To help us accurately track time and entitlements for future leave requests, we ask that you provide historical transfer leave data for any leaves that started before your launch with Cocoon. This is an important step that should be completed as part of Employer Onboarding.
Employer Responsibility for Transferred Leaves:
For any leaves transferred into Cocoon, you’ll need to coordinate with your pay team to continue paying employees outside of Cocoon, where applicable.
These employees will not appear on the pay file.
Cocoon will also not surface any claim forms for active or additional time related to these transferred leaves. Any applicable compliance notices or required documentation for the transferred leave must also be handled outside of Cocoon.
We recommend planning your approach early to ensure a smooth process.
What is a transfer leave?
A Transfer Leave includes:
Leaves completed before the launch.
Active leaves that overlap with the launch.
In some reports, 'Active' may be labeled as 'Open'
Leaves with additional time planned after the launch (e.g., bonding periods).
You only need to provide information for the 12 months prior to your launch date. If you choose to provide data beyond 12 months, please note it may take extra time to compile from your team.
Overview of the Transfer Leave Process
The transfer leave process consists of four steps:
Proactively preparing your data: Before starting, ensure you plan ahead and figure out how and where you will get your transfer leave data from.
Filling the template: Compiling and organizing your transfer leave data into the provided Cocoon Transfer Leave Template.
Uploading the data: Uploading the completed transfer leave template in the Cocoon platform
Verifying the transfer leaves: Checking the imported leaves in the Employer Dashboard, and verifying all of the data is correctly imported.
Step 1: Proactively Preparing Transfer Leave Data
To ensure a smooth process, here are some key steps to take in preparing your transfer leave data:
Identify who will compile the data: Determine if it will be your previous leave administrator, a few members of your team, or both. You may need to involve your team even if your previous leave administrator handles the initial data collection.
Gather data from multiple sources: You may need to use a combination of reports from your previous leave administrator, your HRIS, and/or any internal systems where employees report the hours they’re taking off. Use our template to guide you on which fields are best to select for downloading reports.
Action the report close to your launch date: To minimize ongoing work, complete the task as close to your launch date as possible. This helps ensure that active (open) leaves with changing dates are minimized and allows you to ingest closed leaves (with final dates) as they are the best source of truth.
It's recommended to action this no more than 3-4 weeks before launch.
Review and add missing information: Even if your previous leave administrator managed the records, you may need to review or add additional details. Make sure the data is complete and up-to-date before uploading.
💡 Plan ahead for how you’ll handle pay, claims, and compliance outside of Cocoon for transfer leaves:
Transferred leaves will not appear in Cocoon pay files, and Cocoon will not surface claim forms or compliance notices for them. Work with your pay team, employees, and internal stakeholders to ensure these items are managed separately and employees have clear guidance.Pro Tip: The more complete and current your transfer data, the smoother your transition will be — reducing manual work and ensuring employee records are accurate from day one.
Step 2: Filling out the transfer leave template
Download the template: Use the provided template to ensure all required fields are included and formatted correctly.
Enter the required data: Fill in the transfer leave details, such as leave type, dates, and employee information. Make sure to include any leaves that were completed, are active, or have additional time planned post-launch.
Reminder: Any net-new leaves that are due to begin after launch should not be included in this sheet. We recommend that these leaves be entered directly in Cocoon by employees so we can fully support them.Review for accuracy: Double-check all entries to confirm the data is accurate and complete. Inaccurate or missing information can cause delays later in the process.
Refer to the instructions tab: If you're unsure about any fields, refer to the Instructions tab within the sheet for guidance on what data is needed.
Before proceeding, ensure you’ve completed either a census upload or set up your integration—which is part of your onboarding tasks. This allows us to link employees from your transfer leave data sheet, and properly created your transfer leave.
Additionally, your onboarding specialist will align with you to build leave rules that reflect your company policy alongside state and federal entitlements, as well as employee types where applicable (e.g., full-time, part-time).
Step 3: Uploading the completed template into Cocoon
Select the Transfer Leave section: Log into your Cocoon admin account and navigate to the Settings section, locate and select the Transfer Leave section.
