1. foundU
  2. Time & Attendance
  3. Leave & Availability

Time Off In Lieu (TOIL)

Avatar
foundU

Time Off in Lieu (TOIL)

Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) is a type of leave that employees can accrue and take instead of being paid for overtime worked.

Employers can enable or disable TOIL for their employees within the employee's profile, and the TOIL can be redeemed by editing the employee's payslip. The TOIL balance is held in the employee's profile, and the employer can view it at any time.

In this article, we will cover:

  • Considerations before you start
  • Enabling TOIL in your platform
  • Enabling TOIL for an employee
  • Checking an employee's TOIL balance
  • Exporting/importing the TOIL ledger
  • Redeeming TOIL on an employee's payslip
  • Generating the TOIL report
  • FAQs

  Please note: Employees are unable to automatically accrue TOIL and be paid overtime. If you require this setup, please contact support for assistance.

Before you start

There are two methods on how you can track and redeem TOIL in your platform. These are:

  • System-based TOIL
  • Leave entitlement-based TOIL

Before proceeding, it is important to consider several factors that will determine the best method for you. We will explain the differences between the two TOIL options to help you make an informed decision. Please carefully consider your business workflow and choose the option that best suits your needs.

Let's go through both methods below. 

System-based TOIL

The System-based TOIL is a feature available on your platform that helps to convert employee overtime hours into TOIL. By enabling this feature, any overtime hours worked by an employee are automatically converted into TOIL hours, which can later be redeemed via a payslip.

The accrued TOIL hours can be used by employees to take time off work without affecting their overall leave balance. This feature is available on the employee profile and can be enabled as required.

The TOIL balances are stored in the employee profile. However, for an employee to redeem these TOIL balances, a manual edit of the payslip is required. Employees cannot view their TOIL balance in their Employee App. They will need an admin to redeem the TOIL on their behalf by editing their payslip.

Leave entitlement-based TOIL

Leave entitlement-based TOIL is a leave entitlement that can be set up and applied to the employee profile. Leave entitlement-based TOIL balances will need to be manually applied to the employee either via the employee profile or via a payslip edit. 

This particular method of TOIL is designed as a leave entitlement, which means that employees have the ability to view their TOIL balances and apply for their earned TOIL through a leave application on their Employee App. Once an employee submits their application, it will require approval from their manager.

However, it's important to note that this method of TOIL requires manual management by an admin, as it does not automatically convert overtime hours into TOIL hours. Essentially, this means that an admin will need to manually calculate the number of overtime hours worked by an employee and then convert them into TOIL hours either via a manual edit to the employee's payslip or via the employee profile. 

Overall, while this method of TOIL provides a transparent and easy-to-use leave entitlement system for employees, it does require manual management to ensure that employees are credited with the correct number of TOIL hours.

  If you would like to set TOIL as a Leave Entitlement in your platform, then please refer to the 'Leave Entitlements' help guide article here. 

Below is a table of the two different TOIL methods and their functionality:

Functionality System-based TOIL Leave entitlement-based TOIL
Employee can view TOIL balances No, employee can only see balances once TOIL is redeemed on a payslip Yes, employee can see balances via their Employee App
Employee can redeem TOIL No, admin has to redeem on behalf of employee  Yes, employee can apply for TOIL via their Employee App
Overtime hours automatically convert into TOIL hours Yes No, hours need to be manually applied to the employee
TOIL can be redeemed via payslip edit Yes Yes

Enabling TOIL

Enabling TOIL in your foundU platform

If your business uses system based TOIL you can easily enable the TOIL feature in your platform. 

To enable TOIL in your platform:

  1. From the main menu, navigate to  Payroll Settings > Leave Rules > Leave Settings.
  2. Turn on the toggle 'Allow admin users to enable TOIL within employee profiles'.
  3. Select Save Settings to save your change.

Enabling or disabling TOIL for an employee

Enabling TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) is a process that is carried out on an employee basis, which can be done by updating their Employee Profile.

To enable TOIL for an employee:

  1. Navigate to People > Approved People or use the global search function to locate the employee.
  2. In the Overview page, enable the 'Enable TOIL' toggle to enable TOIL for the employee.

    Enable TOIL on employee profile.png

Disabling TOIL is also done on a per-employee basis. 

  Please note: Before disabling TOIL, ensure that any accrued TOIL for the employee is redeemed. Refer to the 'Redeeming TOIL on a payslip section' below for more information.

To disable TOIL for an employee:

  1. Navigate to People > Approved People or use the global search function to locate the employee.
  2. In the Overview page, disable the 'Enable TOIL' toggle to disable TOIL for the employee.

      Please note: If the employee has a TOIL balance, the system will warn you. If this occurs, cancel out and process the remaining TOIL balance before disabling.

Check, update & redeem TOIL balances

Checking TOIL balance 

When an employee earns TOIL, the balance is recorded in their Employee Profile.

