Time Off

Leave management in Hopshift covers the full cycle: you configure leave types and entitlements once at the group level, employees submit requests through the self-service portal, managers or admins approve or reject them, and balances update automatically. Approved leave flows directly into the shift schedule calendar and into payroll calculations, so what you approve here affects what gets paid and what shows as covered on the roster.

How Leave is Organized

Leave in Hopshift is structured around three levels:

Leave types are defined once at the Group level and are shared by all companies within the group. Individual allocations are per-employee per-year.

Leave Types

Leave types define the categories of time off available in your organization. Hopshift comes with standard types pre-configured for Thailand:

Viewing Leave Types

Go to Settings → Leave Types (at the Group level) to see all configured leave types. Each type shows:

• Name and description
• Default entitlement (days per year)
• Whether carry-over is allowed
• Whether a medical/supporting document is required
• Which employment types are eligible

Adding a Custom Leave Type

Your group may need leave types beyond the defaults (e.g. "Study Leave", "Bereavement Leave"):

1. Go to Settings → Leave Types.
2. Click Add Leave Type.
3. Fill in:
   • Name (English, Thai, Chinese)
   • Default annual entitlement (days)
   • Whether it is paid or unpaid
   • Whether carry-over is permitted (and if so, the maximum carry-over days)
   • Whether supporting documentation is required when requesting this leave
4. Click Save.

The new leave type is immediately available for allocation to employees.

Leave Balances

Each employee has a balance per leave type for the current leave year. The balance is calculated as:

Available = Allocated + Carry-Over + Manual Adjustments - Days Taken

Viewing an Employee's Balances

1. Go to Employees and open the employee's profile.
2. Click the Leave tab.
3. You'll see a table of all leave types with the current balance breakdown:

Manually Adjusting a Balance

Admins can add or subtract days from an employee's leave balance (e.g. to correct an error or grant exceptional leave):

1. Open the employee profile → Leave tab.
2. Click Adjust Balance next to the relevant leave type.
3. Enter the adjustment amount:
   • Positive number to add days (e.g. +2)
   • Negative number to deduct days (e.g. -1)
4. Enter a reason for the adjustment (stored in the audit trail).
5. Click Save.

Annual Leave Reset

Leave balances reset at the start of the leave year. For most companies this is January 1. Balances carry over based on your group's carry-over policy set in Settings → Leave Types.

Leave Requests

Employees submit leave requests through the employee portal. Requests flow through an approval process before the leave is counted against the balance.

Request States

Who Can Approve

• The employee's direct manager (set on the employee profile) can approve or reject requests for their reports.
• Any Admin for the company can approve or reject any request.
• Group Admins can approve across all companies.

Approving or Rejecting a Request

1. Go to Time Off → Requests (or check the Dashboard for pending requests).
2. The list shows all pending requests with employee name, leave type, dates, and number of days.
3. Click a request to open the detail view.
4. Review the details:
   • Employee name and profile link
   • Leave type
   • Date range and total days
   • Employee's current balance for this leave type
   • Any notes or attachments submitted by the employee
5. Click Approve or Reject.
6. If rejecting, enter a reason: this is shown to the employee in their notification.
7. Click Confirm.

Approving with Insufficient Balance

If an employee requests more days than their available balance, Hopshift will show a warning. You can still approve the request: this puts the balance into negative. Use this when granting leave in advance of future accrual or as an exceptional case.

Submitting Leave on Behalf of an Employee

Admins can submit leave requests on behalf of employees (e.g. when the employee is unable to submit themselves):

1. Go to Time Off → Requests.
2. Click Add Request.
3. Select the employee from the dropdown.
4. Fill in the leave type, dates, and any notes.
5. Click Submit.

The request is created in a pre-approved state (since you are an admin submitting it directly). The balance is deducted immediately.

The Leave Calendar

Go to Time Off → Calendar to see a visual overview of team leave.

The calendar shows:

• Approved leave blocks for all active employees
• Public holidays
• Which employees are off on any given day

Filtering the Calendar

• By department: Show only employees in a specific department
• By employee: Highlight a single employee
• By leave type: Show only one type of leave (e.g. only annual leave)

This view is useful for managers planning shift coverage: you can quickly see if there is a period where too many employees are off simultaneously.

Minimum Staffing Conflicts

Public Holidays

Public holidays are pre-loaded for Thailand and appear on the leave calendar and schedule calendar. These are days that do not count against an employee's leave balance if they take time off.

Viewing Public Holidays

Go to Settings → Public Holidays to see the current list. Hopshift maintains and updates the official Thailand public holiday list.

Adding Custom Holidays

Your company may observe additional days off (e.g. a company anniversary, a local event):

1. Go to Settings → Public Holidays.
2. Click Add Holiday.
3. Enter the date and name.
4. Click Save.

Custom holidays are specific to your company and are shown on the schedule and leave calendar.

Substitute Holidays

When a public holiday falls on a weekend, Thailand law sometimes grants a substitute weekday off. Hopshift supports configuring substitute holidays:

1. Go to Settings → Public Holidays.
2. Find the holiday whose substitute day you want to set.
3. Click Set Substitute Day.
4. Select the weekday that will be observed instead.
5. Click Save.

Leave History

Every leave request (approved, rejected, or cancelled) is stored in the employee's leave history. To view it:

1. Open the employee profile → Leave tab.
2. Scroll to Leave History.
3. The table shows all past requests with dates, type, status, and who approved/rejected.

This history is also available at the company level: go to Time Off → History to see all leave activity for all employees in a date range. You can export this as a CSV for payroll or HR audit purposes.

Leave and Payroll

Leave records feed directly into payroll calculations:

• Paid leave (Annual, Sick, Personal, etc.): Employee receives full pay; the days are counted as paid working days in the payroll run.
• Unpaid leave: Deducted from the employee's pay. The number of unpaid days is visible in the payroll run detail.

Notifications

When a leave request changes state, Hopshift sends email notifications:

Notification preferences can be adjusted in Settings → Notifications.