Understanding Time Off Policies and Accruals

Clockify lets you manage employee time off with flexible Time Off Policies and Holiday Policies. This guide explains how it all works, from accruals and balances to policy structure and customization.

Time off requests are linked to policies #

To request time off, a user must be assigned to a Time Off Policy. Each policy defines whether: 

• Approval is required
• Time entries are created automatically
• Accruals are enabled
• Negative balances are allowed
• The user can take half-days
• Time is measured in days or hours

How Approvals work #

Time off approvals apply only to Time Off Policies, not Holiday Policies.

You can choose whether time off requests require approval:

• If disabled, time off requests are automatically approved 
• If enabled, requests must be reviewed and approved by designated users

Who can approve time off requests? #

When setting up a Time Off Policy, you’ll have three options:

• Les administrateurs
  • Only Admins can approve time off requests
  • Admins will receive notifications and see all pending requests across the workspace 

• Les chefs d'équipe
  • Only Team Managers can approve requests for users they manage
  • Admins will not be notified unless they’re also assigned as Team Managers, but will still see all requests

If admins want to receive notifications as well, they must be added as Team Managers to the relevant users or teams. 

• Specific members
  • You can select specific members (from your entire Clockify team) to act as approvers
  • Selected members will receive notifications and be able to approve time off

How Accruals work #

Accruals are optional and apply only to Time Off Policies, not Holiday Policies. 

If accruals are enabled, you can define how much time off a user earns over time. 

You can choose to accrue:

• Per month (e.g., 1.5 days/month)
• Per year (e.g., 18 days/year)

When is time added?

• Monthly accruals are added on  the 1st of every month
• Yearly accruals are added on January 1st

Can I accrue fractional values? 

Yes, you’re not limited to whole days. You can use decimals like:

• 0.01 days per month (for granular setups)
• 0.05, 1.25, or any custom value you need

Balances always carry over #

Clockify automatically carries over any unused time off into the next month or year. Balances are never reset to zero.

If you need balances to reset each year, consider manually creating a new policy every year or month, depending on your reset cycle. 

One policy applies to all assignees #

All users assigned to the same policy will share the same rules, including: 

• Accrual rate
• Approval requirements 
• Allowed time units (days/hours)

If your team members have different accrual rules, for example: 

• One employee earns 2 days/year
• Another earns 5 days/year

Consider creating separate policies for each group or individual. 

Time off can be tracked in days or hours #

You can choose the unit of time used in each policy: 

• Days (by default)
• Hours

This also applies to accruals. If you’re using an hour-based policy, you can accrue hours per month or per year, just like days.