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Leave types, credits, rules, year end and maternity

Set up any leave type with its own credits and rules, and let the system keep every balance. Requests are checked against the policy when they are sent, approved through your chain, and closed at year end by carry forward, encashment or lapse.
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The problem it solves

  • Leave balances live in a spreadsheet that HR updates by hand every month, and nobody trusts the numbers.
  • A long weekend turns into a free extra day because nobody applied the sandwich rule.
  • At year end someone has to work out, person by person, what carries forward, what is paid and what lapses.
  • A maternity request arrives and HR has to look up the Act to see how many weeks she gets and whether ESIC pays.

How it works

  1. HR sets up leave types and a policy for each, for everyone or for a group such as staff on probation. Six types come ready: Casual, Sick, Earned, Maternity, Comp-off and Leave Without Pay.
  2. The system credits each policy by itself: at the start of the leave year, each quarter or each month. Joiners get it pro-rata, from joining or from confirmation.
  3. The employee applies under Leave > My Leave or in the app. Half days work on the first or last day, with a document where the type asks for one.
  4. On Submit the policy is checked: balance, notice, limits, types that may not be joined, half days and the sandwich rule. The request shows How the Days Were Counted.
  5. The request goes to its approval chain: the reporting manager to start with. You can set an HR level, no approval at all, or a different chain for one leave type.
  6. On the first day of the new leave year the balances are carried forward, encashed or lapsed by the policy. Encashed days are paid in the next payroll.

Everything it does

Leave types

  • Code and name, paid or unpaid (unpaid leave is loss of pay), Needs Balance, Comp-off, and for one Entity or the whole group
  • Proof Needed Beyond (days): Sick Leave asks for a document beyond 2 days to start with
  • Can Be Applied After the Day, for leave such as sick leave
  • Maternity Benefit, for a type that follows the Maternity Benefit Act

Credits

  • No automatic credit, yearly at the start of the leave year, quarterly or monthly, with Days per Period
  • Credited From joining or confirmation; Pro-rata for Joiners, rounded to half days
  • Credit Expires After (days): each credit carries its own expiry date and is used oldest first
  • Ready policies: Casual 12 a year, at most 3 days in a row, lapses. Sick 1 a month, carries up to 30. Earned 1.25 a month after confirmation, 7 days' notice, carries up to 30 and encashes up to 15
  • Opening balances from the old system come in once with the go-live import

Rules checked on Submit

  • Half Days Allowed, Max Days per Request and Max Continuous Days (with leave of the same type just before or after). Also Apply Days in Advance and Max Requests per Month
  • Cannot Be Next To: leave types that may not touch this one
  • Sandwich Rule: none, weekly offs, holidays, or both counted when they fall between leave days
  • Eligibility: everyone, women or men; Min Service (months)
  • Negative Balance Allowed (days); Beyond the Balance: not allowed, or the rest as loss of pay
  • No overlap with other leave

Balances and year end

  • Leave > Leave Balances: every movement (credit, opening, comp-off, carried forward, taken, cancelled, lapsed, expired, encashed, adjustment) written by the system, never by hand
  • Year end: carry forward, lapse, encash, or carry forward and encash the rest, with Max Carry Forward and Max Encash
  • Encashment on Basic or gross; one day's rate is the monthly amount divided by Leave Encashment: Days in a Month (30 to start with)
  • Encash the Balance on Exit, with Max Encash on Exit, paid in the full and final
  • Leave > Leave Encashment lists the encashments To Pay, Paid or Cancelled; payroll pays them with the salary

Maternity benefit (India)

  • Delivery: 182 days (26 weeks), from up to 8 weeks before. With two or more surviving children it is 84 days (12 weeks), from up to 6 weeks before
  • Adoption of a child below 3 months and commissioning mother: 84 days; miscarriage or medical termination: 42 days; tubectomy: 14 days
  • Counted in calendar days, weekly offs and holidays included
  • Needs 80 days worked in the 12 months before the date. Present, half day, on duty, work from home, paid leave and paid holidays count. The ready policy also asks 3 months of service
  • Medical bonus (3,500 to start with) added to the monthly inputs when the employer gives no free pre-natal and post-natal care
  • An employee covered by ESIC (gross up to 21,000 to start with) is paid by ESIC. The days become loss of pay and no medical bonus is paid

Cancelling and reports

  • The employee cancels a draft; HR cancels a waiting or approved request and the days go back
  • Leave dashboard; balances on the payslip; Leave Liability and Provisions reports for payroll

Who uses it

EmployeeApplies for leave on the web or in the app, sees the balances, cancels a draft.
Reporting managerApproves or rejects the team's leave in the approvals inbox or the app.
HR (Leave User)Applies for others, approves an HR level, cancels approved leave.
HR administratorSets the leave types, the policies, the leave year and the approval chains.
PayrollPays encashments and the maternity medical bonus, reads the leave liability.

