Create and assign leave policies
This article explains how to create leave policies at the organization level and assign them to centers in Zenoti. It covers defining leave types, configuring accrual and payout rules, activating policies for centers, and making them available for employee mapping.
Overview
Leave policies define how Paid and Unpaid Time Off is earned, carried forward, and paid out.
You create leave policies once at the organization level, configure all required leave types and rules, and then assign those policies to one or more centers. After a policy is assigned to a center, employees at that center can be mapped to it.
A single leave policy can include multiple leave types (for example, Sick, Vacation, Personal, or Unpaid), each with its own accrual logic.
Key points
Leave policies can be created only at the organization level.
A leave policy can be assigned to one or more centers.
An employee can be associated with only one leave policy at a time (per center).
Multiple leave types (for example, Sick Leave and Vacation Leave) and their respective accrual logic can be configured within the same policy.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure the following:
Leave Management is enabled for your organization.
Note
This feature is currently in beta and can be enabled only by the Zenoti product team.
You are assigned a role with Leave Policy – Add, Edit, and Delete permissions.
The centers you want to assign already exist in the system.
Create a leave policy
Leave policies can be created only at the organization level.
If a franchise owner needs to create new policies, they must contact Zenoti or their Corporate team for assistance. Once created, center owners can access the policies and link employees as needed.
Follow these steps to create a leave policy:
Go to Employees > Leave Management > Leave Policies.
Click Create a policy.
Enter a Policy Name and Description based on how leave eligibility is defined in your business (for example, Leave policy – Less than 1 year, Leave policy – Full-time employees).
Add one or more leave types to the policy.
Zenoti provides a default list of leave types such as Sick Leave, Vacation Leave, Personal Leave, and Unpaid Leave. Select only the leave types you want to offer to employees.
How to structure leave policies (Use case) If your business offers different types of leave with different rules, define them within the same policy instead of creating separate policies per leave type.
Example:
Policy 1: Less than 1 year of service
Sick Leave: 1 hour for every 40 hours worked
Vacation Leave: Not applicable
Policy 2: 1–3 years of service
Sick Leave: 1 hour for every 30 hours worked
Vacation Leave: 20 hours per year
Policy 3: More than 3 years of service
Sick Leave: 1.5 hours for every 30 hours worked
Vacation Leave: 30 hours per year
Assign employees to the appropriate policy based on tenure or role.
The option to have tenure brackets for accrual logic and compensation logic within same leave policy will be supported soon.
Configure leave type rules For each leave type added to the policy, configure how time off is earned, carried forward, and paid.
Configuration options
Setting
What this controls
Available options andbehavior
Paid Time Off
Determineswhether the leave type is paid or unpaid.
•Paid:Leave hours are compensated and included in payroll.
•Unpaid:Leave hours are tracked but not paid.
Accrual method
Defines how leave balance is granted to employees.
Upfront
•Per year:Grants a fixed annual balance when the policy starts.
•Per week:Grants a fixed weekly balance (select a week start day).
Accrual-based
•Hours worked:Accruesleave based on hours worked (for example, 1 hour for every 30 hours worked).
•Tenure-based (weekly):Grants leave upon completion of each week of tenure.
Accrual reset
Specifies when leave balances reset.
•Employee anniversary date:Resets individually based on each employee’s start date.
•Fixed date:Resets on a common date for all employees (for example, January 1 or fiscal year start).
Carry forward
Controls how unused leave is handled at reset.
•None:Remaining balance lapses at reset.
•Limited:Carry forward up to a defined cap.
•Unlimited:Carry forward all unused balance.
Payout on termination
Determineswhether unused PTO is paid when employment ends.
•Yes:Unused PTO is automatically included inautomated earnings calculation of employee’s basecenter
•No:Payout decisions are handled on a case-by-case basis.
Compensation for Paid Time Off
Defines how PTO pay is calculated for paid leave types.
•Hourly rate:Uses the employee’s configured hourly rate from their profile.
•Fixed pay:Uses a fixed hourly rate defined in the leave policy.
Review all configured leave types and rules to ensure the accrual, carry-forward, payout, and compensation settings are correct.
Click Save and Proceed to continue with next steps of assigning centers and employees.
Click Save and Close to create the leave policy and skip the next steps for the time-being to resume later.
Assign centers to a leave policy
After a leave policy is created, assign it to one or more centers to make it active.
Select the required policy.
Click Assign Centers.
Select one or more centers.
Save the changes.
Note
Different centers can use different leave policies.
Assigning a center makes the policy available for employee mapping.
Center-level users can view policies but cannot create or assign them.
Only roles with organization-level permissions can create or assign leave policies.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Q. Can I create separate policies for Sick Leave and Personal Leave?
A. No. Add multiple leave types under a single policy.
Q. Can different centers use different leave policies?
A. Yes. You can assign different policies to different centers.
Q. Can I edit accrual rules after employees are assigned?
A. Only limited, non-accrual-impacting fields can be edited.
Q. Can PTO pay be calculated using commissions or blended rates?
A. No. PTO compensation currently supports only hourly rate or fixed rate calculations.
Q.If an employee reaches a tenure milestone, will they be automatically moved from one leave policy to another?
A. No. Zenoti does not currently support automatic policy reassignment based on tenure.You must manually delink the employee from the existing leave policy, assign them to the new policy, and update their leave balance manually.
For more information, refer to the Migrate an employee from one leave policy to another article.
Term | Definition |
Leave Policy | A set of rules that define how time off is accrued, carried forward, paid out, and applied to employees. |
Leave Type | A category of leave within a policy, such as Sick, Vacation, or Unpaid. |
Accrual Method | How leave is earned (upfront, per year, per week, hours worked, or tenure-based). |
Accrual Reset | The point when leave balances reset—employee anniversary or a fixed date. |
Carry Forward | The amount of unused leave that can move into the next cycle. |
Payout on Termination | Determines whether unused PTO is paid out when employment ends. |
Policy Activation | Making a leave policy usable by assigning it to a center. |
Employee Mapping | Linking employees to a leave policy after center assignment. |