Free choice absence is a type of absence that both creates an absence registration and takes from the free choice balance. In the guide here, we review setup, registration and calculation.Turn on the free choice function in the company's basic setupFirst, you must make sure that you have activated Free Choice at company level. This is done under My company > Salary and bank > the Collective agreements box. When you switch the function on, there will be an additional function Allow negative free choice balance, which you must decide on. Allow negative free choice balance is a function that allows the balance to go into the red.Find the absence type free choice absenceYour employee can cover absences via the accrued discretionary balance. The absence type Free choice absence is one of Zenegy's standard absence types. You will find the absence types under Registrations > Holiday and absence > Absence types.Setting up free choice absenceFree choice absences can be set up in two ways, via Global Values or for individual employees.Setup via Global valuesYou must start by going under My company > Global values > Global values > Create, here under Type you must select Free choice. You will then be greeted by this image: The fields Name and ID are free text fields. The Free choice plan field must be set to Savings in order to use the Free choice absence function. Remaining fields here in relation to the set-up of the free choice scheme. To activate the use Free choice absence , the function must then be activated.Then click Save and the global value is now created and can be assigned to employees as needed or directly to a global value set.Setup on a simple employeeIf you only have one simple employee that you need to set up Free choice absence for, you can do it directly on an employee. This is done under Employee > enter the Employee, it must be added on > Salary profile > the Free choice box.Here, it is the lower function Free choice absence that must be activated. The Free choice plan field must be set to Savings in order to use the Free choice absence function.Registration of free choice absencesOptional absences can be registered in two ways, via Zenegy file import and via manual registration in the registration module.Register via Zenegy file importYou can now advantageously import several registrations on free choice absences at a time, via our file import. You can read more about Zenegy file import here, and find our recommended templates here.You must use the Holiday and absence template. In this template there are a number of columns with the headings: CVR, Employee number, Start date, End date, Type, Days and Status.Data must be entered under all entries here.It can, for example, look like this:When you use type 12, it is important to point out that Days = Hours , and Status MUST be Approved.Register via registration moduleIf it is just a single person, you can manually make the registration under Registrations > Holiday and absence > Absence registrations > Add absence. Then you simply select the type of Free choice absence and register the number of hours for the selected employee. It may look like this:Free choice absence calculationThe calculation of the value for free choice absence is as follows: Standard hourly rate * number of hours of absence = value for free choice absence.If we take into account the previous example regarding the file import, the calculation will therefore be as follows:Display of free choice absences taken on the pay slipOn the pay slip under Holiday accounting you will have four lines regarding Free choice:Free choice plan (X%): The amount during the Period shows   how much is earned on this pay run. The amount under Year to date shows how much has been earned within the current calendar year.Free choice plan balance: The amount during the Period shows the movement for this pay run. The amount under Year to date shows the total discretionary balance after this pay run.Absence - Free choice - Hours: The amount here shows the number of hours spent by the employee in the payroll cycle.Absence - Free choice - Amount: The amount here shows the value of the number of hours used in the payroll run.Here's an example of the top import line: