The transition of long-term leaves to time off policies – Personio

We're changing the way we manage long-term leaves. Examples of long-term leaves include parental leave, sabbaticals, and extended sick leave. Here's an overview of what's changing:

Previously: You scheduled long-term leaves from the employee profile by using the three-dots icon and selecting Schedule leave.
Now: You'll manage long-term leaves through your time off policies and time off periods.

No existing data is lost as part of this change. All leave periods already in your account remain visible and continue to run as before. The only thing that changes is where you go to create and manage long-term leaves from now on.

If your account has leave periods on record, read on to learn what you need to do. Most of these need no action. If you have leave periods scheduled for the future, you may need to review and remove them in favor of time off periods. You can do this when you update your time off policies to include compensation proration, status change, and PTO entitlement proration.

Why we're changing long-term leave management

Here's an overview of the changes we're making and how they'll improve your experience of managing long term leaves:

One place for all leave management: We're bringing long-term leaves into Time off & attendance. All time off, both short- and long-term, will now run through one unified flow instead of two disconnected systems.
Flexible configuration: We're replacing the hard-coded, Germany-only proration logic with customizable leave rules per policy. With this change, you can configure compensation, employee status, and PTO entitlement impact for any market or leave type.
UI improvements: We're updating the time off policy UI for more clarity, including clearer examples and descriptions.
Automated compliance: We're introducing automated compliance through market-specific policy configuration. With this change, you can avoid error-prone manual workarounds for non-German markets.
Editing an assigned time off policy: You'll be able to edit an existing time off policy and set an effective date from when new settings apply. You'll no longer need to use the workaround of duplicating a policy and reassigning it. You'll see a changelog of assignments in the time off policy drawer, as well as other details on any changes made.

What's changing

The table below gives a summary of what to expect once the update is live for your account.

What's changing	Before	After
The Schedule leave button	Opened a form to create a leave period.	Opens an onboarding modal that guides you to set up or edit time off policies.
Where existing leave periods appear	Only visible in the employee profile or on the Team calendar if a time off type was linked.	Appear on the Team calendar and the employee's Time off calendar with a "Leave period" label in dark gray.
Editing existing leave periods	Possible from the leave below the employee Status attribute.	You can now only view and delete existing leave periods from the Team calendar. You can no longer edit them until you've transitioned to the new system.
Time off entitlement proration	When using long-term leaves, automatic monthly calendar proration for paid vacation entitlement was only available with time off policies using the German policy template. Manual adjustments were required for all other cases.	Configurable paid vacation entitlement proration methods (daily, monthly calendar year, monthly rolling, or none).
Compensation impact	Hard-coded proration of base salary and recurring compensation for all leave periods. Manual salary adjustments were required for market-specific rules.	Configurable on/off setting for compensation proration (base: fixed salary and other recurring compensation to 0) and offset days relative to the time off start date.
Employee status	Automatically changed to "Leave" for all leave periods entered through the employee profile. The employee status listed leave periods and duration as an inline comment.	Configurable on/off setting per time off policy and offset days relative to the time off start date. The Status field in the employee profile no longer shows the leave period and duration. It directs you to the Team calendar instead.
Leave approval	No approval workflow	Follows the time off type's approval workflow (it defaults to auto-approve if none is set). Depending on the permissions you grant employees, they can request leaves themselves, or HR Managers can continue to manage them.

Transition timeline

You'll gain access to the new long-term leave settings at the end of July, 2026. This applies to everyone who previously used the Schedule leave functionality.

Explore the new time off policies experience

You'll now manage long-term leaves through your time off policies. You can access time off policies in Settings > Time off & Attendance > Time off. Select a time off type to review its policies.

You can explore the full feature documentation here:

What you need to do

Editing your time off policies is required so that time off periods can create the downstream effects needed for long-term leave management. This includes compensation proration, status changes, and PTO entitlement adjustments, which the system applies flexibly and automatically based on your policy settings.

