Opening leave balances

Give each employee the leave days they already have when you start using Penahak, or bring a balance in by hand. A request can use these days after the rule's own days are used up.

HR & payroll Leave
2 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

For HR officer Administrator

The idea

A leave opening balance is the number of days an employee already has of a leave type. It is the balance a request draws on after it has used up the days of the year's rule (How leave works: types, rules, balance and carry-forward).

You need it:

When you start using Penahak part way through, to bring in what each person has left.
To correct a balance by hand.

Add an opening balance

Open Leave management setting and the Leave opening balance tab.

Choose how
Who
HR officer
Where
Leave opening balance › Add
What changes
Leave opening (single) is for one employee; Leave opening (bulk) lists many employees to fill in together.
Fill it in
What changes
Choose the Employee (the bulk form can filter by Branch, Department and Gender), the Leave type, the Opening balance in days and the Opening date. The date must fall inside an attendance year.
Save
What changes
The days are added to the employee's balance for that leave type.

Edit an opening to correct it: the balance moves by the difference. Raising an opening from 5 to 8 adds 3 days; lowering it removes days.

Worked example: starting on Penahak part way through the year

The company's leave rule gives Annual leave 12 days for the year. HR opens Leave opening balance › Add and enters what two employees still had left on their old records:

Employee	Leave type	Opening balance	Opening date
First employee	Annual leave	5	A date inside the attendance year
Second employee	Annual leave	2	The same date

(With Leave opening (bulk) both rows are filled in on one form.)

What the openings make happen:

Employee	Days they can take of Annual leave this year	A request for 15 days
First employee	12 from the rule and 5 from the balance: 17	Accepted, with the 3 days above the rule noted as taken from the balance
Second employee	12 from the rule and 2 from the balance: 14	Refused as over the leave facility

Suppose the first employee's 5 should have been 8. HR edits that row from 5 to 8. The balance moves by the difference, 3, so the employee can now take 12 + 8 = 20 days. A second opening of 3 for the same leave type would add to the 5 instead of replacing it, so correct the figure by editing the row.

Opening leave balances

The idea

Add an opening balance

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