Who it’s for: Administrators, HR teams and managers who need to understand how TOIL is managed
Platform: Sense HR, Sense Automate
Available on: Elite and Enterprise
Overview
TOIL Awards & Expiry manages time off in lieu from the time it is earned until it is used or expires.
Employees earn TOIL through qualifying work and book a TOIL Event when they want to take that time back.
Behind the scenes, the workflow keeps track of each amount of TOIL separately. It can:
award TOIL when a qualifying Event booking is approved;
add each Award to the employee’s single, cumulative TOIL entitlement balance;
track each Award separately, with its own expiry date;
use the TOIL that expires soonest first;
return TOIL when a booking is declined, deleted or changed;
withdraw TOIL if the Event that earned it is deleted;
expire unused TOIL;
remind employees and their Line Managers before TOIL expires; and
keep an audit trail of what was earned, used, returned, withdrawn or expired.
If a qualifying Event requires approval, the workflow waits until the booking is approved before awarding TOIL. If approval isn’t required, the booking is approved automatically.
Employees don’t choose which TOIL Award to use when they make a booking. They book against their overall TOIL entitlement and the workflow manages the individual Awards automatically.
How TOIL moves through the workflow
At its simplest, the process is:
Qualifying work → TOIL Award → TOIL entitlement → TOIL booking → TOIL Allocation
📖 Example: Alice works 3 hours of Overtime.
Overtime is configured in the workflow as an Event that awards the amount booked, so the workflow gives Alice a 3-hour TOIL Award and adds 3 hours to her TOIL entitlement.
Alice later books 1 hour of TOIL.
The workflow uses 1 hour from her Award, leaving:
3 hours awarded
1 hour used
2 hours remaining
Alice simply sees and books against her available TOIL entitlement. The workflow maintains the Award and Allocation records behind it.
The TOIL entitlement shows Alice’s overall available TOIL balance.
The TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation screens show where that entitlement came from and how much of this individual Award has been used.
Understand the three parts of TOIL tracking
The workflow uses the normal Sense HR entitlement alongside two Profile screens that provide the audit trail.
TOIL entitlement — how much can be booked
The employee’s TOIL entitlement is their single, cumulative balance of available TOIL.
The workflow uses Ongoing entitlement, so the balance doesn’t reset at the end of an annual entitlement period. New TOIL Awards are added to the same balance, while each Award is tracked separately with its own expiry date.
Employees book against this overall balance in the same way they book other Time-off Events that use entitlement.
You don’t need to create an employee’s TOIL entitlement manually before they earn TOIL. When their first qualifying TOIL Award is created, their TOIL entitlement is created automatically, provided:
the employee has a Holiday year configured;
they’re covered by the applicable Event Manager rules; and
their Profile Template includes the TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation screens.
TOIL Award — where the TOIL came from
A TOIL Award represents an individual amount of TOIL earned from a qualifying Event.
For example:
3 hours Overtime → 3-hour TOIL Award
Each Award records how much TOIL was awarded, used, expired and remains available, along with its current status and expiry date.
It also has its own expiry date.
This lets the workflow manage several individually expiring Awards while the employee continues to see one overall TOIL entitlement balance.
TOIL Allocation — how an Award was used
A TOIL Allocation records how a TOIL booking used an Award.
For example:
Alice’s 3-hour Award → 2 hours allocated to a TOIL booking
A single TOIL booking can use several Awards, and one Award can contribute to several bookings.
The workflow creates an Allocation record for each booked day and Award used. This means one TOIL booking can create several Allocation records.
Allocation records also retain the history when TOIL is returned or an Allocation is reversed.
🖊️ Note: Employees don’t choose or manage TOIL Awards or Allocations when booking TOIL. The workflow manages them automatically.
How employees earn TOIL
Your organisation chooses which Events award TOIL.
These are normally Working Events such as Overtime, but organisations can use the Working Events that fit their own TOIL policy.
Each award Event can give:
the amount of time actually booked; or
a fixed amount for each day booked.
