How time off types and policies work together
In Kenjo, every absence is based on two levels:
A time off type (e.g. Annual leave, Sick leave, Remote work) is the category in which employees request absences.
A time off policy defines the rules for that category: entitlement, cycle, carry over, approval, and more.
Every time off type needs at least one policy before it is available to employees. You can create multiple policies per time off type — for example, different rules for full-time and part-time employees — but each employee is assigned only one policy per time off type.
Create a time off type
Go to Time off > Settings and click the (+) icon next to Time off types.
Name: Enter a unique name, e.g. Annual leave, Sick leave, or Home office.
Color: Choose a color to highlight this type in the calendar and overviews. Recommendation: use a different color for each absence type.
Pay settings: This setting applies to all policies you create under this absence type.
Option | Meaning | Typical examples |
Paid time off | Employee is compensated despite not working | Annual leave, Sick leave, Parental leave |
Unpaid time off | Employee is not compensated | Sabbatical, unpaid special leave |
Other type | Employee works but not at a fixed location, time tracking remains active | Home office, Business trip |
Attendance feature impact: Enable this option if the time off type should reduce the employee's expected working hours (e.g. unpaid leave). For time off types where employees continue to be counted as working (e.g. Remote work), leave it disabled.
Visibility:
Setting | Who sees the absence reason in the calendar |
Enabled (public) | All colleagues |
Disabled (private) | Only the employee, their manager, and Admins |
Justified / Unjustified absence: Determines how the absence is counted in the absence rate dashboard.
Option | Meaning |
Excused | Does not count as unplanned absence if the request was approved in advance |
Unexcused | Always counts as unplanned absence |
Only with attachment | Only counts as excused once the employee uploads a document |
Document attachment: Allow or require document uploads. You can set from how many absence days an attachment becomes mandatory, e.g. a medical certificate from day 4 of sick leave.
Click ADD to save the time off type.
Create a time off policy
Go to Time Off > Settings, select the time off type you want, and click (+) Add new policy.
The wizard guides you through six steps.
Step 1: Configure allowance
Policy name: Enter a unique name.
Allowance is set in:
Option | When to choose |
Days | Absence is calculated in working days |
Hours | Absence is calculated in hours |
Note: An employee cannot be assigned to both a day-based and an hour-based policy for the same absence type at the same time.
Allowance type:
Option | Meaning |
Fixed allowance given per cycle | A fixed number of days or hours per cycle, e.g. 24 days of annual leave |
Unlimited allowance given per cycle | No limit, suitable for absence types such as sick leave |
Allowance cycle will start on the:
Option | Meaning |
Employee start date | Cycle starts on each employee's individual start date |
1 January - 1 December | Cycle starts on the 1st of the chosen month, applied uniformly to all employees assigned to this policy |
Disabled cycle | No expiry date, allowance never lapses |
Base allowance: Enter the number of days or hours.
How is the allowance accrued?
Option | Meaning |
Accrual is given on a monthly basis | Employee receives the allowance monthly in instalments |
Allowance is given at once, at the beginning of the cycle | Employee receives the full annual allowance in one go on the first day of the cycle |
When is the allowance granted to the employee? (monthly accrual only)
Option | Meaning |
Start of accrual period (given in advance) | Employee receives 1/12 on the 1st of the current month |
End of accrual period (given once worked) | Employee receives 1/12 on the 1st of the following month |
Click Next.
Step 2: Add extra allowance (optional)
Set up automatic allowance increases based on length of service.
Click (+) Add extra allowance rule and enter:
Time worked (years): After how many years does the rule apply? Calculated from the start date.
Extra allowance days/hours: How many additional days or hours are added to the base allowance?
Example: Cycle starts 1 January, base allowance 24 days, granted at the start of the cycle.
Rule | Length of service | Extra days | Total allowance |
Rule 1 | From 1 year | +1 day | 25 days |
Rule 2 | From 2 years | +2 days | 26 days |
Timeline for an employee with start date 15 March 2024:
1 Jan 2025: 24 days (base allowance)
15 Mar 2025: +1 day (Rule 1 applies)
1 Jan 2026: 25 days
15 Mar 2026: +1 day (difference between Rule 2 and Rule 1)
1 Jan 2027: 26 days, no further rules
Note: Extra days are always the difference between two consecutive rules, not the absolute value.
