Set up leave

Set up the leave year, the approval flow, the sessions employees can apply in, the leave types, and the approval matrix from Leave → Configure Leave. The rest of the module reads from these settings: requests draw on the types and sessions, and balances follow the rules you set here.

Menu item	What it covers
Leave Requests	Creating requests on behalf of employees, and reviewing, editing, canceling, or recalling them (Request leave for an employee)
Configure Leave	The leave period and approval level, yearly sessions, leave types, and the approval matrix
Leave Reports	The library of reports covering entitlements, usage, balances, and adjustments (Leave reports)

Balances sit inside each leave type, under Configure Leave → Leave Types → Configure → Assigned Employees. See Manage leave balances.

Key concepts

Leave period: the months that begin and end your organization’s leave year.
Leave session: a year for which leave application is open. Employees cannot apply for leave in a year unless its session has been opened.
Leave type: the kind of leave, such as annual, sick, or maternity, with its own days, paid status, rollover rules, date handling, and document requirements.
Approval level: whether requests take one step (Request, then Approve) or two (Request, Recommend, then Approve).
Approval matrix: who recommends and approves for each employee.
Leave balance: the days assigned to an employee for a type (their entitlement) and what remains.

The leave cycle

Configure the leave period and approval level, then open the yearly session so employees can apply.
Define and assign the leave types, and assign employees with their balances. See Manage leave balances.
Request: an employee applies in the Self Service portal, or you create the request on their behalf. See Request leave for an employee.
Approve: the assigned recommender, where there is one, and the approver act, and approved days come off the balance.
Report on balances and usage. See Leave reports.

Access and permissions

Configuration

Two organization-level settings:

Leave period start and Leave period end: the months that begin and end your leave year.
Level of approval: either one step (Request → Approve) or two steps (Request → Recommend → Approve). The approval matrix follows this choice, and the Recommender column appears only when two steps are selected.

Upfront deduction

A switch controls when leave days come off an employee’s balance:

On: days are deducted as soon as leave is requested. If the leave is not approved, the deduction is undone.
Off: days are deducted only once the leave is approved.

Sessions

A leave session is a year for which applying for leave is open. Nobody can apply for leave in a year until you open its session.

If the current year or the next year has no session yet, a prompt appears with an Open YYYY button to create it.

The sessions table lists every year with its status, Open or Closed, and the counts of approved, recommended, pending, and rejected requests for that year. Per session you can:

View requests to open the requests list filtered to that year.
Approve all recommended or Approve all pending to clear the year’s outstanding requests in one go. The button carries the count and asks you to confirm.
Reject all recommended or Reject all pending to do the same in reverse.
Open session to open the window so employees can apply for that year.
Close session to stop new applications for that year, after a confirmation.

Leave types

Each type is a kind of leave, from annual and sick to anything custom, with its own rules:

Setting	What it controls
Paid	Whether the leave is paid or unpaid
Days	The number of days allocated, or Unlimited Days to allow any number
Allow past date selection	Whether past dates can be requested
Include weekends and Include holidays	Whether those days count toward the leave duration
Rollover	Whether unused days carry over, capped by a maximum leave accrual and used by the month to exhaust rollover
Half day	Whether half-day requests are allowed
Auto renewal	Assigned employees are re-assigned the type automatically next year
Requires attachment	A supporting document is mandatory when requesting
Active status	Disabled types cannot be added to new employees

Create a type with Add Type, then Edit or Delete it from the list.

Selecting Configure on a type opens its detail page. There you see its key facts, the Edit Leave Type and Delete Leave Type actions, and the Assigned Employees list, which is where balances are managed.

Approval matrix

Assigns a recommender (two-step level only) and an approver to each employee.

Each row shows the employee, their department, the recommender and approver, and whether the assignment is active or inactive. Every assigned value also shows where it came from, such as set directly or derived from the department HOD or supervisor. Where a value is missing, the row shows action required, so nothing slips through unnoticed.

Edit a row to set that employee’s recommender and approver directly.
Or select several rows and use Set Recommender or Set Approver in the toolbar to assign one person for all of them at once.