Region: This article is for all Deputy customers except those with Australian accounts. If your account URL ends in .au, see AU Leave, or if you use Deputy Payroll (AU), see Deputy Payroll (AU) Leave.

Features: Some of the features described in this article may not be available on your current Deputy plan or may require an add-on. See Introduction to Leave Management for a breakdown of available features by plan.

Leave Management in Deputy helps you manage paid and unpaid time away from work, from setting up leave policies and balances to managing leave requests, approvals, accruals, and deductions.

Before you read

Target audience: This article is for users with System Administrator access.
Plan restrictions: Leave Management features vary across Deputy plans and are broken down below. For more information about Deputy plans, see our Pricing plans.

This article covers:

Introduction to Leave Management
Leave Management and Leave Management+
Leave Management features
Getting started with Leave Management

Introduction to Leave Management

Leave Management in Deputy helps you administer the paid or unpaid time that team members have away from work.

You can set up leave policies that match the way your business manages leave, assign them to eligible team members, manage leave balances, and allow team members to submit leave requests. Managers can then review and approve or decline those requests.

Depending on your Deputy plan, you can also automate how leave accrues and deducts, manage balance rules, and configure more advanced leave policy settings.

Leave Management and Leave Management+

Leave Management is available across Deputy's Lite, Core, and Pro plans, but the features included increase as you move between plans.

Lite is best for businesses with straightforward leave needs that don't require automated leave accruals or deductions. You can set up leave policy types, manage leave requests and approvals, and manually track and deduct leave.
Core is best for businesses that want to automate more of their leave management. It includes everything in Lite, plus automated accruals and deductions and more options for configuring leave policies.
Pro is best for businesses with more complex leave requirements. It includes everything in Core, plus Leave Management+, with advanced options for accruals, leave balances, and leave policy rules.
Lite or Core with the Deputy HR add-on is best for businesses that want access to Leave Management+ without moving to Pro. Adding Deputy HR unlocks Leave Management+ features alongside the features already available on your Lite or Core plan.

If a Leave Management feature isn't included with your current plan, it will appear locked in Deputy. The locked feature will show which plan or add-on you need to access it.

Features that require Leave Management+ appear below the Leave Management+ banner and require either the Pro plan or the Deputy HR add-on.

Leave Management features

The table below shows which leave features are included with each Deputy plan and which features are available when the Deputy HR add-on is added to Lite or Core.

A check in the Lite/Core with Deputy HR column shows the features available when Deputy HR is added to a Lite or Core plan. Deputy HR is an add-on and is not a separate Deputy plan.

Feature	Lite	Core	Pro	Lite/Core with Deputy HR
Leave Management
Employee leave requests Team members submit time off requests from mobile or desktop, choosing the leave type, dates, and duration.
Manager leave approvals Requests route to the right manager to approve or decline from mobile or desktop.
Leave tracking units Book and track leave in hours or days.
Paid/Unpaid leave Set each leave type as paid or unpaid for clear payroll treatment.
Manual balance adjustments Adjust a balance directly for one-off corrections or overrides.
Leave policy builder Build specific leave policies. (Does not include automatic accrual rules)
Policy naming Name each policy in language your business uses.
Policy grouping Organise your policies into groups for easier management.
Hiding leave policies from employees Hide policies from people who aren't eligible for them.
Average hours calculator Work out standard holiday-pay hours for variable-hour or casual staff automatically.
Leave export options Generate clean payroll and reporting extracts.
Automated leave balance deductions Reduce leave balances automatically as leave is taken.
Automated leave accruals: fixed release per period Release a set leave allowance on the schedule you choose.
Automated leave accruals: per hour worked Build balances automatically from approved timesheet hours as they're logged.
Automated leave accruals: overtime hours Include or exclude overtime and non-ordinary hours when calculating leave.
Custom public holiday rates Set how public holidays are treated and paid across the business.
Time off in lieu (TOIL) Earn, track, and spend banked overtime as time off in lieu.				Not available on Lite.
Leave Management+
Automated leave accruals: regular working hours Build balances from each employee's agreed working pattern.
Accruals while on leave Keep balances building correctly while someone is already on leave.
Pro-rate balances when agreed hours change Recalculate a balance automatically when someone's agreed hours change mid-year.
Tenure-based rules and waiting period Increase allowances and set waiting periods automatically by length of service.
Requesting leave outside current year Allow or restrict requests beyond the current leave year.
Maximum number of people on leave Set the most people who can be off at once to protect coverage.
Minimum & maximum leave balance caps Set floors and ceilings on leave balances.
Configurable balance rollover and reset Set exactly how balances carry, reset, or expire at year-end.
Bradford Score reporting Flag absence patterns automatically with built-in Bradford scoring.
Absence and sickness documentation uploads Record absence documents and attach sick notes securely to employee profiles.

Getting started with Leave Management

To get Leave Management ready for your team, you'll usually work through these stages:

Set up your leave policies: Configure the leave policies your business needs, including how leave is tracked, whether it's paid or unpaid, and the rules that apply. See How to set up leave policies.
Assign leave policies: Assign the appropriate policies to eligible team members. See How to assign leave policies to your team members.
Review leave balances: Set or review team member leave balances where required. See Managing your team members' leave balances.
Start managing leave requests: Once your policies are ready, team members can request leave and managers can review those requests.

Manage leave requests

Set up leave accruals and calculations