Time off types and balances

You start with Vacation, Sick, Personal and Unpaid. Each one has a line in Settings, under Time off types, saying how it works, with a How it works button (or Set up, for one you haven't chosen yet).

How it's given

Three choices, one screen:

• All at once: the year's days on January 1.
• Earned monthly: a twelfth of the year's days on the 1st of each month. 10 days a year is 0.83 a month.
• No limit: no balance is kept. Approved time off is just taken. Unpaid starts this way.

Then Days a year, and if you give more to people who've been with you a while, More after some years, for example 15 days a year after 5 years. The days start from what's usual where you are: 10 a year, and in Canada 15 after 5 years.

The rules

Already set to what most companies do. Change anything that's different for you:

• Someone who starts during the year (all at once only): gets the months left (starting in April, nine months' worth), or the full year.
• Days left on December 31: all carry over, up to a number, or none. In Canada, earned vacation can't just be lost, so all carry over to start.

Start dates

A new person's first year and more days after some years need to know when each person started. If a rule needs them, a third screen lists your crew with their start dates. Jobber has no hire date, so Crews Out fills in when each person was added to Jobber and marks it From Jobber, check. People who came in with your Jobber account at the start are left blank. Blank means a full year. Change one person's date on Crew.

More than one policy for a type

Some people get more, like 3 weeks of vacation for long-timers. Under the type, tap Add a vacation policy, name it ("3 weeks"), set how it works, then tick who's on it. Everyone else stays on the type's default. Change one person's policy on Crew, under Balances. Remove this policy puts its people back on the default.

Days or hours

Setting up asks Count balances in days or hours, on the vacation step, and switching converts the numbers. Change it any time at the top of Time off types, under Show balances in: days or hours, with the hours in a day off (8 to start). Pick hours when your payroll counts hours. Balances, policies, adjustments and the messages all use it. Someone can ask for part of a day: a half day, or hours on a company that counts hours. It takes just that part of their balance.

Starting balances

Coming from payroll, a spreadsheet or another app? Set everyone's starting balances lists your crew for one type: type what each person has today. Crews Out adds the difference with your note ("Starting balance from Wagepoint"), so their history says where it came from. Leave a box empty to leave someone as they are.

Time off for payroll

Time off for payroll downloads one pay period's approved time off as a spreadsheet: a row a person, days and hours for each type, then company holidays in the period. Time off that runs past the period's end is split between the two periods. Key it into payroll; Crews Out doesn't work out pay.

What everyone sees

Each person's page shows each balance now and by December 31, for example "Vacation: 6.5 days now · 10 by Dec 31". The ask form shows each type's balance on its button, and once they pick days, what they'd have left after it, and What's been added and taken: every day earned, carried over, changed by the office (with your note), and taken. See Change someone's days or balance.

Add, rename, hide or make default

• Add a type at the bottom, for example Bereavement. Its How it works screen opens next.
• Rename or hide under each type: the name, the words that pick it ("sick", "dentist"), Make default for a request that doesn't say a type, and Hide for one you don't use. Past requests keep it.

Good to know

• Balances count whole work days: a Monday to Sunday request uses five days when your crew works Monday to Friday. Company holidays never count.
• A request is checked against what the person will have by its date, so someone earning monthly can ask for July and see what they'll have by then.
• Someone can ask for more than they have. Their page and the approver's page both say how many days over, and the approver decides.
• Crews Out doesn't apply employment law for you, or work out vacation pay. The days and rules are yours.