Set up time off: leave types, policies and who gets them
Create the types of time off you offer, give each one a policy with its rule, and assign people to it.
Time off is set up in three tabs on one page. A leave type is a kind of time off, such as Annual leave or Sick leave. A leave policy is the rule for one leave type: when it starts, how time builds up, what carries over and the limits. Each leave type has a default policy for everyone not assigned another one.
1. Leave types
- Open Leave, then Leave types and policies. Choose the Leave types tab.
- Choose + Create leave type.
- Under Start from a preset, pick the closest one. It fills in the usual settings, and you can change anything before saving.
- Check the Name, Colour, Description and whether it is Counted in days or hours.
- Tick what applies: Paid, Tracks a balance, Half days allowed, Note required, Can be recorded for past days.
- Optionally choose the Pay type used for this leave in payroll exports, then choose Save leave type.
- Standard presets: Annual leave, Paid time off, Sick leave, Holiday, Bereavement, Jury duty, Military leave, Parental leave and Personal day.
- Comp time: earned instead of overtime pay, from approved timesheets.
- Flex time: earned by working more than set hours a week (time off in lieu).
- Unpaid leave: agreed time away without pay. No balance is kept.
- Unlimited PTO: no balance is kept, but every request is still approved and recorded.
Choose Archive on a leave type you no longer offer. Past time off keeps it, and Restore brings it back.
2. Leave policies and the rule
- Choose the Leave policies tab and choose + Add policy, or Configure rule on a policy you have.
- Choose the Leave type and give the policy a Policy name, for example Full-time PTO.
- Under Rule effective from, choose From the employee's hire date, or After a waiting period (days, months or years) of the hire date.
- Under Accrual frequency, choose None (allowance granted up front), Each pay period, Monthly, Annually or Per hours worked, and the Accrual quantity. Enter 0 for no automatic accrual.
- Under Carry-over, choose None: the whole balance stays, At year end (1 January) or At the policy anniversary (hire date), with the Maximum carried and, optionally, when Carried time expires.
- Under Maximum balance, leave Unlimited balance or enter a cap. Under Maximum overdraw, keep Employee cannot overdraw or allow a set amount below zero.
- Choose Save rule.
For comp time the rule sets the hours earned for each overtime hour. For flex time it sets the weekly hours above which flex time is earned. Unlimited and unpaid types keep no balance, so they have no accrual.
Make default moves everyone without a policy of their own to that policy. Duplicate copies a policy as a starting point. Time already earned always stays in each balance.
3. Assign leave
- Choose the Assign leave tab and choose the policy.
- Tick people under Available and choose Add. Use Include inactive or New hires only to narrow the list.
- Set the Start effective date and, optionally, an End effective date. After the end date they go back to the leave type's default policy.
- Choose Assign.
Where to find it
LeaveLeave types and policies
Who has it: People who manage time off. If it is not in your menu, your role does not include it.
If something goes wrong
- Balances are not building up.
- Check the policy's Accrual quantity is above 0, and the waiting period under Rule effective from. Balances build up overnight from each person's hire date, so check they have one on their page in Team members.
- Someone is on the wrong policy.
- Assign them the right one under Assign leave, or open Employee assignments, choose the person and the Leave tab. Time already earned stays in the balance.
- Policies belong to a leave type, and there are none yet.
- Create a leave type on the Leave types tab first.
Related articles
New to this part of ClockinBee? Read the overview: PTO tracking.
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