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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2024-12-13
Setup Considerations: Accrual Adjustments and Overrides

Setup Considerations: Accrual Adjustments and Overrides

You can use this topic to make configuration decisions for accrual adjustments and overrides. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Accrual adjustments and overrides track, calculate, and adjust a worker's time off balance without the need for manual intervention.

Business Benefits

Accrual adjustments and overrides:
  • Build onto existing accrual functionality as needed.
  • Lower operational costs allocated to accrual adjustments.

Use Cases

  • Use adjustments and overrides when workers change or lose their accrual eligibility due to a change in employment status or change in collective agreement assignment.
  • Adjust a specific worker's accrual amount as part of their contract negotiations. This adjustment can require an override of the worker-based time off plan.
  • Automatically adjust a front-loaded accrual for floating holidays when a worker converts from part time to full time.
  • Transfer or pay out time off balances when workers become eligible for a different time off plan. Example: Workers move from a role with an hourly time off plan to 1 with a daily plan. Their existing balances, and future time off requests, transfer to the new time off plan. The units change from hours to days.
  • You can reward workers with additional time off for a length of time. Workers can also negotiate additional accrual to front load at the beginning of a period.

Questions to Consider

Question
Considerations
Do your part-time and full-time employees accrue at different rates?
You might need to do an accrual adjustment when employees change from 1 type to the other, or when employees' collective agreement assignment changes.
When do you schedule your accruals?
If your workers accrue time off at the end of each month, configure your lower limit calculation to enable workers to use their accrual before they accrue it. Workers can book time off even if they haven't accrued the requisite number of units.
Are you adding the adjustment retroactively?
If yes, retroactive adjustments can impact a worker's time off balance. Example: You increase a worker's accrual in April and the adjustment can apply for the remainder of the calendar year.
Do you want to adjust workers' accruals when they become eligible for a new time off plan in the middle of a balance period?
On the time off plan, you can configure an accrual with options such as:
  • Adjustments or overrides allowed.
  • Front-loaded
     or
    Based on As of Date
If you add the
Automated Accrual Adjustment
 service step to the
Change Job
,
Assign Collective Agreement
, or
End Collective Agreement
 business process, Workday adjusts the accrual for workers during the period if their accrual value changes. Changes are a result of a change job event when:
  • Workers gain or lose eligibility to the accrual itself.
  • Condition rules resolve differently. Example: A worker's time type or location changes.
When accrual calculations evaluate differently for workers in the middle of a balance period, after a change job event, the service creates an automated accrual adjustment that reflects the transfer date.

Recommendations

  • Configure accrue-as-you-go plans where time offs connect to Payroll Earnings and don't have a definable accrual calculation. Example: Workers generally accrue bereavement leave in an amount that matches their leave request rather than in weekly or monthly increments.
  • Set
    Accrual - Adjustments / Overrides Allowed
     for plans that accrue.
  • Don't set
    Accrual - Adjustments / Overrides Allowed
     for accrue-as-you-go plans.
  • Check for impacts on future-dated time off requests.
  • Rerun the
    Schedule Time Off Calculated Balance Process
     task when you add the adjustment retroactively. Example: Evaluate if a previously unpaid time off request requires payment.
  • When overriding a worker's accrual and balance, ensure that you configure your balance override to include the accrual amount. Example: You want to override a worker's balance at the start of a period to zero. They also accrue 5 hours at the start of that period. Set the balance override to -5 hours, or use the
    Maintain Accrual and Time Off Adjustments Overrides
     task to set the accrual to zero.
  • When you use the
    Maintain Accrual and Time Off Adjustments Overrides
     task to set an accrual override, specify an end date, where possible.
  • When creating accruals, consider mid-year hires. Example: You can create different accruals for workers with hire dates on or before the balance-period start date, and new workers with hire dates during the year. This is important when you don't want new hires to receive automated accrual adjustments. Create:
    • A
      Front-loaded
       accrual with a calculation that doesn't include proration for the periods before new worker hire dates, but allows adjustments and overrides, and responds to the
      Automated Accrual Adjustments
       service. Example: Full year entitlement for the time off plan is 30 days. You use eligibility overrides to ensure that only workers with hire dates on or before the balance-period start date are eligible.
    • An accrual with a calculation that prorates the time off plan balance from the new hire’s hire date to the end of the balance period. This ensures workers hired after the balance-period start date receive a reduced entitlement for the balance period. Select an
      Options
       value of
      None
       to prevent the
      Automated Accrual Adjustment
       service impacting the accrual for new hires. Use eligibility overrides to ensure that only workers with hire dates after the balance-period start date are eligible for the accrual. Example: New hires that join the organization half-way through the year receive half of the full year entitlement of 30 days, resulting in an accrued value of 15 days.
  • When creating accruals for mid-year hires that should receive automated accrual adjustments for
    Change Job
    ,
    Assign Collective Agreement
    , or
    End Collective Agreement
    , events within their first year, ensure that any conditions in the accrual calculation identify workers as mid-year hires and not just within the period they were hired. Example: Instead of using the delivered
    Scheduling: Worker Hired Mid-Period
     calculation, use a logic calculation such as
    Worker: Current Calendar Year Hire Date (Not Terminated in Current Period)
     for calendar-year balance periods and adjust as necessary for alternative balance periods. Taking this approach helps to avoid unexpected results in the automated adjustments for mid-year hires.

