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
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)
Accruing daily would mean the employee earns a small portion of their total annual leave every day, rather than receiving the full amount upfront 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)
Accruing bi-weekly would mean instead of receiving the full amount upfront or accruing daily/monthly, an employee earns time off every two weeks. This could align with a payroll cycle.
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)
Accruing half-monthly would mean the employee earns time off twice a month. Once on the 15th, and once on the last day of the month. This results in 24 accrual periods per 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)
Accruing monthly would mean the employee earns time off once per month, specifically on the last day of each month. There are 12 accrual periods per year.
What this means for the employee
The employees' balance increases once a month, at the end of the month.
If they start mid-month, they may not receive accrual until the end of that month (depending on your company rules). If they leave mid-year, their accrued balance will reflect how many full months they’ve worked.
Quarterly (at the end of every third month)
Quarterly (at the end of every third month)
Accruing quarterly would mean an employee earns time off four times per year. For example, if your reset date was set to 1 January, time off would accrue
March 31
June 30
September 30
December 31
What this means for the employee
The employee's balance increases every three months, and there are four accrual periods per year.
If they start mid-quarter, they may not receive accrual until the end of that quarter (depending on your company rules). If they leave mid-year, their accrued balance will reflect how many full quarters they’ve completed.
Half-yearly (At the start of the first and seventh month)
Half-yearly (At the start of the first and seventh month)
Accruing half-yearly would mean an employee earns time off twice a year. For example, if your reset date was set to 1 January, time off would accrue 1 January (start of the first month) and 1 July (start of the seventh month).
What this means for the employee
There are two accrual periods per year. The employee's balance increases every six months.
If they start after, for example, 1 January, but before 1 July, they may not receive any accrual until 1 July (depending on your company rules). If they leave mid-year, their accrued balance will reflect whether they’ve passed one or both accrual dates.
Annually
Annually
Accruing annually would mean there is 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
'Annually' would mean the employee can potentially use their full leave entitlement early in the year.
If they leave the company before the next accrual date, they may owe back any time off taken beyond what they’ve earned proportionally. Your company might prorate the annual accrual if the employee starts mid-year.
Every two years
Every two years
Accruing every two years would mean 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
They get a large block of time off every two years. If they leave the company before the next accrual date, they may not receive any time off for that period, or may owe back time if they’ve used more than they’ve earned proportionally. Companies often prorate this if someone starts mid-cycle.
Every three years
Every three years
Accruing every three years would mean 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
They get a large block of time off every three years. If they leave the company before the next accrual date, they may not receive any time off for that period, or may owe back time if they’ve used more than they’ve earned proportionally. Companies often prorate this if someone starts mid-cycle.
Do not accrue, just track usage
Do not accrue, just track usage
A policy not accruing and just tracking usage would mean employees do time off over time off for this policy.
There is no balance and no running total of available leave. This policy would be purely for recording how much time off is taken, not how much is earned or available.
Common scenarios
Unlimited PTO policies: Employees don’t have a set number of days; instead, they’re trusted to take reasonable time off
Sick leave tracking: Some companies track sick days for compliance or reporting, but don’t limit them
Contractor or freelance roles: Time off may not be accrued, but usage is tracked for billing or scheduling
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 would select Accrue based on an event for a parental leave policy. For example, the event being 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 then select whether it is based on calendar settings, timesheets or working pattern.
The allocation rules are the same as explained in the Per year and accrue section. For example, accure daily, monthly, annually, etc.
📎NOTE: You would 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 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 the allowance.
Count public holidays as workdays
All time off requests falling on public holidays added to the calendar will be counted 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.
📎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 to not accrue when the employee is taking leave from another selected policy.
Other settings
More settings are available within the following dropdowns:
General settings
General settings
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 will not 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 settings
Conditions settings
Allow part-day requests
When you enable this setting you can control whether employees
Can edit the hours field
Require to provide a specific timespan
📎NOTE: This setting requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
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 enabled, this will prevent employees from 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 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 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 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 the maximum number of days in a request
You can enable there to be a maximum number of days that an employee can add in one request. Select Require minimum days before before time off start date then enter the number of days required.
📎NOTE: Limiting the maxiumum 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 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 the remaining days for terminated employees
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 a 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. You can only add the additional allowance 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 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.
📎NOTE: Children-based allowance requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
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
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 based on employee start date
Give full year's allowance instead of automatically calculating current allowance based on employee start 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
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 the full allowance.
Give allowance based on the quarter they start in full 2/3, 1/3, 1/4, 0 of yearly 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 the full allowance.
Workflow settings
Workflow settings
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 approvers 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 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.
📎NOTE: You must make sure an employee is assigned to the other policy that time off will duplicate to. If you don't, that can cause a '500 error' when approving time off requests from this policy.
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.
📎NOTE: Selecting a replacement person requires the Leave Management module. It isn't available if you use Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.
Allow employees to be selected for replacement if they are away using this policy
When you enable this setting, this 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 will see additional fields below "Details" field when requesting time off. Content of these fields will be visible to time off approvers but will not be shared in the Calendar.
Click Manage fields to create or amend 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 only appears depending on what option someone selects in another additional field.
For example, you have a dropdown additional field asking a question. If someone selects Yes, then another field appears.
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 this could be 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 number of specified days