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 the number of days or hours employees receive under this policy.
You can have this:
Per year and accrue
Per year and accrue
When you select Per year and accrue, you can select how regularly the allowance accrues. For example, allocate 25 days annually.
Options available for 'Per year and accrue'
📎NOTE: These options are also available for the Based on time worked and accrue option.
Daily (at the end of each day)
Daily (at the end of each day)
Daily accrual means employees earn a small amount of their annual leave each day instead of receiving it all at once or monthly.
What this means for the employee
Each day they work, they earn a small amount of leave. Their leave balance increases gradually over time. If they leave the company partway through the year, their accrued leave will reflect exactly how many days they’ve earned up to that point.
Bi-weekly (every other week)
Bi-weekly (every other week)
Bi‑weekly accrual means the employee earns time off every two weeks instead of receiving it all upfront or accruing it daily or monthly.
What this means for the employee
The employees' leave balance increases every two weeks. If they leave the company mid-year, their accrued leave will reflect how many bi-weekly periods they’ve completed.
Half-monthly (on the 15th and last day of every month)
Half-monthly (on the 15th and last day of every month)
Half‑monthly accrual means the employee earns time off twice a month, once on the 15th and once on the last day of the month. This creates 24 accrual periods each year.
What this means for the employee
The employee's balance increases on the 15th and the last day of each month.
If the employee leaves mid-year, their accrued balance will reflect how many of those 24 periods they’ve completed.
Monthly (at the end of the month)
Monthly (at the end of the month)
Monthly accrual means the employee earns time off once a month, on the last day of the month. This creates 12 accrual periods each year.
What this means for the employee
The employee's balance increases at the end of each month.
When an employee starts partway through a month, they receive their first accrual at the end of that month.
If an employee leaves partway through the year, their balance reflects the number of full months they worked.
Quarterly (at the end of every third month)
Quarterly (at the end of every third month)
Quarterly accrual means the employee earns time off four times a year.
For example, if your reset date is 1 January, time off accrues on:
31 March
30 June
30 September
31 December
What this means for the employee
Their balance goes up every three months, with four top ups each year.
When an employee starts partway through a quarter, they receive their first accrual at the end of that quarter.
When an employee leaves partway through the year, their balance reflects the number of full quarters they completed.
Half-yearly (At the start of the first and seventh month)
Half-yearly (At the start of the first and seventh month)
Half‑yearly accrual means the employee earns time off twice a year.
For example, if your reset date is 1 January, time off accrues on:
1 January
1 July
What this means for the employee
The balance goes up every six months, twice a year.
When an employee starts after 1 January but before 1 July, they receive their first accrual on 1 July, depending on your company rules.
When an employee leaves partway through the year, their balance reflects whether they passed one or both accrual dates.
Annually
Annually
Accruing annually means there's no incremental accrual throughout the year. Instead, the system adds the full amount of time off allowance to their leave balance all at once.
What this means for the employee
With annual accrual, employees can use their full leave earlier in the year.
When an employee leaves before the next accrual date, they repay anytime taken beyond what they earned. Companies prorate the allowance when an employee starts partway through the year.
Every two years
Every two years
With two‑year accrual, employees get two years of time off in one lump sum. This happens every two years, based on their start date.
What this means for the employee
The employee receives a large block of time off every two years.
When an employee leaves before the next accrual date, they receive no further time off for that period. If they used more leave than they earned proportionally, the balance can become negative.
When an employee starts partway through a two-year cycle, company rules often apply prorating to adjust the allowance.
Every three years
Every three years
Accruing every three years means the employee receives their entire time off allocation for two years in one lump sum, once every two years. This is based on their start date.
What this means for the employee
The employee receives a large block of time off every three years.
When an employee leaves before the next accrual date, they receive no further time off for that period. If they used more leave than earned proportionally, the balance can become negative.
When an employee starts partway through the cycle, company rules often apply prorating to adjust the allowance.
Don't accrue, just track usage
Don't accrue, just track usage
Use this type of policy when there's no balance and no running total of leave. It records time off taken only, not time earned or available.
Common scenarios
Unlimited PTO policies
Employees don’t have a fixed allowance. The policy records time off for visibility only.
Sick leave tracking
Some companies track sickness for reporting or compliance, without limiting how much time employees can take.
Appointment tracking
Companies track time off for appointments, such as medical visits, without applying an allowance.
Contractor or freelance roles
Time off doesn't accrue, but companies track usage for scheduling or reporting purposes.
Once
Once
When you select Once, this is a set amount that will never reset, and is based on the beginning of an employee's start date.
Accrue based on an event
Accrue based on an event
You select Accrue based on an event for a parental leave policy. For example, the event is the birth date of a child.
Based on time worked and accrue
Based on time worked and accrue
When you select Based on time worked and accrue, you select whether it's based on:
Calendar settings
Timesheets
Working pattern
The allocation rules are the same as explained in the Per year and accrue section. For example, accrue daily, monthly, annually, etc.
📎NOTE: You select this option for it to be a labour-based policy.
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 is how you change your holiday year.
Default working hours
This controls how many hours the system counts 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 the system will count against the allowance.
Count public holidays as workdays
All time off requests falling on public holidays added to the calendar the system will count against the allowance.
Carry over
Allow employees to carry unused days into the next holiday year. You can set how many days carry over and when they expire.
📎NOTE: This setting requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Don't accrue when taking leave from one of these policies
You enable leave for this policy so that it doesn't accrue when the employee is taking leave from another selected policy.
Other settings
More settings are available within the following dropdowns:
General
General
Show the time off policy in the calendar
If you want the time off policy to show in the calendar, select Show this time off policy in Calendar.
📎NOTE: If you disable this option, time off requests from this policy won't appear in public calendars. These time off requests will only be accessible via reports and employee profiles.
You then have one of two options available to select:
Allow everyone to see the name of this policy in Calendar
Colleagues will see [enter name] instead of policy name in Calendar
📎NOTE: Users will only see the policy for employees they have access to view in the calendar.
Allow employees to request time off themselves from this policy
When you disable this setting, only admins and managers will be able to request time off for them on their behalf.
Conditions
Conditions
Allow part-day requests
When you enable this setting, employees can submit time off requests for part-days.
📎NOTE: This setting requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
If the time off policy is based on Calendar settings, you can also control the following:
Allow employees to edit the hours field in a time off request
To prevent employees from editing the hours field, select For part days requests, do not allow employees to edit "hours" field
📎NOTE: The option to allow users to edit the hours field in a part-day time off request isn't available in a working pattern-based policy.
Require providing a specific timespan for their part-day request
To require this, select For part of the day requests, require specific timespan.
📎NOTE: In a working pattern based policy, you must specify the time span for part-day requests.
Probation periods
Set special conditions for a set period.
Set the length of the period
Set whether employees can accrue time off during the period
Set whether employees can request time off during this period
📎NOTE: This setting requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Don't allow employees to book more days than they have remaining in the current period
When you turn this on, employees can’t book more leave than they have available. They’ll see a warning if they try, and they won’t be able to submit the request.
Require a minimum number of days between each time off request
You can enable there to be a minimum number of days worked between time off requests. Select Require minimum days before time off start date then enter the number of days required.
Require a minimum number of days between each time off request
You can set a minimum number of days per time off request. Select Require minimum number of days per request, then enter the number of days.
Limit the maximum number of days in a request
You can set a maximum number of days an employee can request at once. Select Require maximum number of days per request, then enter the number of days.
📎NOTE: Limiting the maximum number of days in a request requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Require fully using another policy before this one
You can make employees use another policy first before they request time off from this one. Turn on Require another policy to be fully used before time off from this policy can be requested, then select the policy.
Limit allowance to be in blocks
You can limit how many blocks of consecutive days an employee can split their time off into. Select Limit allowance to be taken in [number] blocks, then enter the number.
📎NOTE: This number must be greater than zero. A value of zero stops you from saving the policy or assigning new employees.
Allowance
Allowance
Keep counting usage without resetting
When you set up a time off policy that only tracks usage, the Allowance section shows just one setting:
At the end of the year, keep counting usage without resetting
When you turn this on, the days used don’t reset to zero on the reset date. The system continues counting the total days taken across holiday years.
