How do I set up leave and leave loading?¶

Leave is set up per employee, on the Leave tab of their profile (Payroll → Employees → open the employee → Leave). This guide covers turning leave on, the leave settings, carrying leave forward each year, and leave loading. To enter leave on a pay and check balances, see How do I add leave to a pay run?

Turn leave on¶

On the Leave tab, find the Leave Accrual section. Click Enable Leave to start tracking leave for this employee, or Disable Leave to stop. While leave is off, the tab shows "Leave accrual is disabled for this employee. Enable it to track leave balances in pay runs." and Edit Leave Settings stays greyed out.

Set up the leave settings¶

Step 1. On the Leave tab, click Edit Leave Settings.

Step 2. Choose the Accrual Method:

Per Pay Period — a fixed amount of leave accrues each pay, regardless of hours.
Per Hour Worked — leave accrues from the hours actually paid, using the standard weekly hours as the baseline.

Step 3. If you chose Per Hour Worked, set Standard Hours per Week, or leave it blank to inherit the company default from Payroll Settings. Typical award values are 38 or 37.5.

Step 4. Set the Leave Accrual Start Date if leave should begin accruing from a date other than the employment start date. Left blank, it defaults to the employment start date.

Step 5. Set the yearly entitlements, in hours:

Annual Leave Entitlement (hours) — defaults to 152 (4 weeks at 38 hours).
Personal Leave Entitlement (hours) — defaults to 76 (2 weeks at 38 hours).

Step 6. If you're moving from another payroll system, enter the employee's current balances in Annual Leave Opening Balance (hours) and Personal Leave Opening Balance (hours). Ongoing accrual builds on top of these.

Step 7. Click Save. A "Leave settings updated" message confirms the change.

Carry leave forward each year¶

By default, leave keeps building from year to year — annual leave always carries forward, and personal leave does too. You don't need to do anything at the end of a financial year; the balances simply continue.

The one exception is the Reset personal leave each financial year toggle in Edit Leave Settings. Turn it on only if the employee's award or contract caps personal leave per financial year — their personal leave balance then resets to zero on 1 July each year. Annual leave is never reset, whatever this toggle is set to.

Opening balances (Step 6) are a one-off starting point, not a yearly reset — use them when you first bring an employee across from another system, then let the balance carry forward on its own.

Turn on leave loading¶

Step 1. In Edit Leave Settings, turn on Apply leave loading for employees whose award or EBA pays extra on top of annual leave.

Step 2. Set the Loading percentage (%). Most awards use 17.5%, but you can enter whatever rate the employee's award or EBA specifies.

Step 3. Click Save.

How leave loading works¶

Once Apply leave loading is on, myaccountant looks after the loading line for you:

Whenever a pay run pays annual leave to that employee, a separate Annual Leave Loading line is added automatically. On the pay run it carries an auto-added badge.
The loading amount is the loading percentage of the annual-leave amount on that pay — for example, 17.5% of the annual leave paid.
Leave loading is treated like other earnings: it's included in gross pay, and tax and super are worked out on it.
If you change the annual-leave hours on the pay, the loading line updates to match. If you remove the annual-leave line, the loading line is removed too.

You don't add or edit the loading line yourself — set the percentage once in the employee's leave settings and myaccountant keeps it in step with the annual leave on each pay.

For background on what leave loading is and when it applies, see the Academy explainer: Annual leave loading.

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