Study leave when there is no study leave type
Payroll has no study leave type and new types cannot be added. Three honest ways a non-profit can record time off for a funded course instead.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Non-profit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A funder has offered to pay for your monitoring and evaluation officer to complete a certificate course. The course has contact sessions and an exam week, and the officer will need days away from work. Everyone agrees it is a good idea. Then someone opens payroll to record the first study day, and there is no study leave option.
It is a small problem with a real risk attached. If the days are recorded carelessly, as annual leave the officer never agreed to give up, or not at all, the result can be a dispute about leave balances months later, or a funder unable to verify what it paid for.
This article explains what payroll offers today, why the gap cannot be closed with a new leave type, and three ways to record study time properly.
The leave types payroll offers today
Achekam's payroll keeps four leave types, annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave, with monthly accrual. A line manager approves leave for their own team, and nobody approves their own leave.
Nigerian and Kenyan employers should know one further limit at the time of writing: leave days are counted against South African public holidays, and the built-in entitlements follow South African law, even for a Nigerian or Kenyan employer. Check balances against your own country's rules and your contracts.
Why a study leave type cannot be added
There is no maternity, parental or study leave type, and new leave types cannot be added. So the answer is not hidden in a settings screen. Whatever you do with study days has to fit the four types that exist, or sit outside the leave ledger altogether.
That is a limitation to be honest about with staff. Explain it when you agree the study arrangement, so nobody later thinks their study days were mislabelled by accident.
Three ways to record the time
Each of these is legitimate. Which one fits depends on what you and the staff member actually agreed.
Option one: annual leave, if the staff member chooses it
Some staff prefer to use their own annual leave for study, especially for a short course. If so, they apply for annual leave in the normal way and it is deducted from their balance.
This must be the staff member's choice, confirmed in writing. Deducting study days from annual leave without agreement is unfair, and it can conflict with minimum leave rules. In South Africa, the Department of Employment and Labour's basic guide to annual leave sets out the minimum annual leave under the BCEA and when it must be granted; employers in Nigeria and Kenya should check their own law and contracts.
Option two: unpaid leave, if the days are not paid
If you agreed that study days are unpaid, record them as unpaid leave. Unpaid leave is its own type, and it does not cut pay automatically: payroll is warned and decides.
The person running payroll then enters the unpaid days as a variable input on the pay run for that period. Pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, and each period's unpaid leave is entered alongside overtime, allowances and other inputs. Check the run before approval to make sure the deduction is what was agreed.
Unpaid study leave suits long courses or cases where the organisation cannot afford to pay for the time. Be clear with the staff member about the effect on their pay before they commit.
Option three: paid study days agreed outside the leave ledger
Often the fairest arrangement, especially when a funder is paying for the course, is a number of paid study days that are neither annual leave nor unpaid. The staff member is simply excused from work on those days and paid normally.
Because there is no leave type for this, record nothing in the leave ledger. Payroll runs as usual, and the leave balances stay untouched. Instead, keep the arrangement on the staff member's file:
- a short written agreement stating the course, the number of paid study days allowed, any conditions, such as completing the course or staying with the organisation for a period, and who approved it;
- a register of the days actually taken, with dates, signed off by the line manager;
- the course provider's timetable or confirmation of attendance.
Recording the agreement and the days
Whichever option you choose, the paperwork is what protects both sides. Document Centre is a folder-based store where you can upload files, tag and search them, and keep earlier versions when a new one is added. Keep each staff member's study agreement and day register in a staff records folder, tagged with the course and year, so it can be found at the end of the course or if the arrangement is ever questioned.
Staff whose login is linked to their payroll record can apply for leave, download their own payslips and submit expense claims through self-service. For options one and two, the application goes through self-service and the line manager's approval like any other leave. For option three, agree how the staff member will notify their manager of each study day, by e-mail, for instance, so the register stays complete.
Course costs the staff member pays and the organisation reimburses, such as exam fees or travel to contact sessions, can be submitted as expense claims through self-service. An approved claim is repaid on the next run.
What a funder paying for the course may ask
If a funder is paying for the course, it may want evidence that its money bought what it was meant to:
- the enrolment confirmation and invoice from the course provider;
- the study days taken, from your register;
- proof of completion, such as a certificate or result;
- confirmation that the staff member's salary on study days was charged to the right budget line.
That last point matters if the funder also pays the salary. Showing a funder what a funded post really cost explains how to evidence salary costs, and if a staff member needs unpaid time off for another reason, see unpaid leave when funding pauses.
Write a one-page study leave policy now, setting out which of the three options your organisation uses and who approves them, before the next staff member asks.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
