Set up leave types and PTO balances (W-2)

Step by step

1. 1Open Settings, Operations & Alerts, then Leave & Holidays to create your types (for example PTO, Sick, Unpaid).
2. 2Every leave type applies to all your W-2 staff. The "Paid" box only decides whether a request of that type is paid unless someone changes it on the request; it does not choose who gets the type.
3. 3Removing a type that nobody uses deletes it. If anyone still has hours, a Custom amount or a request in it, Remove offers to retire it instead: it stops showing for new leave and earns nothing more, but those hours and requests stay readable. A person still sees a retired type on their balances while they have hours in it. Use Restore under Retired to bring one back.
4. 4For each type, choose whether it tracks a balance. Untracked types (like unpaid leave) skip balances entirely and work as simple approve-or-deny requests.
5. 5For tracked types, pick how hours are earned: "Manually" (admin adjustments only), "Yearly grant" (a set number of hours each year), or "As you work" (hours earned for hours worked).
6. 6For a yearly grant, enter the hours everyone gets, then choose when the year starts: "On a date you pick" (January 1, or July 1 for a fiscal year, for example) or "On each person's work anniversary". Leave the hours at 0 if you want to set everyone individually.
7. 7To give more with years of service, use "+ Add a step" on a yearly type (for example, after 2 years: 80 hrs, after 5 years: 120 hrs). It counts full years from each person's hire date on the day hours are granted, so a step reached during the year applies from the next year start. Choose whether reaching a step partway through a year also adds a share of the extra on their anniversary. A person's own Custom amount always wins over steps. A new step starts with its hours blank, and Save stays greyed out until every step has both its years and its hours, or is removed.
8. 8For a probation period, set "New hires wait" to a number of days. A new person's first hours land the day the wait ends, as a share of the year left from that day if the type is prorated. Waiting periods and steps both need a hire date: set it in Team Roster, Manage, then Paid time off.
9. 9Choose what "Someone who joins partway through a year gets": the full amount right away, a share for the rest of the year, or nothing until the next year starts. For anniversary leave a new person's year starts on their hire date, so it is the full amount on their hire date or nothing until their first anniversary.
10. 10Set the year-end policy for a yearly grant: carry unused hours over (optionally capped) or reset them, and decide whether the balance may go negative.
11. 11For "As you work", enter the rate (for example 1 hr per 30 hours worked). Optionally set "Stop earning at" a maximum balance, and "When a year starts, keep up to" a number of hours (0 starts each year at zero).
12. 12To give someone a different amount or rate, open them from Team Roster (Manage), go to Paid time off, and click "Change" next to the type. It shows as Custom, and "Back to standard" returns them to the type's amount. Use this instead of a separate type per person or per years of service.
13. 13Set each person's hire date in the same Paid time off section. Years-of-service steps, the new-hire wait and anniversary leave all count from it, and anyone without one is flagged there and in the Leave Balances report.
14. 14Review requests on Staff, then Leave Requests: each pending request shows the projected remaining balance, and Approve is disabled when the balance can't cover it (unless the type allows negative). A request that uses more than one leave type shows a balance line for each type. Use the tabs to see Pending, Approved, Rejected, Cancelled or All requests.
15. 15To find one person's leave, type their name in "Search by interpreter" under the tabs. It narrows whichever tab is open. Any part of the name works, in any order, and accents are ignored, so "jose" finds José. Click the ✕ to clear it. The number on the Pending tab still counts everyone.
16. 16To file leave for someone, click "+ File on behalf" on the same tab. Use "+ Use another leave type too" to take the hours from more than one type on the same absence.
17. 17Adjust an individual's balance in their Paid time off section: click Adjust, enter the hours in quarter-hour steps and a reason, and the change lands in their ledger.
18. 18If a person has an old lump-sum PTO balance from before leave types, use Convert in the same section to move it onto a typed balance.
19. 19To change someone's pending or approved leave yourself, click "Edit" on the request under Staff, Leave Requests, adjust it, and click "Save changes". On approved leave the change takes effect right away: the calendar and their balance update and they get a notice.
20. 20When a staff member asks to change approved leave, the request shows a "Change requested" panel with the old details struck through and the new ones below, plus what their balance will be if you approve it. That balance already gives back the hours the leave holds now. Click "Approve change" or "Deny change". If the change would take a type below zero and that type can't go negative, "Approve change" is greyed out and the balance line says it is blocked. Add hours with an adjustment first, or deny the change.
21. 21To see everyone's balances at once, open Staff and then PTO Balances (the same table is under Reports, Leave Balances).