Leave accrual and carry forward

How it works

1. Switch on the Leave Ledger and seed the default types: CL at 1 day a month, EL at 1.5 days, SL at 0.5 day and LWP as unpaid leave.
2. Load opening balances from Excel through Data Import, or post opening entries for each employee on the ledger page.
3. On the 1st of every month ZeniaHR posts the accrual for the month that ended. Joiners and leavers get a share for the days they were employed, rounded to the nearest half day.
4. A credit never takes a balance past the leave type's maximum balance, and the ledger note says when a credit was capped.
5. From 1 January the year end runs: each paid type carries forward up to its carry-forward limit, and the rest lapses with one lapse entry per person and type.
6. Automatic runs tiles show when accrual, the year end and comp-off last ran, and HR can accrue any month by hand for everyone or one person.

What you can set

• Enable ledger switch. Balances are checked on leave requests only when the ledger is on.
• Seed defaults: CL 1, EL 1.5 and SL 0.5 days a month, and LWP unpaid.
• Monthly accrual on the 1st, in the company's time zone, with missed months caught up.
• Accrue by hand for a chosen month and year, for all employees or the one selected.
• Year-end Preview, then Run year-end, which unlocks only after a preview of the same year.
• Download the year-end preview as CSV, listing balance, carried forward and lapse per person and type.
• Manual ledger entries per employee and type: debit, credit, adjustment, opening, encashment and lapse.

Why a ledger beats a balance column

A single balance figure cannot explain itself. When an employee challenges it, or when HR works out leave for a full and final settlement, someone has to rebuild the year from registers. On the ZeniaHR ledger every movement carries a date, a type and a note, such as 10 of 30 days employed for a leaver's last accrual. Accrual posts once per person, type and month, so a rerun never double-credits, and the year end records a lapse entry even when nothing lapses, so it can never run twice.

Worked example: a September joiner and a year end

Kavya joins a Bengaluru design firm on Friday 11 September 2026, so she is employed 20 of September's 30 days. On 1 October the accrual credits her casual leave of 0.5 day, since 1 x 20 / 30 is 0.67 and rounds to 0.5, earned leave of 1 day, since 1.5 x 20 / 30 is exactly 1, and sick leave of 0.5 day, since 0.33 rounds up to 0.5. From October she accrues full rates.

By the year end, after the December accrual that posts on 1 January, her earned leave stands at 5.5 days: 1 for September and 1.5 each for October, November and December. Her colleague Rohit ends 2026 with 38 days of earned leave, and the EL carry-forward limit is 30 days. The preview shows 30 days carried forward and 8 lapsing, which gives Rohit time to ask for encashment before the year end posts.

Aligning accrual with the law and your policy

Under the OSH Code a worker who completes 180 days of work in a calendar year earns one day of paid leave for every 20 days worked, carry forward is capped at 30 days, and the worker may ask for encashment of unused leave at the end of the year. Compare your earned leave rate and limit with these leave entitlement rules. Preview the year end in December, settle encashment requests before 31 December, and load correct opening balances before the first accrual runs.

Frequently asked questions