Where you use it

  • Web: Leave > My Leave, Leave to Approve, Comp-off Claims, Leave Balances, Leave Encashment; Leave > Configuration > Leave Types and Leave Policies
  • The SmartMy HRMS app: balances, apply with a document, cancel, approve or reject, comp-off claims (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
  • Not in the app yet: the maternity benefit part of the request; apply for maternity leave on the web

What you control

Settings

  • Leave Year Starts In: January, day 1 to start with (on the Entity, HR tab)
  • Per policy: credit mode, days per period, credited from, pro-rata, credit expiry, every limit and the year-end rule (Applies To picks the people)
  • Leave Encashment: Days in a Month: 30 to start with (Entity, Payroll tab)
  • Maternity Medical Bonus: 3,500; Maternity Paid by ESIC for Covered Employees: on

Approvals

  • Leave: one chain per Entity, the reporting manager to start with. Add an HR level, set Approved at Once, or add a chain with Only For to treat one leave type differently. Nobody decides their own leave.
  • While an approver is on approved leave, their approvals go to their standing delegate

Notifications

  • Leave to Approve: to the approver of the step, in the app and by email
  • Leave Decided: to the employee when the leave is approved or rejected, with the note, in the app and by email
  • Both go out at once; a person can switch off email for themselves, and in-app notices always arrive. Phone push is ready for the app, not in the stores yet

Works with

SmartMy CampusA staff member on approved leave is not proposed for an exam invigilation duty.
SmartMy FacilityWhen leave is approved, the employee gets a to-do for each room booking in that period: cancel it or hand it over.

Questions

Can staff on probation get different leave from confirmed staff?

Yes. Make one policy for the probation stage and one for confirmed staff. The most specific policy applies, and it switches on the confirmation date.

Can one leave type need no approval?

Yes. Add a leave chain with Only For set to that leave type and turn on Approved at Once. Its requests are approved as soon as they are sent.

How is the sandwich rule applied?

You choose per policy whether weekly offs, holidays or both count when they fall between leave days. Off days just before a request also count when leave of the same type is on both sides. The request shows which days were counted and why.

What happens to unused leave at year end?

On the first day of the new leave year, each balance is carried forward, encashed or lapsed by its policy. This goes up to the maximums you set. Encashed days are paid with the next salary at the Basic or gross day rate.

Does it follow the Maternity Benefit Act?

Yes, for the weeks, the earliest start, the 80 days worked and the medical bonus. For a woman covered by ESIC the leave is unpaid by you, because ESIC pays the benefit. It does not file the ESIC benefit claim.

Related features

ATTENDANCEOvertime, comp-off and short leaveOvertime is counted from the punches by your overtime rule and either paid through payroll at your rates or turned into comp-off. Work on a weekly off or a holiday earns comp-off by claim. Short permissions of an hour or two stay within your monthly limits.SHIFTS, OFFS AND HOLIDAYSWeekly offs and holiday calendarsSet weekly offs such as Sundays plus the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, and half-day offs, for whoever they apply to. Keep holiday calendars with public and restricted holidays and a yearly quota. Declare a holiday on the day when rain or an emergency closes the site.ATTENDANCEDaily attendance, regularisation and the registerEvery employee gets one attendance record a day with the status, paid days, loss of pay and late, early and overtime minutes. It says in plain words which rules gave the result. Employees correct missed punches by request, only authorised HR can change a day, and the monthly register exports to CSV.ACROSS SMARTMY HRMSApproval chains and one approvals inboxEvery HR request, from a day's leave to the full and final, goes through its approval chain and waits in one Approvals inbox. Levels, approvers, reminders, escalation and stand-ins are settings you control, per Entity and kind of request.STATUTORY AND TAX, INDIAGratuity and provisions for bonus and leaveEach month the system works out the gratuity every employee has earned so far and books the part not yet provided in your accounts. One Provisions report shows what you owe your people on any date: gratuity, statutory bonus and leave at the encashment rate.EXITFull and final settlementOne settlement brings together what you owe the leaver and what they owe you. It covers held salary, leave encashment, notice pay or recovery, gratuity, loans, clearance dues and the final TDS. HR approves, then accounts, then payroll marks it paid.

See your own month run in it.

Tell us how many people you have, how you take attendance and how your salary is structured. We will show you SmartMy HRMS set up that way.
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