---
key: set-time-off-policies
title: Set time off policies
audience: staff
section: settings/scheduling
routes: ["/settings/org/schedule-availability"]
permissions: ["schedule.availability.policy.manage"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Decide how time off requests are approved, create leave policies such as vacation or sick time, and correct a person's leave balance by hand.
keywords: [time off rules, leave balances, vacation policy, sick days, PTO, accrual, approval rules, leave policy]
related: [request-time-off, review-time-off-requests, add-a-closure, add-a-holiday-calendar, add-a-schedule-resource]
---

In the sidebar, open **Settings**, then choose **Time Off Policies** under **Scheduling**. The page address is `/settings/org/schedule-availability`. The page heading reads **Time Off & Availability**.

Day-to-day time off happens on the **Time Off & Availability** calendar under **Operations**. This page holds the rules behind it. **Open calendar**, **Open requests** and **Holiday calendars** at the top jump to those pages.

## Before you start

- Rules apply to the branch selected in the top bar, or to the whole organization when no branch is selected.
- Your role needs permission to manage time off policies. Without it you can read the rules, but the save buttons are missing.

## Steps

1. Under **Availability Governance**, find **Approval Workflow**. Switch **Enable approval policy** on to use your own approval rules; off, requests follow the usual approval permission.
2. Choose an **Approval mode**: **Permission-gated** (anyone with the approval permission) or **Required roles** (only the roles you list in **Required role keys**). Add **Escalation after hours** if a request should be escalated when nobody reviews it in time.
3. Switch **Fallback to permission** and **Auto-approve available overrides** on or off, then press **Save approval policy**. Nova shows "Availability approval policy saved."
4. Under **Leave Policies**, fill in **Create leave policy**: a **Key** and **Name** (such as "Vacation"), the **Leave type**, and the **Request type** (**Time off** or **Available override**).
5. Set how the balance grows: **Accrual frequency**, **Accrual minutes**, **Waiting period days**, **Carryover limit minutes** and **Max balance minutes**. Amounts are in minutes, so 480 is one 8-hour day.
6. Switch **Paid leave**, **Allow negative**, **Requires approval** and **Active** as needed, then press **Create policy**. Nova shows "Leave policy created."
7. To change a policy, click it in the list, edit it and press **Save policy**. **New policy** clears the form.
8. Give each person their policies: under **Resources**, open the person with **Edit**, tick the policies under **Leave Policies** and press **Save policy assignments**. See [[add-a-schedule-resource]].
9. To correct a balance, go to **Manual Balance Adjustment**, pick the **Resource** and **Leave policy**, type **Amount minutes** (a negative number subtracts) and a **Note**, then press **Record adjustment**.

## What you see

- **Balance Watchlist** lists the balances of people who have a leave policy, with what is available and pending. **Needs review** marks a balance that pending requests already overrun.
- Public and regional holidays are not set here. They live in **Holiday Calendars**. See [[add-a-holiday-calendar]].
- One-off company shutdowns are **Closures** under **Operations** in the sidebar. See [[add-a-closure]].

## If something looks different

- The list reads "No leave policies exist yet.": nothing has been created for this branch.
- **Recurring Exceptions** and **External Sync Foundations** further down keep asking you to pick a resource or crew, even after you pick one under **Recurring & sync scope**. Those two panels do not open from this page today.

[[route:/settings/org/schedule-availability|Open Time Off Policies]]