You can add as many rules as you like. Click Next.
Step 3: Set proration
Define whether the base allowance should be prorated for certain employees. The following options are available:
Based on employee start date: example employee starts on 15 March:
Option | Calculation | Result |
No proration | Full allowance | 24 days |
Daily proration | 292 remaining days ÷ 366 days × 24 | 19.14 days |
Monthly proration | 9 full remaining months ÷ 12 × 24 | 18 days |
Based on contract end date: example contract ends on 22 August:
Option | Calculation | Result |
No proration | Full allowance | 24 days |
Daily proration | 235 working days ÷ 366 days × 24 | 15.4 days |
Monthly proration | 7 full working months ÷ 12 × 24 | 14 days |
⚠️ Important: Adding a contract end date in the employee profile alone is not enough. The allowance is only prorated when a proration option is enabled here under Proration based on end date. By default this is set to No proration, meaning the employee receives the full annual allowance even if the contract ends mid-year.
Recommendation: Choose Monthly proration : the allowance is calculated based on the remaining full months in the cycle. This corresponds to the standard 1/12 principle and is the simplest option for payroll. Choose Daily proration if you need a more precise day-by-day calculation.
Based on work schedule: example part-time employee, 3 days/week (full-time = 5 days/week):
Option | Calculation | Result |
No proration | Full allowance | 24 days |
Weekly working days proration | 3 ÷ 5 × 24 | 14.4 days |
Weekly working hours proration (20h instead of 40h) | 20 ÷ 40 × 24 | 12 days |
⚠️ Existing employees: Changes to proration rules apply immediately to newly assigned employees. For already assigned employees, changes take effect from the next cycle or the next allowance grant, not immediately. If an immediate correction is needed, adjust the balance of affected employees manually under Time Off > Overview > three-dot menu > Adjust balance. See the related article for details.
Click Next.
Step 4: Set up balance and carryover
Option | Meaning |
Allow negative balance in current cycle | Employees can request time off beyond their available allowance. You can limit this to a maximum number of days or hours.
 |
Allow unused balance to be carried over to the next cycle | Important: see note below the table. Unused days or hours are transferred to the next cycle. You can limit this to a maximum number and set an expiry date on the carryover.
 |
Round the current balance to full days | Day-based policies with monthly accrual only. Choose between rounding up and rounding down.
 |
Show policy details in employee time off cards | Employees can see cycle dates, proration, and extra allowance on the Time Off > Personal page. Recommendation: leave enabled.
 |
⚠️ Note: If you configure an expiry date for carryover, Kenjo automatically sets the carryover days to zero on the configured date and reduces the total balance accordingly. There is no automatic notification to employees or Admins before the expiry. Make sure you notify your employees in good time yourself.
Click Next.
Step 5: Select deduction rule
The deduction rule defines which days are subtracted from the balance when a time off request is submitted. Choose one of three options under Deduction based on. Summary of the options:
Option | Meaning | When to choose |
Work schedule | Deducts only days the employee is scheduled to work according to their work schedule, excluding public holidays | Recommended for most cases: automatically handles individual work schedules and public holidays correctly |
Calendar days | Deducts all calendar days in the request period, including weekends and public holidays | Legally required, or no individual work schedule available |
Custom workweek | Deducts days based on a manually defined weekly schedule | Uniform working time model for all employees on this policy, without an individual work schedule |
Recommendation: Choose Work schedule if your employees have a work schedule configured in Kenjo. This is the right approach for most companies. Custom workweek only makes sense if no individual work schedule is configured.
⚠️ Note: A change to the deduction rule takes effect immediately and applies to all new requests as well as all existing requests with future start dates.
Work schedule
No further configuration needed. Kenjo automatically deducts only the days on which the employee is scheduled to work according to their assigned work schedule. Public holidays from the assigned public holiday calendar are not deducted.
Toggle Use contracted hours for hourly deduction (disabled by default):
When enabled: Kenjo deducts the contractually defined average daily working hours.
When disabled: Kenjo deducts the actual planned hours for that day.
Note: Employees without a work schedule
If you select Work schedule under Deduction based on and this policy is assigned to employees without a work schedule configured, Kenjo calculates 0 hours per absence day for those employees. The request is processed but nothing is deducted from the balance.
