Leave configuration

The Leave Configuration page is where HR sets up leave for a company: the types of leave employees can apply for, the policy behind each type, who approves after the employee’s manager, the balances employees start with, and the payroll periods that lock leave once payroll has used it.

To open it, select HR > Leaves > Configuration.

For how these settings work together, see Leave.

Choose the company

Leave is set up separately for each company. The list at the top right holds the companies you have access to and starts on your own; it is greyed out when you have only one. Everything on the page belongs to the company selected there. Changing it reloads the tab you are on.

The page has five tabs: Leave Types, Policy Rules, Approval Matrix, Opening Balances and Payroll Cut-off. It opens on Leave Types.

Set up leave for a company

1. Check that each employee has an employee record in the company, with an Employee ID, a Start Date and a Manager. An employee without a manager can’t apply for leave. Set the Department too if approval levels differ by department.
2. Check the holidays of the company’s country on Country Holidays: leave doesn’t count them.
3. On the Leave Types tab, add the types of leave, for example annual, sick and unpaid leave.
4. On the Policy Rules tab, add a policy version to each type. Employees can’t apply for a type that has no policy in force on the first day of their leave.
5. If some applications need approval beyond the employee’s manager, add levels on the Approval Matrix tab.
6. Load the days employees already have on the Opening Balances tab.
7. If payroll takes its leave figures from TrakIT, add the payroll periods on the Payroll Cut-off tab.
8. Give roles the leave permissions they need: see Who does what.

Leave Types tab

The Leave Types tab lists the company’s leave types, in sort order. If there are none, it says No leave types configured for this company yet.

Column	Shows
Code	The type’s short code.
Name	The name employees see when they apply.
Paid	Paid or Unpaid.
Half Day	Yes if employees can take half days of this type.
Attachment	After a number of day(s) if a supporting document is needed beyond that many days, or –.
Gender	Any, Male only or Female only.
Status	Active, or Inactive in grey.
Order	The sort order. Types are listed by it, lowest first, then by name.

The icons at the end of a row edit the type (Edit), open its versions on the Policy Rules tab (Policy rules) and delete it (Delete).

Add or change a leave type

1. Select Add Leave Type, or the Edit icon of a type.
2. In New Leave Type or Edit Leave Type, fill in the fields below.
3. Select Save.

Field	Notes
Code	Required. Up to 10 letters and digits, saved in capitals, and unique in the company. It can’t be changed once the type is created. You also use it in opening balance files.
Name	Required. Up to 60 characters.
Sort Order	The type’s position in lists, lowest first. A new type starts after the existing ones.
Gender Restriction	Any, Male only or Female only. Limits the type to employees of that gender, as set on their employee record.
Options	Paid leave: see Paid and unpaid types. Allow half day: employees can take the first or the last day of an application as a half day. Active: employees can apply for the type. All three start ticked.
Attachment	Required, then after how many days. When an application of this type counts more days than that, the employee is warned, when applying, that a supporting document such as a medical certificate is needed. They add it from the application’s details on My leaves.

Paid and unpaid types

• For a paid type, an employee can apply only if their balance covers the days, unless the type’s policy allows a negative balance, down to its limit.
• Unpaid days are deducted from the type’s balance too, and no deduction may take a balance below zero or below the policy’s negative balance limit. So give an unpaid type a policy that allows a Negative Balance, with a limit large enough for the unpaid days an employee may take in a year. Otherwise approving unpaid leave fails with Insufficient leave balance.
• The Leave reports count paid and unpaid days separately, and employees see (Unpaid) after the type’s name when they apply.
• Absences with no approved leave become loss-of-pay days of the company’s unpaid type: the active unpaid type with the code UNPD, or else the first active unpaid type in sort order. See Loss of pay.

Deactivate or delete a leave type

To stop employees applying for a type, clear Active on the type. An inactive type is not offered to employees, earns no accrual and can’t receive opening balances; its applications and balances stay.

To delete a type, select its Delete icon and confirm. A type that has never been used, with no applications and no balances, is deleted with its policy versions. A type that has been used is made inactive instead, so its history stays, and TrakIT says Leave type is in use, so it has been deactivated instead of deleted.

Messages worth knowing:

Message	Means
A leave type with this code already exists for this company	Choose another code.
Code can contain only letters and digits	Remove spaces and other characters from Code.
Specify after how many days an attachment becomes mandatory	Attachment is ticked without a number of days.
Name contains prohibited characters	The name starts with =, + or @, or contains HTML.

Policy Rules tab

A policy says how a leave type works: how days build up, the limits on using them, what happens at year end and whether applications need approval. Each type has one or more policy versions, each with an Effective From date and, if it has one, an Effective To date.

TrakIT uses the version in force on the date concerned: the first day of the leave for an application, the last day of the month for an accrual, and 31 December for the year-end run. To change a policy from a date, add a new version rather than changing the current one, so that earlier dates keep the rules that applied to them.

To see a type’s versions, choose it in the list at the top of the tab (– Select a leave type –), or select the Policy rules icon of the type on the Leave Types tab. The versions are listed newest first. If the type has none, the tab says No policy versions yet for this leave type.

Column	Shows
Effective	The first day, then the last day, or open when the version has no end. (current) marks the version in force today.
Accrual	The accrual frequency, and the days per cycle, for example Monthly - 1.5 day(s).
Entitlement	The annual entitlement, followed by (pro-rated) if new joiners are pro-rated.
Max Consec.	The most days in one application, or –.
Carry Forward	Max and the days that can be carried forward, or No.
Encashment	Max and the days that can be encashed, or No.
Negative	Up to - and the limit, or Not allowed.
Approval	The number of approval levels, for example 2 level(s), or Not required.

Add a policy version

1. Choose the leave type.
2. Select New Version.
3. In New Policy Version, set Effective From. It starts on today.
4. Fill in the other policy fields. A new version starts as a monthly accrual of 1.5 days, an annual entitlement of 18 days with new joiners pro-rated, and approval required at 1 level.
5. Select Save.

When you save a new version, TrakIT ends the open-ended version that started before it on the day before the new one starts. Two versions of a type can’t cover the same day: if the new one would overlap another, TrakIT refuses with a message such as This overlaps the version effective 01 Jan 2026 to open. Close that version first, or change these dates.

Policy fields

Field	Notes
Effective From	Required. The first day the version applies.
Effective To	Optional. The last day it applies. Blank leaves it open ended, until a newer version replaces it.
Accrual Frequency	How TrakIT credits days to employees: Fixed grant, Monthly, Yearly or On anniversary. With Fixed grant, TrakIT credits nothing by itself: you give employees their days with an opening balance file. See Accrual.
Days per Cycle	The days credited each time, for example 1.5 per month. Required, and more than 0, for every frequency except Fixed grant.
Annual Entitlement	The most days accrual credits to an employee in one leave year; 0 sets no limit. Pro-rate new joiners gives an employee who starts part-way through a month (or, for a yearly accrual, through January) a share of the credit in proportion to the days employed.
Minimum Service Days	The type can be used only once this many days have passed between the employee’s Start Date and the first day of the leave.
Max Consecutive Days	Optional. The most days one application can count.
Max Balance	Optional. Accrual stops once the balance reaches this many days.
Carry Forward	Allowed: at year end, unused days move into the next year, up to the number in Max days (required). Expires after months: carried days still unused that many months after 1 January lapse; blank, they never expire. Not ticked: unused days lapse at year end. See Year end.
Encashment	Allowed, with the most days that can be encashed in a year and the balance to keep back. TrakIT keeps these settings, but no page uses them yet.
Negative Balance	Allowed down to: applications and other deductions can take the balance below zero, down to minus the number of Days entered (required, more than 0). Not ticked: the balance can’t go below zero.
Approval	Required: applications go to the employee’s manager, then to the levels of the approval matrix, up to the number of levels chosen (1 level, 2 levels or 3 levels). Not ticked: applications are approved as soon as they are submitted.

Messages worth knowing:

Message	Means
Accrual amount is required when an accrual frequency is set	Enter Days per Cycle, or choose Fixed grant.
Accrual amount and annual entitlement must be under 999 days	Reduce Days per Cycle or Annual Entitlement.
Effective To cannot be before Effective From	Check the dates.
Specify the maximum days that may be carried forward	Carry Forward is ticked without Max days.
Specify the maximum days that may be encashed	Encashment is ticked without the maximum days.
Specify the negative balance limit	Negative Balance is ticked without a number of days.

Change or delete a version

To change a version, select its Edit icon, change the fields and select Save. The change applies from then on to every date the version covers. Days already credited or deducted stay as they are.

To delete a version, select its Delete icon and confirm. Its dates are then left without a policy: employees can’t apply for leave of the type starting on those dates, and the type earns no accrual for them.

Approval Matrix tab

Every application that needs approval goes first to the employee’s Manager, as set on their employee record. This is level 1, and it is not set up here. The approval matrix adds levels 2 and 3 for the company, either as an office-wide default or for one department. For a given level, a department’s own row wins over the office-wide default.

An application goes through as many levels as its leave type’s policy allows (Approval), and only through the levels whose Minimum Days it reaches.

Column	Shows
Department	The department, or Office-wide default.
Level	2 or 3.
Approver	Fixed user and the user’s name, Skip level or Role.
Min. Days	The fewest days for which the level applies.
Escalate After	The hours before an undecided application escalates, or Never.

If no level is set up, the tab says No level 2+ approval rules configured - every application finalizes at level 1.

Add an approval level

1. Select Add Approval Level, or the Edit icon of a row.
2. In New Approval Level or Edit Approval Level, fill in the fields below.
3. Select Save.

Field	Notes
Department	Office-wide default, or one department that has employees in the company.
Level	2 or 3.
Approver Type	Fixed user: the user you choose in Approver. Skip level (manager’s manager): the Manager of the employee’s manager. Role (an HR admin for the company): a user of the company whose role has Configure Leave Policy; when several users have it, TrakIT always picks the same one.
Approver	For a fixed user only, and required: one of the active users of the company.
Minimum Days	The level applies only to applications of at least this many days. 0 applies it to all.
Escalate After	Hours, from 0 to 8,760. See Escalation. 0 disables escalation for this level.

Keep one row for each department and level: TrakIT doesn’t stop you saving two, but then uses either of them.

Approvers need Approve/Reject Leave to see and decide applications on Leave approval.

To delete a row, select its Delete icon and confirm. Applications already waiting at that level stay with their approver.

How an application is routed

When an approver approves an application, TrakIT looks at the next level, up to the number of levels in the leave type’s policy:

1. It takes the row for the employee’s department and that level, or else the office-wide default.
2. It skips the level if there is no row, if the application counts fewer days than Minimum Days, or if no approver can be found, for example a skip level when the manager has no manager.
3. Otherwise it sends the application to that level’s approver, who is told by chat message and email.

When no level is left, the application is approved. A rejection at any level ends it.

Escalation

Every 30 minutes, TrakIT looks for applications that have waited at level 2 or 3 for longer than the level’s Escalate After hours. It escalates each of them once: to the approver’s own Manager, or, if the approver has no manager, to an HR admin of the company, chosen as for Role. Both users are told by chat message and email, and either of them can then decide. Applications waiting at level 1 never escalate.

Preview

The Preview panel below the list shows who would approve an application, using the rows saved:

1. In Department, choose a department, or Office-wide (no department).
2. In Days Requested, enter the application’s days.
3. Select Resolve.

The table shows each Level, who it Resolves To and its Source: Department-specific or Office-wide default. Level 1 is always Reporting manager. A level the days don’t reach is in grey, with Not required below and its minimum days. A level that escalates shows after how many hours.

The preview lists every level saved in the matrix. An application stops at the number of levels its leave type’s policy allows.

Messages worth knowing:

Message	Means
Select the approver	Fixed user is chosen without an Approver.
Escalation hours must be between 0 and 8760	Correct Escalate After.
Enter a number of days greater than zero	Enter Days Requested before selecting Resolve.

Opening Balances tab

The Opening Balances tab adds days to employees’ balances from a CSV file: typically the balances they had when your company started managing leave in TrakIT. Each row is posted as an adjustment to the employee’s balance for one leave type and year. This tab needs Adjust Balance as well as access to the page.

It is also how you correct a balance: upload a file with just the rows to correct, with positive days to add and negative days to take off.

Prepare the file

The file has these columns, in this order. A header row is optional: TrakIT skips a first row whose first column is EmpID.

Column	Contains
EmpID	The employee’s Employee ID, as on their employee record in the selected company.
LeaveTypeCode	The Code of an active leave type of the selected company.
LeaveYear	The leave year, from 2000 to 2100. Leave years are calendar years.
Days	The days to add, up to two decimals. A negative number takes days off. It can’t be 0.
Remarks	Optional. Kept with the entry. When blank, TrakIT writes Opening balance import.

