⚠️ Available with any of the following subscriptions: Standard or Professional packages
Leave policies serve as essential guidelines outlining how employees can receive, manage, and use their time off, ensuring a fair and organized approach to workplace absence. These policies allow you to create tailored rules that specify the unique particulars of time off based on your company’s needs. Different policies can be designed for various types of absences, such as vacations, sick leave, or even tracking work-from-home days.
Adding a leave type
Adding a leave type
Leave type is an absence category that will be displayed in the used profile, such as sick leave, annual leave, etc. Each type can contain several leave policies, for example, separate policies for different locations.
To add a new leave type, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Settings > HR > Leave Policies.
Click the Add leave type button.
Enter the name of the policy.
Choose how this leave will be tracked in days or hours.
Select the appropriate icon and color for the leave type.
Save settings.
Once the type is created, proceed with configuring the policy.
Leave policy types
Leave policy types
Each type can contain several leave policies. For example, you can specify various rules of time off accruing leave time for employees from different locations.
There are two types of leave policy:
Accumulative leave type is intended to set the available for employee amount of time off and specify strict rules of its accrual.
Non-accumulative leave type is supposed to track used time off and do not impose any such restrictions, for example, you want to monitor the amount of time an employee works away from the office. The balance of requested leave will be displayed instead of available time off.
Adding an accumulative policy
Adding an accumulative policy
To add a new accumulative policy, complete the following steps:
Choose the leave type that must include this policy and click the + button next to it.
Select the accrued type.
3. Provide the name of the policy. It will be visible only to you.
4. Select the activity type suitable for the leave:
Not working, paid
Not working, paid
This type is used for cases when employees do not perform work duties during the leave but will still receive compensation for that period. For example, when an employee is unable to work due to illness or injury, but they continue to receive their regular salary.
Working, paid
Working, paid
This type of activity covers days when the employee is actively engaged in work tasks and they are paid for this time. It can be used for overtime or work from home.
Not working, unpaid
Not working, unpaid
This category is designed for situations where an employee is not performing work duties and is not receiving compensation for that period. For example, when an employee takes time off for personal reasons such as family emergencies, extended vacations, or pursuing further education.
5. Choose how leave days must be counted. If you select working days, only business days are counted as days of leave. So, weekends and holidays will be excluded from the total days off count. Otherwise, each calendar day will be counted.
6. In the Instructions fields, you can provide some additional information for employees, for example, how to request time off.
7. If required, allow requests with a negative balance so employees can request time off even if it is not accrued at their 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.
8. If necessary, restrict requests that overlap to prevent employees from submitting leave requests with dates they've already used.
Example: If an employee requests leave for November 1-5 and tries to request leave for those same dates again, the system will issue an error notification.
9. Specify whether employees can take leave during their probation.
10. If required, restrict breakdown modification so 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.
11. Set a minimum daily limit that can used for leave. If you put 1 day, the employee won’t be able to ask for several hours of absence.
12. Specify the minimum and maximum total days an employee can request.
Example: If the minimum total amount is 2 days, they can request at least 2 days off. If the maximum total amount is 10 days, employees can't request time off more than 10 days.
13. Specify the minimum number of days that an employee is allowed to request leave before it starts. For example, employees can only request time off starting 2 days before the leave and no later.
14. With a maximum notice period, you can prevent excessively early requests. For example, employees can't request time off more than 90 days ahead.
If you don’t want to set any limits, leave the field empty.
15. Specify the starting point of policy functioning, whether from the first day of employment, week, month, year or other. If an employee's leave accrual begins from the first day of work, put 0.
16. Set the initial balance to provide a certain number of days to an employee from their very first working day. 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.
17. In the Accruals field, determine the number of vacation days allocated to employees and the frequency at which they are distributed. For instance, employees receive 2 vacation days each month.
18. Specify when vacation days are accrued: on the hire date or at the start of the month.
19. Set the maximum balance an employee can have. Accrual will stop once this number is reached. This option is unnecessary if days are continuously accrued without a predefined maximum.
20. In the Carryover amount field set the number of days employee can transfer to the next period:
None
None
This option is for your companies that does not use carryover of unused leave days for the next period. Unused leave days will expire on the hire date in a year or at the start of the year, according to your leave policy adjustments.
Unlimited
Unlimited
This option is to allow unused leave days to be continuously accumulated without a predefined limit. For example, employee has 5 unused day of leave, with this option this 5 days will be transferred to the next period.
Up to
Up to
This option is used when you want a set number of days allowed to be transfered the next period. When you select this option, specify the maximum number of days that can be carried over.
21. If required, you can delay carryover of unused leave days by several month in the corresponding field. If you delay carryover by 2 month means that employee balance will be updated in 2 months after the date selected in the Carryover date field and according to the the carryover amount.
22. In the Carryover date field, specify when the balance update must occur: specific date or employee hire date.
23. Select how first accrual must happen:
Prorate
Prorate
This option 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
Full amount
This option means that the full amount of days specified as the first accrual will be accrued when employee joins the company.
24. Specify when accruals must happen:
End of accrual period
End of accrual period
Select this option if you provide employees with leave days for the preceding working period. For example, the employee comes to work on the 1st of July, and 2 days are accrued to his balance on the last day of the month.
Start of accrual period
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.
