WFM UK | HR & Payroll: Configuring CSP Entitlements

Return to: WFM UK | HR & Payroll: Absence (Sickness)

Overview

Company Sick Pay (CSP) is used where an organisation pays absent employees at a rate above Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), such as full or half salary. This article walks through how to configure CSP entitlements within a contract. For guidance on creating contracts and assigning them to job titles and employees, refer to the dedicated contracts article.

CSP entitlement can be configured in one of two ways, as a fixed number of days, or as a number of weeks. Where weeks are used, an employee's individual entitlement is calculated based on their Full Time Equivalent (FTE), or for flexible employees, their average days per week based on a 52 week average. Entitlements can also be set to increase with length of service, allowing employees to accrue a greater entitlement over time.

For more information on creating and assigning contracts:

• WFM UK: HR: Creating and Assigning Contracts

For more information on assigning Absence Types to Overtime or Lieu Hours configurations, also via Contracts:

• WFM UK: Configuring Overtime and Lieu Hour Settings

Contents

• User Access Permission
• Configuring Company Sick Pay
  • Eligibility & Timing Settings
  • Entitlement Configuration
• Employee CSP Override (Entitlement)

• CSP Entitlement Calculation Breakdown

• Negative Balance Handling

User Access Permission

To configure CSP within a contract, users will need the Contracts permission set to Full Access, located under the Administration group within their HR Module User Profile.

This permission can be found at: 

• HR Module > Users > Assign User Access > Find & Select User > User Profile
• There are three levels to this permission:
  • No Access - Contracts menu option is hidden entirely
  • Read Only - Contracts are visible but cannot be created or edited
  • Full Access - Contracts can be viewed, created, and edited in full

Configuring Company Sick Pay

To configure Company Sick Pay, go to:

• HR Module > Company Admin > Contracts
• Select an existing contract, or create a new one
• Hover over the drop-down arrow, and select Absence Settings

Eligibility & Timing Settings

The following settings determine when CSP becomes payable for an employee and over what period entitlement is measured and reset:

Is CSP paid during probation period?

• When enabled, CSP will be available to be paid from the employee's first day of employment. When disabled, CSP will not be paid until the day after the employee's probation period ends. The system determines the probation end date using the following order of precedence:

• The Probation End Date set on the employee's Employment Details page, which is typically derived automatically from the default probation period configured in Global Settings
• If no Probation End Date is set at employment level, the system calculates the end date by adding the Months before CSP Eligibility value configured on the contract to the employee's start date
• If neither of the above are present, the employee's start date is used as the probation end date, meaning CSP becomes payable from the first day of employment

Absent waiting Day to start paying CSP

• Defines the point within an absence from which CSP will begin to be paid. The available options are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th absent day, meaning any days before the selected point will not attract CSP payment.

  • This setting was originally to align CSP waiting days with SSP waiting days. Following the removal of SSP waiting days in April 2026, this setting is retained for customers who wish to continue applying a waiting period before CSP becomes payable.

Absence Period Based On

Determines the period whereby CSP entitlement resets for an employee. The following options are available:

• Rolling Absence Period - CSP Entitlement is calculated over a rolling period rather than resetting on a fixed date. When selected, a follow-up field, of the same name, becomes editable to define the length of the rolling period in weeks.

• Start Date Anniversary - CSP Entitlement resets annually on the anniversary of the employee's start date.

• Probation End Date Anniversary - CSP Entitlement resets annually on the anniversary of the employee's probation end date.

• Holiday Year - Entitlement resets in line with the organisation's configured holiday year. The day and month are displayed automatically based on the holiday year end date set at Global level, and cannot be amended at Contract Level. The Holiday Year can be reviewed here:
  • HR Module > Administration > Global Settings > Edit Default Holiday Settings > Year End

• Financial Year - Entitlement resets on a configured financial year date. The day and month can be set at contract level. 

  • Whilst the financial year is likely to be consistent across an organisation, this must be configured separately on each contract.

• Calendar Year - Entitlement resets on 1st January each year. The date is fixed and cannot be amended.

Entitlement Configuration

The following settings determine how much CSP entitlement an employee receives. Entitlement can be configured as a fixed allowance in days or weeks, or structured to increase incrementally based on the employee's length of service:

Is pay based on length of service?

• When enabled, CSP entitlement is determined by the employee's length of service rather than a fixed allowance, with entitlement increasing incrementally as the employee's service grows. When disabled, a fixed entitlement is applied regardless of how long the employee has been with the organisation.

The following settings cover both configurations, starting with fixed entitlement before covering length of service increments.

Entitlement defined as

Determines whether CSP entitlement is configured in days or weeks.

• Days - A fixed entitlement is entered directly in days, with the option to include half day entitlements. If an employee has this contract assigned, their individual CSP Entitlement will be as defined in the Absence Settings of the contract:

• Weeks - Entitlement is entered as a number of weeks (to two decimal places) and is automatically converted into a days entitlement downstream, calculated based on the employee's working pattern.
  • For full time, part time and flexible employees, the FTE Days value is multiplied by the number of CSP weeks entitlement to produce a days figure. For example, an employee with an FTE of 5 days and a CSP entitlement of 2 weeks would receive 10 days of CSP entitlement.