Edit your Time off policy and enable the leave rules you need. This includes compensation proration, status changes, and entitlement rules.
Review the impact of your changes shown in the policy edit flow before you confirm and save. Personio will list every overlapping leave entry detected that needs action and the number of employees impacted.
Go to the Team calendar using the links in the CSV from Step 2. Flagged leave periods appear with a "Leave period" label and distinct visual styling (dark grey).
- Delete each flagged leave period. If all your existing leave periods already ended or are currently ongoing, add long-term leave rules to relevant time off policies. see this section You can then start using policies for new time off periods right away.
- If you have existing leave periods with future start dates, do the following:
  - Add long-term leave rules to relevant time off policies. see this section
  - Fix any duplications flagged in the conflict summary. see this section
Review your long-term leave edge cases by checking the list of all long-term leave periods that we sent by email on 14.07.2026. This list shows every long-term leave period in your account. Some periods need a separate resolution path, described below.
- Open-ended leave periods: If a leave period in your overview has no end date, you must move it to the new system via time off policies before you can edit it.
- Leave periods you want to edit: If you need to change a leave period (for example, to update a date), you must first move it to the new system via time off policies.
- Leave periods without a linked time off type and period: If column J shows no linked time off period, and the leave period has an end date, you must move it to the new system via time off policies before you can edit it. If you do not need to edit this leave period, no action is required.
- Accounts not currently tracking absences via Time Off: Set up time off for your leave types, or continue making changes manually going forward.

Before you start, confirm the following permissions are in place:

To add leave rules to time off policies, you need edit rights to the Account configuration > Time off section.
To view and delete leave periods from the calendar, you need edit rights for People data > HR information.
For employees to see their own time off periods in the calendar, they need at least View permissions for the relevant time off type.

Add long-term leave rules to relevant time off policies

We recommend that all customers add long-term leave rules to relevant time off policies. Follow these steps:

Go to Settings.
In the Time off & attendance section, click Time off.
Select the time off type you use for long-term leaves, for example, parental leave or extended sick leave. Open the relevant policy.
Click the three-dots icon to edit the policy.
The following policy sections relate to long-term leaves: Compensation, Employee status, and Impact on paid time off. Learn more about long-term effects for time off policies. You can apply recommendations for common use cases using information from the relevant time off policy template.
Set the effective date to Today. This is the recommended choice for most customers for the following reasons:
- A future date leaves a gap where new time off periods won't have the correct leave rules applied until the changes take effect.
- A date too far in the past flags more duplicate conflicts, creating cleanup you don't need.
If the system detects future leave periods that overlap with the new policy rules, a conflict summary appears. Read the section below for guidance.
Review the policy changes and save.

If you manage multiple leave types, for example, parental leave and extended sick leave, repeat this for each relevant policy.

Apply time off policy template recommendations

Time off policy templates recommend settings for Compensation, Employee status, and Impact on paid time off. However, these recommendations only apply when you create a new policy.

If you're editing an existing policy and are unsure what to set, follow these steps:

Walk through the new policy creation flow for that time off type.
Select your country's template and note the recommended settings (without saving).
Apply those settings to your existing policy.

We don't recommend creating new policies, as this will result in more setup work for you.

What to do if a conflict summary appears

If your changes overlap with leave periods created using the old functionality, a conflict summary appears. It lists every leave period that needs action to ensure your employees' data stays accurate.

Why this matters: When you configure a policy with long-term leave rules, both the new policy and the existing leave period try to apply those rules at once. This effectively doubles the adjustment and can potentially cause errors in compensation, status, or time off entitlement.

The conflict summary includes:

Each flagged leave period by employee and date range, and
A downloadable CSV with direct calendar links for each affected employee.

If a conflict summary appears, follow these steps:

Download the CSV and open it.
Use the links to go to the flagged leave period in the Team calendar. The leave periods appear with a "Leave period" label and distinct styling, separate from regular time off periods.
Delete each flagged leave period from the Team calendar.

Now, only the time off period controls the effects on compensation proration, status, and PTO entitlement proration.

Example:
Julia has a parental leave period in the calendar from 1 August 2026 to 31 December 2026. It's linked to the "Parental Leave" time off type.

You edit the Parental Leave policy to add compensation proration, with an effective date of today (July 2026). The system detects that both the existing leave period and the new policy will apply proration rules to Julia's compensation. It flags it as a duplicate, and the conflict summary appears.

To fix the duplication, delete Julia's existing leave period. The time off period (her time off on the Team calendar) remains. The new policy handles proration automatically for the entire period, since the leave starts after the effective date.

Note the following:

When deleting existing leave periods, the associated time off period for each employee stays intact, and you can still see it in the calendar. The system only removes the existing leave period and its hardcoded rules.
The new policy rules take over from the effective date.

Review edge cases

Tip:
To identify employees affected by the edge cases below, check the CSV attached to the preannouncement email you received. It lists your account's existing leave periods as of the date the email was sent.

