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A leave type is the master definition of one kind of leave — Annual, Sick, Maternity, Leave Without Pay, Compensatory, and so on. It owns the rules that govern how that leave behaves: whether it accrues over time, whether unused days carry forward, how many days an employee may hold, whether it is paid, and what restrictions apply when someone tries to take it. Everything else in the leave module ultimately points back to a leave type. Leave types live alongside leave policies (which layer approval and notice rules on top), entitlements, leave periods, and block lists on the leave settings screen. This page focuses on leave types; the others are summarised at the end. You’ll find this at: /settings/erp/people/leave (the Leave Types tab)
Leave types are defined per tenant. The same type can then be used by policies that are scoped to a particular business, so a multi-business organisation usually keeps one shared list of types and varies the policies.
📷 Screenshot: the Leave Settings page with its Leave Types / Leave Policies / Entitlements / Leave Periods / Block Lists tabs — to be added.

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Creating or editing a leave type

On the Leave Types tab choose New Leave Type (or click an existing type to edit). The form is grouped into sections; only the name is required, and the optional rules only show their detail fields once you tick the relevant box.

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Basic info

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Accrual settings (Earned Leave)

Tick Earned Leave (Accrual) to make the type drip days into balances automatically over the year, rather than being allocated as one lump.

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Carry forward

Tick Carry Forward to let unused days roll into the next leave period.

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Encashment

Tick Allow Encashment to let this type be paid out as cash. (The encashment workflow itself is covered on the Leave encashment page.)

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Limits & restrictions

These guard how and when the leave can be taken. All are optional; leave blank to disable.

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Flags

The form stops invalid combinations. Ticking Compensatory clears Earned Leave (and vice-versa); ticking LWP clears PPL (and vice-versa). Carry-forward % must be 0–100, the salary fraction 0–1, and the numeric limits cannot be negative — the form rejects values outside these ranges.

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Deleting a leave type

Deleting a leave type is a soft delete — the record is hidden, not erased, so historical balances and ledger entries that reference it stay intact. The name then becomes free for reuse.

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Leave policies (the approval layer)

A leave policy is the companion object that adds the rules deciding how a request is handled — the notice period, the longest stretch allowed, and whether an approver is required. Today’s policy form is deliberately short: Name, Description, Min Days Notice, Max Consecutive Days, Requires Approval, and Active. Accrual and carry-forward rules live on the leave type, not the policy.
Adding a leave type does not create a policy, and the Leave Policies tab has no field that lists or selects leave types — so a new type will not “appear” under policies. Types and policies are two independent lists today; you create each separately and bring them together when you allocate. This is covered in full on the Leave policies page.
Managing policies needs hr:admin. You’ll find them on the Leave Policies tab of the same settings page.
Because policies — not types — are what employees actually hold balances against, the names shown on the leave list, the calendar, and the apply form come from the policy name. Name your policies clearly (e.g. “Annual Leave”, “Sick Leave”) so they read well everywhere.
No gender or eligibility rule. Neither a leave type nor a policy can be restricted to one gender — you cannot mark “Maternity” as women-only and have the system enforce it. The only built-in gate is Applicable After (days) above. Keep gender-specific leave on the right people by only allocating it to them. See Leave policies → Eligibility and gender restrictions.

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The other tabs

  • Entitlements — the standing per-policy day allowance that feeds allocation. Managed with hr:admin.
  • Leave Periods — the calendar windows (usually a year) that balances and carry-forward roll against. See Leave periods.
  • Block Lists — date ranges (e.g. year-end freeze) when leave of certain types is blocked, optionally with roles allowed to bypass. See Leave block lists.

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Permissions