This article is intended as a general overview of Holiday Carry-Over, Pro-Rata and Year End balances. Sona offers many ways to configure the system to suit your organisation's way of working, so please check with your Sona Administrators in the first instance. If you still believe there to be an issue, Sona support will be able to answer questions surrounding this.
How Holiday Carry-Over Works in Sona
Sona does not automatically carry over unused holiday from one holiday year to the next. Carry-over must be applied manually at the start of a new holiday year by an administrator in your organisation.
When carry-over is applied, it is added as a manual allowance adjustment to the employee’s new holiday year. This increases their total entitlement for the new year by the carried-over amount.
What carries over? Only the amount agreed under your organisation’s leave policy can be carried over. Sona does not enforce a carry-over limit automatically — your HR team or administrators are responsible for applying the correct amount in line with your policy.
What does not carry over automatically? Any unused holiday that is not manually added as a carry-over adjustment at the start of the new year will not appear in the new year’s balance.
If you believe carry-over has not been applied to your balance, please speak to your HR team or manager in the first instance.
How to Check What an Employee Has Carried Over
Carry-over appears as a manual allowance adjustment on the employee’s holiday balance for the new holiday year. Administrators can view this by looking at the adjustments recorded against the employee’s entitlement for the current year.
If you are an employee and want to understand your opening balance, ask your HR team to confirm whether carry-over has been applied and in what amount. If you need help reviewing adjustment history, please contact us.
How to Manually Set or Adjust a Carry-Over Balance
Carry-over is applied as a manual allowance adjustment — this adds to the employee’s total entitlement for the year.
To apply carry-over:
- Navigate to the employee’s holiday balance for the new holiday year
- Add a manual allowance adjustment with the carry-over amount as a positive value
- Enter a reason (for example, “Carry-over from [previous year]”)
The adjustment must be entered in the same unit (days or hours) as the employee’s contract type.
Important: Manual adjustments directly affect the displayed balance. If you are unsure of the correct amount to carry over, check your organisation’s leave policy before making changes. If you need help, please contact us.
What Happens to Unused Holiday When an Employee Leaves
When an employee leaves your organisation, Sona calculates a final holiday pay settlement based on their remaining holiday balance at their last day of employment.
The calculation works as follows:
- The employee’s entitlement is pro-rated to their termination date (see the section on pro-rata for leavers below)
- Any holiday already taken or booked is deducted
How Pro-Rata Entitlement Is Calculated for an Employee Who Starts Part-Way Through the Holiday Year
If an employee joins your organisation part-way through the holiday year, their entitlement is pro-rated so they only receive a proportional share of the annual allowance.
Depending on how your organisation’s contract type is configured, pro-rata is calculated in one of two ways:
Option 1 — Pro-rate to the exact start date:
Entitlement = (Annual allowance ÷ Days in holiday year) × Days worked in the year
For example, if the full-year entitlement is 28 days and the employee joins on 1 June in a 1 January–31 December holiday year (365 days), with 214 days remaining:
(28 ÷ 365) × 214 = 16.42 days
Option 2 — Pro-rate to the nearest month:
Entitlement = (Annual allowance ÷ 12) × Months worked in the year
Using the same example (joining 1 June, 7 full months remaining):
(28 ÷ 12) × 7 = 16.33 days
The method used is determined by your contract type configuration. If you are unsure which method applies, please contact us.
How Pro-Rata Is Calculated for an Employee Who Leaves Part-Way Through the Holiday Year
For employees leaving mid-year, the same pro-rata logic applies — but calculated from the start of the holiday year to the termination date, rather than the start date to year-end.
Exact date method:
Entitlement = (Annual allowance ÷ Days in holiday year) × Days worked from year start to termination date
Monthly method:
Entitlement = (Annual allowance ÷ 12) × Months worked from year start to termination date
After pro-rating, any holiday already taken is deducted to arrive at the remaining balance for final pay purposes (see above).
How the Holiday Year Start Date Affects Pro-Rata Calculations
The holiday year start date defines the period over which entitlement is calculated. It affects:
- The total number of days in the year — used as the denominator in exact-date pro-rata calculations
- Which months are counted — used in the monthly pro-rata calculation
- When the balance resets — entitlement is only calculated within the boundaries of the current holiday year
For example, if your holiday year runs 1 April to 31 March and an employee joins on 1 October, they have worked 6 months of a 12-month year — so their entitlement would be pro-rated accordingly, regardless of the calendar year.
The holiday year start date is configured at the absence policy level in Sona. To check or change this, please contact us — changes to the holiday year configuration need to be made carefully to avoid affecting existing balances.
Common Scenario: Employee Starts 1 June in a January–December Holiday Year
Setup:
- Holiday year: 1 January – 31 December (365 days)
- Full-year entitlement: 28 days
- Employee start date: 1 June
Using exact date pro-rating:
Days from 1 June to 31 December = 214 days
(28 ÷ 365) × 214 = 16.42 days
Using monthly pro-rating:
Full months from 1 June to 31 December = 7 months (June, July, August, September, October, November, December)
(28 ÷ 12) × 7 = 16.33 days
The result is similar under both methods in this case, but the precise figure depends on which pro-rating method your contract type uses. If the result on your system differs from what you expect, please contact us and we can confirm the method in use.
How to Run a Year-End Process to Reset Balances and Apply Carry-Over
Sona does not have an automated year-end reset process. When a new holiday year begins, new balances are created for each employee — but carry-over is not applied automatically.
To complete a year-end process in Sona, your organisation’s administrator will typically need to:
- Confirm the new holiday year has started — check that the new year’s balances are showing for all employees
- Review each employee’s unused balance from the previous year
- Apply carry-over adjustments for any employees who are entitled to carry over unused leave — add a manual allowance adjustment to the new year’s balance for each employee
- Confirm the carry-over amounts comply with your organisation’s policy (including any caps)
Because this process is manual, it is important to complete it promptly at the start of the new holiday year to ensure employees’ balances are accurate.
If you need help running a year-end balance process for a large number of employees, please contact us — we may be able to assist.
The Impact of Denomination (Days vs. Hours) on Carry-Over
Holiday balances in Sona are tracked in either days or hours, depending on how your contract type is configured. This denomination affects carry-over in the following ways:
Carry-over must be in the same unit as the contract: When applying a carry-over adjustment, the amount must be entered in the same unit as the employee’s contract type. You cannot carry over hours into a days-denominated balance, or vice versa.
What this means in practice:
| Contract denomination | Carry-over unit |
|---|---|
| Days | Must be entered in days |
| Hours | Must be entered in hours |
Conversion: If your policy states carry-over in days but an employee’s contract is hours-denominated, you will need to convert the carry-over amount before entering it. The conversion depends on the employee’s contracted hours per day (for example, 8 hours per day × 2 days carry-over = 16 hours).
If you are unsure how to apply carry-over for an hours-denominated contract, please contact us.