Please note: This feature is part of a beta. Get in touch if you'd like more information on this feature.
Please note: Our training is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. We provide no guarantee or warranty as to its accuracy and, whilst we make reasonable efforts to keep our training regularly updated, it may not reflect the most recent changes in law and does not take account of individual circumstances. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all liability for its accuracy or for any consequences of relying on it, and we strongly recommend that you obtain specific, personal legal advice on any topics covered before relying on it.
The Holiday Pay reports help you work out how much holiday your Carers have built up, and what to pay them for it, based on the time and pay recorded in Birdie.
By default, the report uses a holiday year of 1 April to 31 March. We can support other holiday years too. To set a different one, confirm your holiday year start date with your account manager. The calculations only include data held in Birdie.
Access the Holiday Pay Summary report here - Upgraded Rostering customers
Access the Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll report here - Upgraded Rostering customers
Access the Holiday Pay Summary report here - Legacy Rostering
Access the Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll report here - Legacy Rostering
Before you start: the report reflects your Birdie data
This is the most important thing to understand before using the reports.
The report can only work from the time and pay data recorded in Birdie. Its figures are only ever as accurate as that data.
For the figures to be right, everything a Carer is paid for needs to be confirmed and run through payroll in Birdie, every week, with nothing missing. If some pay sits outside Birdie, or has not yet been confirmed, the report will calculate from incomplete data and is likely to under-pay your team.
You remain responsible for paying your team correctly and for meeting your legal obligations on holiday pay. The report is here to help you work it out. It does not replace your own checks, your payroll process, or professional advice. Always review the figures before you pay.
How does the report work?
Holiday is accrued at 12.07% of the hours a Carer is paid for: care time, plus all travel and wait time (paid and unpaid). This assumes your agency runs payroll on Birdie consistently.
Averages are calculated over a reference period of the past 52 worked weeks, looking back no more than 104 weeks.
Holiday is always counted as a full day in accrual and pay calculations. A holiday booked for part of a day is counted as a full day.
For a holiday of fewer than 7 days, pay is calculated for each day. For 7 days or more, the Carer is paid based on their rolling average days per week worked.
Holiday cannot be carried over between holiday years.
Changes made in Agency Hub usually appear on the report within the hour, though some can take up to 24 hours.
Please note: holidays are identified as periods of annual leave booked on the Birdie platform. For more information, see How to use the time off feature.
What needs to completed for the report to calculate correctly?
The report depends on a few things being set up and kept up to date. If any are missing, the figures will be wrong.
For both reports:
Employment start date added to each team member's profile, via their Onboarding tab in Agency Hub. Without it, a Carer's holiday pay cannot be calculated. See how to complete this step.
Absences recorded as 'annual leave' via the team member's profile. Only annual leave is counted as holiday. See how to complete this step.
Birdie Finance fully set up for payroll.
For the Holiday Pay Summary report:
Confirm visits regularly via the Confirm visits tab to the pay dashboard, every week. This is what tells the report how many hours were worked and accrued in each week. Gaps here mean missing hours. See how to complete this step.
For the Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll report:
Generate a pay run for the Carer up to the period of leave taken. The hourly and daily pay rates in this report depend on pay runs being up to date.
If there is no pay run up to the leave taken, the calculation will be wrong and you will likely under-pay your team member. See how to complete this step.
What are the known limitations to be aware of?
The report is a calculation aid. It is not a complete picture of your holiday pay obligations, and there are some things it does not currently do. Please keep these in mind and check your figures against them.
Pay recorded outside confirmed visits is not included. The report builds its figures from pay confirmed and run through payroll at the visit level. Pay handled another way is not picked up. For example: payslip additions such as National Living Wage top-ups or ad hoc payments; pay recorded against a run or a shift rather than the individual visits within it (see If you pay for shifts or live-in care below for how to record this so it is counted); or any pay made outside Birdie. Where this happens, average pay can be understated and holiday pay under-estimated.
Cancelled visits are not counted. If you pay a Carer for a visit that was later cancelled (for example, a late cancellation), that pay is not currently included in the averages.
Accrual is calculated at the statutory 12.07%. If your agency offers more than the statutory 5.6 weeks of holiday, the report will not reflect your enhanced entitlement.
Carers with less than a full year of data in Birdie. If a Carer has fewer than 52 paid weeks recorded in Birdie, averages are based on the weeks available, which may be less representative of their normal pattern.
Projections are estimates. Accruable and future bookable figures are based on current averages and will change as more time is worked.
