Create a Time Off Category
How do I create a time off category?
Purpose: This guide empowers you to effectively manage employee leave by showing you how to create, edit, and categorize time off in BambooHR, ensuring accurate tracking and streamlined time management.
Time off categories in BambooHR display under the Overview tab within time off settings. In alphabetical order, the active categories appear first, followed by the inactive categories. Time off categories are also in this order within the My Info widget, Time Off tab, Time Off Balances report, and the mobile app.
Time Off Categories
Time off categories are like bank accounts. Think of your checking, savings, money-market accounts, etc. To help organize your money, you gradually deposit money into each of those accounts each time you get paid. Time off categories are our versions of your bank accounts. However, instead of depositing money, employees can deposit accrued time off hours or days into each account.
The most commonly created time off categories are for vacation, sick leave, paternity leave, etc. For this reason, these three categories will appear in your account by default, and you can edit them to fit your company's needs. You can also create as many time off categories as needed in BambooHR.
Add a Time Off Category
To create a time off category, go to Time Off in Settings, click Overview, and select + New Category.
Add a name for the time off category and set the following options:
- Check the box to determine if this is a paid time off category or not.* By default, the box has a checkmark, indicating a paid time off category
- Check if you would like to show the name of this category in the calendar or not. If you check the box, you can then choose to share the category with everyone or only users in specific access levels.
- Select if you would like the category to accrue in hours or days.
- If you need to edit this option in the future, BambooHR will automatically update time off balances for all employees based on your default hours per day settings.
- Select the icon and calendar color for this category.
For your convenience, you can also create a time off category when creating a time off policy.
*Note: This setting systematically identifies which categories are paid and unpaid. Most payroll companies only want to sync information on paid time off categories. Check with your payroll provider to determine if you can utilize this in your payroll processing. It is also important to note that there are no visible indications for employees to identify whether a time off category is paid or unpaid. To identify these categories, we recommend naming them accordingly (e.g., Unpaid Time Off). For customers using BambooHR Time Tracking, only paid time off categories will pull into timesheets.
Time Off Settings
Manage your time off categories under the Overview tab in Time Off settings once you create them. A category card will display the chosen icon, the number of policies you created for the category, and the total number of employees you assigned to all policies under that category. Hover over the card, select the three dots, and click Edit Category to change the calendar color, or change the category to track in hours instead of days. You can also click + Add Policy to add time off policies within the category.
If you want your time off category to be available for employees, it needs a time off policy added to it. However, not all time off categories have attached time off accrual policies. For example, jury duty is usually a time off category without automatic accruals because not all employees need to go on jury duty each year. Therefore, it would be better to add a manual adjustment instead of a time off policy. This adjustment refers to a manually updated balance policy. A time off category that is unlimited is another example. In BambooHR, we call this flexible, and we track the time off used instead of the current balance. You can set up each type of policy in Time Off Settings. You can learn more about these different time off policies here.
Categories will also appear in the middle menu by name with the accompanied policies nestled underneath.
Tip: If you need your employees to access your new time off category, be sure to grant them access through Access Levels settings.
If you are a BambooHR Payroll customer, you will automatically have the following hour categories included in payroll:
- Regular
- Overtime
- Double Time
- Holiday
In addition to these categories, you can select any time off categories in BambooHR to include in Payroll at once.
When you create or edit a time off category, you will see an option to check a box to include this time off category in Payroll. Once you have checked the box, you will notice that it requires the time off category to track in hours.
If you are not currently using a time off category but want to keep its associated history, you can disable it. Locate the category card under the Overview tab in Time Off settings, click on the three dots, and select Disable Category. This will gray out the category and add Disabled on [Date] to the card. Hover over the disabled card and click Enable Category to reactivate it.
If you need to delete the time off category permanently, click Delete Category.
If this time off category contains any policies, a warning will appear in the pop-up box stating that the policies will also be deleted with the category. Type DELETE to confirm the deletion.
It is important to note that once you delete a time off category, the system will remove all history for that time off category for each employee from the account and archive it. This includes balances, manual adjustments, time off requests, and any accruals.
To unarchive a deleted time off category, you need to add a new time off category with the same name. This immediately adds back all archived balances, manual adjustments, time off requests, and accruals from when you deleted the category.
If you delete all categories under the Overview tab, you will have to add a new policy to create a new category. Click + New Policy and determine if the policy accrues time traditionally or if it's either a flexible or a manually updated policy, then set up the category in policy settings.
Are you finding it challenging to maintain consistent and compliant tracking of employee time off? Many organizations struggle with ensuring all time off is accurately reported, leading to confusion, potential pay discrepancies, and a lack of accountability.
Our Solution: Our HR Consulting Services can help you delegate the task to a trusted expert to develop a comprehensive time and attendance strategy tailored to your needs.
This will optimize your BambooHR platform for clear policy communication, compliant tracking, and proactive leave management, empowering both managers and employees with visibility, accountability, and the tools to spot trends before they become problems. This paid service ensures you fully leverage BambooHR and promote a culture of accountability for time-off tracking.