For example:
Award Event | Example award |
Overtime | Amount booked |
Weekend working | 4 hours per day booked |
Full-day weekend working | 7.5 hours per day booked |
With a fixed Award, the Event’s booked duration and the amount of TOIL awarded are separate. For example, a full-day weekend working Event can remain recorded as a full day in Planner while awarding a fixed 4 hours of TOIL.
If a fixed-award Event covers two days, the fixed amount is awarded for each day. For example, a two-day Event configured to award 7.5 hours per day awards 15 hours of TOIL.
An Award rule can also award a fixed number of days per day booked. The workflow converts this into Hours using the employee’s working hours for the booked day.
For example, On call = 1 day awards the hours represented by one working day for that employee on the booked date.
Each qualifying booking can earn TOIL only once.
If a booking is changed while waiting for approval, the Award is based on the version that is ultimately approved.
Whether an Event requires approval is controlled by its Event Manager rule. No TOIL is awarded while a booking is waiting for approval or if it’s declined. If an approved booking that has already earned TOIL is later deleted, its Award is withdrawn.
Use Hours for full TOIL flexibility
TOIL entitlement can be established in Days or Hours, depending on the employee’s first TOIL Award.
However, Hours is recommended if employees earn TOIL from time-based bookings or fixed-hour Awards, or need to book TOIL using all available Duration modes.
If an employee’s TOIL entitlement is measured in Days, an Event that awards TOIL in Hours can’t add its Award to that entitlement. When this happens:
the employee receives a No TOIL added email;
their Line Manager is notified; and
further Events that award TOIL in Hours won’t add TOIL while the entitlement remains in Days.
To use hourly Awards, correct the employee’s TOIL entitlement so it is measured in Hours.
🖊️ Note: The workflow doesn’t automatically convert an existing TOIL balance between Days and Hours.
Once TOIL is measured in Hours, employees can still take it using Full day or Time-based bookings. For day-based bookings, Sense HR uses the employee’s standard working day to calculate the hours deducted from their TOIL entitlement.
How TOIL is used
Employees book the configured TOIL Time-off Event against their overall TOIL entitlement.
They don’t select which Award pays for the booking.
Sense HR first checks the employee’s overall TOIL balance and the Event’s booking rules. The workflow then checks the individual Awards behind that balance to make sure enough valid TOIL is available for the dates being booked.
Valid Awards are used in earliest-expiry-first order.
For example:
Award | Remaining | Expires |
Award A | 2 hours | 30 November |
Award B | 5 hours | 31 December |
If the employee books 4 hours of TOIL, the workflow uses:
2 hours from Award A; then
2 hours from Award B.
Award B has 3 hours left.
If valid Awards can’t fully cover a TOIL booking:
a booking waiting for approval is declined automatically; or
an already approved booking is cancelled automatically.
An automatically declined booking includes a comment explaining the shortfall.
Where notifications are enabled, the configured recipients are notified when the workflow cancels an approved TOIL booking.
🖊️ Note: Whether TOIL bookings require approval is controlled through Event Manager.
What happens when a TOIL booking changes?
If a TOIL booking is changed, the workflow reverses its previous Allocations and allocates the updated dates or hours again.
If a TOIL booking is declined or cancelled, its Allocations are reversed and the TOIL is returned to the Awards that supplied it.
Allocation records aren’t deleted. Reversed records retain the reversal date, reason and who performed the action, preserving the audit history.
If the Award is still valid, returned TOIL becomes available to use again.
If the Award has already expired, the returned TOIL remains expired and can’t be used for another booking.
What happens if the Event that earned TOIL is changed or deleted?
The workflow doesn’t recalculate a TOIL Award if the Event that earned it is edited after it has already been approved and processed.
⚠️ Important: Check the duration and booking details of an Event that earns TOIL before it is approved. Editing an approved booking afterwards doesn’t recalculate its TOIL Award. If an incorrect booking needs to be recalculated, delete it and rebook it correctly. If its Award has already been used to fund TOIL, review the affected bookings before deleting it.
If the earning Event is deleted, the workflow withdraws its Award and removes the withdrawn amount from the employee’s TOIL entitlement.
The Award record isn’t deleted. Its status changes to Withdrawn, so the original Award and its withdrawal remain in the audit history.
