Contents of this article are applicable to the following users

Product: StaffAny

Platform: Web, Mobile

Off-In-Lieus (OIL), or Replacement Leaves are a popular way for employers to compensate their staff for working extra. Often, employers award their staff with OIL in the following cases:

Clearing shifts on a Public Holiday
Working on an Off Day
Working OT
Clearing Off which coincides with a Public Holiday

In StaffAny, you can set up OIL leave types to reward your staff for working extra, track their current OIL balance, and manage the expiry date of earned OILs.

This guide will cover the following:

Setting up an OIL leave type

OIL Leave Types are special leave types that do not possess the concepts of entitlement periods and accrual policies. Balances are defaulted to 0, and the only way to gain more balances is through Bulk Adjustments (more later). To create an OIL Leave Type:

In StaffAny, go to Settings > Off and Leave > Manage Leave Types > Add Leaves.
Put in Leave name. System can automatically put Leave Tag. Then, select “Off-in-lieu” in the dropdown and click Next.
In the Leave Type Settings, entitlement periods and accrual settings are fixed. Each OIL will have its own start and expiry period, based on the adjustment rule (See here for OIL adjustment)

You can only adjust the settings for:
1. Allowing leave assignment via timesheet,
2. Putting attachment for each leave request
3. Consider Leave as Working Day
4. Consider Leave as Unpaid Leave
5. Default to staff's leave hours when assigning

Learn more about Leave Other Settings here
Once done, click “Save”

Award OIL for your staff via Group Adjustments

After creating an OIL Leave Type, you can now proceed to reward OIL balances for your staff! In StaffAny, this is achieved by creating Bulk Adjustments, which allows you to award balances to one or more staff at one go!

Note: Off In Lieu adjustment can also be done by manager access level!

Create a new Adjustment Group

In the updated adjustment form, enter a group remark to explain the award. Each selected staff member receives an individual adjustment record, which you can review and edit separately after saving.

Go to “Leave” > Off-in-Lieu
Select the intended OIL leave type from the drop-down.
Click on “Create Adjustment”. You should see a Leave Adjustment popup appear.
Fill in the details for the new bulk adjustment in the popup
1. Adjustment Group: This should be the reason for creating this OIL adjustment. For example, if you are awarding your staff(s) for working on Chinese New Year (CNY), you can input “CNY PH Leave” as an adjustment reason.
2. Adjustment Days: This is the number of days of OIL awarded to staff(s). Upon creating the bulk adjustment, your staff’s total OIL balances should increase by the same amount.
  1. The balance can be adjusted by increment of 0.5 (etc 0.5, 1, 1.5 etc)
3. Adjustment Remarks: Type the remarks for all staff getting this OIL adjustment.
4. Start Date, End Date & “Never Expire” option:
  1. Start Date: This should be the date when the staff earned the OIL balance.
  2. End Date: This is the expiry date of this bulk adjustment. After this date, any remaining OIL balance gained from this adjustment will expire.
  3. “Never Expire” option: By selecting this option, the OIL balance gained from this adjustment can only be consumed, and will not expire automatically.
5. Staff Selection: Select the staff(s) to reward OIL balances to them. Use our sort and filter features for Contract, Role and Section to quickly find the relevant staff(s). Alternatively, you can simply search for them in our search box
6. Press Save to exit the Leave Adjustment popup. The newly created Bulk Adjustment will be visible in the Bulk Adjustment tab.

Tag/Untag Staff to existing Adjustment Group

When editing an Adjustment Group, use the staff selection to add or remove people from the group. You can also update the group name and Remarks. Review the affected staff before saving: removing someone removes that person’s adjustment from this group.

From Leave Management, click “Edit” to edit a specific Adjustment Group previously created. A Leave Adjustment popup will appear.
Edit the Bulk Adjustment accordingly. Only the following fields can be edited
1. Adjustment Group
2. Staff Selection: You can tag new staff to existing bulk adjustments (if have already been tagged to the OIL leave type), or remove currently tagged staff.
3. Adjustment Remarks
Press "Save" to save changes.

Track Created Adjustment Group Audit Log

Adjustment Group can have a variety of changes, from new staff, removed staff, group name, or individual staff(s) balances and prolonged expiry date. Use Audit Log to review what changes happened to an Adjustment Group, who made it and the remarks upon each changes.

In the Adjustment Group tab, click View on an Adjustment Group
An Audit Log modal shows past changes for the Adjustment Group
For changes that impacts a lot of staff, you can search the staff's inclusion.

Notes:

Fields in green represent fields that have been edited.

Setting up OIL Automation

Instead of manually creating bulk adjustments, you can also opt for the system to automatically reward Off-In-Lieus to your staff using our OIL automation feature! With this feature, our system will automatically create and assign users to bulk adjustments whenever they work on a PH!

Note: We are currently testing this feature with selected users, if you are interested in this feature, reach out to our customer support!

Setting up Special Dates for Public Holidays

To use the OIL Automation feature, you have to ensure your Special Dates (or Public Holidays) have been set up.

Go to Settings > Special Dates

Add new events, or public holidays as needed, by specifying the date and name for the the PH.
Check on "Include in Auto Off-in-lieu" column for event dates that you want to be considered by our OIL Automation engine. These event dates will be automatically populated into all new and existing rules.
Click "Save" to finish.

For more information related to special dates, please refer to this Help Article.

Create a Rule for OIL Automation

In our Off and Leave tab, click on the Off-in-lieu leave type and you will see a side drawer appear. Here, you can set up your automation rules. These rules determine the conditions in which staff will be automatically awarded balances (via Bulk Adjustments).

To add an OIL Automation Rule:

On the leave details side drawer, click on the Add Automation Rule button.
The popup modal to create a new rule will appear. Next, proceed to fill in the following:
1. Rule Name: e.g. PH OIL Automation
2. Amount Awarded: This is the number of days of leave balances automatically awarded to staff if they fulfill the specified condition
3. Expiry: Fill in the expiry period for the OIL balances awarded.
4. Select the intended Adjustment (or Automation Rule) Type: Currently, we only support awarded staff OIL for their work on a PH (or Special Events in our system).
  Note: Automation for working on OFF days & clearing OFF on PH will be coming soon!
5. Fill in the "Total Duration" staff needs to clock in a day before the automation will award them with leave balances. For example, if a staff should only be awarded OIL if they work more than 4 hours, you should set up as [Min Duration - 4 hours, Max Duration - 24 hours]
6. Double-check "Falls on" to make sure the correct PH dates are reflected in the automation rule. The rule only runs for the PH selected in this list.
7. Click on Save.

Example

If your company has the following policy of awarding OIL on a PH:

0.5 day OIL for staff who worked less than 4 hours
1 day OIL for staff who worked more than 4 hours

You should set up 2 separate rules, one for each case above

Case	0.5 day for 0-4 hours worked	1 day for 4 or more hours worked
Rule Name	PH OIL (<4hrs) Automation	PH OIL (>4hrs) Automation
Amount Awarded	0.5	1
Balance will expire in	3 months (same for both)	3 months (same for both)
Adjustment Type (or Automation Rule Type)	Work on Special Event Day	Work on Special Event Day
Min Duration (more than or equal to)	0	4
Max Duration (strictly less than)	4	24

Important: Ensure the duration for both rules do not overlap. If they overlap, e.g. in the case of 0-5 and 4-24 hrs, then a staff who clocked 4 hours will receive OIL balances from both rules!

Rule Archival

In the event of a change in company policy for awarding OIL, you can archive the old rules that you no longer require and set up new ones. The balance that has been awarded from previous rules will not be affected when archiving the rule. The new rule will only affect dates that have not yet been run by the OIL automation

Activating Rules with Automation Scheduler

Upon the creation of a rule, the system will show a new section called “Automation Scheduler”. The automation scheduler decides when all the rules will run for all staff in the organization.

In the above example, the system will reward OIL for staff 1 day after the event date (e.g. Public Holiday).

Once the automation rules & scheduler are set up, all staff tagged to the OIL Leave Type will automatically receive OIL balances whenever they work on a PH!

Timesheet

Whenever the automation is triggered, there will be an indication displayed under the “Status” column in the timesheet. For example, if 2 days of balances are awarded for the Off-In-Lieu leave type “DOI”, then 2 DOI [automation] will be shown.

