Human Resources · Setup & configuration · 12 min read

Set up leave types, accrual plans and holidays

Define leave types, author and review an accrual plan, add holidays, run accruals, expiry and year end, and make approved balance changes.

Before you begin

• Time off must be on in Applications > Employees > Features.
• A working calendar must exist (see Shifts, rosters and working calendars).
• All screens are under Employees > Configuration > Time & leave. Reading needs hr.employee.view; changing needs hr.configure.
• Two people are needed for accrual plans. The author needs hr.configure; the independent reviewer needs hr.leave.policy.approve. The author cannot approve their own plan.

Steps

Create a leave type

1. Open Leave types and select New leave type.
2. Enter a Code (up to 30 characters, unique) and Name; the Arabic name is optional.
3. Choose Balance is counted in Days or Hours. It cannot change once a request or ledger row uses the type.
4. Set the options: Paid leave, Deducts from a balance (off for sick or unpaid leave), Allow half days, Allow hours, Count calendar days, Certificate needed after (days), Minimum service (months).
5. Select Save. Clear Active to archive it; history stays.

Add holidays

1. Open Holidays, choose the calendar and year, and select Add holiday. Enter the Date, Holiday name, and tick Half day if only half is a holiday. Remove asks you to confirm.

Author an accrual plan

1. Open Accrual plans and select New plan. Enter a Plan code, Name and Leave type.
2. Choose How often it is earned: each month, each year, or a year released in monthly slices. Enter the Rate. Thirty days a year is 2.5 a month.
3. Set Maximum balance (0 means none), Prorate by FTE, Waiting period, Earn during probation, the contract types and countries covered, Carryover at year end (unlimited, capped or none) with its maximum, and when carried or accrued leave lapses.
4. Cite the Legal source of the figures, then Save. The plan is Version 1, status Configured.

Review and put in force

1. The reviewer opens the plan and selects Add case for each independent example: a description, FTE, months of service, and the expected units for one period, worked out without the plan. Cases entered by the author do not count.
2. The reviewer selects Approve plan. All cases must match.
3. Someone with hr.configure selects Put the plan in force and chooses In force from.
4. To change figures later, select New version, edit it, review it, and activate it from a date after the earlier version started. The earlier version ends the day before.

Run accruals

1. Open Accrual runs. In Accrual, choose the plan, the As of date and optionally one employee. Select Preview, which posts nothing, then Run accrual.
2. Use Run expiry to lapse expired grants as of a date, and Close the year for the carryover rules.
3. For an FTE change, choose the employee and date, then Apply. A past-dated change files a review that a second HR user applies or dismisses with a reason.

Allocations and adjustments

1. Open Allocations & adjustments and select New request. Choose the employee, leave type, Kind (Allocation grants leave; Adjustment corrects the balance), Units, Takes effect on, an optional Lapses on and a Reason.
2. A second person with hr.leave.policy.approve selects Approve or Reject (with a note). The asker can Withdraw.

What happens next

• Only an approved plan that is in force posts accruals and governs requests.
• A real run writes one ledger row per person with the plan version, period and FTE used. Running the same month again skips everyone as 'already run'.
• An approved allocation or adjustment writes exactly one ledger row.

Worked example. Plan 2.5 a month, maximum 30, prorated by FTE. For October 2026: a full-time employee earns 2.5 and a half-time employee earns 2.5 x 0.5 = 1.25. If a balance is 28.5, only 1.5 lands (room left under the cap). For year end with carryover capped at 5 and a balance of 12: 5 carry over (expiring 31 Mar 2027 if carried leave lapses after 3 months) and 7 lapse.

Good to know

• 'The plan cannot be approved yet.' lists what is missing: a case that disagrees, no cases, or no legal source ('Cite the legal source the figures come from.').
• 'A plan is approved by somebody other than its author.' 'Only a configured plan can be edited. Make a new version to change the figures.'
• 'This plan is not in force yet (configured). It goes into force after an independent review approves it.' A preview is allowed; a real run is not.
• Mid-month joiners earn the full month: accrual prorates by FTE only, not by days of service.
• A request to approve your own allocation: 'A different HR user must decide this request.' Nobody decides a change to their own balance.
• 'An allocation adds leave. Use an adjustment to take some away.' 'An allocation or adjustment of nothing changes nothing.'
• Opening balances are loaded through the API, not a screen, and only for a person with no movements.
• Holiday duplicates: 'That date is already a holiday on this calendar.'
• Create DEMO plan makes a sample leave type and plan with a 'NOT A LEGAL SOURCE' text. It goes through the same review.