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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2024-10-04
FAQ: Time Off Balances

FAQ: Time Off Balances

What balances can Workday Absence Management track?
For time off plans configured to track balances, Workday calculates and displays these balances on various pages and reports:
Balance
Description
Accrual
Accrued time off for the balance period.
Time Off
Time off taken during the balance period.
Time Off Plan
Accruals less time off for the balance period.
Carryover
Number of hours or days employees have carried over from 1 time off plan balance period to the next.
You can specify the
balance period
 on the
Create Time Off Plan
 task.
How do I define balances in Workday Absence Management?
Workday automatically creates balances for accruals, time offs, the time off plan, and carryover, when you configure a time off plan as follows:
  • Enable balance tracking on the
    Balance
     tab of the
    Create Time Off Plan
     or
    Edit Time Off Plan
     task by selecting the:
    • Track Balance
       check box.
    • Period of time over which to accumulate balances in the
      Balance Period
       field.
  • Associate the accrual and time off calculations that add to and subtract from the plan balance on the
    Calculation
     tab.
Workday automatically carries over the unused balance of employee time off plans to the next plan year. You can limit or prevent carryover by entering a carryover
Limit
 when setting up the plan.
You can use the
Create Absence Balance
 task to calculate a balance that is different from the plan. Example: You have a balance period of a year for the time off plan, but you want 1 of the time offs to be 1 month. The Absence Balance task helps you define the time frame to calculate a balance.
How do I calculate and view carryover balances?
Workday calculates carryover balance values dynamically when you access a report or page, unless the carryover
Limit
 defined for the time off plan is zero. For optimal performance, use the
Schedule Time Off Calculated Balance Process
 task to create a schedule for calculating and storing balances on a regularly.
To view carryover balances, use these reports:
  • Carryover Balances for Organization (by Worker)
  • Carryover Balances for Organization (by Carryover Date)
    Don't use these reports for time off plans that have a carryover date that varies by worker. Example: Plans with a balance period that is based on employee anniversary dates.
What happens to balances when an employee is terminated?
You can configure whether to forfeit or pay out balances to employees. To have Workday automatically create a termination adjustment that zeros out the employee time off plan balance, see Steps: Enable Termination Adjustments for Time Off Plans.
How do I specify the balance period for time off plan, accrual, and time off balances?
Define the balance period for a time off plan on the
Create Time Off Plan
 and
Edit Time Off Plan
 tasks. Workday uses the balance period for a time off plan as the default balance period for the accrual and time off calculations that add to and subtract from the plan balance. Example: If the balance period for a vacation plan balance is year-to-date, the balance period for vacation accruals and time off is also year-to-date.
If you must sum the same accrual, time off, or time off plan balance hours over a different period of time, use the Create Absence Balance task to associate the accrual, time off, and time off plan balance calculations with a different balance period. Because Workday doesn't hard-code balance periods in the calculations, you can match the same calculations with different balance periods as needed.
Do I need to manually store balance values and accrual amounts?
Workday recommends that you store balance values and accrual amounts by manually scheduling processes that you customize for your time off plans and business requirements.
Workday does automatically store balances regularly, but only to ensure a minimum level of performance. As a best practice, manually configure your own processes to store balances.
When does Workday automatically store balances?
Workday automatically runs a process to store balances on the third Sunday of every month at 01:00:00 in your local time zone.
If the most recently stored balance date of a time off plan is:
  • Less than 13 months before the run date: Workday doesn’t store balances for that time off plan during that run.
  • Greater than 13 months before the run date: Workday stores balances as of 13 months before the run date and accrual amounts in the 6-month period before the stored balance date.
Why does the automatic process store balances as of 13 months before the run date?
The 13-month period allows for retroactive changes. Workday doesn't automatically recalculate balances for changes that are effective before the worker's last stored time off balance date such as:
  • Retroactive job changes.
  • Absence-related configuration. Example: Changes to accrual rates.
Why is the automatic process taking longer than usual?
Storing balances can take longer if you increase the volume or complexity of the data that Workday has to process.
Example: You add time off plans for a significant number of workers and don't manually schedule processes to store balances for them. The automatic process might take noticeably longer to run than it did before.
Will I notice anything when I use Workday while the automatic process runs?
No, the automatic process runs in the background and shouldn't slow down Workday while it runs.
What happens if the automatic process fails?
Workday continuously monitors the automatic process. If a process fails, Workday:
  • First checks for internal issues before investigating your tenant configuration.
  • Communicates any necessary configuration changes to you.
Does Workday adjust calculated balances for retroactive changes?
It depends on the type of retroactive change and whether the change is effective before or after the worker's last stored balance date:
Retroactive Change Type
Effective Before Worker's Last Stored Balance Date
Effective After Worker's Last Stored Balance Date
Job changes or configuration changes to time offs, accruals, or time off plans.
No, you must manually remove the balances stored after the change and recalculate balances as of a date before the change.
Example: You retroactively change Kevin's accrual rate, effective as of February 15. Workday most recently stored the balances of his time off plans as of March 1. As a result, you must manually remove his March 1 balances and recalculate his balances as of a date before February 15.
Yes.
Absence-related transactions, such as time off requests or corrections.
Yes.
Not applicable. In this case, Workday doesn't need to recalculate balances. Workday takes the retroactive change into account when calculating balances from the last storage point.
How do I know if my tenant performance is impacted in terms of calculating and loading absence balances?
You might notice that Absence-related landing pages, reports, and tasks are taking too long to load or complete. Example:
  • Viewing time off balances from your worker profile.
  • Requesting time off or absence.
  • Running pay calculations.
  • Generating payslips that reference absence balances.
  • Running integrations, EIBs, or web services that reference absence balances.
You might also experience time-out errors for Absence-related tasks.
When accessing reports that drive absence balances, if processing is taking too long, Workday requests that you output the results to your Drive.
If you experience performance issues related to absence, use the
View Schedules for Time Off Calculated Balance Process
 report to check whether you have schedules for storing time off balances. If not, create them.