee
• Go to Employee Payroll Info > Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay
• Create a Paternity Record - for guidance please see this previous release note

Upon review of the Paternity Record, a new read-only field called 'SPL Leave Period' will be available (see Fig.5). This range will calculate 52 weeks from the Baby Due Date.

Fig.5 - Paternity Pay record with new SPL period

If the Baby Born Date ends up being before the due date, the 'SPL Leave Period' will be from the Baby Born Date to the (Baby Due Date + 52 Weeks). 

 Please note: Whilst this does mean the SPL Leave Period would be more than 52 weeks, the legislation does dictate  that 'Leave must finish within 52 weeks of the birth (or due date, if the baby is early).'

Fig.6 - Paternity Pay Record with new SPL Leave Period