The edge cases described below won't appear in the conflict summary and require a separate resolution path.

Open-ended leave periods with no end date

Existing open-ended leave periods don't have an end date. This means that the system considers them as still "running". Because editing existing leave periods is no longer possible, you can't close them by adding an end date. The resolution depends on whether the leave period has a linked time off type and period. It also depends on when the leave period started.

Policy editing only allows effective dates back to the start of the previous period (1 January 2025 for this year). The following table shows the resolution path for this scenario.

When the leave period started

Scenario

Resolution

January 2025 or later

Has a linked time off type and period

These leave periods are covered by a standard policy edit. Follow these steps:

Edit the policy linked to the time off type, adding the required leave rules. Set the effective date to January 2025. This ensures the policy settings cover the leave period starting after the changes become effective.
Delete the existing leave period.
Adjust the end date of the time off period from the calendar.

January 2025 or later

Does not have a linked time off type and period

Not covered by a policy edit, as no time off periods exist. Follow these steps:

Create a new policy with the required leave rules.
Assign to employee from the start day of the leave. If multiple employees have leaves, apply from the earliest leave date.
Create a new open-ended time off period for the employee.
Delete the existing leave period.

Open-ended leave periods that started before January 2025 aren't covered by a policy edit. The following table shows the resolution path for this scenario.

When the leave started

Scenario

Resolution

Before January 2025

Has a linked time off type and period

Follow these steps:

Create a new time off policy with the required leave rules.
For affected employees only, assign them to the new policy from their hire date. You can't assign a policy from a specific date before January 2025 (hire date is the only option available).
Delete the existing leave period and adjust the associated time off period as needed.

Before January 2025

Does not have a linked time off type or period

Follow these steps:

Create a policy with the required leave rules.
For affected employees only, assign them to the new policy from their hire date. You can't assign a policy from a specific date before January 2025 (hire date is the only option available).
Create a new open-ended time off period for each affected employee. Bulk import is recommended for multiple cases.
Delete the existing leave period.

Edit existing leave periods

You can no longer edit existing leave periods created in the old system. You might need to change the dates. For example, if the dates for a parental leave change. If so, make sure the employee has a time off period and a time off policy spanning the whole leave period. With the time off period, you can edit the dates. The policy applies the correct leave rules.

Time off policy rules only apply when a time off policy fully covers the time off period. If a policy with the new leave rules doesn't fully cover your time off periods, follow the steps for open-ended leave periods to edit the dates for your existing leave periods.

Leave periods without a linked time off type and period (with an end date)

If someone previously created a leave period without linking a time off period, it won't appear in the conflict summary. This is because no time off period exists for it to conflict with. If left in place, it continues running under the old system until its end date. This is fine if you don't need to edit the leave before it ends.

If you do need to make changes, resolve it as follows:

Create a new time off policy with the required leave rules.
Assign the time off policy to the employee effective from the relevant date.
Create a new time off period for the employee from scratch. Use a bulk import if you have multiple cases to handle.
Delete the existing leave period.

If you don't track your employees' absences using Time off

If you don't use the Time off functionality in Personio to track your employees' absences, you have two options to manage leave periods in Personio going forward:

Recommended: Set up time off types and time off policies. This way, the system can handle compensation, status, and entitlement changes for long-term leaves automatically.
Adjust your employees' compensation, status, and entitlement manually for any new long-term leave.

For Option 1, we recommend taking our Academy course on how to set up time off in Personio. This covers how to do the following:

Create a time off type for each long-term leave category you manage. This might include, for example, parental leave, extended sick leave, sabbatical, etc.
Create a time off policy for each type and configure the rules you need: Compensation proration, employee status changes, and entitlement impact.
Assign the policy to employees and set necessary permissions, so everything's ready before you schedule anything new.

Once you've set up your policies, you can create new long-term leaves directly as time off periods in the employee's calendar.

FAQ

Will I lose any historical leave data?

No. All existing leave periods remain in the system, and you can see them on the calendar. The system doesn’t delete anything automatically.

I deleted an existing leave period. Did I delete the employee's time off?

No. The existing leave period and the time off period are separate. Deleting the leave period removes the old system's hardcoded rules (compensation proration, status change, and entitlement adjustment). The time off period remains.

Why is a "Leave period" label appearing on my calendar that I didn't know about?