Recalculate the remaining days for terminated employees
You can recalculate an employee’s remaining days in the current period after termination, based on their last working day.
Enable allowance based on length of service
Give employees extra days on their work anniversary. You can add these after a set number of years or months and choose how many extra days they get.
You can add more than one rule. For example, give one extra day after five years, then increase this to two extra days after ten years.
Extra allowance applies only in days, not hours.
📎NOTE: Length of service allowance requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Enable allowance based on the number of children
Allow employees to receive extra days based on the number of children they have.
Turn on Enable allowance based on the number of children, then enter:
The number of children
The maximum age of the children
The number of days allocated each year
📎NOTE: You'll need to add a child to the employee's profile for this to take effect.
📎NOTE: Children-based allowance requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Enable sharing allowance 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'll share the policy with.
Allow carry over as a negative amount
When you enable this setting, the system deducts any days used over the allowance from the next period’s allowance. Turn on At the end of the year, carry over overused days as a negative amount to apply this behaviour.
Set how the Sage HR calculates allowance for new starters
There are four options to dictate what happens to a new starter's allowance.
Give allowance depending on their start date
Give allowance depending on their start date
This is the default setup. The system calculates a new employee’s leave based on the time between their start date and the policy reset date.
Give full year's allowance instead of automatically calculating the current allowance based on the employee's start date
Give full year's allowance instead of automatically calculating the current allowance based on the employee's start date
Give employees the full annual allowance, regardless of their start date in the current year.
Give allowance based on the quarter they start in 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 of the yearly allowance
Give allowance based on the quarter they start in 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 of the yearly allowance
For example, if an employee starts in the second quarter of the company's year, the system will give half of the full allowance.
Give allowance based on the quarter they start, in full 2/3, 1/3, 1/4, 0 of the yearly allowance
Give allowance based on the quarter they start, in full 2/3, 1/3, 1/4, 0 of the yearly allowance
For example, if an employee starts in the second quarter of the company's year, the system will give two-thirds of the full allowance.
Workflow
Workflow
Automatically approve requests
Turn this on to approve employee time off requests automatically, without manager approval. Select Automatically approve these requests.
Set specific approvers for this policy
Enable this to send time off requests to the approvers you select for this policy.
📎NOTE: Allowing time off policy approvers requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Copy a time off request to another policy
You can enable this setting to copy time off requests from this policy to another policy. Select Duplicate time off requests to another policy, then choose the policy you want to copy them to.
📎NOTE: Make sure you've assigned the employee to the policy that the time off duplicates. If not, approving requests from this policy can trigger a 500 error.
Add a replacement person
You can set up a time off policy that lets employees choose someone to cover their role or workload when they request time off.
📎NOTE: Selecting a replacement person requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Allow selecting employees for replacement if they're away using this policy
When you enable this setting, it allows users to select employees to be a replacement person for when leave using this policy.
Additional fields
Additional fields
Show Details field
When you enable this setting, the 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 you enable this setting, employees see extra fields under the Details section when they request time off. Time off approvers can view these fields, but the Calendar doesn't show them.
Click Manage fields to add or edit the additional fields.
Add new additional field
Add new additional field
Click Manage fields.
Click Add new.
Name the field.
Select the field type you want it to be:
Text field
Dropdown - Enter names for each dropdown option
Heading
Attachment
Select whether you want the field to be mandatory.
Click Create.
Add follow up additional field
Add follow up additional field
You can create an additional field that appears only when someone selects a specific option in another field. For example, when a dropdown field has a Yes option, selecting Yes can show another field.
To add a follow-up field:
Click the ➕ icon on the existing field you want it to be a follow up to.
Select the option you want someone to select to make this field become visible.
Enter the field name.
Select the field type.
Select whether to make the field mandatory.
Click Create.
Edit an additional field
Edit an additional field
Click Manage fields.
Click the pencil icon.
Make your changes, then click Update.
Delete an additional field
Delete an additional field
⚠️CAUTION: This action is permanent.
Click Manage fields.
Click the trash can icon.
Click OK to confirm the deletion.
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, a doctor's note.
You can either:
Make this optional
Make it mandatory
Require there to be an attachment if it meets conditions over a specified number