Calamari administrator can configure and adjust all types of absences (such as Time off and Remote work requests) in Configuration → Absence types.
Below, you'll find step-by-step instructions on how to do it, along with what is specifically important in each section.
Create or edit an existing absence type
New absence type
Let's start with creating a new absence type.
From the left-hand menu, select Configuration.
Find Absence Types on the dashboard under the Time Off section.
Click +Add to start configuring a new absence type
Existing absence type
From the left-hand menu, select Configuration.
Find Absence Types on the dashboard under the Time Off section.
Select an absence type from the list and click Edit, or double-click the absence type.
Absence type configuration – sections overview
General
General
In the General tab, you can decide if this absence type has its own entitlement or whether it's a subtype of a different absence, using its entitlement.
For example, you have one main request type - Business trips, but it can be divided into Incentive travel, Client meetings, Seminars, etc., and they all take off the main Business trip pool.
Consider as - this allows you to choose if the request is treated as:
Time off
Remote work
By selecting the option to consider the request as remote work, you can also enable the transfer of hours to the timesheet as worked hours if you have the Time & Attendance module.
This functionality transfers the requested hours to the employee's timesheet as worked time.
Duration unit - here's where you choose the basic unit for absence calculation:
hours - absences will be requested in hours, with the possibility to present them as days according to users' work schedules,
days - absences will be requested in days (with the minimum leave duration of 1/4 or 1/2 of a day).
IMPORTANT!
Once you save the configuration, the Duration unit cannot be changed later. Please remember this when applying your policies.
For employees working part-time, we recommend the configuration in line with this article:
Absence type internal ID (optional) - here, you can enter your absence type code for internal purposes. It can be used to integrate with external systems of choice. The code you entered here can be found in the reports.
Remember: this code has to be unique for each absence type!
Accrual
Accrual
Entitlement
In the Entitlement tab, you can choose how to determine entitlement limits:
Accrued - based on defined rules, employees are given a certain number of days/hours to use.
Unlimited - in this case, there is no specified number of days/hours to use.
Undefined - in this case, there is no specified number of days/hours to use.
Both Unlimited and Undefined types function the same way, but they subtly differ in how they treat the absence of limits. Whether it's usually unlimited or simply without a set number of days or hours to use, there's a sense that it's only for specific occasions.
Calculations
In the Calculations section, you can choose how the system will accrue and how employees will request leave in the future.
Estimate future entitlement - in this case system will accrue entitlement up to the end of the possible requesting period, and employee will be allowed to request days in future based on the future entitlement.
Calculate as of the current day - in this case, the system will accrue entitlement up to the current day, and the employee will be allowed to request days in the future based on the entitlement already earned.
Accrual Cap
In Calamari, an accrual cap is the maximum amount of leave time an employee can save up. Employees earn leave based on a set schedule, like monthly or yearly. Once they reach this cap, they stop earning more leave until they use some of what they’ve saved. This helps the company keep leave balances clear and encourages employees to take their time off regularly.
Example:
If an employee accrues 8 hours of vacation leave per week and the accrual cap is 120 hours:
They will accrue vacation leave weekly until their balance reaches 120 hours.
Once they hit the cap, no additional hours will accrue until they use some of their vacation time to bring the balance below 120 hours.
If you select the Accrued option, the entitlement will be based on accrual rules.
The main principles that are useful when configuring rules are:
Rules work independently. Each rule accrues limits according to its configuration, which allows several rules to calculate limits for one employee at the same time.
Restricted to - the rule works for all employees who meet the conditions.
If an employee does not meet the time conditions of the rule, the absence type will be available for them with a limit equal to zero. If, on the other hand, the employee is not included in the "Restricted for" list in any of the rules for the absence type, then the type becomes unavailable to them.
Changes in the accrual rule - changing the rule's parameters triggers an automatic recalculation (including deletion) of all accruals resulting from the rule's current setup. The system recalculates all accruals so that the current state of limits results from the newly added/changed accrual rule.
Gaining the eligibility
Here you can determine the moment from which the accrual of the entitlement begins:
From the first day at work - the date of employment (the day of employment is already the day when the employee has the entitlement), here is the article describing it.
After hire (X years, months, weeks, days) - you can choose the time after the hire date when the employee becomes eligible for absence.
When overall seniority reaches (X months) - you can set up eligibility rules based on the total tenure from the "Seniority before hire" field and the tenure calculated from the hire date added to Calamari.
From the moment of adding employee - should be used when the calculation is not related to the date of employment, but to the date the employee was added to the system.
After working full calendar years (X years)
From the beginning of the probation period (based on the probation beginning date added to the employee's profile)
After the probation period is over (based on the probation end date added to the employee's profile)
Losing eligibility
When an employee loses their entitlement, further accruals cease:
Last day at work - with the date of dismissal
After hire (X years, months, weeks, days) - you can choose the time after the hire date when the employee loses entitlement to accrue balance for certain absences.
When overall seniority reaches (X months) - you can configure the loss of entitlement based on the total tenure from the "Seniority before hire" field and the tenure calculated from the hire date added to Calamari.
Full calendar years worked (X years)
When probation finishes (based on the probation end date added to the employee's profile)
Accrue periods
Each rule can have its own accrual period. You can choose between one-time or recurring accrual. The recurring cycle can be based on:
Annual or anniversary (according to carry-over) - this accrual period is related to the annual leave year cycle, which is configurable in the Carry-over tab.