Track Automated Off-In-Lieu Creation in Leave Management

Our OIL Automation engine creates a Bulk Adjustment whenever users fulfill the conditions of a rule (e.g. worked on a PH). This created Bulk Adjustment, like user-created ones, can be viewed and edited on our Leave Management page.

Bulk Adjustments created by our Automation Engine will display “StaffAny” under the column “Edit by”. This is to distinguish them from user-created Bulk Adjustments. You may continue to edit the bulk adjustments by tagging/untagging staff from it.

On the Adjustment Detail page, you will find a comprehensive list of staff members who have been awarded balances through the automation.

Delete Adjustment Group

If you notice a mistake in either a user or system-created Adjustment Group, you can delete them via:

Click “Delete” for the row corresponding to the Adjustment Group to be deleted.
Click on “Yes” after reading the warning modal to proceed with deleting the Bulk Adjustment. Note that deleting a Bulk Adjustment is an irreversible action.

Track OIL Balances & Expiry

Click on the Adjustments Detail tab. Here, you can view the details of each OIL balance adjustment awarded to each staff.
To view individual OIL balances that have not been cleared, simply filter by “Show untaken leave” under our search and filter feature.
To view OIL balances that have expired or are expiring soon, use the sorting function by clicking on the “Expiry Date” column header.

Note: Remember to remind your staff to clear their OIL before it expires! (They will not have access to this page)

Track and Edit OIL Balances and Expiry

Unlike other leave types, OIL balances typically start being active the day after it has been earned and expire a few months after being earned.

With our Individual Adjustment page, you can easily track the breakdown of OIL balances each of your Staff has, and whether any of their earned OIL balances are expiring soon. Also now you can amend the OIL Balance, Start and Expiry Date!

View OIL Balances & Expiry

Click on the Adjustments Detail tab. Here, you can view the details of each OIL balance adjustment awarded to each staff.

Go to Leave menu > Off-in-Lieu > Individual Adjustment tab > Pick a Leave Type
Filter adjustments based on:
1. Leave taken/untaken
  Filter table list based on whether the staff-OIL Leave adjustment is still untaken, already have been taken, or both.
  Note: Taken leaves are leaves that have been approved. So pending leave request will not be considered as taken yet.
2. Adjustment Group
  Filter staff-OIL adjustment list based on different adjustment groups
3. Section
  Filter staff-OIL adjustment list based on different sections
4. Staff name
  Search staff-OIL adjustment list based on staff name
Staff-OIL adjustment table will show
1. Adjustment Group
2. Created Date
3. Staff Name
4. Section
5. No of Days (Adjustment Days)
6. Start Date
7. Expiry Date
8. Taken
  Taken counts leaves that are completely approved or assigned directly. Pending leave request is not considered taken
9. Edit By
  User who created or edited the adjustment, whether from adjustment group or from individual adjustment
10. Adjustment Remark
  Adjustment remarks in Individual Adjustment shows remarks made from the individual adjustment edits

Edit OIL Balances & Expiry

You can also adjust one or multiple staffs' OIL.

Go to Leave menu > Off-in-Lieu > Individual Adjustment tab > Pick a Leave Type
Choose 1 or multiple staff. You can only select staff from the same adjustment group for edit. Use filter to help select all staff from same adjustment group. Click Edit Selected
Once the modal shows up, you can see each staff's different adjustment conditions. You can apply below adjustments to all selected staff: Adjustment Days, Start Date, or Expiry Date. The input box for above fields are left empty. To save changes, you must fill in with the desired new values for each fields.

However, there are restrictions for new adjustments:
1. Adjustment days cannot be lower than the number of pending request or approved leaves from the selected staff.
2. Start date cannot be after a staff's approved or pending request leave date
3. Expiry date cannot be before a staff's approved or pending request leave date
Once completed, click Save. Changes will be reflected directly

Export the OIL Adjustment Report

Use the Export button on the Adjustments Detail tab to download a CSV report of the adjustments you select for the chosen leave type and date range. The report is useful for auditing OIL awards, reconciling balances, and sharing records with your team.

