Time off

HR → Time Off — approve requests, see who's off, track balances and set up PTO and sick leave policies. It has five tabs: Requests, Calendar, Balances, Policies and Blackouts & holidays.

Requests and approvals

Staff ask for time off from My Work → My Time Off. Their manager is emailed when a request comes in.

• Waiting for approval lists pending requests. Approve or Decline straight away, or Review… to add a Note that's sent to the employee with the decision.
• Pending requests also appear in HR → Approvals.
• History shows approved, declined and cancelled requests for any date range and person.
• Cancel an approved request to give the hours back to the balance. Declining an already-approved request does the same.

Each request has a Type (PTO, Paid sick, Unpaid, Bereavement, Jury duty, Other — or one of your policies) and a Reason (Vacation, Sick, Personal, Family, School, Other).

Enter time off for someone

Add time off records time off for an employee — a sick call or agreed leave. It's approved straight away, and the notice and blackout rules don't apply.

Calendar

A month view of who's off, marked Approved, Pending or Blackout. A busy day shows the first few names and +n more.

Balances

• Each person's balance per policy for the chosen Year: accrued, used and pending hours, plus hours approved per type.
• Usable from … shows a waiting period still running; Stops accruing at … shows a cap.
• Adjust adds or takes away hours (use a negative number to take hours away). A Reason is required and kept in the balance history.

Policies and accruals

Each policy is a balance: how it's earned, its limits and who's on it. Click Add policy:

Setting	What it does
Paid time off	Paid or unpaid policy
How hours are earned	Not automatically (set by hand), Per hours worked (e.g. 1 hour for every 30 worked — common for paid sick leave), Each pay period, Each month (on the 1st), Once a year (1 January, and when they join)
Maximum balance (h)	Stops accruing at this balance. Blank = no limit
Carryover limit (h)	On 1 January the balance is cut to this. Blank = everything carries over
Waiting period (days)	Days after the hire date before hours accrue and can be used
Allow a negative balance	Lets people request more hours than they have
Enrol new employees automatically	Everyone without this policy is added (people you remove stay removed)
Policy is in use	Turn off to stop using it

• Accruals run automatically every day. Run accrual now runs them immediately.
• Click the people count on a policy (e.g. 12 people) to see who's on it. Add people with an optional Starting balance (h). Removing someone keeps their history; adding them back restores it.
• You can also add someone to a policy from their profile → Time off → Add to a policy.

Blackouts and holidays

Blackout dates — dates when employees can't request time off (e.g. Summer tournament). Add blackout with a date range and reason. Managers can still enter time off on those dates.

Company holidays — shown to everyone in My Work and on the Overview. Add holiday, or click Add US federal holidays to fill in the year. Hours worked on a holiday can be paid at the holiday rate (HR → Settings → Overtime → Pay a holiday rate).

Rules

HR → Settings → Time off

Setting	Effect	Default
Most people off on one day	A request is refused if that many others are already off (pending or approved)	No limit
Request at least (days) in advance	Earliest date a request can start	0
Hours in a full day off	Hours a full day uses from the balance (weekends included)	8
Allow partial-day requests	Staff can ask for Part of a day (an appointment, leaving early)	On

These rules apply to staff requests only — not to time off a manager adds.