Leave balances - checking assigned balances

Contents

  1. What is a balance and when do I assign one? - fundamental information for HR to understand before assigning and checking balances.  
  2. Assign a balance after reading section 1, how to assign a balance for any new appointment.
  3. Checking assigned balances how to check the balance has been correctly calculated.
  4. Make balance adjustmentwhen and how to override the balance calculation. 

 

ONLINE TRAINING

Details of our online training available and booking links can be found on the Workforce Management training webpage.

Note: This feature is currently limited to staff in participating departments which is being rolled out in stages throughout the University.  

For casuals and variable hours staff:  The assignment of a balance is only necessary for those staff submitting timesheets via HR Self-Service. 

 

 

Navigate to the balances tab to see the leave entitlement calculation for an individual:

Navigation path: People Management > Employees > View > Employee Search > (Locate individual) > View.

  1. Select the correct appointment from the appointment drop-down selection at the top of the staff record.
  2. Select the Balances tab.
  3. See image and corresponding table below for overview of key fields:

 

hr balances view

 

Key Field Description
A B

Appointment

This appointment Only

For most staff, this will be their substantive appointment.  Where someone has multiple appointments select the appointment you are interested in and slide the toggle on against 'This appointment Only'.  Information displayed in further fields will be based on what is selected in A and B. 
C Balance Balance which has been assigned.  Refer to 'Selecting the correct Balance' for more details.
D Open Period States the holiday year this balance calculation refers to.
E Type States if leave calculated/ booked in hours or days.  Generally speaking full-time staff will have leave in days and part-time staff will have leave in hours. 
F Appointment This is the appointment the balance refers to.   
G Status This will be blank in most cases.  Where someone has moved appointments through the current leave year, you may see a status of 'Active Ended' (depending on the scenario).
H Allowance This is the entitlement for the year, which takes into account Oxford long service, FTE, days worked in current year and any balance adjustments. 
I Carried Over If any leave has been recorded as carried over, eg approved unused leave from previous year.
J Taken Leave that has been approved and already taken.
K Booked Leave that has been approved and is future dated.
L Balance + Booked (Entitlement + Carried Over) - (Taken + Booked) = remaining balance to book  

 

At the start of each annual leave year and any new appointment, the system will "give" full leave entitlement, then will make automatic system adjustments for the following example scenarios:

  • new starters joining midway through the leave year
  • fixed term contracts due to end in current leave year
  • FTE adjustments for part-time staff
  • bank holidays and fixed closure dates (system collectively states these as public holidays) 
  • any additional long service (it will give it initially based on 1 FTE and then reduce it if the individual is part-time)

HR teams may need to make manual adjustments, see examples in the When to make a balance adjustment section.

The following table gives an overview of what balance adjustments can be seen:

 

balance adjustments

 

Key Field Description
A Period States the annual leave year the adjustment refers to, eg 2023-24 
B Adjusted Adjustment type (see )
C Amount Amount of days/ hours the balance was increased/ decreased by 
D Reason Reason will either be system generated (for automatic adjustments) or will include the Narrative text provided by HR member (for manual adjustments)
E Date Date adjustment was made
F User Use this column to identify if was an an automatic adjustment or manual (manual adjustments will include the employee number of the person who made the adjustment)