Go to Leave menu > Off-in-Lieu > Individual Adjustment tab > Pick a Leave Type
Select time range and staff based on filters and click Export selected staff
See result in downloaded excel. The exported excel includes the following columns:

Column	Description
Adjustment Reason	The reason entered when the Bulk Adjustment was created.
Created Date	The date the adjustment was created (DD/MM/YYYY).
Staff Name	The name of the staff member who received the OIL adjustment.
Section	The section(s) the staff member is tagged to.
Leave Type	The OIL leave type the adjustment was applied to.
No. of days	Number of OIL days awarded. Positive values show days added; negative values show deductions.
Start Date	The date the OIL balance became active (DD/MM/YYYY).
Expiry Date	The date the OIL balance expires, if applicable (DD/MM/YYYY).
Taken	Number of OIL days already used by the staff member.
Edit By	The name of the user who last edited this adjustment, or "StaffAny" for auto-created adjustments.
Adjustment Remarks	The remarks you put for every individual adjustment edits

Note: The export includes only the adjustment rows you select. Set the date range and filters first, then select the rows you need.

Assign & Apply OIL Leave

Balances for OIL Leave Types (awarded via Bulk Adjustments) can be consumed like normal leave types via schedule and/or our Mobile App. When you assign the leave through the Web App schedule menu, you will see the Off-in-Lieu balances available for the user. The available balances are separated into individual adjustments, each containing a different adjustment reason and validity period.

On the Mobile App, you can also assign OIL leave balances through the schedule menu.

Employees can also apply for leave via the My Leaves menu and keep track of the balances for the OIL leave type.

Special Use Case: Giving PH OIL / PH Leave in Advance

Some companies practice awarding PH OIL or PH Leave upfront for the year. This can be easily performed through Bulk Adjustments:

Create one Bulk Adjustment for each Public Holiday in the year, at the start of the year. Ensure all existing staff are tagged to each Bulk Adjustment created
1. You may want to have staggered expiry dates for each created bulk adjustment during your set-up.
2. E.g. New Year’s Day PH leave expires on 1st April 2024 (3 months after the new year), while CNY Day 1 PH leave expires on 10th May 2024 (3 months from CNY)
Whenever a new employee joins the company, tag them to the relevant Bulk Adjustments corresponding to PH occurring after their join date.

Special Use Case: Auto OIL setup when not all staff are eligible for the same PH

In some cases, not all staff in a company are eligible for the same PH dates in a year. For example, staff from a certain religion might be eligible for PH related to their religion.

In such cases, reach out to our customer service to enable the ability to define which PH dates are eligible for each Auto OIL rule. Once this is enabled, setup your Auto OIL for PH as such:

Create one non-entitlement-based (PH OIL) leave type for each group of users eligible for the same PH dates.
Tag users to only one PH OIL leave type, depending on which PH they are eligible for.
Set up one Auto OIL rule for each leave type, based on your practice
1. You should now be able to select different PH dates when creating each rule.
2. After a rule is created, you can also edit the PH dates applicable for the rule. This is useful when you need to add new PH dates for the next year into the rules.
  1. Select the Edit icon
  2. Edit the "Falls On" section to include only the intended PH dates.
  3. Click "Save.
Proceed with the rest of the Auto OIL setup as per normal.

FAQ

Q: I’m currently using a normal leave type to track OIL balances, how should I migrate over to the new OIL leave type?

A: You can migrate over by the following:

Create a new OIL leave type
Tag all eligible staff to this new leave type
Start awarding only via the new OIL leave type moving forward
Allow your staff to finish clearing current balances in the old leave type
1. Once the balances have been cleared, you may want to download your staff(s) current leave report and untag them from the old leave type
Once all balances for all staff have been cleared, download the leave report for the leave type, and delete the previous leave type.

Q: My staff clocks in for his shift on a PH but did not receive PH OIL? Why?

A: Auto OIL will not run with a missing clockout. Missing clock out has to be overridden before the scheduler run for auto OIL to apply. If the missing clock out is overriden after the scheduler run, create adjustment to award PH OIL

Q: When does OIL automation run?
A: The automation runs between D+1 on 00:00 to 03:00 (GMT+8) time.

Q: If my staff have multiple shift and all of them have clock in and clock out records, will they get multiple Off in Lieu balances?

A: No, the system will accumulate the total worked hours for the day and then will compare against the rule.

Managing Off-In-Lieus and PH Replacement Leaves with StaffAny