Leave types, policies and accrual

Set up the kinds of leave your team can take, and how much each person earns.

A leave type names the leave, such as annual leave or sick leave. A policy says how people earn it and who it applies to. Staff request leave against a policy. Owners and admins manage both from the Time Off Hub (in the Time menu), which needs time tracking turned on.

1. Add leave types

  1. In the Time Off Hub, open the Settings tab.
  2. Under Leave Types, click Add Leave Type.
  3. Enter a Name, a short Code and a Color, and an optional Description.
  4. Click Create Leave Type.

Click the pencil next to a type to edit it. A type that already has requests can't be deleted; untick Active instead. The other options on the type form (approval, documents, half days, negative balance and limits) aren't applied to requests made in the Time Off Hub or the desktop app. Set approval and negative balance on the policy instead.

2. Create a policy

  1. Open the Policies tab and click Create Policy.
  2. Under Basic Information, enter a Policy Name, choose the Leave Type, and set the Time Unit to Days or Hours.
  3. Under Balance Settings, choose whether people can go into a negative balance, and how far.
  4. Under Leave Allocation, choose the Allocation Method (see below).
  5. Under Balance Limits, set a Maximum Balance if you want one. Leave it empty for no cap.
  6. Under Time Entry Integration, tick Auto-create time entries for approved leave and choose the Project for Time Entries if approved leave should fill people's timesheets.
  7. Under Assign Policy, pick Groups or Individual Users, and any Excluded Users. A policy with no one assigned gives everyone a balance and accrual, but nobody can request leave against it, so assign at least one group or person.
  8. Click Create Policy.

3. Choose how people earn leave

  • Accrual Based: tick Enable automatic accrual, then set the Accrual Amount and the Frequency. Only Weekly and Monthly save at the moment: Fortnightly, Quarterly and Annually show an error when you save the policy. Use Accrual Start Day and Accrual Start Date to say when it begins. Jasper adds the amount once a day when it falls due, as a lump sum with no part-period proration. It stops at the Maximum Balance.
  • Externally Managed: your payroll or HR system, such as Xero, keeps the balance. Jasper tracks no balance for this policy, but requests, approvals, the timeline and time entries still work.

For an Annual Allocation, such as 20 days a year, use an Accrual Based policy with a Monthly accrual of a twelfth of the amount instead. The Annual Allocation method doesn't grant its amount yet, and people on it don't appear on the balance page, so you can't add their days by hand either.

4. Set the leave year

On the Settings tab, set Leave Year Start to the month your leave year begins, and click Save Settings. On the 1st of that month each year, just after midnight UTC, Jasper starts a new balance for each person and carries their whole remaining balance into it.

Edit, duplicate and archive

Each policy card has a menu with Edit, Duplicate, Archive and Delete. Duplicate copies the policy with "(Copy)" added to its name. An archived policy can't be brought back.

Limits

  • The Annual Allocation method doesn't grant its amount yet. Use a Monthly accrual instead.
  • Only the Weekly and Monthly accrual frequencies can be saved.
  • Carryover Limit, Carryover Expiry, Unused Balance Treatment and Balance Expiration aren't applied yet. The whole balance carries over at the start of the leave year.
  • Allow half-day requests isn't enforced: people can always ask for a half day.
  • When you edit a policy, unticking Requires approval, Allow negative balance, Allow half-day requests, Expire in following year, Enable automatic accrual or Auto-create time entries for approved leave doesn't save. Unticking Allow negative balance also clears its limit, so people can then go negative without one. To turn a setting off, create a new policy without it and archive the old one.
  • There is no proration for people who start part-way through a period, and no waiting period before accrual starts.
  • Jasper doesn't sync balances with payroll. "Externally Managed" just stops Jasper keeping a balance.

Last reviewed 5 October 2026

Was this page helpful?
Next Leave Balances