Set up leave types and balances

Choose the leave types your business offers, add your own, and set or correct each employee's leave balance.

Your leave types are the kinds of leave staff can ask for, and each employee has a balance for each type. This guide covers the list of leave types, adding your own, choosing which types each employee can request, and setting or correcting their balances.

Who this is for

Owners and managers using the Shiftly web platform.

Before you start

Open the account menu (your initials, top right) → Leave Types. You can also get there from Business settings → Leave types, or with Manage leave types on Time → Leave.
If your business is connected to Xero, leave types and balances come from Xero. See When Xero manages your leave.

Your leave types

Standard leave types are the ones set by legislation and awards, such as annual, personal and carer's, long service, compassionate and parental leave. Custom policies are the types you create. Each row shows whether the leave is paid, how it builds up (for example 152 hrs / year), when its cycle resets, any leave loading, and who it's available to when that isn't everyone. A type with no accrual set shows Not configured.

The Leave Types page listing the standard leave types, such as Annual Leave at 152 hrs a year on a financial year cycle with 17.5% loading, each with a switch and a menu, and Add leave type at the top right

Select a row, or choose Configure from its menu, to change how it builds up. See Set how leave builds up.

Turn a leave type off

Use a row's switch to turn a type off for the whole business. You're asked to confirm, then it's hidden from new leave requests for everyone. Existing balances and past requests are kept, and you can turn it back on at any time.

Jury duty, community service leave, and family and domestic violence leave are a legal entitlement, so their switches are locked on.

Add your own leave type

Select Add leave type. Give it a Leave type name, choose whether it's Paid leave, and tick who it's Available to (Full-time, Part-time, Casual, Labour hire, Non-employee). Then set how it builds up. See Set how leave builds up.

The Add leave type drawer with the leave type name, the Paid leave switch, the Available to options and the accrual settings

To remove a type you created, choose Delete from its menu and confirm. It's removed from new requests, and existing balances and history are kept. Standard leave types can't be deleted. Turn them off instead.

Choose what each employee can request

Open People → Employees, select an employee, then Leave. Leave entitlements lists every leave type, grouped into Paid leave, Statutory and Other. Each type has a switch that decides whether this employee can request it. A change takes effect straight away. Statutory types are always on.

An employee's Leave tab showing Leave entitlements, with Annual Leave at Balance: 45.18 h and Personal / Carer's at Balance: 0.21 h, each with Override rate, and unlimited types showing Available: unlimited

Set or correct a balance

Each type the employee can request shows their current Balance. Hover the info icon beside it to see how it was worked out: the current cycle, carried forward, accrued this cycle, leave taken this cycle, manual adjustments, pending requests and what's available. Leave types with no limit show Available: unlimited.

Select the balance

On the employee's Leave tab, select the Balance figure for the leave type. If a balance hasn't been set up yet, it reads Set opening balance instead. Set one when you move staff over from another system.

Type the right figure

Type the balance in hours and press Enter. Shiftly records the difference as a manual adjustment (or as the opening balance), so the history stays intact.

The Annual Leave balance being edited, with 45.6 typed into the balance field

Confirm a negative balance

If the new balance is below zero, Shiftly asks Set balance below zero? first. Select Continue to save it, or Cancel to leave the balance as it was.

The Set balance below zero? confirmation warning that Personal / Carer's balance will be -2.00 h, with Cancel and Continue

To change how an employee's leave builds up from now on, rather than fixing today's figure, use Override rate under the balance. See Give an employee a different leave rate.

When Xero manages your leave

Everything above is for businesses that aren't connected to Xero. When you connect Xero and move your leave onto it, Xero becomes the home of your leave types and balances, and Shiftly reads them from there.

When your business is connected to Xero, your leave types come from Xero:

The Leave Types page says Leave types are managed in Xero. You add, remove and configure leave types in Xero, not in Shiftly, so Add leave type and the row controls are gone.
Select Sync now to pull the latest leave types from Xero. The page shows when they were last synced. Shiftly also refreshes them once a month.

The Leave Types page showing Leave types are managed in Xero, Last synced 3 days ago and a Sync now button, with the leave types from Xero listed below

On an employee's Leave tab:

If they aren't linked to Xero yet, you'll see Sync this employee to Xero with a Sync to Xero button, and each balance reads Sync to Xero to view balance.
Once they're linked, the tab says Xero manages balances, Shiftly manages access. Balances are read from Xero, so you change them in Xero rather than in Shiftly. A type Xero isn't tracking for them shows Not assigned in Xero.
The switches still decide which leave types they can request.

An employee's Leave tab showing Sync this employee to Xero with a Sync to Xero button, and Sync to Xero to view balance under each leave type

See What syncs with Xero.