How to Record Parental Leave

According to Holidays Act 2003, employees may still accrue annual holidays whilst on parental leave. An employee's time on parental leave is included as continuous employment and the taking of parental leave does not affect accrual of annual leave. The employee will still be entitled to a minimum of four weeks of annual holidays. If the employee has unused annual holidays that they were already entitled to before going on parental leave, then the normal calculation for annual holidays will apply to those holidays regardless of when they are taken. Those hours are paid at the greater of ordinary weekly pay or average weekly earnings at the time they take the annual holidays.
If the employee becomes entitled to annual holidays:
  • during parental leave, or,
  • in the next 12 months after their return from parental leave,
The pay for said annual leave is calculated at the rate of the employee’s average weekly earnings, which is their average earnings over the past fifty-two weeks, and with no comparison to ordinary weekly pay (meaning their leave pay rate may be low).

It is important to record the employee’s actual leave hours within the employee timesheet, so that the system can calculate the future annual leave pay rate accurately.
Picture
From the "Time & Income" page, select "Parental Leave" under "Action" dropdown. Enter the "Leave Hours", and then select "Save".
Picture
You may save time by using "Leave Periods", which can be found on the right-hand side of the "Time & Income" page.

This option allows you to preload the parental leave records between a date range.
Picture
Select "Leave Periods", then "Add".
Picture
Select the leave type as "Parental Leave". Put in the leave start date and end date (or an estimate of when they may return) and then select "Save".
Picture
The leave record will be saved inside the leave period and the system will auto-populate the data when you open the pay period.
Picture