Allowances settings

The Allowances section under Settings lets you manage balances such as vacation days, overtime hours, or other absence-related quotas. These allowances can be linked to specific leave types for automatic tracking and deduction.

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When to use allowances

Allowances are especially useful if you want to:

• Control leave usage: Ensure employees cannot take more leave than their allocated allowance.
• Monitor leave balances: Keep track of how many days or hours employees have used and how much remains.
• Manage specific quotas: Allocate specific days or hours for certain leave types, such as “Vacation” or “Overtime.”

Example: When allowances may not be necessary Some leave types, like Sick Leave, typically do not require a fixed quota. Instead, it is often sufficient to simply track how many days or hours an employee has used. In such cases, you can:

• Track leave usage: Use the employee’s Overview page in absentify to see all recorded absences for a specific leave type.
• Export data: Use the Excel export feature to generate detailed reports that show how many days employees have taken for a specific leave type within a selected period.

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Creating an allowance type

1. Navigate to Settings > Allowances and select + New allowance.
2. Fill out the following details:
   • Name: Enter the default name of the allowance (e.g., “Vacation” or “Overtime”).
     • Translations (optional): Select Translate next to the Name field, or Edit translations if translations already exist. In the dialog, enter names for the listed interface languages; empty fields use the default name. Translated names appear in user profiles, leave-type dropdowns, absence-request deduction text, and email/Teams notifications.
     • Translate with AI (Essentials or Plus plan): Select this option in the dialog footer to automatically fill all translation fields from the default name.
   • Allowance in days or hours: Select the unit for tracking (e.g., days or hours).
   • Ignore limit: Enable this option to allow employees to take more leave than allocated.
3. Select Save to create the allowance. absentify opens the new allowance’s settings, where you create its first rule. Until a rule exists, the allowance grants nothing.

The unit cannot be changed after creation. A linked leave type uses the same unit, and a leave type with existing requests in another unit cannot be linked.

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Creating and managing allowance rules

Allowance rules define how an allowance is earned and carried forward. An allowance type can have multiple rules for different contracts or employee groups.

1. Open Settings > Allowances and select the allowance type, then select Create rule in the Allowance rules section. For an allowance that has no rule yet, select Create first rule in the empty state.
2. For day-based allowances, start from a template such as Standard , US-style PTO, or Everything carries over, or select Custom rule to set every option yourself.
3. Under How the allowance is granted, configure the entitlement:
   • How is the allowance granted?: Select Yearly, Monthly, or Bi-weekly.
   • Allowance per year / per month / per two weeks: Enter the amount granted in each cycle. For allowances in days, this field accepts up to two decimal places, so statutory accruals such as 2.08 days per month can be entered exactly. The amount cannot stay at 0: a rule always has to grant something. To set an individual employee’s amounts by hand instead, use Manage manually (no rule) in their profile.
   • Reference date for the 14-day cycle (optional): Bi-weekly rules only. Set a date, for example a payday, so everyone on the rule shares the same 14-day rhythm. Left empty, each employee’s own start date is used.
   • When does the allowance year begin?: Yearly rules only. Select In the same month every year (the month is preselected from your fiscal year start) or On the employee’s hire date.
   • How is a partial year counted?: Yearly rules only. In monthly twelfths is the default: whole months count 1/12 each and a started month counts by day. Day-exact counts every calendar day, which is required in some countries.
   • When is the allowance available?: Monthly and bi-weekly rules only. Immediately makes the full amount available at the start of each period, Gradually builds it up over the period. Yearly allowance is always granted in full at the start of the allowance year.
4. Under Carry-over & expiry, decide what happens to unused allowance:
   • How much unused allowance carries over to the next allowance year?: Nothing, Everything (the default), or Up to a limit with a Maximum carry over amount. For allowances in days, the limit takes up to two decimal places, so it can match a value such as 4.96 days exactly.
   • How long can carried-over allowance be used?: Unlimited, or For a limited time with a number of months into the new allowance year.
   • Keep part of it after the deadline: Optionally keep an amount permanently once the deadline passes, again with up to two decimal places. It must be lower than the carry-over limit.
   • For monthly and bi-weekly rules you can instead select Each earned amount expires separately (like TOIL) and set how many months each earned amount stays valid. This cannot be combined with the carry-over settings above.
5. Give the rule a Rule name. absentify suggests one from your settings, for example 30 days · Yearly · hire date · day-exact, and you can change it at any time.
6. Check the In plain words summary, then select Save.