If TOIL from that Award has already been used, the workflow tries to move the affected TOIL booking to other valid Awards.
If there isn’t enough other valid TOIL:
a booking waiting for approval is declined automatically; or
an already approved booking is kept and the employee’s TOIL balance can become negative.
The employee and their Line Manager are notified so the situation can be reviewed.
Deleting the earning Event withdraws its Award, but the Award remains in the employee’s audit history.
How TOIL expires
Each TOIL Award has its own expiry date.
Your organisation configures how long new TOIL Awards remain valid. The default is 45 days.
The Award date is the first day of the qualifying booking. The expiry period starts from that date, not the date the booking is approved.
For example:
Award date / first day booked: 1 October
Expiry period: 45 days
Expiry date: 15 November
The Award can be used up to and including its expiry date.
The workflow processes expired TOIL overnight. Any unused amount past its expiry date is:
recorded as expired on the Award;
removed from the employee’s usable TOIL balance; and
retained in the audit history as expired TOIL.
TOIL that has already been used isn’t expired.
Each Award therefore keeps track of:
Awarded − Used − Expired = Remaining
For example:
Awarded | Used | Expired | Remaining |
8 hours | 5 hours | 3 hours | 0 hours |
🖊️ Note: Changing the configured expiry period affects new Awards only. Existing Awards keep their current expiry dates.
Remind people before TOIL expires
The workflow can remind people before an Award expires.
Your organisation chooses:
whether reminders are sent;
how many days before expiry they’re sent;
whether the Employee, Line manager, or both are notified; and
whether notifications are sent by Email, Push notification, or both.
The default reminder points are 14 days and 3 days before expiry.
This gives employees time to use TOIL before it is lost and helps managers plan upcoming time off.
What the workflow sets up in Sense HR
When you deploy TOIL Awards & Expiry, it prepares the Sense HR components it needs.
The workflow uses:
a Time-off Event for employees to take TOIL;
Working Events that earn TOIL;
the TOIL Award Profile screen; and
the TOIL Allocation Profile screen.
If the Event named as the TOIL Event doesn’t already exist in Event Manager, the workflow creates it as a Time-off Event using Ongoing entitlement.
If an Event named in Award rules doesn’t already exist in Event Manager, the workflow creates it as a Working Event that can be booked outside working hours.
If a configured Event with the same name already exists, the workflow uses its existing Event Manager setup rather than replacing it.
For existing Events that award TOIL, make sure Allow booking outside working hours is ON so qualifying work can be recorded outside the employee’s normal working hours.
For more information see:
Make sure the TOIL screens are included in Profile Templates
The workflow automatically adds TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation to the shipped Employee Profile Template.
If employees using the workflow are assigned another Profile Template, add both screens to it through Screen Designer > Profile templates.
Do this before they start earning or using TOIL, so the workflow can create and maintain their Award and Allocation records.
⚠️ Important: Don’t manually add, edit or delete records on the TOIL Award or TOIL Allocation screens. The workflow creates and maintains these records automatically. Manual changes can make the audit records inconsistent with the employee’s TOIL entitlement and bookings.
Keep Event names in sync
The workflow references the Event names entered in its configuration.
If you rename an Event used by TOIL Awards & Expiry in Event Manager, update the corresponding Event name in the workflow configuration, then save and redeploy your changes.
This applies to both:
Events configured to award TOIL; and
the Time-off Event used to book TOIL.
🖊️ Note: Renaming an Event in Event Manager updates the Event name on its existing bookings and historical records, but doesn’t update the corresponding Automate configuration. Update the Event name in the workflow configuration, then save and redeploy the workflow.
If you undeploy or uninstall the workflow
Undeploying or uninstalling TOIL Awards & Expiry stops the automation. It doesn’t remove the Sense HR setup or records the workflow has already created.
Existing Events, entitlement records, TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation records, and Profile screens remain in Sense HR.
Bookings made or approved while the workflow is undeployed aren’t processed retrospectively when you deploy it again.
⚠️ Important: Keep periods of undeployment as short as possible. Check any TOIL or award Events booked while the workflow wasn’t running before you resume the process.
