Urlaub & Abwesenheit — Leave & Absences Guide

What it does

This module handles two related but distinct workflows:

• Vacation and planned leave — employees request time off in advance. Each person has an annual leave allowance, and approved requests deduct from it. Public holidays are excluded automatically based on the employee's canton, so the system always counts working days correctly.
• Sick leave — unplanned absence reported when it happens. There is no quota for sick days. The workflow tracks status, supports medical certificate requests, and lets managers assign a replacement.

Both approved vacation and sick leave feed into payroll and automatically adjust the employee's hour balance target so they don't show a deficit during their absence.

How to set up

1. Define the annual vacation entitlement — go to Organization > Vacation Entitlement. Swiss federal minimum is 20 days; the system can add a senior bonus (e.g. +5 days from age 50).
2. Allocate vacation per employee per year — each employee gets an annual allocation with optional carry-over from the previous year. Mid-year starters are pro-rated automatically based on hire date and work percentage.
3. Confirm the canton for every employee — the canton determines which public holidays are excluded from leave calculations. An incorrect canton will produce wrong day counts.
4. Medical certificate policy — there is no global toggle. Managers can request a certificate on a per-case basis directly on a sick leave record, with a deadline.

Daily use

Vacation (planned leave)

1. The employee goes to Leave Requests > New, picks the dates and leave type, and optionally names a replacement.
2. The system calculates working days, excluding canton public holidays and the employee's non-working days.
3. The request is automatically approved if the employee has no manager, or if a manager submits it on behalf of their direct report. Otherwise it goes to the manager as pending.
4. The manager reviews pending requests under Leave Requests > Pending and approves or rejects with notes. Managers cannot approve their own requests.
5. On approval, the days are deducted from the employee's annual allowance and the hour balance target adjusts for those dates.

Sick leave (unplanned)

1. The employee or their manager goes to Sick Leaves > New and enters the start date, notes, and an expected return date if known.
2. The manager acknowledges the sick leave. Status updates automatically as time passes — from open to ongoing to closed.
3. The manager can extend the sick leave, close it when the employee returns, request a medical certificate with a deadline, or assign a replacement who will be notified.
4. The employee uploads the medical certificate before the deadline. It is stored securely and not publicly accessible.

Works together with

• Time Tracking / Hour Balance — approved leave reduces the weekly target so the employee doesn't show as under-hours during their absence.
• Payroll — approved vacation and sick hours are included in the payroll run.
• Shift Planning — managers can see who is on leave when building schedules, avoiding conflicts.
• Canton holiday calendar — public holidays are excluded from leave day counts automatically per canton.

Tips

• Vacation is pro-rated by work percentage. A 60% employee with a 25-day entitlement gets 15 days. If you change someone's percentage mid-year, review their annual allocation.
• Sick leave has no quota. This is intentional — Swiss law treats sick days separately from vacation.
• Managers can see recently filed or currently active sick leaves across the team. This supports day-to-day team awareness without requiring special access.
• Nobody can approve their own vacation request. A manager submitting their own leave still needs a second approver.
• Holidays inside the requested range are excluded automatically. A Monday–Friday request spanning a canton holiday uses 4 days, not 5.
• Sick leave status updates are date-based. Refreshing the page after the date changes shows the updated status — it is not pushed automatically.