If a weekly paid employee is going on holiday and you want to pay them in advance for their holidays, you can set up an advanced holiday payment.

 Create the payment

1. From the Settings tab, select Payments & Deductions.
2. Select Create New Payment, then complete the following information:
   

    

   Payment Category	Select Holiday Pay.
   Payment Type	Select Advance Holiday Pay.
   Name	Type a suitable name for the payment or use the default name.
   Description	Type some explanatory text to make it clear what the payment is for.

3. Select Save.

You can then use this payment and add it to an employee's pay run details.

How to use the payment:

1. Run your pay run.
2. Select the required employee.
    NOTE: You will pay the current week using the usual payment. Pay any further weeks with the Advanced holiday payment.
   For example, the employee is off next week and the week after. Pay this week as usual, and in step 4, enter 2 as the quantity. 
3. Select Add Payment, then select Advance Holiday Pay.
4. In the Quantity box, enter the number of weeks the employee will be on holiday.
5. In the Rate box, enter the amount of holiday pay they’re to receive per holiday week.
6. Continue processing your employees’ pay details, and complete the pay run as normal.

 NOTE: The next pay run the system confirms the advanced employee. You are unable to enter pay. You still need to process and submit your next pay run as normal.

Unable to pay employees as usual after holidays

If you are trying to pay an employee who has returned from holiday, you may find the payroll stops you.

This is usually because you have entered extra holiday periods in error, and the system assumes they are still absent.

For example:

You wanted to pay the employee for the week they worked, plus 1 week holiday.

You should enter their usual weekly wage, and 1 week of holiday pay.

The system assumes the Advanced holiday payment begins the week following the current week.

This shows the employee as not needing pay when you run payroll next week.

In week 3, payroll allows you to pay the employee their wage again.

However:

You may have paid 2 weeks using the Advanced holiday payment.

Payroll will assume those two weeks cover next week, plus the week after.

The system won't allow you to pay the employee as it assumes they are still on holiday.

The solution

1. Select the Pay Runs tab.
2. Select the last pay run you paid the employee.
3. Tick I understand the impact of editing a pay run, select Confirm.
4. Add the employee's weekly salary as usual.
5. Reduce the quantity of the Advance Holiday Payment.
6. Complete the pay run as usual, submitting to Revenue.

The net pay, PAYE, etc should all be the same as the original pay run.

You may still want to give your employee an updated payslip.

Read our article Reprinting Payslips (opens in new tab).