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. Compare allowance limits and AI translation availability in the plan feature matrix.

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When to use allowances

Allowances are especially useful if you want to:

• Control leave usage: Ensure users cannot take more leave than their allocated allowance.
• Monitor leave balances: Keep track of how many days or hours users 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 a user has used. In such cases, you can:

• Track leave usage: Use the user’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 users 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. Under General, fill in:
   • 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 Days or Hours. You only choose the unit when you create the allowance.
   • Rounding: For allowances in days, choose Always round up (the default) or Round up from half a day. The field is hidden if you select Hours. Details are under Rounding of the yearly total.
   • Ignore limit: Enable this option to allow users to take more leave than allocated.
3. Select Save at the bottom of the page. Cancel returns to the list without creating the allowance. After you save, absentify stays on this allowance. Allowance rules appears below General. Until a rule exists, the allowance grants nothing.

The unit cannot be changed after creation. A leave type uses an allowance in the same unit. After the leave type has been used for requests, you cannot switch it to an allowance of the other unit. To change Name, Rounding, or Ignore limit later, open the allowance from the list. Those fields stay under General. Rounding is shown only for allowances in days. Select Save at the bottom to keep the changes and return to the list. Cancel returns without saving them.

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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 user groups.

1. Open Settings > Allowances and select the allowance. Allowance rules is on the same page, below General. Select Create rule. 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, Allowance per month, or Allowance per two weeks: Enter the amount granted in each cycle. If you select Custom rule, or the allowance is in hours, the field starts empty and shows Enter a value greater than 0. 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. If you leave the field empty or enter 0, absentify shows The value must be greater than 0. after you leave the field. A hint below offers Manage manually, which opens Settings → Users. From there, set each user’s amounts by hand.
   • 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 user’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; you can pick a different month) or On the employee’s hire date. Each yearly amount is granted once, on that start. If the start is not the workspace fiscal year start, the year table still lists fiscal years. The grant sits on the row that contains the start. Unused amount continues as Carryover on the next row. That next row does not grant the same year again.
   • 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. Full months only counts only whole calendar months as 1/12 each; a started month counts nothing (for example joining July 15 with 30 days per year gives 12.5). Those three options apply when someone joins or leaves, and when you assign a different rule during the year. Always the full amount does not reduce the grant when someone joins or leaves. Example: joining July 1 with 30 days per year gives 30. If you switch someone who is already employed to this rule, or off it, during the year, each rule still counts only its own months. To grant the full year in that case, set Valid from to the first day of your workspace fiscal year, or choose Start on [date] for the full amount when it appears for a hire in that year. In plain words then includes A partial first or last year still gets the full amount. In a workspace that moved from fixed yearly amounts to rules, saving this option can be refused when someone still has a balance from before rules existed for a year they joined or left. Create a new rule with this option and move them to it from a later date.
   • When is the allowance credited?: On Monthly and Bi-weekly rules, choose At the start of each period or At the end of each period. The first credits the full amount for the month or two weeks on the first day. The second credits it at the end of the month or two weeks, once it has been earned. For a monthly end-of-period rule with Each earned amount expires separately (like TOIL), the credit is dated the first day of the next month instead. On Yearly rules, the amount is credited 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, 30 days · Yearly · full months, 30 days · Yearly · full amount, or 2.08 days · Monthly · end of period. You can change it at any time.
6. Check the In plain words summary, then select Save. If a required field is missing or the amount is empty or 0, the dialog moves to the first field that needs a change.

For a monthly rule with At the end of each period and Each earned amount expires separately (like TOIL), the final month is credited on the first day of the next allowance year and counts toward that new year’s balance. For a calendar-year rule, December is therefore credited on 1 January. This also applies when the rule ends or changes at the allowance-year boundary. A first allowance year can show eleven monthly credits until the twelfth is posted on the first day of the next year. If the user’s Employment end date is the final day of the allowance year, that credit is not added to the next year.

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Rounding of the yearly total

You can enter a precise amount per cycle. For allowances in days, a user who starts or leaves during the year can end up with a fraction such as 14.88, unless the rule uses Always the full amount. Under General, Rounding chooses how that total is rounded. Allowances in hours have no Rounding control and are never rounded. Always round up is the default. It raises the total 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. 14.88 becomes 15. 14.25 becomes 14.5 when half days can be booked, otherwise 15. Round up from half a day raises a fraction of 0.5 or more to the next full day. Anything below stays as it is. 14.5 becomes 15. 14.25 stays 14.25. A rule of 2.08 days per month therefore grants 24.96 days over twelve credited months, and the user receives 25. The extra days from rounding expire together with the unused days they belong to. The difference appears in History & adjustments as a line labeled Rule rounding (↑0.5), Rule rounding (↑1.0), or Rule rounding (from half a day up). The info icon next to the yearly total in the user’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 users, starting from the beginning of the current fiscal year. The rule dialog shows this before you save. That first rule also becomes the organisation default for new users. Every rule after that is assigned to users individually or through their department.

• Users you already put on Manage manually 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, users without an employment start date are skipped. Add the date in their profile, then assign the rule to them.

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

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Deleting a rule

Select Delete rule on the rule. If users are assigned, choose another rule of this allowance or Manage members manually under Move users to. They keep this rule until the end of the current fiscal year and switch on the date the dialog shows. Confirm with Move users & delete. You can delete the last shared rule this way. If the replacement is Always the full amount and some of those users still have balances from before rules existed for a year they joined or left, absentify refuses the move and asks you to pick another rule. If nobody is assigned, confirm Delete rule. The rule leaves the list. Rule history at the top of the list records the deletion. The switch date appears as Valid from. Members moved to shows the replacement.

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Managing multiple allowances per user

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

1. Navigate to Settings > Users.
2. Select the user you want to edit and select Edit.
3. Under the Allowance 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 for that user. Linked leave types then cannot be requested for them either. Details are under Customizing visibility.

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Allowances for new users

New users receive the organisation default for each allowance type, unless a more specific default applies. The organisation default can be a shared rule or Manage manually. Configure this under Settings > Users > Default User Settings, in Allowance rules for new users. When the default is a rule, the rule’s accrual settings and the user’s employment start date determine how much has been earned. When it is Manage manually, new users start on manual management. Set yearly amounts on the user’s Allowance tab under Settings > Users > Edit > Allowance. To give a group a different policy, select the rule or Manage manually per allowance type in the department settings. You can also assign a choice directly to a user during the invite or import. The most specific assignment wins: a choice on the user, then a department default, then the organisation default. If the new user belongs to several departments, absentify picks the department default per allowance type. It uses the first department in the department order that has its own default for that type. If none of those departments has its own default, the organisation default applies. Changing the order or a department’s defaults does not change allowance assignments that already exist. Admins can review the assigned rules and add individual adjustments under Settings > Users > Edit > Allowance. When a policy changes over time, assign the new rule to the user with the date it takes effect. Past calculations stay intact and the new rule applies from the selected date.

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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:

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

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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 user through Manage manually do not block the deletion. If a listed rule still has users, they keep it until the end of the current fiscal year and then switch to the replacement you pick. See Deleting a rule.
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.
• Rounding: For allowances in days, choose Always round up or Round up from half a day under General.
• 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.
• User-specific allowances: Users can have multiple allowances, and their assigned rules can be changed or supplemented with balance adjustments. The Visible toggle hides the balance and the linked leave types for that user. It does not stop the accrual.
• Alternative to allowances: For leave types like Sick Leave, which don’t require quotas, rely on the user overview or export tools for tracking.