Time Off Policy Options

The article provides guidance on creating effective time off policies for employees. It outlines various policy options, including accrual policies, manually updated policies, and flexible policies. Accrual policies automatically assign time off based on set frequencies, while manually updated policies require manual adjustments for time off balances. Flexible policies, often referred to as unlimited or uncapped, focus on tracking the amount of time used rather than remaining balances. The article emphasizes the importance of correctly assigning policies to new employees and details the process for modifying existing time off categories. It includes links to additional resources for further assistance.

  • Dec 11, 2025
  • Knowledge

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Time Off Policy Options
Article Text
This feature is included in the Core, Pro, and Elite packages.

What kind of time off policy should I create?

Purpose: To help you understand each policy option and when to use each one for your employees.

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Table of Contents

Employee Profile

Please note, if you hire a new employee, BambooHR will not automatically assign them to any time off policies. Therefore, time off categories will not appear on the employee's profile until you add them to their policies. For more information about assigning employees time off policies, click here.

Screenshot of an employee profile under the Time Off tab. The employee name and job details are displayed at the top. Three time off categories are shown: FMLA Available, Sick Used, and Vacation Available, each with balances displayed in hours. A dropdown menu is open under one category, showing options such as “Adjust Effective Date” and “Move to Another Policy.” A highlighted selection emphasizes “Move to Another Policy.”

To assign an accrual option to an employee for the first time, navigate to their Time Off tab and click Add Time Off Policy. To change the accrual option for a time off category for an employee, go to their Time Off tab and hover over the desired time off category. Click Change Policy, then Move to Another Policy.

Policy options overview

Screenshot of the “Move to Another Policy” modal for a specific employee. The modal displays the current FMLA policy and a dropdown menu to select a new policy, with options such as “FMLA Manual Policy” and “FMLA Flexible Policy.” Save and Cancel buttons appear at the bottom.

The options that appear when you select Move to Another Policy depend on the type of policies that you set up in Time Off settings. There are three ways you can set up time off for an employee.

Accrual policies

An accruing time off policy will automatically assign a balance to your employees based on the policy's accrual settings. You can determine the frequency that works best for you when setting up the policy in Time Off settings. Some common accrual frequencies are yearly, monthly, bi-weekly, or twice a month. Tenure Milestones allow you to increase an accrual amount without creating a separate policy.

For more information about setting up an accrual policy, click here.

Screenshot of the Time Off tab in BambooHR. Three categories are displayed: FMLA Available with 4 Hours under a New Parent PTO policy, Sick Used (YTD) with 0 Hours under a Sick Flexible Policy, and Vacation Available with -70.3 Hours under a Vacation Manual Policy. The FMLA category is outlined in orange to emphasize it as an accrual policy.
Front-loaded Time Off in an accrual policy

If you are a company that front-loads annual or quarterly PTO for your employees, you can do this using an accrual policy. This allows you to add the desired annual amount to their policy and set the effective date to January 1st of each year or the beginning of every quarter.

In the example above, we've created an accrual PTO policy, and added 120 hours of PTO yearly on the 1st day of January. We've edited the settings so that employees will accrue time immediately upon hire. We've also added a cap of 40 hours to account for any carryover from the previous year or any PTO taken between calendar years—the carryover date to the 1st of January.

Employees accrue 120 hours yearly on January 1st. They will stop accruing time after they hit a balance of 160 hours, and can carry over up to 40 hours from one year to the next.

Manually updated policies

This policy option works best for employees who accrue time off through manual adjustments. This type does not have automatic accruals, but it still shows a current balance to the employee. This option is an easy way to assign a balance for event-based categories, such as parental leave, or if your company front-loads time off allotments at the beginning of the year.

If you have a time off category that will always be manually adjusted, select the Manually Managed Policy option when creating the policy.

Screenshot of the Time Off tab in BambooHR with the same three categories: FMLA Available with 4 Hours, Sick Used (YTD) with 0 Hours, and Vacation Available with -70.3 Hours. In this view, the Vacation category is outlined in orange to highlight it as a manually updated policy.

Once you assign an employee to a manually updated policy, the system will remove the previous accrual policy from the employee's time off category. All previous accruals and adjustments will stay in the History table, and the current balance will remain the same. However, from that point forward, there will be no automatic accruals for the employee. Instead, you will need to manually adjust the employee's balance to add time.

If you need to assign multiple employees to a manually updated policy, you can use the power edit tool.

Flexible policies

Flexible time off policies go by many names, including year-to-date (YTD), unlimited, or uncapped. Instead of tracking a remaining balance, these policies track how much time off an employee has used year-to-date.

In BambooHR, we call this Flexible Time Off, and you may also see it referred to as Unlimited Time Off. This type of policy works well for categories like bereavement or unpaid time off, and it’s also a good fit if your company offers employees unlimited time off.

If you create a new time off category that will need a flexible policy option, you will select the It's Flexible option when creating the time off policy.

Screenshot of the Time Off tab showing flexible and manual policies. Three categories are listed: FMLA Available with 4 Hours, Sick Used (YTD) with 0 Hours, and Vacation Available showing -70.3 Hours. The “Sick Used” category is highlighted to represent a flexible policy. Below, upcoming time off days such as Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day are displayed.

Assigning a flexible policy to an employee who already has a balance from a manual or accruing policy will remove the current balance from the employee's profile. The transition to the new policy will be documented in the employee's time off history table.

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