Different employees may be entitled to different types and different balances of leaves, even if they are within the same organization.
A leave type refers to the category of leaves (e.g., Annual Leave, Child Care Leave, Sick leave).
A leave rule controls the employees that are entitled to request leave under its particular leave type, the leave they get each year, if leave days will be released monthly or annually, carry forward rules, and more. 
For example: 

• Annual leave balance for full time employees and contract workers may be different. An organization may have two different leave rules, one for full time employees and another for contract workers under the Annual Leave leave type. 
• A Singaporean male employee will be entitled to National Service Leave, while employees of other nationalities might not. Hence, an organization will create only one leave rule for Singaporean male employees under the National Service leave type.

Permissions needed

• Leave Type permission  

Create a new leave type

• In the SeaTalk Admin Center, navigate to Application > Leave & Attendance. 
• In the left panel, click Leave Type. 
• In the upper right, click Add Leave Type. 
• Enter your Leave Type Name. This will help you identify the leave type (e.g., Annual Leave).
• Enter a description for your leave type.
• To require employees to submit documents for leave requests, click Yes under Require Leave Application Document.
• To help your employees understand the document requirements, enter Leave Application Document Help Info. This text will be shown to them during leave requests. 
• Click Add.
• Once you’ve set up a leave type, you can create a leave rule for your leave type. 

Set up leave rules for your leave type

Before you create a leave rule, make sure you’ve set up a leave type.
One leave type can have multiple leave rules. A leave rule controls:

• the employees that are eligible for the leave type;
• the leave days they get each year;
• if leave days will be released monthly or annually;
• carry forward rules; and
• other settings explained in later sections. 

Create leave rule

• In the SeaTalk Admin Center, navigate to Application > Leave & Attendance. 
• In the left panel, click Leave Type. 
• For a newly-created leave type, click Click here to add first leave rule.
• For leave types with existing rules, click the + icon to add another leave rule. 
• You’ll be directed to set up the rule. Learn about each section below.

Set up leave rule

In the Basic Settings section: 

• Leave Rule Name: enter Leave Rule Name. This will help you identify the leave rule. 
• Paid Type: select Paid Leave or Unpaid Leave.
• Count Leave By: determine how to count leave duration.
  • Work Day: count leave duration without rest days (e.g., public holidays or the weekend).
  • Natural Day: count leave duration with all calendar days. This option may be more suitable for employees who work on public holidays or the weekend.

Set how leave balance is granted to employees

In the Balance Release Settings section:

• Select a Balance Type:  
  • No balance, just track taken: employees can apply leave without any limit. Leave days taken will be tracked. 
  • Periodical balance: employees will accrue a certain amount of leave days in a certain time interval (e.g., yearly).
  • Credit balance upon approval: employees request and seek approval for a certain number of leave days to be credited to their leave balance before they can request leave. For example, employees who are parents can request child care leave days to be credited to the child care leave balance, and pregnant female employees can request leave days to be credited to the maternity leave balance.

Please note: once you select a balance type and save the leave rule, you cannot edit the balance type for the existing leave rule. All subsequent leave rules created under the same leave type will share the same balance type.

Each balance type has separate settings. View how to customize these settings below.

No balance, just track taken

When you select this, employees can apply leave without any limit. Leave days taken will be tracked. To select when to reset the count of leave days for employees:

• Click the Reset Date dropdown menu and select:
  • Never Reset: leave count will accumulate indefinitely.
  • First day of each year: leave count will reset to 0 on January 1 every year.
  • First day of each month: leave count will reset to 0 on the 1st of every month.

Once set, move to the next section, Apply Settings.

Periodical balance

When you select this, employees will accrue a certain amount of leave days in a certain time interval (e.g., yearly).
Set up the following: 

• Period Type: your Period Type can only be set as Yearly Balance. All employees will accrue leave based on a year’s cycle. 
• Accrual Rule: determine how employees accrue leave throughout the year.
  • Fixed Allowance: employees will be credited a fixed amount of leave days throughout a particular year.
    • Enter the number of leave days per year below the Accrual Rule dropdown menu. Only whole numbers are allowed. 
  • Fixed increment based on length of service: employees will be credited a fixed amount of leave days that increases based on the number of years they’ve been in the company as indicated on their organization join date. For example, in the screenshot below: 

