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Time off policy settings

An overview of the settings available to configure in

Oliver Cook avatar
Written by Oliver Cook
Updated over a week ago

When you create or edit a time off policy, there are many settings to consider. Below is an overview of every setting you can enable and use for a time off policy.


Allocation

Set how many days or hours will be allocated to employees assigned to this policy.

You can have this:

  • Per year and accrue - You then select how regularly this accrues, e.g. annually

  • Once

  • Accrue based on an event

  • Based on time worked and accrue - You then select whether it is based on calendar settings, timesheets or working pattern


Reset dates

Control when holiday allowance resets. For example, if set to 1 January, when 1 January arrives the allowance will return to whatever you set it as.

📌TIP: You can change this after you create the time off policy. This would be how you change your holiday year.


Default working hours

This controls how many hours count as a full working day. For example, if a working day is seven hours.


Count weekends as workdays

All time off requests that fall on weekend days will be counted against allowance.


Count public holidays as workdays

All time off requests falling on public holidays added to the calendar will be count against the allowance.


Carry over

Allow unused days to be carried over to the next holiday year. You can set the amount and an expiry date to use the carry over.


Don't accrue when taking leave from one of these policies

You enable leave for this policy to not accrue when the employee is taking leave from another selected policy.


Show time off policy in the calendar

You can allow everyone to see the name of the policy, or choose an alternative name for colleagues to see.

Allow employees to request time off themselves from this policy

When disabled only admins and managers will be able to request time off for them on their behalf.


Allow part day requests

When enabled you can control whether employees

  • Can edit the hours field

  • Require to provide a specific timespan


Probation periods

Set special conditions for a set period

  • Set length of the period

  • Set whether employees can accrue time off during the period

  • Set whether employees can request time off during this period


Don't allow employees to book more days than remaining in the current period

When enabled this will prevent employees booking leave over their available days for this policy. They will see a warning when time off exceeds their available balance and be unable to submit the time off request.


Require minimum number of days between each time off request

You can enable there to be a minimum amount of days worked in between time off requests. Select Require minimum days before before time off start date then enter number of days required.


Require minimum number of days between each time off request

You can enable there to be a minimum amount of days per time off request. Select Require minimum number of days per each request. Then enter the required number of days.


Limit maximum number of days in a request

You can enable there to be a maximum amount of days an employee can add in one request. Select Require minimum days before before time off start date then enter the number of days required.


Require another policy to be fully used before this one

You can enable another policy to be fully used before employees will be able to request time off from this policy. Select Require another a policy to be fully used before time off from this policy can be requested then select the relevant policy.


Limit allowance to be in blocks

You can limit the amount of blocks of consecutive days that an employee's time off can be split into. Select Limit allowance to be taken in [number] blocks, then enter an amount.


Recalculate remaining days for terminated employee

You can enable to have an employee's remaining days in the current period be recalculated after you terminate them. This will be based on their last working day.


Enable allowance based on length of service

Give additional days to the employee on their anniversary date. You can set this to be after certain number of years or months, and select how many additional days.

You can also add more conditions. So for example set it so that an employee after five years gets an additional day. After 10 years this changes to be an additional two days.


Enable allowance based on number of children

Allow employees to get additional days based on the number of children they have Select Enable allowance based on the number of children, then enter:

  • Number of children

  • Maximum age of the children

  • Days allocated every year

📎NOTE: You will need to add a child to the employee's profile for this to take effect.


Enable allowance to be shared with another person

You can allow an employee to share this allowance with another person. Select Enable allowance to be shared with another person.

The employee will need to provide the name and National Insurance Number of the person they will share the policy with.


Allow carry over to be used as a negative amount

When you enable this setting, any days used over the allowance in the current period will be taken away from the allowance next year. Select At the end of the year, carry over overused days as negative amount.


Set how the allowance is calculated for new starters

There are four options to dictate what happens to a new starters allowance.

Give allowance depending on their start date

This is the default behaviour. the system calculates how mich time a new employee is entitled to in the current year based days left from their start date until the policy reset date

Give full year's allowance instead of automatically calculating current allowance base do employee strat date

Give full year's allowance no matter what date employee starts in the current year.

Give allowance based on the quarter they start in 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 of yearly allowance

For example, if an employee starts in the second quarter of the company's year, the system will give half of full allowance.

Give allowance based on the quarter they start in full 2/3, 1/3, 1/4, 0 of yearly allowance

For example, if an employee starts in the second quarter of the company's year, the system will give two thirds of full allowance.


Automatically approve requests

When enabled, time off requests added by the employee will not need manager approval, they will instead be automatically approved. Select Automatically approve these requests.


Set specific approvers for this policy

When enabled time off requests for this policy will also send to employees you select as an approver for this policy.


Copy a time off request to another policy

You can enable this setting to allow time off requests made under this policy, to duplicate under another policy.

Select Duplicate time off requests to another policy, then select which policy you want to duplicate them to.


Add a replacement person

You can set up a time off policy so that when someone requests time off, they can select someone who will be covering their role or workload whilst they're away.


Allow employees to be selected for replacement if they are away using this policy

When you enabled, employees can be selected to be a replacement person even if they have booked leave using this policy.


Show Details field

When enabled, are details section will show on a time off request. You can also select to make this field mandatory to complete when submitting a time off request.


Show additional fields below Details

When enabled, employees will see additional fields below "Details" field when requesting time off. Content of this fields will be visible to time off approvers but will not be shared in the Calendar.


Allow adding an attachment to a time off request

You can allow an employee to upload an attachment to their time off request. For example this could be a doctors note.

You can either:

  • Make this optional

  • Make it mandatory

  • Require there to be an attachment if it meets conditions over a number of specified days

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