Manage Leave Types

Leave Types allow Admins to create, customize, and manage the categories of time off employees can use—such as vacation, sick leave, and holidays. This guide walks you through how to set up new Leave Types, edit existing ones, and control which employees can access them.

Note: Access to manage Leave Types, including the ability to add or edit Leave Types, requires Administrative access.
ClickTime provides core time off features for all organizations, with additional management tools available on the Team plan or higher. Advanced features include:

• Requiring employees to submit time off requests for approval
• Setting up company holidays lists
• Offering a calendar feed option

For a broader overview of time off in ClickTime, visit the Time Off Section of the Help Center.

You can jump directly to a section of this guide:

Leave Types List View Page
Adding a New Leave Type
Editing Leave Types
 

Leave Types List View Page

To access the Leave Types List View page:

1. Go to Company > Preferences.
2. Select Leave Types near the top of the page.

By default, new ClickTime accounts include five Leave Types. Two of these—Comp Time and Personal Time—are inactive by default.

From the Leave Types List View page, you can:

• Add a new Leave Type using the Add Leave Type button.
• Edit an existing Leave Type with the pencil icon.
• Review whether balances are visible on time-entry pages (if your organization uses the Accruals Model).
• View each Leave Type’s Name, Category, and Status.

Adding a New Leave Type

To create a new Leave Type, click Add Leave Type in the upper-right corner of the Leave Types List View page.

On the next page, you’ll set up the Basic Information:

• Name – A label for the Leave Type (e.g., Vacation, Sick Time).
• Category – Choose from Approval Not Required, Approval Required, or Company Holiday.
  • Important: Once a Leave Type is set to Approval Required or Company Holiday, this setting cannot be changed. If selected in error, you’ll need to inactivate the Leave Type and create a new one.
• Default Approver – If you select Approval Required, this additional field will appear. The drop-down includes all Administrators for your ClickTime account. The person you select will serve as the default approver for all time-off requests, for that specific leave type, until you assign another approver for each employee (via the Person Details page).
  • Some organizations may find this helpful, as this allows for the scenario where a specific type of leave will always be sent to a specific person for approval.  Please note, this configuration requires that the individuals submitting time off are NEVER assigned a time off approver.  Once an individual time off approver is assigned, it will override the default leave approver and then ALL time off for that individual will go towards their assigned time off approver.  When a time off approver is not assigned, the profile will indicate that all time off goes through the "Default Leave Type Approver" as seen below:
    
• Accounting Package ID (optional) – Enter an ID for data synchronizations (if applicable).
• Status – Set to Active to make the Leave Type available.
• Notes – Explain which Leave Types employees should use and for what purpose. Notes appear via the ? icon on time-entry pages.
• Show Leave Type Balance – Enable this option to display balances for active Leave Types on the Day View and Week View pages.
• Notes icon (?)
  If notes are entered, employees will see a ? icon when adding or requesting time off. Clicking the icon will display the notes for all Leave Types.
   

Leave Type Balance Visibility:

If the Show Leave Type Balance option is enabled, employees will see their current balance in an “airplane” widget on the Day View and Week View pages. Hovering over the widget displays balances for all Leave Types where this option is turned on.

Person Defaults:

Below the Basic Information section, you can set Person Defaults for the Leave Type.  Please note, this is the default that will be applied to any new user with access to the Leave Type.  If you are adding a new user and want to adjust their balance in anyway, you will still need to perform this under the Company >> People >> Time Off and Accruals section. These values are automatically assigned to each new person when they are added to the system:

• Starting Balance – The initial number of hours the person will receive.
• Accrual Rate and Maximum Accrual – Available if your organization uses the Time Off Accruals module.

You can adjust these defaults for individual users when adding or editing their profiles.

Editing an Existing Leave Type

To edit an existing Leave Type, click the pencil icon next to its name on the Leave Types List View page.

• Note: Leave Types cannot be deleted, but you can mark them as inactive.

From here, you can:

• Update the Name, Category, or Notes to clarify how the Leave Type should be used.
• Change the Status to Active or Inactive, which controls whether employees can track time against it.
• Enable or disable the Show Leave Type Balance option.
• Adjust the Accounting Package ID (if applicable).
• Modify Person Defaults or Accruals settings (if enabled).

Reminder: Editing a Leave Type will not remove or change historical time-off entries. Updates only apply going forward.

Leave Types give admins the flexibility to organize and manage how employees request and record time off. By setting up clear defaults, notes, and approval rules, you can ensure consistent tracking across your organization while keeping employees informed about their available balances.