SmoothPay displays leave balances in several places, depending on whether you are reviewing an employee’s current balance, checking what will appear on their payslip, or investigating the transactions that make up the balance.
This guide explains where to find leave balances, how to understand the different balance types shown in SmoothPay, and how to review the leave history behind an employee’s current anniversary balance. It also explains why some balances may differ between screens, especially where to-date balances, capped balances, payslip balances, or jurisdiction-specific rules apply.
Right click menu
From either the Staff or Payrun screen:
Right-click an employee’s name
Select Leave balances.
This opens a modal displaying the following details:
Leave type - The leave type of the given row.
Anniversary date - The employee’s current last anniversary date for the displayed leave type.
Anniversary balance - The remaining balance from completed years of service.
To-date (may appear as “Estimate” depending on jurisdictional rules) - The total balance including any pro-rated portion accrued since the last anniversary. If a cap is applied to this leave type, the balance shown here will reflect the capped amount.
Valuation - The current dollar-value liability for this leave type. This value is subject to local legislative rules and may not always directly reflect the amount of leave accrued, as additional factors may influence the calculation. In most cases, the valuation represents the amount that would be payable if the balance were included in a termination pay, though not all leave types are necessarily payable upon termination.
If a leave type is configured to appear on an employee’s payslip, the balances shown here will reflect the same balance that the employee will see on their next payslip.
Balances update with each completed pay process. Depending on jurisdictional rules and system configuration, the payslip will show either the anniversary or to-date balance — whichever is linked to the active liability.
The same balance view can also be found in the Payrun screen by clicking the Leave balances button on the payroll control bar.
Under the Leave tab in the Staff screen
In the Staff screen there are three balances displayed under the Leave tab — two represent the to-date balance, and the third shows the anniversary balance.
Nested Entitlement tab
Go to the Staff screen
Select the Leave tab
Select the nested Entitlement tab
You’ll see a to-date balance toward the bottom of the screen, labelled Days (to now) for the selected leave type, in the leave type column.
💡 Tip: Click the “i” button to view a full breakdown of the to-date balance
Nested History tab
Go to the Staff screen
Select the Leave tab
Select the nested History tab
You’ll find both the to-date balance and the anniversary balance displayed in the bottom-right corner.
The to-date balance appears in green, with “Days (to now)” beside it.
The anniversary balance is shown directly above it.
Both to-date balances display identical values; however, they do not reflect any caps set on the leave type. They are purely indicative of what the balance would be without a cap applied.
The anniversary balance, on the other hand, is consistent wherever it appears throughout SmoothPay.
Reviewing leave history
Leave history can be reviewed in detail for each given leave type.
To view this:
Go to the Staff screen
Select the employee you wish to review
Select Leave tab
Select the nested History tab
Select the leave type you wish to review from the leave column
This area provides it's own data column, which itemises all of an employee's leave history.
It’s divided into three headers:
Date - The date relative to each transaction
Accrued - Entries that appear under Accrued represent leave accruals
Consumed - Entries that appear under Consumed represent leave that has been used
Most transactions listed here originate from completed pay processes, though manual balance adjustments will also appear.
Each individual transaction can be selected from the leave history column. Selecting one provides a detailed summary on the right-hand side.
Do this by clicking on the entry in the leave history column.
This summary includes:
Date - The date or date range the transaction covers
Comment - Provides context or calculation details (where available). For some jurisdictions, this may include full calculation notes; in others, it may simply list the transaction type. Manual adjustments will display any entered comments here.
Batch - The batch number of the pay process the transaction belongs to. If the batch number shows as “0”, the transaction was manually entered.
$ - The total dollar value of the leave transaction
Units - The amount of leave accrued or consumed for this transaction. Accruals appear as positive figures, and leave taken appears as negative figures. The unit type (hours, days, or weeks) is displayed beside the value.
The sum of the Accrued and Consumed columns makes up the current anniversary balance.
In the above example:
A total of 4 weeks of annual leave has accrued
A total of 1.4 weeks has been used
Leaving a remaining anniversary balance of 2.6 weeks