25. In the Approvals section, you can enable the leave approving if it's required in your company.
You have the flexibility to choose either one approver or as many as necessary, aligning with the specific needs and structure of your company.
26. Add approver from the list:
Manager: This is the employee's direct manager to whom they report in the organizational structure.
Manager's Manager (indirect manager): 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.
Manager of the 3rd level: This is the individual recognized as the third-level manager in the organizational hierarchy.
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.
Department's manager: The approver will be the manager of the respective department.
Specific employee: Here, you can choose any individual from the drop-down menu. A personnel management specialist can be designated as a specific individual from the list of available HR managers.
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.
27. You can enable skipping unassigned approvals if an employee does not have an approver, so his leave request cannot be approved. So, the request will be automatically redirected to the next stage(approver).
28. Enable and select approver substitution if the primary approver is on leave.
29. Set rounding method and rounding precision to configure how leave balance must be shown to employees. For more details on balance rounding, please refer to the provided link.
30. Configure visibility of leave policy:
Public
Public
Leave type names and icons are displayed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for all users.
Private
Private
Leave type names and icons concealed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for regular users while remaining visible to admins and approvers.
31. If required, allow employees to withdraw their leave requests.
32. Mark adding comments as required if you need to get some details while an employee is submitting a leave request.
33. Allow adding attachments if you need to get some files while an employee is submitting a leave request.
34. Enable approval notification to inform employees about the approval of their request. You add your own notification text. If this is not required, you can skip this option, and employees will receive standard notifications that their vacation has been approved.
35. Save the policy once all parameters are filled in.
Adding a policy without accumulation rules
Adding a policy without accumulation rules
To add a new non-accumulative policy, complete the following steps:
Choose the leave type that must include this policy and click the + button next to it.
Select the manually tracked type.
3. Provide the name of policy. It will be visible only to you.
4. Select the activity type suitable for the leave:
Not working, paid
Not working, paid
This type is used for cases when employees do not perform work duties during the leave but will still receive compensation for that period. For example, when an employee is unable to work due to illness or injury, but they continue to receive their regular salary.
Working, paid
Working, paid
This type of activity covers days when the employee is actively engaged in work tasks and they are paid for this time. It can be used for overtime or work from home.
Not working, unpaid
Not working, unpaid
This category is designed for situations where an employee is not performing work duties and is not receiving compensation for that period. For example, when an employee takes time off for personal reasons such as family emergencies, extended vacations, or pursuing further education.
5. Choose how leave days must be counted. If you select working days, only business days are counted as days of leave. So, weekends and holidays will be excluded from the total days off count. Otherwise, each calendar day will be counted.
6. In the Instructions fields, you can provide some additional information for employees, for example, how to request time off.
7. If necessary, restrict requests that overlap to prevent employees from submitting leave requests with dates they've already used.
Example: If an employee requests leave for November 1-5 and tries to request leave for those same dates again, the system will issue an error notification.
8. Specify whether employees can take leave during their probation.
9. If required, restrict breakdown modification so 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.
10. Set a minimum daily limit that can used for leave. If you put 1 day, the employee won’t be able to ask for several hours of absence.
11. Specify the minimum and maximum total days an employee can request.
Example: If the minimum total amount is 2 days, they can request at least 2 days off. If the maximum total amount is 10 days, employees can't request time off more than 10 days.
12. Specify the minimum number of days that an employee is allowed to request leave before it starts. For example, employees can only request time off starting 2 days before the leave and no later.
13. With a maximum notice period, you can prevent excessively early requests. For example, employees can't request time off more than 90 days ahead.
If you don’t want to set any limits, leave the field empty.
14. In the Approvals section, you can enable the leave approving if it's required in your company.
You can choose either one approver or as many as necessary, aligning with the specific needs and structure of your company.
15. Add approver from the list:
Manager: This is the employee's direct manager to whom they report in the organizational structure.
Manager's Manager (indirect manager): 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.
Manager of the 3rd level: This is the individual recognized as the third-level manager in the organizational hierarchy.
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.
Department's manager: The approver will be the manager of the respective department.
Specific employee: Here, you can choose any individual from the drop-down menu. A personnel management specialist can be designated as a specific individual from the list of available HR managers.
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.
16. You can enable skipping unassigned approvals if an employee does not have an approver, so his leave request cannot be approved. So, the request will be automatically redirected to the next stage(approver).
17. Enable and select approver substitution if the primary approver is on leave.
18. Set rounding method and rounding precision to configure how leave balance must be shown to employees. For more details on balance rounding, please refer to the provided link.
19. Configure visibility of leave policy:
Public
Public
Leave type names and icons are displayed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for all users.
Private
Private
Leave type names and icons concealed on the "who’s out" list, schedule, and calendar for regular users while remaining visible to admins and approvers.
20. If required, allow employees to withdraw their leave requests.
21. Mark adding comments as required if you need to get some details while an employee is submitting a leave request.
22. Allow adding attachments if you need to get some files while an employee is submitting a leave request.
23. Enable approval notification to inform employees about the approval of their request. You add your own notification text. If this is not required, you can skip this option, and employees will receive standard notifications that their vacation has been approved.
24. Save the policy once all parameters are filled in.
Examples of leave policy configuration
Examples of leave policy configuration
You can read more about best practices for configuring approval of leave requests in policies here.