Time off policies regulate how employees request and accumulate time off. They provide an efficient way to handle different types of time off like paid time off and sick leave. Each time off type can have several policies, providing flexibility to meet various employee needs and organizational demands.

An employee can only have one policy per time off type at a time. You might need to switch to a new policy due to restructuring, policy updates, or role changes.

Note: You need a time off policy for any time off type an employee should be able to request. Without it, employees cannot see or request the time off type. They also need at least propose rights for that time off type.

Before you start

• To switch to a new time off policy or unassign it, you need edit permission to the Time off / Balance history section.
• To edit, archive, delete, or duplicate a time off policy, you need edit permission to the Account configuration > Time off section.

Balance recalculations and conflicts

When you edit a time off policy or change a policy assignment, the system may recalculate employees' time off balances, entitlements, and in some cases attendance and overtime balances. It may also flag conflicts with employees' existing time off periods. This section covers:

• When recalculations happen.
• Which settings trigger which type of recalculation.
• Which conflicts the system flags.

When the system triggers a recalculation

The system triggers a recalculation in any of the scenarios below. This only affects time off periods booked completely after the policy's effective start date.

• Edit a time off policy and set the effective date in the past. The system recalculates balances for every employee assigned the policy.
• Assign a new time off policy with an effective date in the past.
• Replace a past time off policy assignment with a different policy.

Not every setting triggers a recalculation. For example, changing a certificate requirement doesn't recalculate balances. The table below shows which settings do.

Which settings trigger which recalculation

Changes fall into three areas of impact:

• Time off periods: the duration of existing periods. This in turn can impact the time off balance.
• Time off balance: entitlement settings that change the overall balance.
• Attendance and overtime: target hours and overtime items.

Which conflicts the system flags

The same three scenarios (edit, assign, or replace a time off policy) can also create conflicts with an employee's existing time off periods. The system warns you before the change takes effect so you can decide how to handle the affected periods. Conflicts can arise from differences in:

For example: Your current time off policy has no certificate requirement. An employee has time off scheduled from 25 to 27 February. On 1 February, you edit a time off policy so it requires a certificate, effective immediately. The certificate is now required from the second day of time off. For the existing period, the system creates a missing-certificate task in your inbox.

Edit, switch, or duplicate: select the right action

Before making changes, decide which action fits what you're trying to do. The three actions cover three different intents.

When to edit a time off policy

Edit a time off policy when the change should apply to everyone currently on the policy:

• You want to add or change a rule that all current assignees should follow.
• The change should take effect from a specific date, and current assignees should automatically move to the new definition.
• You're correcting a mistake in the policy settings that should apply to all current assignees.

For example: regulations change in your country and the new accrual rule needs to apply to everyone on the standard paid time off policy.

When to switch employees to a different time off policy

Switch employees to a different policy when only some of them need different rules:

• A subset of employees needs different rules than the rest (role change, relocation, restructuring).
• You want to keep the original policy intact for the employees who stay on it.
• The right policy already exists, you just need to move people to it.

For example: an employee transfers from your German entity to your French entity and needs to follow the French annual leave policy.

When to duplicate a time off policy

Duplicate a time off policy when you need a new policy variant that lives alongside the original:

• You want most settings the same as an existing policy, but with a few differences for a specific group.
• Both versions should coexist long-term, and different employees stay on different policies.

For example: you offer all employees a standard paid time off policy. You want to introduce an enhanced variant for executives, with the same accrual but a higher entitlement cap.

Review time off policies

You have several ways to review your time off policies, depending on what you need to check. You can see which policy is assigned to which employee across your organization, look up the full assignment history for a single employee, or review how a policy's settings have changed over time. The sections below cover each option.

Review time off policy assignments in bulk

To see which time off policy is currently assigned to which employee at a glance, follow these steps:

1. Click Organization.
2. At the top of the list, click Columns. Type "policy", and select the time off type you want to review the assignment for.
3. The relevant column appears on the right. It shows all employees you have access to. You might need to scroll to the right to see it.

Review a specific employee's time off policy history

Follow these steps to review the full time off policy history of a specific employee. This includes the dates of any past and future policy assignment.

1. Go to the employee profile.
2. Click Time off.
3. On the right side of the screen, click the time off you want to check the policy assignments for.
4. Click Policies.
5. Here, you can see a list of all the policies assigned to the employee with the relevant dates and the policy definition.

Review time off policy definitions

Every time you edit a time off policy, the system creates a new definition for it. This means your time off policies can have different settings that are valid at different times. If you've edited a time off policy, you can review its definitions to understand how it has changed over time. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Time off.
3. Find and click the time off type you want to check the policy definitions for.
4. Scroll down and click the relevant time off policy.
5. If there's a scheduled change, you see a note at the top of the section on the right. Click View for more details.
6. Otherwise, click the three-dots icon > Definitions history.
7. Here, you can see any past and current definitions and scheduled changes for your policy. Click any of them to see its settings and the change description the policy editor left.

Edit a time off policy

Before editing the settings of any time off policy, keep in mind:

• When you edit the settings of a time off policy, the system creates a new definition for it. This way, you can decide when the new definition comes into effect, now, in the past, or in the future. You can review all the past and future definitions of your policies if you've ever edited them.
• Definitions have an effective date but no end date. Each new definition applies from its effective date onward, overwriting any definition scheduled after it. This means you can't change a past definition in isolation. Any edit with a past effective date overwrites the definitions that follow it.
• When you edit the settings of a time off policy, this may trigger recalculations.
• You can only have one policy change scheduled at any time. You can't queue, for example, one change for this year and another for next.

