How is a leave balance worked out?

There is one formula, and every screen that shows a number of days uses it:

Days granted for this leave year, plus anything carried over into it, minus every leave request in it that has not been rejected.

It is worked out per person and per leave type, so a full vacation balance says nothing about sick days. It is also worked out for one leave year at a time, so the first thing to check when a number surprises you is which year is selected.

Pending requests are already deducted

Days leave the balance the moment a request is sent, not when it is approved. Somebody with 14 granted days and a 5-day request waiting for a decision reads 9.

This is deliberate: it stops the same days from being booked twice while an approver is thinking. It also means approving a request does not change anybody's balance. Only a rejection does, and it puts the days back.

Where the number appears

• In the request form, next to each leave type, as "3 days left". Pick an employee first, because the balance belongs to a person.
• On Leave rights, as a strip of tiles above the list once you filter down to a single employee. Owners and co-owners only.
• On Leave insights, in the Remaining tile and in the per-employee table.

If some of the days were carried over from last year, the balance says so and suggests using them first, because carried days can be the ones that expire.

What counts as a day

• Only the workspace's working days come off the balance. Ask for five days over a weekend and the weekend is skipped: the return date moves, the balance drops by five.
• Half days are allowed, in steps of 0.5. Half a day takes 0.5 off the balance.
• Public holidays are not part of this yet, so a holiday inside a leave still counts as a leave day unless it is already a non-working day for the whole workspace.

Running out, and going below zero

A request for more days than are left is refused, and the message says how many are actually left. A workspace can loosen this: Allow requests beyond the balance in workspace settings lets requests go over by a set number of days. There is no unlimited option, because a balance nobody can exceed is the point of having one.

A balance can still end up negative, when an entitlement is deleted or leave is entered for dates in the past. Worktivity shows it in red rather than hiding it. Grant more days, or reject one of the open requests.

Why a balance changed on its own

• A new leave year started. The balance you are looking at is now the new year's, and last year's leftovers appear as a separate carried-over entry.
• Carried days expired. Leave rights shows an Expired line with a negative number of days explaining the drop.
• A request was rejected, or a pending request was deleted. Either puts the days back.
• An owner granted or deleted an entitlement. Both take effect immediately.

How the leave year is decided and what happens to unused days explain the two halves of the first line of the formula.