The policies can be divided into two categories: accumulative and non-accumulative. Accumulative policies set a limit on the number of days within a year, month, etc., or allow for the transfer or cancellation of days to the next period.
Non-accumulative policies, on the other hand, do not impose any such restrictions, and employees are free to request any number of days off at any time.
Adding an accumulative policy
To add a policy, click the plus in the right corner of the vacation type you've just created. Then select the type "Accrued".
When you select the Accumulative policy, you see 4 blocks of settings in front of you:
Details
Accrual and carryover
Approvels
Settings
Accumulative policy setup details
The first step is to name the policy. For example, “General” or “Standard”. The name of the policy will be displayed on the employee's personal page.
Activity type:
Not working, paid - in this category, the employee is not actively performing work duties but is still receiving compensation for that period.
Example, when an employee is unable to work due to illness or injury, but they continue to receive their regular salary.
Working, paid - this type of activity covers days when the employee is actively engaged in work tasks, even if they are performed remotely, such as "working from home". For example, if an employee spent five days working remotely from their home office, those days would be counted as part of the "paid work" category."
Not working, unpaid - this category includes situations where an employee is not performing work duties and is not receiving compensation for that period.
Example, when an employee takes time off from work for personal reasons such as family emergencies, extended vacations, or pursuing further education.
Counted as working days or calendar days:
working days - only business days are counted as days of leave. Weekends and holidays do not count as used leave.
calendar days - every day from the departure until return is counted against the leave.
Limits
Allow requests with negative balance: If enabled, employees can request leave even if it results in a negative leave balance.
Example: An employee with a leave balance of 2 days can still request 5 days of leave, resulting in a balance of -3 days.
Restrict overlapping requests: Optionally prevent employees from submitting leave requests that overlap with dates they've already used.
Example: If an employee requested leave for November 1-5 and tries to request leave for those same dates again, the system will issue an error notification.
Restrict requests on probation: Specify whether employees can take leave during their trial period.
Example: During the first three months of employment, employees may be restricted from taking leave.
Restrict breakdown modification: If enabled, employees cannot edit the breakdown while submitting the leave request.
Example: If an employee has requested leave for 1 day, they cannot modify it to 0.5 of a day if the "Restrict breakdown modification" option is turned on. Similarly, if the policy is in hours, and an employee has requested leave for 1 day (8 hours), they cannot modify it to 4 hours if this option is enabled.
Minimum daily amount:
Set daily limits, and it's advised to use the value "1." This ensures protection against requests for fractions of days, like 0.5 or 0.25.
Example: If an employee tries to request leave for only half a day (0.5) and the minimum daily amount is configured as "1," the system will restrict such requests, maintaining the minimum limit of a full day.
Minimum/Maximum total amount:
Specify the minimum and maximum total days an employee can request.
Example: If the minimum total amount is 2 days, they can request a total of at least 2 days off.
Example: If the maximum total amount is 10 days, employees can't request time off more than 10 days.
Minimum/Maximum notice period:
Minimum notice period: Determine the time an employee must give notice before requesting time off.
Example: A minimum notice period of 2 days means employees can only request time off starting 2 days before the leave.
Maximum notice settings: Specify the maximum allowable notice period to prevent excessively early requests.
Example: If the maximum notice period is set to 90 days, employees can't request time off more than 90 days ahead.
Accruals and carryover
Using this function, you will set up vacation rules in your company for a certain type of absence.
Accrual levels
Thanks to the levels of accrual, you can adjust the number of accrued days for the required period according to the policies of your organization.
Starts. This option enables you to specify the starting point for accrual, whether it's from the day of employment, week, month, or year. For instance, if an employee's leave accrual begins from the first day of work, you would input "0" to denote this. If the accrual starts 6 month after hire date, you would input ''6'' to denote it.
"The initial balance" setting is utilized if you provide a certain number of days to an employee from their very first day of work. If your company does not offer this, you can skip this option.
For example, if vacation accrual begins 6 months after the hire date with an initial balance of 12 days, it means that after 6 months, 12 days will be accrued to the employee's balance.
