To properly manage working time and absences for part-time employees, you need to configure a few key elements in Calamari. The setup should reflect each employee's weekly work schedule and your company's leave policies.
Here's how the different settings work together:
Work schedule defines when and how many hours an employee is expected to work. Calamari uses this information to calculate the duration of their absences.
Accrual rule determines how many days or hours of leave an employee receives. The entitlement must be set according to the employee's leave policy, as Calamari does not automatically calculate it based on their FTE.
Contract type allows you to assign specific accrual rules to different groups of employees, such as those working part-time.
1. Create a work schedule for part-time employee
The first step is to define an appropriate work schedule. In Calamari, you can adjust the schedule to reflect the employee's working hours.
For example, you can create a work schedule for an employee working:
4 hours per day, 5 days a week
6 hours per day, 5 days a week
8 hours per day, 4 days a week
4 hours per day, 4 days a week
4 working days per week, such as Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday
Why is this important?
Calamari uses the assigned work schedule to calculate the duration of absences.
If an employee is scheduled to work 4 hours on a given day and requests a full day off using an hour-based absence type, Calamari will deduct 4 hours from their leave balance, not 8.
Where to configure it?
Go to Configuration → Work schedule, create an appropriate work schedule, and assign it to the employee.
Variable working days and hours – the Scheduling module
A standard work schedule works well when an employee follows a recurring pattern, for example 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. If a part-time employee's working days and hours change during the month, you can use the Scheduling module together with hour-based leave calculation (see step 2) instead of a single fixed schedule.
Note: Scheduling is an additional module and may not be enabled on your account. If you don't have it, set up the employee with a standard work schedule as described above and in the following steps – this whole guide works without the module. If you don't use the Scheduling module and would like to try it out, write to us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to enable a trial for you.
In Scheduling, you plan individual schedules for employees, with a different number of hours on different days. For example, an employee working half-time could be scheduled for:
Monday – 8 hours,
Tuesday – day off,
Wednesday – 4 hours,
Thursday – day off,
Friday – 8 hours.
The following week their schedule can look completely different. The schedule is automatically linked to absence calculation – when an employee submits a time-off request, Calamari takes the hours planned in the schedule into account:
time off on a day with 8 scheduled hours deducts 8 hours from the leave balance,
time off on a day with 4 scheduled hours deducts 4 hours,
a day off doesn't reduce the leave balance.
With variable hours, calculating leave in days is less precise (the employee works 4 hours one day and 8 another), which is why we recommend calculating leave in hours. Keep in mind that you still need to configure the annual leave entitlement yourself for each employee's working time – see steps 3 and 4.
If you also use the Time & Attendance module, a published schedule automatically sets the planned working hours in attendance records.
For details, see the article Scheduling module - configuration.
2. Decide how absences should be calculated – in days or hours
The next step is to choose how your company wants to calculate leave. There are two main approaches:
Day-based approach (working days)
In this approach, leave is calculated in days rather than hours:
the number of vacation days depends on how many days per week an employee works, not on the number of hours per day
for example:
full-time employee working 5 days per week, 8 hours per day → 26 days
part-time employee working 5 days per week, 4 hours per day → also 26 days
employee working 4 days per week → the entitlement may depend on the company policy and local rules, because in this case the number of working days is different
In this model, one day of leave represents one scheduled working day, regardless of how many hours the employee was supposed to work.
Hour-based approach
In this approach, leave is calculated in hours. The annual entitlement can be adjusted to the employee's working time or FTE, according to your company's policy:
the number of vacation days or hours is proportional to the employee’s FTE / working time
for example:
full-time employee → 26 days / 208 hours
part-time employee working 80% → proportionally less
employee working 4 days per week may also receive a prorated entitlement, depending on how the company defines part-time rules
For part-time employees, we recommend calculating leave in hours.
Where to configure it?
Go to Configuration → Absence types → Select an absence type → Edit → General → Duration unit.
If you already have an absence type configured in hours, you can also use it for part-time employees.
Important: Once an absence type has been created, you cannot change its duration unit from days to hours or vice versa. In this case, you need to create a new absence type.
3. Group employees based on their leave accrual rules
To correctly calculate leave entitlements for employees working different schedules, we recommend managing them through contract types.
For example, you can create contract types such as:
Full-time employee
Part-time employee (e.g. 80%)
Part-time employee – 4 working days
Part-time employee – 5 shorter working days
You can adjust the names and grouping to match your company's leave policies.
Where to configure it?
Go to Configuration → Contract types, create the appropriate contract types, and assign them to employees.
4. Set the correct leave accrual rules
To ensure that employees working different part-time schedules receive the correct number of leave days or hours, you need to configure the appropriate accrual rules for each group.
Within a single absence type, you can create multiple accrual rules with different entitlement values and assign them to specific employee groups based on their contract types.
⚠️ Important:
Calamari does not automatically adjust the accrual limit based on an employee’s FTE, working hours, or assigned work schedule.
If a part-time employee is entitled to proportionally less leave, you need to enter the correct entitlement directly in the accrual rule.
Where to configure it?
Go to Configuration → Absence types.
Select the appropriate absence type, e.g. Vacation, and click Edit.
Open the Accrual tab.
Add an accrual rule for the selected employee group.
Enter the correct accrual value – the number of days or hours this group should receive.
Under Restricted to..., select the appropriate contract type.
Repeat these steps for other employee groups that have different leave entitlement rules.
This allows employees using the same absence type to receive different leave entitlements depending on the accrual rules assigned to them.
How proration works?
In the accrual rule settings, you can also find options for prorating leave entitlement.
Proration does not mean automatically adjusting leave entitlement based on an employee's FTE.
In Calamari, proration applies when an employee is entitled to leave for only part of an accrual period, for example when they join or leave the company during the year.
If a part-time employee is entitled to a specific annual leave allowance, first enter that value in the accrual rule. You can then configure proration based on the employee's hire or termination date.
Tip 💡
You can use the prorata calculator to verify which prorata model works with your policy:
Example of configuring a leave accrual rule
Let's say an employee working 80% part-time is entitled to 160 hours of annual leave.
In their accrual rule, you should enter 160 hours per year, rather than the full entitlement of a full-time employee.
Remember to restrict each accrual rule to the appropriate employee group so that employees do not receive entitlement from multiple rules that should not apply to them at the same time.
5. Verify the configuration in the employee's profile
After saving the settings, go to Configuration → People, select the employee's profile, and make sure that:
The employee has the correct work schedule assigned.
The employee has the appropriate contract type.
The employee receives the correct leave entitlement based on the assigned accrual rule. You can verify this in the Entitlement changes tab in their profile.
See also: