Steps to set up Time Off

First, click into the Time Off app and click Get Started. You'll be directed to the Time Off setup workflow, which will guide you step by step through configuring your company's paid time off policies in Zenefits.   

An in product walk through is also available to guide you step by step in Zenefits. 

Step 1: Holidays

Here, you'll select which holidays your workers will be paid for over the course of the calendar year. Zenefits will pre-populated the most common paid holidays. To remove a holiday that your company does not offer, uncheck the box to the left of the holiday name. To add any holidays that your company offers that are not already included, click the +Add a Holiday link in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.

The list of holidays on the landing page will apply to the current calendar year. To edit holidays for a future calendar year, click the arrow to the right of the year in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Things to note:

• These are paid holidays, not days where the company is closed but staff is not paid. If workers are assigned to a policy that includes a paid holiday, the hours for that holiday will flow into Payroll for that period as paid time off.
• Zenefits does not support floating holidays in the Time Off holiday calendar.

Step 2: Hours and Work week

• Renaming types- you can rename PTO types to change what your workers see when they submit Time Off requests. However, when you look at balances or pull reports from Zenefits, the names will reflect the Zenefits given name for each type (Vacation, Sick, or Personal Leave).
• Which type should I use? If you use the Vacation type, Time Off liabilities will calculate automatically. If your company only uses one type for all paid time off, it is a best practice to use the Vacation type in Zenefits.
• Not counted reasons and payroll - Not Counted reasons will not feed into Payroll as paid time off.
• What will my workers see? When your workers submit a Time Off request, the dropdown menu will include both Types and Reasons. For example, if you use the Vacation type and rename it Paid Time Off, and include Vacation, Sick, Personal Leave, Work from Home, and Jury Duty reasons, your workers would see the following options when submitting their requests:
  • Paid Time Off
  • Vacation
  • Sick
  • Personal Leave
  • Work from Home
  • Jury Duty

Step 4: Time Off Rules

• Accrual Method: Unlimited or Days per year. How many days per year will your workers accrue on this paid time off policy?
• Tenure Accrual Rate: Are workers awarded additional paid time off based on their tenure at the company? If so, click the Add a Tenure Accrual Rate button. If the standard accrual rate is 20  days per year and, at their 10 year anniversary they are awarded an extra 5 days per year, enter "10" for years worked and "5" days per year.
• • You can choose whether you want accrual to be based on the calendar year, the employee's hire date anniversary, or a custom policy year using the settings included in this section.
• Maximum Balance: This is the maximum balance workers are allowed to carry at one time. Before you can enter a maximum balance number.
• Annual Reset: An annual reset will clear all workers' balances to 0 on the policy year start date. If you want to allow any type of carryover, leave the Resets Accrual Annually box unchecked.
• Carryover Cap: This is the maximum number of time off hours employees can carry over from policy year to policy year.
• Negative Balances: Do you want workers to be allowed to borrow time off they have not yet accrued?
  • A common reason to allow negative balance is to allow workers to request future PTO. For example, say your policy accrues per pay period and balances reset on January 1. Some workers may already know they want a week off for the holidays. Negative balance would allow them to request time off in the future even though they have not yet accrued the time in their balance.
  • All PTO requests are subject to manager approval, and requests will indicate the existing worker balance corresponding with the request whether positive or negative.
• Minimum Increments: What is the minimum increment in which workers can request time off? If you don't impose a minimum increment, workers will be able to request time off in any amount.
• Waiting Periods: Do workers have to work at the company for a certain amount of time before they are eligible to request time off? If so, does time off acccrue during this waiting period? If yes, check the corresponding box. If no, uncheck the corresponding box.
• New Hire Proration: Should balance accrual for new hires prorate based on their hire date?
• Blackout Dates: These are dates when employees are not permitted to request paid time off. Any worker requests submitted for blackout dates will be automatically rejected by the system.

Step 5: Import