This article explains how to change a carryover limit that has been previously defined and is actively being used.

Warning:
Changes made to the carryover limit for an accrual policy in Settings > Absence are applied retroactively to the entire absence history of all employees subject to the respective accrual policy. Read this article carefully before making such a change. 

Changes to a carryover limit as time-limited exceptions

HR managers often find themselves in a situation where the carryover limit for vacation days from the previous year needs to be adjusted for the current year. For these cases, there are two recommended approaches for adjusting the carryover limit in Personio.

Temporary adjustment

This is the best option if you need to make the adjustment for specific employees or if the carryover adjustment shall be valid only for the current year. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Absence and create a new absence type, for example, named "Remaining vacation". Enable accruals for the new absence type and create an accrual policy. Set Accrual carryover from previous year to Limited carryover and set an Annual entitlement of zero days per year. Assign this accrual policy to all employees whose carryover limit you wish to extend.
2. Go to Reports > Custom Reports to create a new report for the following criteria:
   ▶︎ Report type: Point in time
   ▶︎ Date: Pick Custom date and select the date after the current carryover
   ▶︎ Table columns: First name, Last name, Email, Paid vacation – expired days from carryover
3. Export the report and open the exported Excel file. In the next step, you'll need to import the Excel file to record the expired carryovers as account balance entries in the new "Remaining vacation" absence type.
4. Download and open our Excel template Accrual Balance Upload.
5. Aggregate the two files by transferring the data for all employees to be updated from the export file to the upload template.
   

   Upload template columns
   Email	Add the data from the Email column in the exported report.
   Absence type name	Enter the precise name of the previously created absence type – in our example this is Remaining vacation.
   Accrual balance in days	Add the data from the Paid vacation: expired days from carryover column to the exported report.
   Accrual balance date	Enter the date from which you would like the adjustment to be effective.

6. Save the import template.
7. Follow the instructions provided in this article to import the absence accrual balances. Select the file type Accrual balance upload for this step.

8. Next, navigate back to the Settings to finalize the process by defining access rights for the Remaining vacation absence type. Grant proposal rights for people's own data and define appropriate approval processes in Settings > Approvals.

   Only employees assigned an accrual policy for Remaining vacation are able to see and apply for this absence type, even if they also have proposal rights.

   Inform your employees that any remaining vacation days they still have need to be applied for by using this absence type. Future vacation already entered into Personio may need to be transferred from the Paid vacation to the Remaining vacation absence type.

9. To have the deferred carryover limit apply at a later time, simply remove access to the Remaining vacation absence type the day after the current carryover expires. 

Permanent adjustment

We recommend that you avoid changing the carryover limit in the settings for an accrual policy, even if you want to permanently define a different expiration date for the remaining vacation. Instead, create a new absence type with an associated accrual policy and your updated carryover limit. This ensures that historical data remains unchanged.

1. Go to Settings > Absence and create a new absence type, enable accrual policies, and set the new carryover limit to the desired date.
2. Create an accrual policy with the same settings as the old absence type.

3. Create a new report and give it a name. Select the Point in time option and enter today’s date. On the Table columns, select the options Paid vacation - Balance (days) and Paid vacation - Expired days from carryover. Next, export the file.

4. Download the file Accrual balance upload as before, and this time you will do two imports:
   ▶︎ First import: set the yearly entitlement. Enter the Paid vacation - Balance (days) figures in the Balance column and set the balance date optional to the current date.
   ▶︎ Second import: define carryover days. Enter the Paid vacation - Expired days from carryover figures into the Balance column. And set the balance date to the end of the previous year.

5. Make the two imports by following the same steps as before.
6. Allocate the new accrual policy to all employees affected by the change.
7. Go to Settings > Employee roles > Access rights >Absences and transfer access rights from the old to the new absence type by removing access to the old absence type. This ensures that employees can no longer see or apply for the old absence type, while historical data is transparently retained.

   Note:
   Do not delete the old absence type. If you do, historical data will be lost.

   You can decommission the old absence type by optionally creating a policy accruing zero days per year and assigning this new policy to all employees concerned from the time the next accrual policy applies.

8. Define an approval process for the new absence type.

If you still have questions, go to the Find Answers section in Personio via Help > Support and Updates > Find Answers.