(Optional) Decide if you want to enable the transfer leave task list: Ongoing transfer leaves (i.e. leaves that have not yet ended at the time of transfer) can include a My tasks dashboard for employees and certain tasks for Admins. This can be useful if you would like to centralize more leave documentation in Cocoon, or if you would like leave documentation in Cocoon to help you review and decision certain requested leaves.
Supported employee tasks
Compliance-related tasks
SHC downloads
SHC uploads
Medical Recertification Tasks
Supported Admin tasks
Manual leave review tasks (for intermittent medical/caregiver leaves and/or continuous leaves depending on your settings)
Unsupported tasks
Anything related to private disability
Anything related to claims
Anything related to State-level compliance
Anything related to payroll or benefits estimates
This feature is OFF by default. If you want to enable it, turn it on by going to the Transfer leave tab under Settings ➡️ click on the gear on the top right, and toggle it to on.
Upload the file: Click on the upload button, select your completed transfer leave sheet, and submit the file. You may have to fix any validation errors in your template before proceeding.
To fix these errors, you can either fix them inline through the upload tool, or download the file and fix them in your spreadsheet application of choice.
Wait for upload completion: Please note that it may take some time for the upload to complete. If the upload seems stuck at less than 100%, please reach out to our team to troubleshoot and unblock the ingestion process.
Once you've uploaded the file, reach out to your Onboarding Specialist who can review and confirm that the data ingestion is complete.
Step 4: Check your transfer leave data in the Employer Dashboard
Once all leave data has been ingested, you can view the leaves in your Employer Dashboard. You will be able to tell that your transfer leaves have completed by looking at the progress bar on the settings page.
As a good practice, please audit the imported transfer leaves and make sure they are showing up correctly. You can search for specific leaves by entering the employee's name at any time.
What’s Supported with Ingested Transfer Leaves
Employer and employee ability to view entitlements
Employee ability to edit leave and create a new leave leg within their employer policy and entitlements
If historical transfer leave data is provided by the employer, the date range will reflect any remaining leave time for the employee
Employee ability to request ADA handoff for medical leaves if they’ve exhausted their time
Limited Task List items for ongoing transfer leaves, like downloading and uploading serious health condition forms
What’s Not Supported with Ingested Transfer Leaves
Pay support
Claims support
Compliance notices
Note: If an employee needs to take a new type of leave (e.g., transitioning from parental leave to caregiver leave), Cocoon will treat this as a new leave.
Employer Leave Detail View:
Employee Leave Detail View:
FAQ
How does the transfer leave task list work?
How does the transfer leave task list work?
The transfer leave task list is a feature that can help you collect compliance related items for transfer leaves, in case you need those items in Cocoon.
Please note that compliance items, like uploading a serious health condition form, are due within 21 days of completing the transfer leave process. This does not include leaves that have been fully approved or fully denied during the ingestion process.
The currently available tasks are:
Downloading a serious health condition form, or similar compliance forms for leave
Uploading the serious health condition form, or similar compliance forms for leave
Medical Recertification tasks, if enabled for the leave.
The unavailable tasks are:
Anything related to private disability
Anything related to claims
Anything related to State-level compliance
Anything related to payroll or benefits estimates
The transfer leave task list will be enabled for all transfer leaves imported into the system with an end date in the future. Any "completed" transfer leaves with an end date in the past will not have a task list.
I do not see the tasks to download or upload the serious health condition in the transfer leave task list
I do not see the tasks to download or upload the serious health condition in the transfer leave task list
Cocoon will not show compliance-related task items for transfer leaves that come in as fully approved or denied. Cocoon will treat these leaves as having their serious health condition forms waived, to prevent automatic denial by our system. There should be at least one pending date to enable these tasks.
What happens if I don’t upload the historical leave data?
What happens if I don’t upload the historical leave data?
Without historical leave data, our system has no way of knowing how much time your employees have already taken for leave and will assume that each employee begins with a “blank slate” that assumes they have a fresh balance of time from FMLA and your company’s policy. A “blank slate” means Cocoon’s platform assumes your employee has not taken any leave in the last 12 months and that the employee could end up getting more time (or pay) if in fact they had taken time in the last 12 months.
How will my employee know to set up an account and access their remaining balance?
How will my employee know to set up an account and access their remaining balance?
You can inform employees to create a Cocoon account. Once they do, their historical transfer leave data will be linked to their account. Employees will not receive any emails until they claim their Cocoon account. However, if an employee is on active leave and has not claimed their account, your team and their manager may still receive notifications, such as return-to-work reminders.
Below are sample comms for your team to edit and share with employees:
Hi [First Name],
Since you've previously taken a leave with [Your employer name], we’ve partnered with Cocoon to ensure accurate tracking of your leave entitlements by importing your past leave details.You can create your Cocoon account anytime, and once you do, your leave details will automatically be linked. There’s no need to sign up immediately unless you're currently on leave or need to make updates—but you’re welcome to create an account now to review your information.
Create your account at: app.cocoon.com/youremployerurl
Article: How to Create Your Cocoon Account as an Employee
Until you claim your Cocoon account, you won’t receive any emails. However, if you're currently on leave, your employer team may receive notifications, such as return-to-work reminders, based on the imported leave details.
I Need to Update a Date on an Ingested Leave
I Need to Update a Date on an Ingested Leave
If the leave was ingested before launch, please inform your onboarding specialist, and they can manually update the leave date. If there are multiple leaves, we may recommend deleting and re-ingesting them.
After launch, you can reach out to [email protected] for one-off leave updates if there was an error. However, we always recommend employees claim their Cocoon account to make any desired updates.
For intermittent medical/caregiver leaves your team will also be able to report absences within your admin dashboard.
Why doesn’t Cocoon send compliance notices for existing takeover leaves?
Why doesn’t Cocoon send compliance notices for existing takeover leaves?
Because Cocoon does not have a record of any notices sent prior to an employee adding their leave to Cocoon, we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of entitlement & employer policy calculations that previous vendors or in-house team members have done. This does not prevent us from offering leave date changes that are “in policy” with the employee’s entitlements.
Employers are obligated to send only one compliance notice so we would not want to send a second notice for the leave that already was approved by the employer or previous vendor.
Please note that the employer remains responsible for sending any required updated compliance notices –e.g., if the employer previously approved a subsequent leave leg but in the interim, the employee took another unanticipated leave and exhausted leave.
When would Cocoon be responsible for sending compliance notices for a Transfer Leave?
When would Cocoon be responsible for sending compliance notices for a Transfer Leave?
Cocoon will send compliance notices for a new leave that occurred while Cocoon is the leave administrator. For example, let’s say an employee was approved for a medical leave before Cocoon. The same employee takes a new leg for the previously approved medical leave (for the same condition), but also takes a new caregiver leave with Cocoon. In this case, Cocoon would send a compliance notice for the caregiver leave.
Exception if you turn ON the transfer leave employee tasks dashboard: for any transfer leaves requests where you as the employer are responsible for adjudication (i.e. reviewing/decisioning the leave request) at the time of transfer, Cocoon will send relevant designation notices based on your decision to employees who have claimed their account.
Why doesn’t Cocoon offer payroll calculations for existing takeover leaves?
Why doesn’t Cocoon offer payroll calculations for existing takeover leaves?
Due to limited insight and quality of data provided by previous leave vendors, Cocoon unfortunately cannot properly calculate previous pay balances paid out to an employee, including how much and from which source.
Due to this, employers will remain the main point of contact for pay for an employee with a Transfer Leave in Cocoon.
Why doesn’t Cocoon offer claims guidance for existing takeover leaves?
Why doesn’t Cocoon offer claims guidance for existing takeover leaves?
Due to limited insight and quality of data provided by previous leave vendors, Cocoon cannot reconcile what an employee has already been instructed from a past provider or an employer how to file claims or where they should file. We strongly advise that your employees follow the instructions they were previously given to complete their leave.
Due to this, employers will remain the main point of contact for claims for an employee with a Transfer Leave in Cocoon.
How does leave adjudication (i.e. review and approvals) work for ongoing transfer leaves?
How does leave adjudication (i.e. review and approvals) work for ongoing transfer leaves?
Adjudication for these leaves will follow whatever adjudication setting the ER had in place at the time the leave was ingested.
For example: if manual adjudication is on for continuous medical leaves, all newly ingested parental leaves will require manual employer review.”
Any questions? Please reach out to the Support Team at [email protected]