Leave Management Guide
Configure leave types, set policy limits, manage the sandwich rule, run the approval workflow and seed employee balances.
Step 1 — Configure leave policies
Go to Settings → Company → Leave Policies. You will see a card for each leave type: Casual Leave (CL), Medical Leave (ML) and Privilege Leave (PL). Click Edit on each type to set:
- Maximum days per year — total entitlement
- Carry-forward — whether unused days roll to the next year (and maximum carry-forward cap)
- Accrual method — upfront (all days on 1 Jan) or pro-rata (monthly accrual)
- Sandwich rule — whether intervening weekends and holidays count against leave balance
- Maximum consecutive days — optional cap on a single leave request
Changes to the policy maximum do not automatically update employee balances. Use the Reseed Balances button to apply the new allocation.
Step 2 — Seed employee balances
After saving the policy, click Reseed Balances. The system calculates each employee's entitlement based on their joining date and the selected accrual method. Employees who joined mid-year receive a prorated allocation. The reseeding is atomic — all employees are updated together or not at all.
Step 3 — The sandwich rule explained
When an employee takes leave on a Friday and the following Monday, the intervening Saturday and Sunday are sandwiched between two leave days. With the sandwich rule enabled, Saturday and Sunday count against the leave balance — consuming 4 days instead of 2.
The same logic applies to public holidays between leave days. Configure holidays in Settings → Company → Holidays before enabling the sandwich rule.
Step 4 — HR approval workflow
When an employee applies for leave, the HR manager assigned to their department receives a push notification with the leave details. In the admin portal, open HR → Leave → Pending Approvals. Click any request to see the full details, remaining balance and previous leave history.
Click Approve or Reject (with an optional reason). The employee is notified immediately via push. Approved leave days are automatically marked in the attendance record.
If an employee applies for leave that would bring their balance below zero, the system shows a warning but does not block the approval — HR can use discretion on unpaid leave.
Step 5 — Optional holiday configuration
Go to Settings → Company → Holidays. Add national public holidays and any company-specific holidays. Employees who apply for leave on a holiday will not consume leave balance for that day unless the sandwich rule applies.
Optional holidays (e.g. regional festivals) can be added with an Optional flag. Employees pick a fixed number of optional holidays per year from the list in the PWA.