Some existing leave periods were created without linking a time off type, so they were previously invisible on the calendar. After this release, all leave periods are visible. They've always existed in the system, but you can now see and manage them from the calendar.

Why does the employee's Status field no longer show leave details?

The Status field in the employee profile no longer lists leave periods and durations inline. Instead, it links to the Team calendar, which is now the single source of truth for all leave information. This means that the system now reports long-term leaves in the same way as regular time off periods. You have two options:
Option 1: Create a report in the Analytics area that filters for time off periods. Go to Analytics > Create report > select the Time off periods template. Filter for your preferred timeframe and time off types relating to long-term leaves (for example, maternity leave, sick leave, etc.).
Option 2: Create a filtered view in the Team calendar, using the filters to show the employees on leave during the current month.
Apply the following filters: 1) Out of office contains Out of office this month, 2) Long-term leave time off types.
Click Custom and save the current view.

What if I have open-ended leave periods with no end date?

Because editing existing leave periods is no longer possible, you can’t close open-ended leave periods directly. Review the use cases and resolutions above.

My employee's salary was deducted twice. What's happening?

This is double compensation proration. A leave period and a new policy rule are both active for the same employee and period, each applying compensation adjustments independently. Delete the leave period for the overlapping period to stop it. If the double deduction has already been processed through payroll, a manual payroll correction will be needed for the affected period.

What happens if I don't delete the flagged leave periods?

Both your new time off policy and the existing leave period will apply compensation proration, status changes, or entitlement rules to the same employee at the same time. This effectively doubles the adjustment. This can cause payroll errors or incorrect employee statuses. Delete the flagged leave periods to prevent this.

Will deleting a flagged leave period affect my employee's payroll processing?

No, as long as you've already added the matching rules to your time off policy. The policy is already applying the same compensation, status, and entitlement effects to the employee's time off period. Deleting the leave period only removes the old, duplicate source of those effects—it doesn't undo them.
There is one exception where a manual correction may still be needed on your end: If payroll has already been processed for the affected period and there's a mismatch between the settings the old leave period applied and what the new policy applies for the same period. For example, the old leave period had compensation proration enabled by default, and the new policy doesn't.

Do I need to delete all my leave periods?

No, only future-scheduled ones where dates overlap with a policy you've updated. Personio surfaces exactly which ones need action. Past and active leave periods that started before your effective date require no action.

Why is "Today" the recommended effective date?

Setting Today as the effective date means that the system flags only leave periods with a future start date. Leave periods that have already started or ended are untouched. A past effective date would surface unnecessary removal of already-completed leave periods. A future date would leave a gap where new long-term leaves can't be set up with the correct rules.

Do I need to do this for every policy?

Only for policies you update to add leave rules (compensation proration, status changes, or entitlement impact). If you have multiple leave types, go through the process for each one when you update it.

What if a leave period has no end date?

You can’t simply add an end date to open-ended leave periods with no end date. This is because editing is no longer available for leave periods. The system also won't flag them automatically in the conflict summary, since they're still active and ongoing. Resolving them takes a few extra steps beyond the standard process. Use the CSV attached to the preannouncement email you received to identify which employees have open-ended leave periods. Then review the edge cases described in this article for next steps.

What about leave periods with no time off period linked?

The system won’t flag leave periods that were created without linking a time off type. This means you won’t see these leave periods in the conflict summary. The system can't match them to a policy without a time off type. Use the CSV attached to the preannouncement email you received to identify which employees have leave periods with no time off period linked. Then review the edge cases described in this article for next steps.

What happens to my existing leave periods?

All previously created leave periods stay in the system exactly as before. This is the case regardless of whether they've already ended or are currently active. They will now appear on the team and employee calendars with a "Leave period" label and distinct styling. No data is lost.

Will this affect my employees?

Minimally. Employees will not notice any difference other than seeing the leaves on their calendar. The change only affects how Administrators configure and schedule long-term leaves.

What if I need to schedule a new long-term leave before the transition takes place?

You can still use the existing Schedule leave button until the transition takes place. If you schedule any leave periods this way during the interim period, the system may also flag them in the conflict summary if they overlap with a policy you've updated. Just handle them the same way as your existing flagged leave periods.

Can I still use "Schedule leave" in the employee profile after the transition?

The button remains, but after the transition, it guides you to set up a time off policy instead of creating a leave directly. All new long-term leaves must be scheduled through Time off policies going forward. POINT