Sometimes parental leave needs to be added after payroll has already been processed. When this happens, you may notice backdated adjustments appearing on the employee’s next payslip.
Here’s what’s happening and how to make sure the employee is paid correctly.
What happens when parental leave is added retrospectively?
When parental leave is entered with a start date that falls within a previous pay period, the system will make the relevant backdated salary adjustments on the employee’s next payslip.
However, parental leave payments themselves cannot currently be backdated automatically. This means you may see a deduction for salary that was previously paid but should have been parental leave pay, without the corresponding backdated parental payment being automatically added.
Why is there a salary adjustment on the payslip?
If the employee was originally paid their normal salary for days that are now recorded as parental leave, the system needs to correct this.
For example:
- An employee was paid four days of normal salary in April.
- Parental leave is later added with a start date covering those four days.
- The system identifies that the salary paid for those days needs to be adjusted.
- The salary adjustment appears on the employee’s next payslip.
The parental leave payment relating to the previous period then needs to be added manually to offset this adjustment.
How do I add the backdated parental leave payment?
You can add the payment directly to the employee’s payslip.
- Navigate to Employee payslip → Add pay item → Add gross addition → Statutory maternity/paternity leave
- Enter the total statutory maternity/paternity value for both the current period and the period being backdated, using the values shown in the employee’s parental leave pay schedule.
This ensures both the statutory payment due for the current payroll and the outstanding backdated amount are included.
If the employee is also entitled to contractual parental pay, add another pay item:
- Add pay item → Add gross addition → Contractual parental pay
- Enter the contractual parental pay value relating to the backdated period.
Once these additions have been made, the backdated salary adjustment will be offset by the parental leave payment owed to the employee.
Key takeaway
When parental leave is added retrospectively, salary adjustments will be reflected automatically, but backdated parental leave payments may need to be added manually to the employee’s payslip.
Always check the employee’s parental leave pay schedule for the correct statutory and contractual amounts before adding the relevant gross additions.