Set up leave and record time off

Set up your leave policy

Your leave policy sets how many days of each leave type staff get. Each employee's leave then renews by itself every leave year.

1. Open Leave and press Set up leave policy. Once you have a policy, the button reads Edit leave policy.
2. Each leave type has its own card: Vacation leave, Casual leave and Sick leave. On the card for each type your staff get, tick the box, such as Staff get vacation leave under this policy.
3. Type the Days per year, for example 14. (This is an example figure.)
4. Choose the Leave year: Calendar year (January to December) or Contract year (from each employee's start date).
5. Under Comes out of, keep Its own entitlement when this leave has its own days. If casual leave should use vacation days, choose Vacation leave (days per year is the most that can be used) on the Casual leave card. Casual leave's Days per year then caps how many vacation days can go to casual leave.
6. To roll unused days into the next leave year, tick Carry unused days forward. Type a limit in the box below it, or leave it empty for no limit.

Under Leave requests, tick Staff can request leave to let staff ask for leave in the app. Leave it unticked if staff should ask you directly.

Then, under Leave pay and applying changes:

• Hours per leave day for new employees is how many hours hourly staff are paid for each day of paid leave. You can change it for one person on their employee page.
• Also change employees' current leave year: staff with no leave set for this year get the new days straight away. For anyone whose days for this year are already set, tick this box to move them to the new days now. Without it, their new days start at their next leave year.

Press Save leave policy.

Choose the leave types each employee gets

1. Open Leave (the page headed Leave balances) and press Manage leave beside the person (Manage on a phone). Their page opens at Leave management.
2. Under Leave types this employee gets, untick any type they don't get.
3. Press Save leave types.

Each leave type shows the Entitlement, Used and Remaining days for the leave year. A type they don't get reads "Not eligible: unpaid leave only".

Without a leave policy, you set each type's days by hand. Open Configure annual plan on the type, type the Annual entitlement (days a year) and Opening available days (the days they have left now), and press Save plan.

Approve or decline leave requests

When someone asks for leave, owners and accountants get an email and an alert in the app.

1. Open Leave. Requests are under Leave requests, on the Waiting tab. They're also on the person's page, under Leave requests waiting.
2. Check the dates, the days and their note. If they don't have enough days left, a note says how many remain.
3. To tell them something, type it under Note to and their name.
4. Press Approve, Approve as unpaid or Decline.

The person gets an email with your decision and sees it on their Leave page. Approved paid leave comes off their balance straight away.

How leave changes pay

Every approved leave entry counts in the pay run that covers its dates, whether it came from a request, the person's page or the pay run itself.

• Hourly staff are paid for paid leave days, at their hours per leave day.
• Unpaid leave days come off a salary.
• Paid leave doesn't change a salary.

If a draft pay run already covers those dates, its pay is worked out again when you approve. Approved pay runs don't change.

For time off nobody booked, such as a sick call or an accident, add the leave on the pay run. See Run your payroll.

Record approved leave

Use this for leave agreed outside the app. Open Leave, press Manage leave beside the person, then go to Record approved leave.

1. Choose the Leave type and type the number of Days.
2. Type the Start date, the End date and a Reason.
3. Leave Paid leave (uses the balance) ticked to take the days from their balance. Untick it for unpaid leave, which is recorded but not taken from the balance.
4. Press Record approved leave.

Paid leave comes off the balance straight away. The leave is listed under Leave records, where Cancel and restore undoes it and puts the days back.

The same person can't have two approved entries for the same day. If the dates overlap leave already approved, the message names it: cancel that leave first or choose other days.

Adjust a balance

Use Adjust a balance to add or remove days, for example to correct an opening balance.

1. Choose the Leave type.
2. Type the Adjustment. A positive number adds days and a negative number removes them, such as 1.00 or -1.00.
3. Type the Effective date and a Reason.
4. Press Record adjustment.

Every change is kept in the Audit ledger at the bottom of the leave section.

Check what your staff see

Staff open Leave in their own menu, under Pay & leave. For each leave type, they see the days remaining, their entitlement and the days used. They also see the leave you've recorded for them, newest first.

If you've turned on Staff can request leave, they also see Ask for leave:

1. Choose the Type of leave, the First day and the Last day. Tick Half day for half of one day.
2. Add a Note (optional) and press Send request.

The request shows under Waiting for approval until you decide. They can press Cancel request while it waits. Without the setting, they ask you directly.

Their login must be linked to their employee record first. Until then, the page says "Not linked yet". Invite your team shows how to link it.

Good to know

• For leave that crosses into a new leave year, record two entries: one for the days in each leave year. Staff are asked to send two requests.

What's next

To pay leave in a pay run, see Run your payroll.