To prevent this: enable Use contracted hours for hourly deduction. Kenjo then calculates the deduction as the daily average from the recorded weekly hours (weekly hours ÷ working days per week). Make sure the Contractual weekly hours field in the employee profile under Personal is always up to date.
Calendar days
All calendar days in the request period are deducted, including weekends and public holidays.
For hour-based policies only: also choose how hours per day are calculated:
Option | Meaning |
Work schedule | Deducted hours come from the employee's assigned work schedule. Non-working days count as 0 hours. |
Custom value per day | You define a fixed number of hours that applies to every calendar day, regardless of the work schedule. |
Under Work schedule:
Use contracted hours for hourly deduction is also available, as described above.
⚠️ Note on public holidays and calendar days:
If you select Calendar days, all days are deducted by default, including public holidays. Enable the checkbox Public holidays always count as 0 hours, regardless of which day of the week they fall on to exclude public holidays from the deduction.
Custom workweek
Define manually which days of the week count as working days and how many hours are worked per day. Absences are deducted based on this schedule.
Click the weekdays that count as working days, Monday to Sunday
Enter the number of hours per working day
Check the total hours
Click Save
Example: 4-day week (Mon-Thu):
Day | Working day | Hours |
Monday | ✅ | 8h |
Tuesday | ✅ | 8h |
Wednesday | ✅ | 8h |
Thursday | ✅ | 8h |
Friday | ❌ | - |
Total hours |
| 32h |
For a time off request from Monday to Friday, 4 days are deducted, not 5.
Common error: deduction is wrong
Symptom | Likely cause | Solution |
Weekends or public holidays are deducted from the balance | Calendar days selected instead of Work schedule | Change deduction rule to Work schedule |
A part-time day (e.g. Wednesday 4h) deducts a full day | Custom workweek configured with incorrect hours | Check hour entries or switch to Work schedule |
Click Next.
Step 6: Configure requests
Option | Meaning |
Require approval | All requests must be approved. Required for two-step approval. |
Recalculate deduction on approval | Only visible when Require approval is enabled. If the calculated deduction changes between the request and approval, define whether Kenjo uses the original or the current value. |
Freeze time off requests during probation period | Employees cannot submit requests while the Probation end date field in their employee profile has not yet expired. |
Only Admins or HR Admins can create or edit this time off request | Employees cannot submit their own requests. Only Admins or HR Admins can record absences for them. |
Allow employees to request half-day time offs | Day-based policies only. Employees can request mornings or afternoons individually. |
Allow employees to request recurring absences | Employees can create recurring requests, e.g. every Monday for home office. |
Click Save. The policy is now created.
4. Assign employees to a policy
Absence types only appear for employees under Time Off > Personal once they have been assigned a time off policy.
Assign a single employee
Go to Time Off > Overview
Click the three dots at the right end of the employee's row
Select Manage policies
Under Assign policy, select the desired policy
Under Apply from, choose when the policy should take effect
Option | Meaning | When to choose |
Employee start date | Policy applies retroactively from the start date | New employee, first assignment |
Custom start date | You choose any date | Assignment should start on a specific date |
Start of cycle | Policy is calculated as if assigned at the beginning of the annual cycle | Employee without previous assignment, full annual allowance desired |
Next cycle | Policy only becomes active from the next cycle | Planning assignment for the coming year |
Kenjo automatically calculates the opening balance based on the policy rules and the employee profile.
Click Save changes.
Assign multiple employees (bulk action)
Go to Time Off > Settings
Click the three dots next to the desired policy
Select Manage employees
Select the employees, individually or via Add all
Click Next and choose the start date (same options as for a single assignment)
Click Assign employees
Note: Only employees who have not yet been assigned a policy for this absence type and do not have a policy with a different unit (days vs. hours) appear in the list.
Remove or reassign a policy
Reassign
Go to Time Off > Settings > Policy > Manage employees
Select the employees, click Actions > Reassign and choose the new policy. A reassignment is only possible within the same absence type.
Remove
Click Actions > Remove assignment. This archives all accrued allowances, pending requests, and future requests. The history is not restored if you reassign the policy.
Use two-step approval
Set up two-step approval
With two-step approval, a time off request is only confirmed after two independent approvals: first by the employee's direct manager, then by a second approver.
Prerequisite: the Require approval option must be enabled in the relevant policy (Step 6 under Create a time off policy).
Go to Time Off > Settings and click (+) under Two-step approval.
