It is with unfortunate lamentation that I have childcare leaves that just aren’t enough. Why can’t the entitlement be per child instead of the number of children and then by some amazing calculations be split into unconditional and with MC?
The worse is that the childcare leaves are only up to age 12. Even as teenagers, they still require parents to accompany them to the clinics, right? What about those who depend heavily on their parents? Like those with mental challenges? Those who have mobility issues?
Seriously, the system also needs an update on showing the accurate balance of leaves that I have left. When I was taught that 10 minus 3 equals to 7, I thought I really had that number left. No. The actual fact was that I had no more childcare leaves left. The utter horrors of using annual leave and I wanted to carry forward as many as possible so that I can finally take that long leave for a real vacation by looking after the kids overseas.
Thus, I had to use my own format of keeping track. By using what I do best, Google Sheets. It took me about 5 days to get it done the way I wanted it to. The first round, I had the leaves and the formula. However, as the children grow up, the number of leaves would change and the entitlement would also change.
Hence, I had to create a reference sheet and update the formula. Now, below is my overall application to keep track of the days that I would be taking.
=if(Year(today())<today()+1, today(), date(31/12/2020))Thus, the above formula is to calculate the age for the year 2020. I wanted to check that the year was current, hence, the formula.
Now, I had to check my entitlement, so, I used a copy of the entitlement in another sheet as a table for me to reference to.
As the original table only contained the text that stated that at least one child was below 7 years old, I had to create a range for my formula to work.
The next bit was tough. I had difficulties with using the “IF” formula until I found “FILTER”. It saved my life.
=filter(A2:F7, B10>=A2:A7,B10<=B2:B7)The above formula would reduce the range that I was eligible for and the next part was to reduce it to the number of kids. Subsequently, I realised that the “FILTER” formula was still not enough. I had to use “MATCH” and “INDEX” for further manipulation.
=index($N$2:$N$4,match($B$9,$K$2:$K$4,0))The above code is to show the eligibility cap that I qualified for based on the number of children. I used the same filtered table and the “INDEX” and “MATCH” formula to work out the number of CCL with MC and without that I was entitled to.
Ultimately, I ended up with a working sheet that did what I wanted it to do. I tested it out when the child aged further and realised that I had to change my initial formula a bit.
Thus, I am now able to start the year off with a better way of tracking my childcare leaves.
