Time Away Reasons are the different categories of absence or flexibility that employees can request — such as Vacation, Sick Leave, or Working From Home. You can create as many reasons as your organisation needs.
This article covers setting up Time Off and Working Away reason types.
Before You Start
Make sure you have Super Admin access.
Reasons are configured inside the Time Management app settings.
How to Create a New Reason
Go to Time Management → App Settings (⋯ top right) → Time Away Management.
Click + New Reason.
Enter a name for the reason (e.g., "Vacation", "Working From Home").
Choose an emoji and color to represent it — this appears in the calendar and employee profile.
Select the reason type (see below).
Click Save.
Once saved, a default unlimited policy is automatically created for the reason. You can edit or replace it at any time.
Reason Types — Which One to Choose?
Time Off
Paid days when the employee will not be working — chosen at the employee's discretion.
Examples: Vacation, Sick Leave, Personal Days
Use this for any absence where the employee is away and not working. Supports full accrual, carry-over, tenure bonuses, and all policy rules.
Working Away
Paid days when the employee will not be in the office but will still be working.
Examples: Working From Home, Traveling for Work, Remote Work
Use this when employees need to log days outside the office while remaining productive. Appears separately in the calendar so managers have full visibility of team location.
Because employees on a Working Away day are still working, they are shown as working rather than away:
On the people card and status badge, an employee on a Working From Home day appears as working. The card still reads "Working from home" and shows a house icon.
The "Away today" list in the directory does not include employees who are working from home.
If a Working From Home day and a Time Off day fall on the same date, the time off is the one displayed.
In the AI assistant, questions such as "who's out today?" and "who was out the most?" do not count Working From Home days. Listing a specific employee's bookings still shows them.
Timesheets, the time management view, and Time Management reports do not count Working From Home as time off and do not deduct it from balances.
This behavior depends on the reason type. If a Working From Home reason was created as a Time Off reason, it is still treated as leave. To change this, edit the reason in Time Away Management and change its type to Working Away.
Key Differences Between the Two Types
Time Off deducts from the employee's balance and counts as an absence.
Working Away is logged for visibility purposes — it does not deduct from a leave balance by default.
Both types appear on the team calendar and in Time Management reports.
Both support approval workflows.
After Creating the Reason
Once your reason is saved:
Set up a Policy — define the rules (allowance, accrual, approval, carry-over). See Setting Up Time Away Policies.
Assign the Policy to employees — go to the employee profile or use bulk assignment.
Employees can immediately start requesting this reason once assigned.
Tips
Use clear, recognisable names — employees see these when booking time away.
You can reorder reasons to control the display order employees see when booking.
Each reason can have multiple policies — useful for different employee groups (e.g., full-time vs. part-time).