How to set up leave allowances
Set how much paid leave each of your employees is entitled to for the year.
A worker's leave allowance is what everything else in the Leaves area measures against. Set it correctly at the start of the leave year and balances look after themselves; leave it at zero and every request will appear to exceed the entitlement.
Allowances are set per worker, per leave year, for each paid leave type.
Before you begin
- You will need a user access level that allows you to manage leave allowances.
- Know the entitlement for each worker before you start, and whether you record it in days or in hours.
- Only paid leave types can have an allowance. Unpaid leave types have no balance to draw from, so no figures can be set against them.
Finding the screen
- Select Leaves in the left-hand menu.
- Choose Leave Allowance.
The leave plan you are viewing is shown at the top of the screen, for example 2026 Leave Plan. Use the arrows either side to move to the previous or following year.
To find particular workers, search by employee ID or name, or use the status dropdown. The status filter lets you tick more than one option at a time, including Active, Approved, Profile Complete, Submitted For Review, Resubmitted For Review, Suspended, Profile Denied and Deactivated. Select All to see everyone.
Reading the table
Each row is one worker, showing their name, reference number and profile status.
The Unit column sets whether that worker's allowance is measured in Days or Hours. Everything to the right is then grouped by leave type — General (Paid), Sick Leave (Paid) and Suspension (Paid) — and each group has three columns:
- Total Allowance — the entitlement for the year, which you set
- Utilised — how much has been taken, calculated for you
- Current Balance — what remains, calculated for you
Select the information icon beside a leave type heading for an explanation of that type.
Setting an allowance
- Choose the Unit for the worker — Days or Hours.
- Enter the Total Allowance for each paid leave type that applies. Leave a type at zero if the worker has no entitlement to it.
- Repeat for each worker you need to update. You can work through several rows before saving.
- Select SAVE CHANGES.
Utilised and Current Balance update themselves as leave is taken, so there is nothing to maintain there.
Maximum values
The same maximum applies to all three paid leave types:
- 365 where the unit is days
- 3285 where the unit is hours
Tip: Decide on days or hours as an agency and stick to it. Mixing the two across your workforce makes reporting harder to read and comparisons meaningless.
When the unit cannot be changed
Once a worker's leave balance has been set and some of it used, the Unit dropdown is locked and shown greyed out. Hover over the information icon beside it and the reason is confirmed on screen: the balance has already been set and utilised, so the unit cannot be edited.
This protects the figures — switching a worker from days to hours mid-year would make everything already recorded against them meaningless.
If a worker's unit genuinely needs changing after leave has been taken, contact our Support Team rather than working around it.
Please note: Unpaid leave types are not listed here. As the message at the bottom of the screen confirms, a leave balance cannot be set up for unpaid leave types.
Good habits worth adopting
- Set allowances at the start of the leave year, before the first request comes in.
- Update them when contracts change. A worker moving from part time to full time will usually need their entitlement revising.
- Check new starters. A worker with a zero allowance will appear to have no entitlement, and their requests will look like they exceed it.
- Save as you go. Select SAVE CHANGES before moving to the next page of workers.
If something looks wrong
If Utilised does not match the leave you know a worker has taken, check their leave records first — see How to record leave and unavailability for your workers.
If an allowance will not save, a figure is rejected, or a unit needs changing after leave has been used, please contact our Support Team with the worker's reference number and the leave year concerned.