Requirements

Front-loaded accruals must use 1 of these schedules:
  • Front-loaded or annual - first period of year (based on period end date). Automatic proration can insert accruals.
  • Mid-period hire or termination.
  • Annual period schedule.

Limitations

  • You can't use front-loaded accruals or Based On as of Date accruals with position-based time off plans.
  • Automatic accrual adjustments for front-loaded accruals can apply to workers with hire dates that occur after the start date of a period, but might lead to unexpected results. Example: The start of the period that the front-loaded accrual uses is January 1, worker’s hire date is February 12. Automatic accrual adjustments apply if a worker changes jobs, using the
    Change Job
     business process, during the period. Example: If the worker changes jobs in August the accrual adjusts automatically based on their hire date in February.
  • The
    Automated Accrual Adjustment
     service on the
    Change Job
    ,
    Assign Collective Agreement
    , and
    End Collective Agreement
     business process creates adjustments for both position-based and worker-based time off plans. However, Workday doesn't display position references on the
    Automated Adjustments
     tab of the
    Maintain Accrual and Time Off Adjustments/Overrides
     task. Although the service creates automated accrual adjustments for positions, but not always for non-primary positions, Workday doesn't reflect the adjustments on the worker's balance.
  • You can't edit or delete time off plan accrual adjustments and overrides for terminated workers. When you don't specify an end date for an accrual override, if you rehire the workers, their overrides remain. This can cause incorrect absence balance and payroll calculations, resulting in the need to rescind the hire and termination, if your business process allows.
  • Automated accrual adjustments don't create adjustments that exceed the upper or lower limits for the time off plan.

Tenant Setup

No impact.

Security

Users with security enabled for the
Worker Data: Time Off (Adjustments and Overrides)
 domain in the Time Off and Leave functional area can set up adjustments and overrides.

Business Processes

Workday recommends that you add the
Automated Accrual Adjustment
 service step after the
Completion
 step on the:
  • Change Job
     business process
  • Assign Collective Agreement
     business process
  • End Collective Agreement
     business process

Reporting

Before you make an accrual adjustment or override, use the
Time Off Balance
 report to review the time off plan balance for the relevant worker. This report displays their current annual leave allowance of 20 days. Example: You want to grant a worker 25 days annual leave. You create the adjustment of +5 days.
You can use the
Accrual and Time Off Adjustments/Overrides
 report data source to create custom reports.

Integrations

The EIB based on the
Get Absence Inputs
 web service enables you to extract multiple time off plan overrides from Workday.
You can use the
Put Absence Input
 web service to override time off plan balances.

Connections and Touchpoints

Time off accrual adjustments impact any payroll calculations that reference the time offs. Example: Paid vacation and unpaid sick leave. You can time-limit retroactive time off accrual adjustments for Payroll or Time Tracking.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships across your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.

Other Impacts

Adjustments can impact:
  • Carryover balance.
  • Total accrual if the time off plan includes limits.