Time off policies give you clear rules for how employees request, approve, and use leave. They help keep your company organized and compliant — no matter how many teams or rules you have.
Time off policies explained
A time off policy is a framework that groups different types of leave, such as:
Vacation
Sick leave
Training
Remote work
You can assign only one policy to each employee. That policy gives them access to all the rules inside it.
💡 Tip: Time off policies aren’t just for absences — you can also use them for activities like training or working from home.
Create a time off policy
Go to Configuration > Attendance and Time Off > Time off policies.
Click Create first policy.
Enter a Policy name and click Add.
What is time off rule?
A time off rule lets you define how a specific kind of time away from work is managed within a policy — for example, how many days you grant and how they are tracked.
To create a rule, you first need to choose a time off type, which is the category the rule belongs to (e.g., vacation, sick leave, training, remote work). Some types are provided by the system by default, and you can also create your own.
💡 Tip: More information about time off types can be found here.
Time off rules explained
To create time off rule:
Open the time off policy where you want to add the rule.
Click Add time off rule.
Choose the time off type (e.g. Vacation, Sick leave, Remote, or Custom).
Click Next step to continue.
📌 Note: The Compensatory type is only for reducing overtime. Employees can deduct from their overtime balance only with this type.
After these steps, you’ll move on to the rule configuration, where you define details like allocation, accrual period, and deduction mode.
Allocation methods
When setting up a time off rule, choose how the allowance is allocated:
Unlimited – Users can take an unlimited amount of time off.
Accrual – Allowance is calculated and granted based on accrual rules.
If you select this option, additional configuration settings will appear (explained below).
📌 Note: Allocation methods can’t be changed later. To modify them, you’ll need to create a new rule.
Usage period
The usage period defines how long the accrued allowance remains active. You can customize it using the Accrual period option.
You can choose from three options:
Current accrual period – Balance is valid from Jan 1 (N) to Dec 31 (N). Each allowance is valid for one year.
Current + next accrual period – Balance is valid from Jan 1 (N) to Dec 31 (N+1). Each balance lasts two years, so users can use both their current year’s allowance and any remaining balance from the previous year.
💡 Tip: When a user requests time off, the system will always deduct days from the older active balance first.
Next accrual period – Balance is valid from Jan 1 (N+1) to Dec 31 (N+1). The allowance is earned during the current year but can only be used in the following year.
Accrual frequency
Earned monthly → The allowance is added to the user’s balance at the end of each month. This way, the balance grows gradually throughout the year instead of being granted all at once.
Upfront yearly → Once the new balance is activated, the user immediately gets access to their full yearly allowance of time off days.
Accrual
January – December → The allowance renews on January 1 each year.
June – May → The allowance renews on June 1 each year.
Custom → The allowance renews on the 1st day of the month you select in Recalculation date.
Count as absence
When turned on → The time off will be included in the attendance statement — best to use this for absences like sick leave or vacation.
When turned off → The time off will not be included in the attendance statement — best to use this for cases like remote work.
Deduction mode
Based on work schedule → Days off are determined by the user’s individual work schedule. For most schedules, Saturdays and Sundays will not be counted as requested days.
💡 Example: If a user’s work schedule is only 3 days per week and they take time off for the whole week, only 3 days will be deducted from their balance.
Monday to Friday – Saturdays and Sundays are always treated as days off and not deducted.
Monday to Saturday – Sundays are treated as a day off and not deducted.
Accrual allowance
Set how much time off each user gets per year.
If accrual is enabled, the system also shows the allowance as a monthly amount.
This lets you see how much time off each employee earns per month.
Auto approval
Choose if time off requests are:
Automatically approved
Sent for manager review
Weekly limit
Restrict a time off type by a weekly cap that resets every Monday.
💡 Tip: Use this to limit how many remote work days an employee can take in a week.
Proration at employment start
Adjust the first year’s allowance based on the employee’s start date.
A new hire only receives time off for the part of the year they are employed.
The Employment start date is set in the user’s Profile Data.
💡 Example: If the Employment start field in the user’s Profile data is set to July 1, the user will only receive 50% of the yearly allowance.
Proration at employment end
Adjust the last year’s allowance based on the employee’s end date.
If a user leaves mid-year, they only receive time off for the months worked.
The Employment end date is set in the user’s Profile Data.
💡 Example: If the Employment end field in the user’s Profile data is set to September 1, the user will only receive 75% of the yearly allowance.
Rounding of proration
Choose how the system rounds prorated allowances:
No rounding – Keeps the exact value (e.g. 13.3 days).
Nearest half number – Rounds to 0.5 (e.g. 1.3 → 1.5, 1.7 → 2).
Nearest whole number – Rounds to the nearest day (e.g. 13.49 → 13, 13.5 → 14).
Carryover
Decide if users can carry over unused days into the next accrual period:
Carryover limit – Set the maximum number of days that can be carried over.
Expiration – If enabled, carried-over days expire based on your rules. If disabled, they never expire.
💡 Example: If the carryover limit is set to 5 days and an user has 8 unused days, only 5 days will be moved to the next year.
Assign
Once you create all time off rules, you can assign users to the time off policy. You can manage this in the Assigned tab, where you can add or remove users from the policy at any time.
⚠️ Warning:
Reassigning a user cancels all planned, ongoing, and pending requests from their previous policy. Past requests remain unchanged, and balances are marked as Archived.
Removing a user has the same effect — planned, ongoing, and pending requests are cancelled, past requests stay unchanged, and balances are archived.
Please double-check before making changes, as these actions cannot be undone.
View and manage balances
You can filter the balances table using different criteria, such as:
Accrual period start / end date
Usage period start / end date
Current usage period
Time off type
Employee
Department or group
Archived balances
You can also export the balances table for further analysis or reporting.
When you click on a balance, a detailed view opens where you can see all information related to this balance, including:
Employee and assigned policy
Time off type
Accrual and usage period
Allowance (with a breakdown of accrued and carried-over days)
Used, planned, and remaining balance
In the Adjustment tab, you can edit:
Allowance (total days)
Carryover (days transferred from the previous period)
Usage (days already used)
In the Requests tab, you can view all time off requests related to this balance:
Manage
In the Manage tab, you can change the name of your time off policy or delete it completely.
⚠️ Warning:
If you delete a policy, all employees assigned to it will be unassigned.
All planned, ongoing, and pending time off requests related to this policy will be cancelled.
Past requests will remain in the system.
Time off balances from this policy will still be visible in the system but marked as “Archived.”