For example:

EmpID,LeaveTypeCode,LeaveYear,Days,Remarks
E1001,ANNUAL,2026,12.5,Balance brought over
E1002,SICK,2026,4,
E1003,ANNUAL,2026,-2,"Correction, see HR file"

Put a value that contains a comma in double quotes. A file can have up to 5,000 rows; split a larger one.

Stage and commit the file

1. Choose the file.
2. Select Stage File. TrakIT reads and checks every row, but changes no balance yet.
3. Check the result: the number of rows staged, how many are ready and how many have errors, and the rows themselves, with their Status: Ready, or the error in red.
4. If rows have errors, correct the file and stage it again, or go ahead with the rows that are ready.
5. Select Commit followed by the number of rows ready, for example Commit 42 Row(s), and confirm.

TrakIT posts the ready rows one by one, then says how many it posted and lists the rows that failed, for example a negative number that would take a balance below what the policy allows. Posted rows show Committed.

Row error	Means
Employee ID is missing	The first column is empty.
No employee with this ID in the selected company	No employee of the company has this Employee ID.
Leave type code is missing	The second column is empty.
No active leave type with this code in the selected company	The code is wrong, or the type is inactive.
Leave year is missing or invalid	The year is empty, not a number, or outside 2000 to 2100.
Days is missing or not a number	Use a dot for decimals, for example 2.5.
Days cannot be zero	Leave out rows with nothing to add.
Duplicated in this file	The same employee, leave type and year appear more than once. Combine them into one row.

Things to know:

• Imported days appear in the Adjusted column of balances, not in Opening, which holds the days carried forward from the previous year.
• TrakIT looks for repeated rows only within one file. Committing the same rows again from another file adds the days again.
• The file can’t be read if a quote is not closed: TrakIT then names the line.

Payroll Cut-off tab

Payroll periods keep leave figures fixed once payroll has used them. When you close a period, every leave application of the company’s employees whose dates fall entirely inside it is frozen: nobody, HR included, can then submit, change, cancel, approve or reject it. To change a frozen application, re-open the period first.

Column	Shows
Period	The first and last day of the period.
Cut-off Date	The cut-off date entered for the period.
Status	Open in green, or Closed in red.
Closed By, Closed On	The user ID of whoever closed the period, and the date.

Periods are listed newest first. If there are none, the tab says No payroll cut-off periods defined for this company yet.

Add or change a period

1. Select Add Period, or the Edit icon of an open period.
2. In New Cut-off Period or Edit Cut-off Period, fill in the fields below. For a new period, TrakIT suggests last month: check the dates.
3. Select Save.

Field	Notes
Period Start	Required. The first day of the payroll period. Two periods of a company can’t start on the same day.
Period End	Required. The last day. It can’t be before Period Start.
Cut-off Date	The date payroll takes the period’s figures, for your reference. It can’t be before Period Start. Blank uses the period end date. It doesn’t change which applications are frozen.

A closed period can’t be changed until it is re-opened. Periods can’t be deleted.

Close or re-open a period

1. Select the Close period icon (a padlock) of an open period.
2. Read the confirmation and confirm.

TrakIT closes the period and freezes the applications inside it that are in TrakIT at that moment: Cut-off period closed - affected applications are now frozen. An application that only partly falls inside the period is not frozen.

To re-open a period, select its Re-open period icon (an open padlock) and confirm. The freeze on the applications inside it is lifted, so they can be changed again; payroll figures already taken for the period may then no longer match.

Payroll systems can read the leave figures of a period through the TrakIT API, and close it, when TrakIT Support sets this up. The figures are those of the Monthly Summary report, for the period’s dates.

Messages worth knowing:

Message	Means
A cut-off period already starts on that date	Choose another Period Start, or change the existing period.
Re-open the period before changing its dates	The period is closed.
This application falls inside a closed payroll period. An HR administrator must re-open that period before it can be changed.	Shown to anyone who tries to change, cancel or decide a frozen application.

Other messages

Message	Means
You do not have the permission to configure leave policy for this office	You don’t have access to the company selected.
You do not have the permission to adjust leave balances	Staging or committing a file needs Adjust Balance.
The request failed or Unable to reach the server	The page couldn’t reach TrakIT. Reload the page and try again.

Who can use this page

Your role needs these permissions in the Leave Management section:

Permission	Allows you to
Configure Leave Policy	Open the page, and set up leave types, policy versions, approval levels and payroll periods for your company and the companies you have access to.
Adjust Balance	Stage and commit opening balance files, on a company you can open the page for.

System administrators can do all of this for every company.