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Rounding of the yearly total

You can enter a precise amount per cycle, but for allowances in days absentify rounds the total a rule grants for an allowance year up to the next bookable increment. The increment is 0.5 days if at least one leave type linked to this allowance is booked in half days, and a full day otherwise. Allowances in hours are never rounded. A rule of 2.08 days per month therefore grants 24.96 days over twelve months, and the employee receives 25. The difference appears as Rule rounding in the allowance history, and the info icon next to the yearly total in the employee’s year table explains the composition. Rounding applies to the entitlement from rules only. Carry-over, manual adjustments, and the values you overwrite in the year table are kept exactly as calculated or entered.

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The first rule of an allowance type

The first rule you create for an allowance type is applied to all existing employees, starting from the beginning of the current fiscal year. The rule dialog shows this before you save. Every rule after that is assigned to employees individually or through their department.

• Employees you already put on Manage manually (no rule) keep their individual setup and are not moved to the new rule.
• If the rule starts the allowance year On the employee’s hire date, employees without an employment start date are skipped. Add the date in their profile, then assign the rule to them.

Once employees are on the rule, you can move individual employees to another rule at any time under Settings > Users > Edit > Allowance.

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The organisation default rule

One rule per allowance type carries the Organisation default badge. This rule is preselected when you invite or import users, unless their department specifies another one. absentify sets it from the first rule of an allowance type, and you can move it to a different rule at any time. To change the organisation default:

1. Navigate to Settings > Allowances and select the allowance type.
2. In the Allowance rules section, open the Organisation default dropdown above the rule list.
3. Select the rule new employees should get. The change is saved immediately and the badge moves to the selected rule.

Only the rules listed for this allowance type can be selected. Rules created automatically for a single employee through Manage manually (no rule) are not offered, and neither are deleted rules. If the previous default rule was deleted without a replacement, the dropdown shows Not set until you select one. The change is recorded in the rule’s audit trail. Select Rule history to see an Organisation default changed entry showing who made the change and which rule the default moved from. If no default was set before, the previous value appears as Not set. To give a group a different policy, select the rule per allowance type in the department settings, or assign a rule directly to an employee. The most specific assignment wins: employee, then department, then the organisation default. When a policy changes over time, assign the new rule to the employee with the date it takes effect. Past calculations stay intact and the new rule applies from the selected date.

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Managing multiple allowances per employee

absentify allows each employee to have multiple allowance types and a rule for each one. For example, an employee might have separate policies for vacation, overtime, or other types of leave. To manage individual allowances for a specific employee:

1. Navigate to Settings > Users.
2. Select the employee you want to edit and select Edit.
3. Under the Allowances section, you can:
   • Assign a different allowance rule with an effective start date.
   • Add a balance adjustment when an individual correction is required.
   • Hide specific allowances: Use the Visible toggle to hide an allowance’s balance from the employee.

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Allowances for new users

New users receive the applicable default rule for each allowance type. The rule’s accrual settings and the user’s employment start date determine how much has been earned. Admins can review the assigned rules and add individual adjustments under Settings > Users > Edit > Allowance.

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Linking an allowance to a leave type

1. Navigate to Settings > Leave types.
2. Edit an existing leave type or create a new one.
3. Scroll to Deduct from allowance and activate the toggle.
4. Select the allowance from the dropdown menu.
5. Save your changes.

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Tracking leave usage without allowances

Even if no allowance is linked to a leave type, absentify provides detailed tracking options:

• Employee overview: See how much leave an employee has taken, categorized by leave type.
• Excel export: Generate reports to review how many days or hours employees have taken in a specific period or fiscal year.

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Editing allowance order

To update the display order of allowances in absentify:

1. Go to Settings > Allowances and select the grid icon next to the allowance.
2. Drag and drop the allowance to the desired position. Changes are saved automatically.

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Where these changes apply

• The Allowance section within user profiles.
• The order of allowances displayed in each user’s calendar.
• Order changes only apply to allowances that are active and visible for the specific user.

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Deleting an allowance

1. Navigate to Settings > Allowances and select the trash icon next to the allowance.
2. If the allowance is linked to a leave type, remove the connection by editing the leave type and toggling Deduct from allowance off.
3. Delete the rules listed for the allowance. Rules that were created automatically for a single employee through Manage manually (no rule) do not block the deletion.
4. Save your changes, then delete the allowance.

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Key considerations

• Allowances in days or hours: Select the correct time unit for each allowance as it cannot be changed later.
• Allowance rules: Use effective dates when replacing a rule so historical balances remain reproducible.
• Carryover limits: Configure carryover on each rule to align with company guidelines.
• Shared allowances: Multiple leave types can share the same allowance. If separate tracking is required, create distinct allowances.
• Employee-specific allowances: Employees can have multiple allowances, and their assigned rules can be changed or supplemented with balance adjustments. The Visible toggle only hides an allowance’s balance from that employee; it does not stop the accrual.
• Alternative to allowances: For leave types like Sick Leave, which don’t require quotas, rely on the employee overview or export tools for tracking.