Leave types and policies
A leave type is a kind of leave people can take. A policy says how many days of that type people earn each leave year. Set these up before people start requesting leave.
Who can manage leave types and policies: Owner, HR admin.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Open Settings → Leave types & policies.
- If you want different entitlements for different grades, set up your grades first under Settings → Grades.
Start with the starter leave types
Section titled “Start with the starter leave types”A new organisation has no leave types. The page offers Add starter leave types, which adds the common Nigerian leave types (annual, sick, maternity, paternity, compassionate, study and unpaid), most with a default policy.
Add a leave type
Section titled “Add a leave type”-
Click New leave type.
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Enter a Name and a short Code, such as ANNUAL. A code uses letters, numbers, dashes and underscores, up to 20 characters.
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Choose a Category: Annual, Sick, Maternity, Paternity, Compassionate, Study, Unpaid or Other.
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Tick the rules that apply:
- Paid. Leave that isn’t paid reduces pay in the payroll run.
- Needs approval. Otherwise a request is booked as soon as it is made.
- Count working days only. Weekends and public holidays are not counted. Leave this unticked for leave counted in calendar days, such as maternity leave.
- Allow a negative balance. People may take more days than they have earned.
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Click Save.
The Rules column in the list shows each type’s choices in words: Paid or Unpaid, Needs approval or No approval, Working days or Calendar days, and Can go negative.
The Unpaid category
Section titled “The Unpaid category”A leave type in the Unpaid category has no balance and no policies. People don’t earn it, so a request for it is never refused for lack of days. Approved unpaid leave reduces the days paid in the payroll run.
Relief officers
Section titled “Relief officers”A relief officer is the colleague who covers someone’s work while they are away. Under Relief officers, choose for each leave type:
- Ask for a relief officer: Required (every request names one; it can’t be sent without), Optional (people may name one; the manager can approve either way), or Off (the question isn’t asked).
- The relief officer must accept before the manager can approve. Until they accept, Approve is off for the manager. If they decline, the person asking is told why and chooses someone else.
- If they don’t answer within a number of working days, the manager can approve anyway. The approval is recorded as made without the relief officer’s answer. Leave it unticked and the manager always waits for an answer.
Click Edit on a leave type’s row to change them. The settings apply from then on, to requests already waiting too.
Every leave type starts with suggested values, which you can change:
| Leave type | Relief officer | Must accept | Approve anyway after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual | Required | Yes | 2 working days |
| Maternity | Required | Yes | 5 working days |
| Study | Optional | Yes | 2 working days |
| Sick, paternity, compassionate | Optional | No | — |
| Unpaid | Off | — | — |
| Any other | Optional | No | — |
HR recording leave on someone’s behalf doesn’t have to name a relief officer. A relief officer must be a current colleague who works in the same place as the person asking (at an agency, at the same client), and, when they must accept, someone who signs in to Cadre.
Add a policy
Section titled “Add a policy”A leave type earns nothing until it has a policy. Click Policies on a leave type’s row to see its policies, then click New policy.
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In Applies to, choose Everyone (the default) or a grade. A grade’s policy overrides the default for people on that grade. You can’t move a grade policy to another grade later.
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Enter the Entitlement (days a year), from 0 to 366. Half days are allowed.
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Choose when the Leave year starts in.
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Choose How the days are earned:
- Granted at the start of the leave year: the whole entitlement is posted at once.
- Earned month by month: a twelfth of the entitlement is posted each month.
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Tick Prorate for joiners and leavers if someone who joins or leaves part-way through the leave year should earn only a share of the entitlement.
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Enter the Carry-over (days): the most unused days that move into the next leave year. Enter 0 for none.
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Choose when Carried days expire: Never, or a number of months into the new leave year.
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Click Save.
The policies table shows, for each policy, who it applies to, the entitlement, how it is earned (and whether it is prorated), the carry-over and the month the leave year starts.
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”Cadre posts leave to each person’s ledger from their policy early each morning: the annual grant at the start of the leave year, or the monthly accrual each month, and the carry-over and expiries when they fall due. See How leave works.
At the start of a new leave year, unused days up to the carry-over limit move across, and the rest expire. Carried days that are not used by the expiry month expire then. Leave taken in the new year comes out of the carried days first.
Change or archive a type or policy
Section titled “Change or archive a type or policy”- Click Edit on a row to change a leave type or policy.
- Click Archive on a leave type to stop it being requested. Balances already earned stay in the ledger.
- Click Archive on a policy to stop anyone earning under it. Days already posted stay in the ledger.
Turn on Show archived to see archived leave types.
Why Cadre works this way
Section titled “Why Cadre works this way”Days already posted are never taken back when you archive a type or a policy. The ledger is the record of what people were given. If a balance needs correcting, add an adjustment (see Balances and adjustments).