Set Up Time Off and Expenses

Time off and expenses both follow the same simple pattern: someone asks, the right person approves, and everyone can see where things stand. No more holiday spreadsheets or envelopes of receipts.

Before you start

Time off and expenses are on the Standard, Professional and Enterprise plans. Open Settings from the gear icon in the top bar, choose Application Settings and switch on Enable User Time Off and Expenses.

Approvals go to each person's manager, so check everyone has a Reports To (Manager) set on their profile in Team Members. Administrators can approve anything.

Set holiday allowances

1. Open Holiday Management

   In Settings, find Holiday Management and select Configure.

2. Set the company defaults

   Enter the default allowance in days and the date your holiday year starts. Choose whether unused days carry over, and if so the most that can.

3. Apply them to everyone

   Use Apply to All Users to give everyone the default allowance and year start in one go.

4. Adjust individual allowances

   Change the allowance for anyone who is different, such as part time staff or people with long service days.

Request time off

Each person opens Time Off from their account menu and makes a request. They pick the start and end dates, choose full day, morning only or afternoon only for the first and last day, and the type: annual leave, sick leave, unpaid leave or other. The form shows their allowance and how many days they have left. Weekends and public holidays are left out of the count automatically.

Approve time off

The person's manager, an administrator or anyone whose role can manage time off can approve or reject the request. The person who asked is told either way, and approved time off shows on the calendar so everyone can plan around it.

Claim an expense

1. Add the expense

   Open Expenses from the account menu and add a new one. Enter a title, the date, the amount and any tax, and pick a category and the vendor.

2. Attach the receipt

   Upload a photo or PDF of each receipt. If the cost is to be recharged to a client, tick Billable to client.

3. Submit it

   Select Submit for Approval. Everyone who can approve expenses is notified.

Approve and pay expenses

Open the expense and approve or reject it. If you reject it, add a reason so the person knows what to fix. Once you have paid the money back, mark it as reimbursed so everyone can see it is settled.

To keep your expense reports tidy, set up your own expense categories from Categories on the Expenses page.

For more on looking after your people, see HR software.