If the figures look lower than expected, the most common cause is pay that has not been confirmed or run through payroll in Birdie. Start with the checklist above before relying on the numbers.
What if I pay carers for shifts or live-in care rather than individual visits?
The report builds its figures from confirmed visit pay. If you pay Carers for a shift, or for a block of live-in time, rather than for individual visits, you can still have that pay reflected in the report by recording the paid time as a confirmed visit. See Using Birdie for live-in care for a worked example.
For the figures to be right, the confirmed visit needs to:
Cover the time worked on a single day, dated to that day. This keeps the weekly and daily averages in line with the Carer's real working pattern. Record one confirmed visit per worked day rather than one visit for a whole block.
Record the hours the Carer is actually paid for that day, their measured or planned hours, not the full elapsed time of the shift. Recorded hours drive both the holiday accrued and the average hours per day and per week, so over-stating them will over-state accrual and distort the pattern.
Record the pay the Carer actually receives for that day, including any paid travel or wait time.
Anything else covering the same time, for example shorter task or medication visits, should be discarded from payroll so it is not counted twice. Finance should contain exactly what the Carer is paid, once.
Apply this consistently. Because the report averages over the past 52 worked weeks, the figures will settle only once the approach has been used across the reference period. We recommend agreeing the right set-up with your Customer Success Manager.
How do I find the Holiday pay reports?
Log into Birdie Analytics. Click Folders in the left sidebar, then Shared folders, then Birdie Analytics. Select the Upgraded Rostering Reports folder and then choose the Holiday Pay beta report.
You will see two reports:
Holiday Pay Summary report
Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll report
What does the Holiday Pay Summary Report show?
This report shows how much leave each Carer has accrued and taken. Your Carers and staff are listed on the left. Use the filters at the top to search for a specific Carer or branch. If a Carer is not showing, set the Role filter to Is: Any value to include Admins and inactive profiles. A Carer who works across more than one branch shows separately for each.
The report shows you:
Payment week start date - Accrual is calculated weekly. This is the week commencing date for each row.
Total hours worked - Care time appears once visits are confirmed for payroll, and is updated to include travel and wait time once pay runs are created. Visits discarded from payroll are excluded.
Cumulative total hours worked - Hours worked since the start of the holiday year. (1 April to 31 March is the default unless you have given your account manager another date.)
Accrued hours - 12.07% of hours worked, including care, travel and wait time. Care time appears after visits are confirmed for payroll; travel and wait time (paid and unpaid) are backdated once pay runs are created.
Already taken hours - Holiday taken since the start of the holiday year. This is each day of holiday multiplied by the rolling average hours per day for the reference period up to the week the holiday was taken. Booked in whole days, and only annual leave is counted.
Under / Over hours - Accrued hours minus hours already taken.
Accruable hours - A projection of how many hours the Carer will build up between now and the end of the holiday year, based on current averages.
Future booked hours - Future holiday days booked, multiplied by the current average hours worked per day.
Average weekly days and hours - The average days per week worked across the 52-week reference period. This is calculated from hours worked and paid in the reference period, and needs pay runs to be created to be right.
Average hourly and daily pay rate - The average hourly and daily rate for the Carer, in pounds, across the 52-week reference period, based on paid and unpaid hours for care, travel and wait time. This needs pay runs to be created up to the leave taken to be right.
Future bookable hours - A projection of the hours a Carer should be able to book as holiday in the current holiday year, based on their current surplus or deficit plus accruable hours, minus any future booked hours.
What does the Holiday Pay Summary Report for Payroll show?
This report shows how much each Carer is to be paid for holiday taken, with the calculated holiday hours and pay.
Your Carers and staff are listed on the left. Use the filters at the top to search for a specific Carer or branch, and the Holiday Date filter to set the time frame. A Carer working across more than one branch shows separately if you select both branches.
The report shows you:
Total Holiday (Days) - The total proportional days of holiday taken.
Total Holiday (Hours) - The total hours of holiday taken, based on the rolling average hours per day.
Total Holiday Pay (£) - The total holiday pay in pounds. Pay runs need to have been created for all visits before the day of holiday for this to be right.
Tip: Click on the number of hours or pay to see a row for each day.
How do I add holiday pay to a team member's payslip?
Once you have worked out what a team member is owed using the Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll report, add it to their payslip.
Add the holiday pay as an ad-hoc payment to the payslip generated on Birdie. This can only be done after the pay run has been generated. See how to complete this step.
Once added, download the pay run, which will now include the holiday payment.