To edit a time off policy, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Time off.
3. Select the relevant time off type.
4. Scroll down to the relevant policy and click it.
5. Click the three-dots icon > Edit.
6. Apply the changes and click Set effective date. You can use the navigation links on the left to move through the settings.
7. Expand the section at the top of the screen to review the policy changes. Then select a date the new definition comes into effect.
8. Review the impact of your changes on balances, time off periods, entitlements, employee status and salary. Confirm the edit.
9. Write a note describing the policy changes. This appears in the list of policy definitions and helps you understand later why you made changes or what changed.
10. Save the changes.

Switch employees to a new time off policy

Before proceeding, consider the following:

• When you switch employees to a new time off policy, the system applies the updated settings and may trigger recalculations.
• If an employee already has a time off policy with limited entitlement assigned, you can't replace it with an unlimited entitlement policy, and vice versa. To switch between policies with and without entitlement limitations, you need to unassign the existing time off policy first.
• If a policy has more than one definition, the new assignment's effective date determines which definition's settings the system uses for calculations:

Switch a single employee's time off policy

1. Go to the employee profile > Time off.
2. Go to Time off balances on the right.
3. Click the Assigned tab, where you can find all time off types for which the employee currently has a policy assigned.
4. Click the relevant time off type > Policies.
5. Click Change policy.
6. Select the new time off policy option.
7. In Effective from, note the following:
   • If it's a time off policy with unlimited entitlement: You can assign it from a specific date. If you want to assign it from the employee's hire date, you need to unassign the existing policy.
   • If it's a policy with limited entitlement, you can assign it from one of the options shown in the table below.
8. Assign the policy.

Effective from options

Tip: To keep past time off balances accurate, assign the new policy from the current period, the next period, or a specific date.

Switch multiple employees' time off policies

1. Go to Organization > People list.
2. Optional: Apply filters to narrow the selection.
3. Select the box to the left of the relevant employees' names.
4. Click Edit time policies > Assign time off policy.
5. Select the relevant time off type and policy.
6. In Effective from, note the following:
   • If it's a policy with unlimited entitlement: You can assign it from the employees' hire date or select a specific date.
   • If it's a policy with limited entitlement, you can assign it from one of the options shown in the table below:
7. Confirm the change.

Effective from options

Switch multiple employees' time off policies via an import

You can also change a time off policy in bulk through an import. This option is particularly useful if you need to:

• Assign time off policies to new employees quickly and reduce the time spent on manual setup.
• Assign policies to multiple employees and time off types at the same time.
• Change a policy assignment for a group of employees who are moving location or department, for example.

Learn more in our dedicated article.

Duplicate a time off policy

To create a separate, parallel policy rather than a new definition, duplicate the original and edit the copy. The duplicate:

• Includes all the same settings of the original time off policy.
• Is not assigned to any employee.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Time off.
3. Select the relevant time off type.
4. Scroll down to the relevant policy and click it.
5. Click the three-dots icon > Create Copy, and confirm.
6. The system selects the duplicate. Click the three-dots icon > Edit.
7. Edit the settings as needed and confirm the update, leaving a change description for the duplicate policy.
8. Click the three-dots icon again and update the policy name and description.

Unassign a time off policy

Unassign a time off policy when you've assigned one to an employee by accident. Use this when you want to switch back to the previous policy. When you unassign a policy:

• The system applies the previous policy to the employee. This means the conflicts described earlier might apply.
• For policies with an entitlement limit, unassigning a time off policy may trigger recalculations, based on the previously assigned policy.
• The employee must have at least one time off policy left in their history to be able to request and modify existing periods. If you remove all policies from an employee, you can't edit any periods of this time off type. Assign a new policy to make them fully functional again. The system calculates the periods based on the new policy's settings.

To unassign a time off policy, follow these steps:

Unassign a time off policy for a single employee

For a single employee, you can unassign one or multiple specific time off policies at the same time. They all need to belong to the same time off type.

1. Go to the employee profile > Time off.
2. Go to Time off balances on the right.
3. Click the relevant time off type > Policies.
4. Click the bin icon next to the policy or policies you want to unassign.
5. Confirm the change.

Unassign a time off policy for multiple employees

If you unassign a time off policy in bulk for multiple employees, you can only unassign all of them at once. This applies to a single time off type. When you do this:

• Employees can't request the time off type any longer.
• Existing time off periods become uneditable.

1. Go to Organization > People list.
2. Optional: apply filters to narrow the selection.
3. Select the box to the left of the relevant employees' names.
4. Click Edit time policies > Change time off policy.
5. Select the relevant time off type and select Unassign all time off policies from the dropdown.
6. Confirm the change.

Archive a time off policy

Archive a time off policy when you don't need to assign it to new employees, but some employees are still using it. Archiving also helps remove clutter in your time off settings. When you archive a time off policy:

• You can no longer assign it to employees.
• Employees currently using the policy will still see it.
• The system will use it to calculate their entitlements and to create time off periods. Their balances and entitlements remain unaffected.
• This action is permanent: once you archive a policy, you cannot unarchive it. You can still duplicate an archived policy.

1. Go to Settings > Time off & Attendance > Time off and select the relevant time off type.
2. Scroll down to the relevant policy.
3. Click the policy, then the three-dots icon > Archive, and confirm.

Delete a time off policy

Delete a time off policy to remove ones you created for testing. You can also delete policies you've never assigned to anyone. When you delete a policy:

• It no longer appears anywhere in Personio.
• You lose all the related settings.
• This action is permanent: once you delete a policy, you cannot restore it.

You can only delete a time off policy if you haven't assigned it to any employee. This applies to current, past, and future periods. Before following the steps below, assign a different time off policy to the relevant employees first.

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Time off & attendance section, click Time off.
3. Select the relevant time off type.
4. Scroll down and click the time off policy you want to delete.
5. Click the three-dots icon > Delete and confirm.