Accrues. Accruals refer to the number of vacation days allocated to employees and the frequency at which they are distributed. For instance, employees receive an accrual of 2 vacation days each month, either on the date of their hire date or on the start of the month.
The maximum balance setting establishes a limit on the number of days an employee can accumulate in their balance. This option is unnecessary if days are continuously accrued without a predefined maximum.
The "Carryover amount" setting is essential and provides options for managing the accumulation or cancellation of leave days. Choose one of the following functions:
1. None: If your company cancels carryover of leave days on the hire date or at the start of the new year. There is no carryover of unused leave days. Leave days will expire on the hire date in a year or at the start of the year according to you leave policy adjustments.
2. Up to: If you have a transfer of a specific number of days to the next period, select this option and specify the maximum number of days that can be carried over.
3. Unlimited: If leave days are continuously accumulated without a predefined limit. Choose this option for unlimited carryover. In the event that the maximum balance is set to 24 days, accrual will cease once the maximum accumulation of 24 days is reached.
Carryover
First accrual:
Proportional accrual means that the number of accrued days is determined proportionally to the date of joining the company. For example, if an employee is entitled to 20 vacation days per year and joins the company in the middle of the year, they will be accrued only 10 days, not the full 20.
full amount, if the first accrual is accumulated in full.
Accruals happen based on the following options:
1. End of accrual period: Select this option if you provide employees with leave days for the preceding working period. Example, the employee comes to work on the 1st of July, and 2 days are accrued to his balance at last day of the month.
2. Start of accrual period: Choose this option if you prefer days to accumulate in advance at the beginning of the accrual period. For example, if an employee begins work on the 2nd of July, two days would be accrued to their balance on the same date.
Approvals
If leave requires approvals in your company, activate the "Enable Approvals" option.
You have the flexibility to choose either one approver or as many as necessary, aligning with the specific needs and structure of your company.
1. Direct manager( manager) : This is the employee's direct manager to whom they report in the organizational structure.
2. Indirect manager (Manager of Managers): This individual has more influence or responsibility than the direct manager. They consider the general request from a general management perspective and decide on its approval or rejection.
3. Manager of the 3rd level: This is the individual recognized as the third-level manager in the organizational hierarchy.
4. Team lead(s): This is the manager of the employee's team. This person knows the team's work and its ability to maintain productivity during the employee's absence.
5. Specific employee: Here you can choose any individual from the the drop-down menu. A personnel management specialist can be designated as a specific individual from the list of available HR managers.
6. Department's manager: The approver will be the manager of the respective department.
7. Employee reference: This individual is integrated into the employee's profile using a custom field titled "Responsible for Approving Leave Requests." Different employees can be chosen for approval in individual employee profiles.
The approval request will be sent to the selected individuals in the sequence specified in the leave policy settings. It is important to note that all individuals selected for approval have equal authority. If any approving individuals reject the request, it will be declined.
Skip unassigned approvals option: If an employee does not have a direct manager, indirect manager (manager's manager), and team lead, so his leave request cannot be approved. In this case, you can use the ''Skip unassigned approvals'' feature when setting up the leave policy. This function allows automatically redirecting the leave request of employee to the next stage(approver) for approval without blocking the system.
You can read more about best practices of configuring approval of leave requests in policies here.
Settings
Balance rounding options:
In the first dropdown, users can choose from three rounding options: Nearest, Maximum, and Minimum.
In the second dropdown, users can select rounding precision: one decimal place, two decimal places, or rounding to the nearest whole number. For further details on balance rounding, please refer to the provided link.
Visibility options for leave policies:
Public - leave type names and icons are displayed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for all users.
Private - leave type names and icons are concealed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for regular users, while remaining visible to admins and approvers.
Enable approval notification: Allows you to inform employees about the approval of their request. You can create your own notification template. If this is not required, you can skip this option, and employees will receive standard notifications that their vacation have been approved.
Policy without accumulation rules
This policy does not contain complex settings. Here you only need to activate the “Details” and “Approvals” tabs (following the example described above).
