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Creating and customizing leave types in absentify lets you manage categories for user absences. Enable precise tracking, calendar integration, and alignment with organizational policies.

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Best practices for leave type management

  • Align leave types with policies: Ensure leave types match company guidelines and legal requirements.
  • Regularly review configurations: Keep settings up-to-date as organizational needs evolve.
  • Use clear naming conventions: Descriptive names help users understand their options.
  • Link allowances carefully: Avoid overlapping allowances unless intentional.
  • Maintain confidentiality: When configuring private leave types, use neutral terms like “Absent” for Title in the calendar.

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Add a new leave type

  1. Navigate to Settings > Leave types and select Add new leave type.
  2. Fill in the details. The page is one scrollable form. Use the section list to jump to a section.

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Name, icon and color

Name: Specify a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “Vacation,” “Sick Leave”).
  • Translations (optional): Select Translate next to the Name field, or Edit translations if translations already exist. Enter names for the listed interface languages in the dialog; empty fields use the default name. When translations exist, a summary of the translated languages appears below the name field.
  • Translate with AI (Essentials or Plus plan): Select this option in the dialog footer to automatically fill all translation fields from the default name.
Icon and Color:
Select a preferred color and icon for this leave type. These settings help users quickly recognize requests in the overview page and in their personal calendar.

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Days or hours

The smallest amount of time a user can request for this leave type. Hours and minute-based units are available from the Mini plan or higher. The Free plan supports only days and half days.
  • If the leave type is not deducted from an allowance: you can choose Whole days, Half days, Whole hours, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, or 5 minutes.
  • If the leave type is deducted from an allowance: the available units follow the unit of the linked allowance.
    • If the allowance is tracked in days, only Whole days and Half days are available.
    • If the allowance is tracked in hours, only Whole hours and the minute-based units are available.
Locked options show a lock icon and a short reason. Select one, or Why?, to open the details. The details show the full title and the next action.
When you pick the unit for a deductible leave type, choose one that divides evenly into the allowance. For example, if the yearly allowance is 100 hours and 45 minutes, 15 minutes is a better fit than hours. Otherwise a remainder such as 45 minutes may be left that users cannot request.
Changing the unit later
You can still change the unit inside the same category, for example from Whole days to Half days or from Whole hours to 15 minutes. Existing requests keep their original days or hours. New requests use the new unit. When you switch between day-based and hour-based units, an info banner titled Existing requests stay as they are appears under Days or hours. Changing from days to hours, or from hours to days, only affects new requests. Canceled and declined requests stay in the history as they were. If the request history check fails, an alert appears under Days or hours: We couldn’t check the existing requests, so you can’t switch between days and hours. Reload the page to try again. In Allowance, allowances in the other category are also locked for a leave type that is already in use. You recognize them by Locked: this leave type is in use. If the switch is locked, open Days or hours, choose a locked unit in the list, and read Hours are locked or Days are locked. Use Create a copy in hours or Create a copy in days there. In the copy dialog, the Time unit dropdown sets the unit for the copy. Optionally enable Archive this leave type afterwards.

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Approval

Needs approval: Decide whether requests for this leave type require approval from an approver.
  • Enabled: An approver must approve every request.
  • Disabled: Requests are automatically approved.
If enabled, an administrator can override this setting when creating an absence request on behalf of a user.
Requests can be changed later:
  • Enabled: Users who can cancel a request can also change it. Pending and approved requests can change dates, times, reason, and leave type. When Needs approval is enabled, date, time, and leave type changes on an approved request wait for approval before they apply. Shortening can apply at once when Making it shorter needs approval is off. On a pending series occurrence, only the reason can change. On an approved series occurrence, dates and times can also change. The leave type of a series occurrence stays the same.
  • Disabled: Requests of this leave type cannot be changed. Users cancel the request and create another one.
This setting is enabled for new leave types. If you use webhooks, subscribe to Request changed or All requests and changes. See Webhooks. Making it shorter needs approval (shown when Needs approval and Requests can be changed later are both enabled):
  • Enabled: Shortening an approved absence waits for an approver.
  • Disabled: Shortening an approved absence applies at once. Approvers and representatives are notified.

