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Flow Payroll tracks holiday entitlement and accrual per employee, calculates holiday pay based on average earnings, and feeds it directly into pay runs. You configure a default policy at organisation level, then override it per employee where needed.

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Organisation holiday policy

Before holiday tracking works, you need a holiday policy at the organisation level. Go to Settings → Holiday and select Create holiday policy. The policy sets the default that all employees inherit unless you create an employee-specific configuration. The policy has two main settings:

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Accrual method

For percentage-of-time accrual, pay elements in hours, days, weeks, months, and years are automatically converted to hours (1 day = 8 hours). Fixed and informational pay elements are not included in the accrual calculation.

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Holiday year settings

The accrual reset month and reset day define when the holiday year resets and accruals start afresh. This defaults to 1 January but you can set any date that matches your organisation’s leave year.

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Employee holiday configuration

Each employee inherits the organisation policy by default. To set a different policy for a specific employee, open the employee record and go to their Holiday tab. Select Create configuration to override the accrual method, rate, and reset date for that person. To revert an employee to the organisation default, delete their employee-specific configuration.

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Opening balances

If you are migrating from another payroll system, you can set an opening balance so that previous accrual history feeds into holiday pay calculations. On the employee’s holiday dashboard, select + Add Opening Balance and enter:
  • Weeks count — the number of weeks covered by the historical data (typically 52).
  • Base hours — total hours worked in that period.
  • Base gross — total gross pay in that period.
This lets Flow Payroll calculate an accurate average hourly rate from day one.

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Recording leave

Once an employee has a holiday configuration, you can record leave from their holiday dashboard.
1

Open the employee's holiday dashboard

Navigate to the employee record and select the Holiday tab.
2

Click Record Leave / Pay Out

A dialog opens where you enter the leave details.
3

Enter the leave details

Set the effective date (this determines which pay run the leave falls into), the number of hours, and an optional description.
4

Review the rate

Flow Payroll calculates the holiday pay rate automatically from the employee’s recent earnings average. You can override the rate if needed by selecting Override.
5

Save and push to payroll

Saving the record pushes the holiday pay into the appropriate pay run. The transaction appears in the employee’s holiday history.
You cannot edit or delete rolled-up holiday pay once it has been processed through a pay run, as it is embedded in the payslip.

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Holiday pay rate

For percentage-of-time accrual, the payout rate is based on the employee’s average hourly earnings over a reference period. Flow Payroll calculates this average automatically. The system rate is shown in the Record Leave / Pay Out dialog before you confirm. If the hours you are recording exceed the employee’s current balance, Flow Payroll warns you but does not block the entry. This allows you to record leave that results in a negative balance if required.

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Holiday history

The employee’s holiday dashboard shows accruals, leave, and opening balances grouped by holiday year. Each year is collapsible and shows:
  • Accrued — hours added from payroll runs during the year.
  • Taken — hours deducted by leave records.
  • Balance — the closing balance for the year.
The summary at the top shows the total accrued, total taken, and remaining hours across all years.

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Where to go next

Running a pay run

See how holiday pay flows into payslips.

Reports

Reporting and insights — coming soon.

Managing people

Add and update employee details and settings.

Key concepts

How people and pay runs fit together.