• The first row below the Accrual Rule dropdown menu controls the total number of leave days for each eligible employee. In this case, it is 14 days off per year starting from 0 years of service (i.e., their join date).
• The second row controls the number of additional leave days per number of years the employees have served the organization. In this case, for every full year since their join date, employees are entitled to 1 more leave day.
• The maximum allowance controls the maximum leave days. In this case, employees will accrue additional leave for their years of service until the allowance per year reaches 18 days. 
• Fixed allowance according to length of service: employees will be credited a fixed amount of leave days based on the number of years they’ve been in the company. The leave balance will be a fixed amount based on the employee’s tenure. For example, in the screenshot below: 

• The first row below the Accrual Rule dropdown menu indicates that the total number of leave days for each eligible employee is 14 days off per year starting from 0 years of service, otherwise also known as their join date. 
• The second row indicates that after 5 full years have passed since their join date, employees will be entitled to 20 days off per year. 
• If you have another number of leave days for another minimum length of service, click Add entry. 
• First Accrual: select if you want to Prorate the leave balance or grant the Full Amount. It is common to prorate leave. Learn more about first and last accrual. 
• Last Accrual: select if you want to Prorate the leave balance or grant the Full Amount. It is common to prorate leave. Learn more about first and last accrual. 
• Release Frequency: 
  • Yearly Release: your employees are credited full leave balance in one shot (e.g., if there are 12 leave days for the year, the employee will be credited 12 leave days on the release date).  
  • Monthly Release: your employees are credited a certain amount of leave days for the month (e.g., if there are 12 leave days for the year, the employee will be credited 1 leave day per month). 
• Release Date: determine when leave days will be credited to employees. 
  • If you selected Yearly Release, the release day is automatically set as First day of every year. 
  • If you selected Monthly Release, click the Release Date dropdown menu and select First day of every month or After the last day of every month. For example:
    • Your employee, John, joins on 1st Jan.
    • If you select First day of every month, the leave he’s entitled to for January will be granted on 1st Jan. He will have leave balance in January.
    • If you select After the last day of every month, the leave he’s entitled to for January will only be granted on 1st Feb. His leave balance will be 0 in January.

Please note: if you selected Monthly Release, a month’s worth of leave is calculated by dividing the total leave balance by 12 months, rounded to the nearest half or full day based on the smallest leave unit allowed for leave requests in the Apply Unit settings. Any remaining leave days, if any, will be rounded to the nearest half or full day for the last month of the calendar year. 

• Allow Carryover: 
  • To allow your employees to carry over leave days, toggle the Allow Carryover switch on. 
  • To set a maximum number of carryover leave days, select the Maximum carryover amount checkbox, and enter the maximum number of carryover leave days. 
  • To set when carryover leave days will expire, select the Carryover expires after checkbox, and enter the maximum number of months that employees can use their carryover leave days.

Credit balance upon approval

When you select this, employees must first request for leave days to be credited to their leave balance before they can request leave.

• Allowance:
  • Fixed Allowance: when employees request leave days for the leave type, they will be credited a fixed number of leave days to their leave balance when approved. Enter the fixed number of leave days in the field next to the Allowance dropdown menu. Only whole numbers are allowed.
  • According to practical: employees request a certain number of leave days and once approved, will be credited the leave days to their leave balance. Employees can only request whole days.
• Require Credit Application Document: to require employees to submit relevant documents and prove their eligibility for a certain leave type, select Yes.
• Credit Application Document Help Info: enter a description of the documents you require from the employee. 

Set how employees can apply for leave

In the Apply Settings section: 

• Apply Unit: to determine the smallest unit allowed for leave requests, click the Apply Unit dropdown menu and select Half Day or Full Day. 
• Apply Value Each time: 
  • Minimum: enter the minimum number of leave days per leave request.
  • Maximum: enter the maximum number of leave days per leave request. 
• Apply Backdated Application: to enable employees to request backdated leave, select Allowed. 

Set which employees are subject to a leave rule

In the Applicant Settings section: 

• Employee Eligibility: enter and select the number of days, months, or years your employees must have joined your organization to be eligible for this leave type. Ensure your employees’ join dates are filled up.
• Employee Type: by default, any employee can request leave under this leave rule. To allow only certain employee types to request leave under this leave rule, click the dropdown menu select the specific types of employees allowed.
• Gender: by default, employees of any gender can request leave under this leave rule. To allow only employees of a certain gender to apply for leave under this leave rule, click the dropdown menu and select the genders allowed.
• Marital Status: by default, employees of any marital status can request leave under this leave rule. To allow only employees with a specific marital status to apply for leave under this leave rule, click the dropdown menu and select the marital statuses allowed. 

Save the leave rule

In the bottom right, click Save.