Anniversary - this type of accrual is based on the anniversary of employment or the anniversary of gaining eligibility
Monthly, weekly, quarterly, and yearly - selecting one of these options gives you the option to accrue in shorter cycles.
The amount and the moment of the accrual
Amount
This is the number of days/hours that will be added for all employees who meet the conditions of the rule.
Accrual moment
There are moments of the billing period when you can configure the addition of new days to the pool:
When the period begins - the value will be added on the first day of the cycle and immediately available to the employee.
When the period ends - the value will be assigned on the last day of the accrued period (often used in monthly and weekly accruals).
First accrual for the new employees
You can choose when and how to make the first accrual immediately after acquiring entitlements, such as admission to work
In the period when the employee gains eligibility - in the cycle in which the employee acquired entitlements. This option is related to the annual leave year cycle, which is configurable in the Carry-over tab.
In the next period after gaining the eligibility - this option allows you to assign the initial value manually, and start the rules engine from the second accrual period.
In the day when gains eligibility - if you select this option, the accrual will take place when the employee acquires the entitlement. At the same time, you can choose whether the first accrual will be proportional or the full value.
Last accrual
Here you can choose how to calculate the last accrual - whether it will be prorated or the full value, respectively.
Effective date
The moment when the rule becomes active. Here, you can set the date when the rule will start accruing. If the employees' employment dates are before the effective date, the rule will start accrual from the effective date, but it will also use their hire dates to calculate for individual employees.
It is possible to expire the accrual rule if your absence policy is changing.
Restricted to...
Here you can specify who the absence type will be available to. You can limit the visibility of an absence type to specific individuals, teams, contract types or genders. By default, it is available to all employees.
Requesting
Requesting
Minimum leave duration
For absence calculated in days, we can specify whether the minimum length of the request will be a whole day, 1/2, or 1/4 day.
On the other hand, for absence calculated in hours, we can specify whether it will be a full day, half day, 1, 2 hours, 30, or 15 minutes, here is the article about it.
Include ... in leave request length
Here we can decide how to calculate the length of the request. We choose one of the ways:
Working days - in this case, the system takes into consideration only working days based on the work schedule assigned to the employee when calculating the length of the request.
Calendar days - the length is calculated in calendar days, taking into consideration weekends as well. If you choose hours as the calculation mode for absences, it is required to specify the number of hours to be converted into one whole day.
Include public holidays in leave request length
Check this box if you want the system to include public holidays in the leave request length.
Allow negative entitlement/taking in advance
By checking this option, we can allow under-limit requests and also set the maximum under-limit value (days or hours, depending on the duration unit).
Requesting is possible in...
Here, we can decide if requesting is possible only in:
the current absence year
the current and the following absence year
in the selected period in the future
Activate the new year ... months in advance
Here, we can set up how many months in advance, the system activates/allows requesting in the next absence year. For more details, please check this article.
When the employee requests for the next year, deduct the entitlement
While requesting in the future, we can decide from which pool the request will deduct the appropriate number of days/hours:
Deduct first the days/hours earned in the previous vacation year.
Deduct proportionally from each day (this is very useful at the turn of the year when you want the request to take, for example, 3 days from the old pool, and 2 days from the new one).
Carry-over
Carry-over
In Carry-over tab, you can configure whether the absence year starts cyclically on the indicated date or the employee's employment anniversary.
In addition, we decide whether unused days will be carried over to the next year. If we select this option, we can also specify the maximum number of days/hours that will be transferred and enable the option to expire these days if unused after X months (maximum 12 months).
Fields & visibility
Fields & visibility
In the Fields & visibility section, you can decide on additional fields when submitting the request (reason, substitute, and comment fields) whether they will be required, optional, or disabled, and for whom they will be visible.
In addition, the reason can be arbitrary or selected from a pre-defined list of reasons.
In the following articles, we describe the possibilities:
How to show the reason for absence on the calendar?
How to create a defined list of reasons for absences in Calamari?
Attachments
Attachments
In the Attachments tab, you can decide whether additional attachments need to be included with the requests.
Display
Display
In the Display section, we can decide whether the absence type will be presented first (in Apply and the Entitlement section) and set the color of requests presented in the calendar.
More information about colors on the Calamari calendar here:
Messages
Messages
In the Messages tab, we can add a message that will be displayed to the employee before the request is submitted, as well as a short description of the type of absence, which can contain additional requirements or information and will be displayed in the Entitlement tab next to the limit.
The "Short description of absence type" field can also be expanded graphically using markdown tags. Tags can make the text more readable and clearer.
An example description of an absence policy might look like this:
More about using markdown tags → LINK.
Restrictions
Restrictions
In the configuration of an absence type, we can create restrictions for a specific type of request in terms of length of requests, days in advance when the request has to be submitted, past reporting, or availability after the hire date.
If you want to add a restriction:
Go to Restrictions tab
Choose the restriction from a dropdown list:
The absence may not be longer than X days
The absence may not be shorter than X days
If the absence is longer than X days, it must be requested Y calendar days before start date
Absence can be requested up to X days in the past
The employee is able to make a request after X days from the hire date
The absence can be added for a maximum of X days in week
Select to either block the request or display warning
Display warning - the system will allow the addition of a request violating a restriction but will present a message/warning during the request + information about the restriction violation in the request details (for the manager/administrator/reporter)
Block the request - the system will not allow submitting the request violating a restriction
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the right configuration - drop us a line via chat or by sending a message to [email protected]
We're happy to help!