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Representative

Decide whether a representative is needed for this leave type. Choose None, Optional, or Required. Representatives can be assigned in the user’s profile under User Settings.
  • Required: A representative must be selected before the absence request can be submitted.
  • Optional: A representative can be selected, but it is not mandatory.
  • None: There is no representative field when submitting a request. No representative selection is possible.
If required, an administrator can override this when creating an absence request on behalf of a user.
Allow requests while covering for someone (visible only when representative is Required or Optional): When enabled, users can submit their own absence request with this leave type even while they are an active representative for a colleague. They will see a confirmation dialog before the request is created. Leave this disabled for strict policies that require the representative to remain available throughout the colleague’s absence. Leave types with Person is off work disabled (e.g. Home Office) already allow overlap implicitly. This setting extends that flexibility to other leave types.

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Allowance

When creating a leave type, you can define whether it should deduct from an allowance. If deduction is enabled, you can also configure the rules that determine how the allowance quota is automatically reduced.
Take from an allowance:
  • Enabled: Links the leave type to an allowance for automatic tracking.
  • Disabled: No allowance will be deducted.
Additional options:
  • Also count public holidays: Public holidays during the absence are taken from the allowance too.
  • Also count days off: Days the person doesn’t work, like weekends, are taken from the allowance too.

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Availability

Person is off work:
  • Enabled: The user is considered unavailable. They cannot be selected as representatives, and out-of-office messages are enabled.
  • Disabled: Use for cases like Home Office or Business Trip, where users are still working and reachable.
Counts toward the department limit: Decide whether this leave type should be included in department absence calculations.
You can configure department limits in Department settings.
  • Enabled: This leave type counts toward department absence limits.
  • Disabled: It does not affect department limits.
If enabled, an administrator can still override this limit when creating an absence request on behalf of a user.
To include a leave type in DATEV LODAS, turn Person is off work on, then map it there under Transfer as.

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Calendar

These settings determine how calendar events are created when a user submits an absence request. The path depends on Outlook calendar synchronization in Microsoft settings.
  • If that toggle is on: absentify writes an eligible new entry to the user’s Outlook calendar.
  • If that toggle is off: a user who enabled Calendar invitations can receive an iCal invitation for a new eligible request, approval, or meaningful date, time, or status change to a current or future absence. The user accepts or adds it in their calendar app. Enabling invitations does not by itself send first invitations for existing absences. A first invitation is not sent for an absence that has already ended.
In both cases, the following configuration options are available: When does it show up?:
  • Right away: The calendar entry is created when the request is submitted.
  • After approval: The calendar entry appears only after approval.
  • Never: absentify does not create new calendar entries for this leave type; entries already in Outlook or iCal can remain and may still be updated when the absence changes.
Changing sync timing or disabling sync affects new entries only; existing Outlook/iCal entries stay unless a meaningful request update or cancellation changes them. Canceling one day of a recurring series does not remove the other days. Changing a user’s email address or changing display-only profile and leave-type details does not cause a bulk cancellation and resend. New request actions use the current settings and address. Status in Outlook / Status in the calendar: This setting affects both the Outlook calendar entry and visibility on the Absent today filter in the Overview page. When Outlook calendar synchronization is on, the label is Status in Outlook. Otherwise it is Status in the calendar. Title in the calendar: Define the title shown in the calendar entry. For private leave types, consider using a neutral title such as “Absent” to maintain confidentiality in shared calendars. For more details on sync behavior or to troubleshoot issues, refer to the Microsoft sync logs.
To remove the “created with absentify” advertisement from Outlook calendar entries — both for iCal downloads and automatic sync — upgrade to the Essentials plan or higher.

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Request form

These settings allow you to define additional input options for absence requests, such as requiring a reason, showing hint text, or enabling file uploads.
Reason is required: This section allows you to configure whether users must provide a reason when submitting a request for this leave type.
  • Enabled: Users must enter a reason before they can submit their absence request.
  • Disabled: Providing a reason is optional.
The Hint in the reason field is the placeholder text shown in the reason input field when users are submitting a request. Admins can customize this text to guide users.
Show the reason only to those involved: Defines who can view the reason provided in an absence request. These settings apply independently of whether the reason is mandatory or not.
  • Enabled: The reason is visible only to the requester, request creator, assigned approvers, authorized representatives, managers of the requester’s departments, and admins, when they can access the request.
  • Disabled: All users who see the absence also see the reason.
Calendar events include an entered reason only when both Show the reason only to those involved and Colleagues only see “Absent” are disabled. This applies to personal Outlook calendars, shared Outlook, group and Teams group calendars, and iCal invitations. Calendar events cannot apply absentify’s per-viewer visibility rules. Allow attachments:
Allows users to upload documents to absence requests — for example, a doctor’s note for sick leave. Documents can also be submitted afterward, once the request has been created, to offer greater flexibility. Anyone with access to the absence details can download the file.
  • In the Essentials plan, one document can be uploaded per request (max. 2 MB).
  • In the Plus plan, multiple documents can be uploaded per request (max. 15 MB per document).

