Keeping leave balances for clients' staff
How a bureau keeps leave balances for a South African client's staff as a ledger, with BCEA minimums as a floor, approvals and unpaid leave.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa
Ask a client's employees what they most want from payroll, after being paid correctly, and many will say: to know how much leave they have. Ask the client's owner what causes most staff arguments, and leave balances will be near the top. The employee is sure there should be more days; the manager is sure some were taken and never recorded; the bureau is asked to settle it with whatever is in the system.
A single balance per employee cannot settle anything. A ledger can. This article explains how Achekam keeps leave for a South African employer, where the law's minimums fit in, who approves leave, and the leave types a bureau will still have to track by hand.
A ledger, not a balance
Achekam keeps leave as a ledger of accruals and days taken. Payroll keeps annual, sick, family responsibility and unpaid leave, with leave accruing monthly.
The difference from a single "days remaining" figure is that every movement is visible. When an employee disputes a balance, the bureau can show each month's accrual and each day taken, with dates, and the balance is simply the result. Most disputes end there, because the conversation moves from "the system says" to "on these dates you took these days".
To keep the ledger trustworthy:
- Load opening balances carefully when taking on a client, with the client's written confirmation of each one.
- Record leave in the period it is taken, not in a batch at month end, so the ledger matches the calendar.
- Never adjust a balance without a reason that is written down and agreed with the client.
BCEA minimums as a floor
Achekam uses the Basic Conditions of Employment Act minimums as a floor that the employer may raise. A client that gives more annual leave than the Act requires can set its entitlement higher; it cannot set it lower than the statutory minimum.
The Department of Employment and Labour's Basic Guide to Annual Leave explains the BCEA minimum, when leave must be granted and when leave may be paid out. It is a useful page to send to a client whose own policy is vague, because the conversation about entitlements should start from the statutory floor.
For each client, record in the bureau's file:
| Item | What to confirm with the client |
|---|---|
| Annual leave entitlement | The Act's minimum, or the client's higher figure |
| Sick leave | Whether the client follows the statutory cycle or gives more |
| Family responsibility leave | Whether the client gives more than the minimum |
| Carry-over rules | What happens to unused annual leave at the end of the cycle |
| Exceptions | Any employees on different terms, with their contracts |
Line managers approve, never their own
A line manager approves their own team's leave, and nobody can approve their own leave. That rule holds whoever the person is: the owner's personal assistant, the manager of a branch, or the bureau's own staff for the firm's payroll.
Within a workspace, a staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can apply for leave through self-service. A client's employees are different: they have no login, so they do not apply in Achekam. For them, leave is applied for and approved at the client, in whatever form the client uses, and the bureau records the approved leave in the ledger.
That makes the client's approval the evidence. Agree with each client:
- Who at the client may approve leave, by name or role, for each team.
- That nobody approves their own leave, including managers and owners.
- How approved leave reaches the bureau: on the period's inputs, with the approver's name.
- That leave sent without an approver's name is queried, not captured.
Unpaid leave and pay
Unpaid leave is part of the ledger, but it does not cut pay automatically. When unpaid leave is recorded, payroll is warned and decides whether and how to reduce pay.
That is deliberate. A day recorded as unpaid might be genuinely unpaid, or it might be a day of annual leave captured under the wrong type, or a day the client has decided to pay after all. The bureau should confirm with the client each time before reducing pay, and then enter the reduction as a variable input on the period's run, where unpaid leave sits beside overtime, commission and allowances. Collecting those inputs reliably is covered in collecting variable pay inputs from clients.
When unpaid leave follows an advance or a loan, check that the reduced pay can still carry the agreed instalment; see salary advances and staff loans through payroll.
Leave types that are missing
Achekam has no maternity, parental or study leave type, and new leave types cannot be added. A bureau will meet all three, and needs a manual routine for each.
A practical approach:
- Keep a separate register for each employee on maternity, parental or study leave: start and end dates, the client's approval, and whether any part is paid.
- Do not record these absences as another leave type simply because it exists in the system. Recording maternity leave as unpaid leave, for example, distorts the ledger and the employee's history.
- Reflect any pay effect through variable inputs on each run, with a note pointing to the register.
- Review the register every period so that an employee's return is not missed and their normal pay resumes on time.
Tell the client that the bureau keeps these absences outside the ledger, and why, so nobody concludes from the ledger alone that an employee was absent without leave.
A monthly leave routine
Each period, before the run is approved:
- capture all approved leave received with the inputs;
- check unpaid leave with the client and decide the pay effect;
- update the register of maternity, parental and study leave;
- send the client a list of current balances by employee, so that managers see the numbers before staff ask.
Start with the client whose staff ask about leave most often: load its opening balances properly, agree its approvers in writing, and send its first monthly balance list with the next run.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
