Time off policies

Eligibility for time off policies

IMPORTANT  Time off policies for the next year must be created by December 31 of the previous year and only apply to resources who are set up in your Autotask instance as of January 1. They are not pro-rated for the remainder of a year. To give resources hired during the year time off, you must use the Additional Time fields on the Resource > HR tab.

Do you need time off policies?

Autotask time off policies manage paid time off benefits granted to your resources. If you grant anyone in your company paid time off, and you want to track time off in Autotask where the information is needed to check resource availability, you will need to define at least one additional time off policy.

One policy will handle different amounts of time off based on length of service using policy tiers, but you can set up multiple policies to assign to resources based on internal location, employment contract, or position.

Resources can be associated with multiple time off policies, but only one policy will be effective for any given date.

Your Autotask instance contains a default system time off policy called None. This policy is assigned to all resources until you define another policy and assign it to your resources. It cannot be edited or deleted, and is visible only in the time off policy drop-down menu on the Resource Management > HR tab. The None policy can remain assigned to resources who are not entitled to paid time off.

NOTE  Time Off policy fields now accept time in hours and minutes. The Hours field accepts whole hours only. Decimal numbers will be rounded to the nearest whole number. The Minutes field has a menu that includes 4 options to accommodate fractions of an hour: 0, 15, 30, and 45.

Allotment and accrual policy types

The time off policy type determines how the time off becomes available to the resource. Time off can either be allotted on January 1 for the entire year, or accrued throughout the year.

Resources assigned to this policy type will be given their full amount of time off on January 01. The hours are valid for the calendar year (Jan. 01–Dec. 31) and immediately available for use by the resource. As time off is used, the allotment balance decreases.

Time off will not be automatically calculated for resources that start mid-year. Use the Additional Time fields on the HR tab to assign time off for resources who start after January 1.

NOTE   Currently, we do not support allotment policies that do not start on January 1.

Rollover cap

When allotment is selected as the policy type, the Rollover Cap (hours) column is displayed on the Current Year's Tiers table below.

This is the maximum number of unused hours that a resource can carry over to the next calendar year.

NOTE   This field is optional. The default is 0 hours. That is, resources cannot roll over any unused hours to the next year. Negative values are not valid.

EXAMPLE  A resource has:
Annual Vacation = 100 hours and Rollover Cap = 32 hours
• If resource uses 75 hours in the calendar year, the remaining 25 hours can be rolled over to the next calendar year.
• If resource uses 60 hours in the calendar year, 32 of the remaining 40 hours can be rolled over to the next calendar year. 8 hours will be forfeited.

Resources that are assigned to this policy type will accrue time off in increments as the calendar year progresses. The maximum number of time-off hours (Annual Hours) is set and then divided by the number of Accrual Periods in the year (refer to Accrual period). The result is the number of hours that are accrued during each Accrual Period (refer to Accrual rate).

Accrued time off is applied to the resource’s bank at the end of each accrual period, until they reach the accrual cap.

Tier eligibility is based on hire date. If a resource becomes eligible for a different tier during an accrual period, the accrual rate of the new tier will be applied.

Accrual period

The Accrual Period is the interval at which a resource will accrue time off: Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Semi-Monthly, or Monthly.The default is Semi-Monthly. Hours that are accrued are available at the end of an accrual period.

NOTE  The Bi-weekly and Semi-monthly periods are not the same. Bi-weekly has 26 periods; Semi-Monthly has 24. Daily accrual is based on 365 days, even if it is a leap year.

The accrual period is selected on the time off category tabs of the New Policy page. For weekly and bi-weekly accrual periods, a system setting determines the Day of the week that begins a weekly or bi-weekly accrual period.

Accrual rate

The rate at which a resource accrues time, per accrual period. The formula is ([Annual Hours]/[# of Accrual Periods in the year]), and is shown in hours, to three decimal places.

The Accrual Rate is displayed on the New/Edit Policy Tier page.

NOTE  To avoid situations where the time accrued is either slightly less or more than the desired amount, Autotask will adjust the first accrual period's amount.

EXAMPLE  80 hours of accrual with 24 pay periods equates to a 3.333 accrual rate. At the end of the 24 periods, this will only amount to 79.92. In this example, this first period would give an additional .008 hours, for a total of 3.341. Likewise, each time a new year begins, the first accrual period amount will be slightly higher or lower than the other periods to reconcile the difference.

Accrual cap

The maximum number of unused hours a resource can accumulate before their accrual activity is suspended. If the maximum is reached, the suspension will remain in effect until the resource uses some of the accumulated time off (or has time off approved). This will decrease the amount of time accrued, and cause the accrual activity to resume.

  • If the accrual is suspended, any time that would have accrued during the suspension is not retrievable and that time is permanently forfeited.

    • NOTE   If no value is specified, this field will be read as "no accrual cap." Resources will be able to accrue time-off hours indefinitely. Unused time off is a financial liability for your company, so we recommend that you set some sort of accrual cap.

    To set up a Time Off Policy, do the following:

    • Enable the time off categories you want to include in your time off policy. Only enabled system time off categories will be represented with a tab on the New/Edit Time Off Policy page. Refer to Before you create a time off policy....
    • Optionally, you can change the display names of your time off categories. Time off categories are part of the list of Internal Time Codes, and can be renamed. Refer to Before you create a time off policy....

    • Time off policies are managed on the > Admin > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users > Time Off Policies page. Refer to Managing time off policies.

      To create a Time Off Policy, click the New Policy button. Refer to Adding or editing a time off policy.

    • Resources can be assigned to a policy on the HR tab of the Resources page, or from the General Tab of the New/Edit Policy. Refer to Adding or editing a time off policy and HR tab.