1. Employment-level FTE override, if present (Override FTE on Employment Details)
2. Job title FTE configuration
3. Default assumption of 5 days per week

Length of Service Increments

• When entitlement is based on length of service, the same days or weeks configuration applies as described above, but entitlement is defined separately for each length of service increment rather than as a single fixed allowance. Where length of service is enabled, the fixed entitlement fields described in the previous section become unavailable and the length of service increments must be completed instead.
• As an employee's length of service reaches each increment, their entitlement increases immediately
• Where entitlement is configured in days, each increment specifies a fixed number of days and optionally half days. 
• Where entitlement is configured in weeks, each increment specifies a number of weeks which is converted to a days entitlement using the same FTE or 52 week average calculation outlined in the previous section.

Use Half Days for Part Day Absences in Hours

• Where an absence type is configured as Absence in Hours with CSP payments enabled, individual days within an absence record can be flagged as Part Day. When this setting is enabled, a Part Day absence will consume and pay 0.5 days of CSP entitlement, rather than a full day. If disabled, no CSP Entitlement will be used or paid in the event of a Part Day absence.

Employee CSP Override (Entitlement)

Where a customer needs to set a specific CSP entitlement for an individual employee that differs from what the contract configuration would calculate, the CSP Allowance Override allows the entitlement to be set manually at employee level, bypassing the contract configuration entirely.

This can be useful where an employee has a unique entitlement agreement, or where a one-off adjustment is required without changing the underlying contract.

To access the CSP Override, go to: 

• HR Module > Employees > Employee List > Find & Select Employee > Employee Info > Absences > CSP Override

• Payroll Module > Employees > Employee List > Find & Select Employee > Employee HR Info > Absences > CSP Override

Override CSP Allowance - Tick to enable the override for this employee. Once enabled, the fields below become available.

Year Start Date - Defines the start of the CSP year for this override. The override will apply from this date, using the contract's configured Absence Period Based On setting to determine the length of the CSP year.

Year End Date - Displays the end date of the CSP year, or Indefinite where the override is set to persist.

Full Days Allowance - The number of full days CSP entitlement to grant the employee. Must be a whole number and cannot be zero.

Half Days Allowance - The number of half days CSP entitlement to grant the employee. Must be a whole number and cannot be negative. Both Full Days and Half Days cannot be zero at the same time.

Persist This Override Into Future CSP Years - Where ticked, the override will continue to apply at each CSP year end and renewal, rather than reverting to the contract-configured entitlement. Where left unticked, the entitlement will revert to the contract-configured amount at the end of the CSP year.

The bottom of the CSP Allowance Override screen displays a full history of all overrides applied to the employee, showing the year start date, the date the change was made, the old and new full and half day values, how long the override applies until, and the user who made the change.

CSP Entitlement Calculation Breakdown

The CSP Entitlement Calculation pop-up provides a full breakdown of how an employee's CSP entitlement has been determined, showing the employment details, contract settings, and entitlement calculation in one place. It is particularly useful for understanding why an employee has a specific entitlement, or for troubleshooting where entitlement does not appear as expected.

To access the CSP Entitlement Calculation pop-up, navigate to either:

• HR Module > Employees > Employee List > Find & Select Employee > Employee Info > Absences
• Payroll Module > Employees > Employee List > Find & Select Employee > Employee HR Info > Absences

Then select the icon next to the CSP Entitlement figure.

The pop-up is split into three sections:

Employment & FTE Details

Displays the key employment information used in the CSP entitlement calculation, including:

• Employment Type
• Start Date
• Time Employed (Months)
• Probation End Date
• Probation Status
• Job Title FTE Days, Hours, and Shifts
• Whether FTE has been overridden at employment level

CSP Settings

Displays the CSP configuration from the employee's assigned contract, including:

• Contract name
• Whether CSP is paid during probation
• CSP Waiting Period
• Absent Waiting Day to Start Paying CSP
• Whether Half Days are used for Part Day absences
• Whether entitlement is based on Length of Service
• Absence Period Based On
• Rolling Period in Weeks (where applicable)
• Entitlement Defined As (Days or Weeks)

CSP Entitlement

Displays the calculated entitlement position, including:

• Whether entitlement has been overridden at employee level
• Full Days Entitlement, showing the overridden value where applicable
• Weeks Entitlement
• Days Entitlement Calculation, showing the full calculation used to arrive at the entitlement figure, for example: 5 (FTE Days) × 5 (Weeks Entitlement) = 25, rounded up to 25 Days

At the bottom of the pop-up, a summary bar displays the employee's Total CSP Entitlement, Days Taken, and CSP Remaining.

Negative Balance Handling

Where changes are made to a contract's CSP configuration, or where an employee-level CSP override is applied, there is a risk that the updated entitlement may be lower than the number of CSP days already taken within the current absence period. For example, reducing an employee's entitlement from 20 days to 10 days where they have already taken 15 days would result in a negative balance.

The system surfaces this risk in two ways:

• Warnings - Where a change would result in a negative CSP balance, the system will display a warning to alert the user before saving.

• Breakdown - The CSP Entitlement Calculation Breakdown will reflect the negative position, giving full visibility of the entitlement, days taken, and remaining balance.

It is recommended that any changes to CSP entitlement, whether at contract or employee level, are reviewed carefully against the employee's existing absence history for the current period before being saved.

Return to: WFM UK | HR & Payroll: Absence (Sickness)