FAQs
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Q: Does an employee choose which TOIL Award to use when they book TOIL?
A: No. Employees using the TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow book against their overall TOIL entitlement. The workflow automatically selects valid Awards in earliest-expiry-first order.
Q: Why can I see TOIL in an employee’s entitlement settings when I didn’t add it manually?
A: The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow creates an employee’s TOIL entitlement automatically when they earn their first TOIL Award, provided they’re covered by the applicable Event Manager rules and their Profile Template includes the TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation screens. You don’t need to create the employee’s TOIL entitlement manually before they start earning TOIL.
Q: Why can’t I see TOIL Award or TOIL Allocation on an employee’s profile?
A: The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow automatically adds the TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation screens to the shipped Employee Profile Template. If the employee uses another Profile Template, add both screens to that template through Screen Designer > Profile templates before they start earning or using TOIL.
Q: Can I manually add or correct a TOIL Award or TOIL Allocation record?
A: Don’t manually add, edit or delete TOIL Award or TOIL Allocation records. The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow maintains these records automatically alongside the employee’s entitlement and bookings. If something appears incorrect, check the source Events and workflow activity rather than changing the audit record directly.
Q: Why didn’t an approved Event create a TOIL Award?
A: First check whether the employee’s TOIL entitlement is measured in Hours. TOIL Awards & Expiry doesn’t add Awards to TOIL measured in Days; when this happens, the employee and their Line Manager receive a No TOIL added email.
If TOIL is already measured in Hours, check that the Event name matches Award rules, the employee has a Holiday year configured, they’re covered by the applicable Event Manager rules, and their Profile Template includes TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation.
Q: What should I do if an employee receives a No TOIL added email?
A: A No TOIL added email can be sent when the employee’s TOIL entitlement is measured in Days. TOIL Awards & Expiry requires TOIL to be measured in Hours. Correct the employee’s TOIL entitlement so it is measured in Hours, then add the TOIL that wasn’t awarded. Future qualifying bookings in Hours won’t add TOIL while the entitlement remains measured in Days.
Q: I corrected an Event that should have earned TOIL. Why hasn’t the TOIL Award updated?
A: The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow doesn’t recalculate an Award when an approved Event that earned, or should have earned, TOIL is edited afterwards. If the Award needs to be recalculated, delete the Event and rebook it correctly. If its Award has already been used to fund TOIL, review the affected bookings before deleting it.
Q: What happens to a TOIL Award if I delete the Event that created it?
A: If you delete the Event that created an Award, the TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow withdraws the Award and recalculates the employee’s TOIL entitlement. The Award record remains on the employee’s profile with a Withdrawn status so the original Award and its withdrawal remain in the audit history. If the Award has already been used, the workflow first tries to move the affected TOIL to other valid Awards.
Q: Can an employee use TOIL on the day its Award expires?
A: Yes. The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow allows an Award to cover TOIL booked up to and including its expiry date. It can’t be used for dates after its expiry date.
Q: What happens to unused TOIL when it expires?
A: The TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow processes expired Awards overnight. Unused TOIL is marked as expired on the Award, removed from the employee’s usable TOIL balance and retained in the audit history. TOIL already used from that Award isn’t expired.
Q: What happens if a TOIL booking is cancelled after the Award it used has expired?
A: When a TOIL booking is cancelled, the TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow normally returns the TOIL to the Award it came from. If that Award has since expired, the returned TOIL is recorded as expired instead and can’t be used for another booking.
Q: What happens if I change the TOIL expiry period?
A: Changing the expiry period in TOIL Awards & Expiry affects new TOIL Awards. Existing Awards keep the expiry dates they were given when they were created.
Q: What happens to TOIL records if I undeploy or uninstall TOIL Awards & Expiry?
A: Undeploying or uninstalling the TOIL Awards & Expiry workflow stops the automation but doesn’t delete the Sense HR setup or records it has already created. Existing Events, entitlement records, TOIL Award and TOIL Allocation records, and Profile screens remain in Sense HR. Bookings made or approved while the workflow is undeployed aren’t processed retrospectively when it is deployed again.