  Please note: Employees cannot see their TOIL balances in the Employee App. However, employees can see their remaining TOIL balances when they have TOIL redeemed on their payslips. 

To check if an employee has accrued TOIL:

  1. Navigate to People > Approved People or use the global search function to locate the employee.
  2. Navigate to the Employee Card tab > Employment Type and the TOIL balance will be displayed in the Entitlements area. 

    TOIL balance on employee profile.png

  See the 'TOIL Ledger Export/Import' section below for steps on how to edit and upload TOIL balances in bulk.

TOIL Ledger Export/Import

If you need to manage your employees' TOIL balances, you can use the TOIL Ledger CSV Export to export or update balances in bulk.

To access the TOIL Ledger CSV Export:

  1. Navigate to the sidebar to open the main menu > Import/ Export > CSV Import.
  2. From the drop-down list select TOIL Ledger.
  3. Use the following options at the bottom of the page to export your TOIL data:
    • Get field definitions - This option will provide you with the definitions for each of the columns in the TOIL Ledger export. This should be viewed first so you can get an understanding of the information that is exported. 



    • Export current ledger - This option will export all your existing employee's TOIL details including:
      • Employee ID
      • Employee Name
      • Position Name
      • Hours Balance
      • Actual Rate
      • Pay Rate
      • Rate Factor

          Tip: You can update your employees' TOIL balances in bulk by making changes to the export and reimporting the CSV file through the Import button.
    • Download blank file - This option will download the columns to use as a template but no employee data.

Redeeming TOIL on the payslip

When it is time to redeem TOIL for an employee it is done by editing their payslip.

  Please note: If you are looking to pay out unused TOIL for termination, you will need to do so via an Employment Termination Payment (ETP). The process is slightly different to paying out other leave types, please click here to see the steps on how to create an ETP.

To redeem TOIL:

  1. Go to Payroll > Pay > Draft Payslips and select the relevant Period Ending date and any other filters.
  2. Click Action > Edit next to the relevant payslip.
  3. Under the Entitlement Adjustment section, select Redeem TOIL.

      Please note: You won't see a Redeem TOIL option unless the employee has accrued TOIL.

  4. Enter the number of hours you are wanting to redeem on the payslip and select Update. You also have the option to Cashout all available hours or pay them out during a Termination. 

  5. Once you have made the relevant changes select Update Payslip. The redeemed TOIL hours will display on the payslip as per below: 

When updated, the new TOIL hours will be displayed in the Employee Profile. 

TOIL reporting & FAQs

TOIL Report

If you want to see your employees' TOIL balances on a larger scale, you can view a TOIL report that displays the balances of all your employees.

To run the TOIL report:

  1. Navigate to Reports > Financial and under the Accruals & Liabilities section, select the TOIL report.
  2. Select the 'TOIL as of' date that the TOIL was accrued on and use the following additional filters if needed:
    • Filter by a specific employee - Filter the results to a specific employee/employee's
    • Office Code - Filter the results to a specific office code/office code's 
  3. Once you have entered your relevant filters, select Submit.
  4. You will see the TOIL report output, which includes the TOIL label (the name of your toil), accrual amount, rate, value in dollar terms, and standard rate and terms.

      Please note: This report presently cannot be exported, however, the TOIL Ledger may be helpful if you need to export TOIL balances.

FAQs

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions for TOIL. 

My employee has accrued TOIL, however, it's not showing on their Employee Profile. When will the TOIL balance show?

When TOIL is accrued by an employee, it will not be immediately visible in their profile. This is because TOIL will only appear in an employee's profile after the payslip on which it was earned has been generated.

What is the difference between TOIL and an RDO?

Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) is a type of leave where an employee can accumulate extra hours worked and take that time off at a later date, usually with pay, instead of being paid for the overtime worked.

On the other hand, a Rostered Day Off (RDO) is a scheduled day off that is granted to employees who have worked a certain number of hours or shifts. RDOs are usually given as an additional day off during a week or month rather than a day off taken at a later date. Unlike TOIL, RDOs are not usually paid unless they are part of an employment contract or agreement.

Can I choose the rate at which TOIL is paid to an employee?

The pay rate for TOIL is determined by the rate at which it was earned. However, if there is a need to adjust the pay rate for TOIL, you can use the TOIL ledger to export the employee's TOIL balance and re-import it with the updated pay rate.

How can I do reasonable Overtime and TOIL?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to use system-based TOIL in this case. However, if this is how your business operates, we would recommend using leave entitlement-based TOIL instead. This will allow you to edit the payslips to fit your requirements. If you would like to discuss your business needs further, do not hesitate to contact our support team.

Is there a way I can update an employee's TOIL balance?

An employee's TOIL balance can be updated by exporting the TOIL Ledger, updating the balance within the spreadsheet then re-importing it back into the platform.

Articles in this section

See more