Enter a name for the approval rule.
Select the time off policy the rule should apply to.
Optional: click (+) Add rule to restrict the second approval to specific conditions, e.g. only for requests over 5 days. Without a rule, two-step approval applies to all requests for this policy.
Click Next.
Click (+) Add approvers and select at least one final approver.
Click Add approvers to complete the setup.
⚠️ Note:
Two-step approval can only be applied to policies where the Require approval option was selected during policy creation
If no rules are defined, two-step approval applies to all time off requests for the selected policies
Multiple approvers can be selected for the final approval. Approval from one of them is sufficient for the final sign-off
Edit two-step approval
Go to Time Off > Settings > Two-step approval and click the relevant rule:
Click Edit under Approval process details to change the name, policy, or conditions.
Click Edit under Approvers overview to change, add, or remove approvers.
Activate, deactivate, or delete two-step approval
An approval rule can be enabled or disabled at any time using the toggle next to Enable approval rule. To remove a rule permanently, click the trash icon and confirm with DELETE APPROVAL RULE. ⚠️ Note: Deletion cannot be undone.
Public holidays and absences
Public holidays in Kenjo are managed via a public holiday calendar, configured separately under Settings > Public holidays and then assigned to the company or office under Settings > My Company.
⚠️ Note: Whether a public holiday is deducted from an employee's time off balance depends exclusively on the deduction rule of the policy (Step 5 under Create a time off policy in this article), not on the public holiday calendar itself. If you use Work schedule as the deduction rule, correctly configured public holidays are automatically not deducted.
⚠️ Note: Custom public holidays in the calendar must be updated manually each year. If a public holiday is not entered, the day counts as a normal working day, even if it is a statutory public holiday.
If your company has multiple locations: the office calendar always takes precedence over the company calendar.
Grant time off permissions
Decide which custom profiles should have which time off permissions.
Go to Settings > Profiles and permissions > Time Off and select:
Requests: who can edit or cancel past, pending, or future requests.
Time off management: who can view and manage balances and company-level data.
Approvals: who can approve, and for which employees (direct reports vs. area of responsibility).
Note: Permissions for the standard Kenjo profiles such as HR Admin, Admin, and Employee cannot be changed.
Frequently asked questions
Can I edit an existing time off policy?
Yes, you can edit an existing time off policy. Go to Time Off > Settings, select the policy via the three-dot menu and click Edit. When saving, Kenjo asks from when the change should apply: from the current cycle, the next cycle, or a custom date. Note: the unit (days or hours) cannot be changed after creation. In that case, create a new policy and reassign employees.
Why does the absence type not appear for my employees?
An absence type only appears under Time Off > Personal if at least one policy has been created and assigned to the employee. Check both under Time Off > Settings and Time Off > Overview.
New employees are not visible in the policy assignment list. Why?
In the Time Off > Overview view, active filters are saved between sessions. If you previously filtered by a specific absence type, employees without an assigned policy are not displayed. Remove all active filters to see all employees.
Why is a public holiday still being deducted from the balance?
This happens when the policy uses Calendar days as the deduction rule. In this case all calendar days are counted, regardless of the public holiday calendar. Switch to Work schedule so that public holidays are not deducted.
Why is the two-step approval menu item missing?
The two-step approval menu item only appears if at least one policy with the Require approval option enabled exists. Enable this option first in Step 6 of the policy configuration.
Can an employee be assigned to multiple policies for the same absence type?
No, an employee can only be assigned to one policy per absence type. If you switch the policy, the previous one is automatically replaced.
What happens if I remove a policy from an employee?
All values associated with this absence type, including carryover, available days, days taken, and planned days, are archived. The history is not restored if you reassign the policy.
Which employees do I not see in the assignment list?
Employees are not displayed if they are already assigned to this policy or to another policy with a different unit (days vs. hours). In the latter case, you must first remove the existing policy before assigning the new one.
I have set a contract end date for an employee but the allowance is not being prorated. Why?
The contract end date in the employee profile alone has no effect on the allowance. You must enable the Proration based on end date option in the policy under Step 3. By default, No proration is set.
I changed the proration rule of an existing policy but the employee balances have not updated. Why?
Changes to proration rules for already assigned employees take effect from the next cycle or the next allowance grant. Adjust the balances of affected employees manually if an immediate correction is needed.