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Privacy

Colleagues only see “Absent”:
  • Enabled: Enable this toggle to hide the specific leave type from regular employees. Normal team members will only see “Absent,” while users involved in the approval process (requester, representatives, approvers, department managers) and admins will still see the specific leave type.
  • Disabled: The specific leave type is visible to all who can see the absence.
Please note: If you keep this setting enabled, we recommend also setting Title in the calendar to “Absent” to ensure consistent privacy settings across all platforms.

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FAQ

The following FAQs show how to use absentify’s built-in features to ensure consistent, privacy-conscious absence tracking and visibility across your organization.
To prevent revealing sensitive absence information — especially in cases of illness — we recommend hiding the reason for all absence types. Otherwise, it’s obvious when only sick leave shows no reason.Here’s how to set it up:
  1. Go to Settings > Leave types.
  2. Open each leave type, go to Privacy, and enable Colleagues only see “Absent”.
  3. Only for leave types like Home office or Training, where transparency benefits daily collaboration, should the reason remain visible.
See the absence privacy guide for the full setup, including when not to hide a whole department.
Enabling privacy ensures that only “Absent” is displayed in the overview — without specifying the type or reason.
Synced events can contain the event subject and an entered reason. absentify omits the reason when reason visibility is restricted or the leave type is private. This applies to personal Outlook calendars, shared and group calendars, and iCal invitations. Choose a neutral event subject separately so it does not reveal the leave type.Here’s how to configure synchronization in a privacy-compliant way:
  1. Go to Settings > Leave types.
  2. Edit the respective leave type by selecting the pencil icon.
  3. In Request form, enable Show the reason only to those involved to restrict the reason.
  4. In Privacy, enable Colleagues only see “Absent” if the leave type itself is sensitive.
  5. In Calendar, enter a neutral title such as “Absent” in Title in the calendar.
To avoid displaying “Out of office” in Outlook for home office days:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Leave types.
  2. Select the edit icon for your Home office leave type.
  3. Go to Calendar.
  4. From the dropdown next to Status in Outlook, select Working elsewhere (like home office).
This ensures users are marked as available but not in the office, improving visibility without showing them as unavailable.
If your company limits home office days per year, follow these steps to enable allowance tracking:
  1. Create a separate allowance for home office:
    • Navigate to Settings > Allowances.
    • Select New allowance.
    • Follow the steps in our allowance setup guide.
  2. After saving the allowance, go to Settings > Leave types.
  3. Edit the Home office leave type.
  4. Enable the toggle for Take from an allowance.
  5. Under Which allowance?, select the home office allowance you created.
Open Days or hours. A locked unit shows a lock icon and a short reason. Select it, or Why?, to open the details. The details show the full title and the next action.
  • There are already requests in days. or There are already requests in hours.: this leave type has requests that are not canceled or declined, including past requests.
  • Available from the Mini plan: hours and minutes need the Mini plan or higher.
  • Needs an allowance in hours or Needs an allowance in days: the linked allowance is in the other unit.
  • Checking existing requests…: switching between days and hours stays locked until the check finishes.
  • Couldn’t check existing requests: switching between days and hours stays locked. Reload the page to try again.
If the request history check is still running or has failed, the switch between days and hours stays locked until the check finishes or you reload after a failure.
Partly. You can still change the unit inside the same category, for example from Whole days to Half days. Existing requests keep their original days or hours. New requests use the new unit.A switch between days and hours is locked once requests exist that are not canceled or declined, including past requests. After every remaining request is canceled or declined, you can switch if the selected allowance and your plan support the other unit.To book the other unit when the switch is locked, open Days or hours, select a locked unit, and use the details titled Hours are locked or Days are locked, with Create a copy in hours or Create a copy in days. In the copy dialog, the Time unit dropdown sets the unit for the copy. Optionally enable Archive this leave type afterwards.
Some changes apply to existing leave requests, while others only affect new requests created after the update. For a detailed overview of how each setting impacts existing requests, please refer to this support guide.