Leaves & Holidays

An employee can have various leaves assigned to him when working in an organisation. In case employee doesn’t avail all the leaves, he can choose to encash the remaining leaves which were allowed to be taken but were not availed by the employee. The number of leaves that can be encashed depends on employer and can differ from organisation to organisation.

Since the employee is earning leave encashment as a salary for number of leave days which he could have taken but didn’t, the amount received would be liable for tax under head ‘Income from Salary’.

Computation of taxable amount (u/s 10(10AA)):

In case you getting your leaves encashed while being in service with the same employer, the leave encashment amount is fully taxable.

However, in case of retirement or resignation, certain amount of leave encashment received will be applicable for tax exemption, and only the remaining amount (after exemption) will be taxable.

For all Employees other than (State & Central) govt. employees: The least of the following shall be considered for exemption:

• Actual Leave encashment received
• 10 months average salary (Basic + Dearness Allowance + #) computed on the basis of the average salary (Basic + Dearness Allowance + #) drawn by the employee during the period of 10 months immediately preceding his retirement/resignation.
• Cash equivalent of un-availed leaves, calculated on the basis of maximum 30 days leave, for every year of completed service.
• Maximum limit of Rs. 3,00,000*

# Any commission based on fixed percentage of turnover achieved by the employee.

* If the employee has received leave encashment in past years and had availed exemption, the limit of Rs. 3,00,000 shall be reduced by the amount of exemption availed earlier.

For govt employees (State & Central): Leave encashment received by a Govt employee, is fully tax exempted, i.e., no tax would be levied on leave encashment amount.

If you are having trouble with tax calculation on leave encashment on Keka, write to support@keka.com.

Adding Leave Encashment Policy

An employee can have various leaves assigned to him when working in an organisation. In case employee doesn’t avail all the leaves, he can choose to encash the remaining leaves which were allowed to be taken but were not availed by the employee. The number of leaves that can be encashed depends on employer and can differ from organisation to organisation.

To setup leave encashment policy for your employees, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Payroll >> Leave Encashment Policy

Step 2: Click on “Add New” to create a new leave encashment policy

Step 3: On the popup that appears, give a name to this policy for easy identification and define the formula for calculation. Click on ‘Save’ button when done.

You can create multiple leave encashment policy if you want. When doing leave encashment of an employee, you will be required to choose the policy for calculating the encashment amount.

In case you having trouble with policy creation or calculation, write to support@keka.com.

Carryover Leave

Any unconsumed leaves (either all or partial) that is carry forwarded  from one leave calendar year to the next one, is known as carryover leave.  It is totally upto your organisation to define regulations around number of leaves that can be carry forwarded.

Organisations can also decide not to carry forward any unconsumed leave, making it mandatory for employees to consume all leaves by the end of leave calendar year.  Some organisations instead of carry forwarding unconsumed leaves, encash it (given that the leave is paid).

In case you are not sure, please refer to your organisation’s leave policy to understand how unconsumed leaves are managed, and setup the same on Keka.

In case of carryover leaves, all the carryover leave are added to your opening leave balance of next leave calendar year.

Related:How can I import carryover leave data (from previous leave calendar year) for my employees?

Related: How many times can I import consumed/carryover leave data?

In case you are having trouble setting to leave carryover on Keka, write to support@keka.com.

Change Leave Type of an Approved Leave

If you selected an incorrect leave type when applying for leave, which also got approved, you can still go back and make changes to it.  For example, there can be times when you applied for an Unpaid leave which got approved, only to realise later that you have Paid leave balance in your account.  In such cases, changing leave type from Unpaid to Paid will avoid any LOPs.

Also note that leave type of an approved leave can only be changed if the date of leave (original) is yet to occur.  Though, employee can’t make any changes to past leaves but can definitely connect with HR team to get past leaves’ type changed.

In case the leave request for a future date has been approved by the HR or Admin of your organisation, you can still make changes to leave type against which you wish to take leave (will require an approval again) by following the steps below.

Go to My Time >> Leaves, and scroll down to the section ‘Past Leaves’ at the end of the screen. You can see list of all leaves, along with their approval status.

Click on the ‘Options’ icon to view links to edit the leave request

Clicking on ‘Edit Leave’, will give you an option to edit leave details including Leave Type.

Once done with editing the leave details, click on ‘Update Leave’ button. The request will be submitted for approval again.

In case you are having trouble changing the leave dates, write to support@keka.com.

Yes, you can make date changes for an approved leave, given that the date of leave (original) is yet to occur.  Though, employee can’t make any changes to past leaves but can definitely connect with HR team to get past leaves date changed.

In case the leave request for a future date has been approved by the HR or Admin of your organisation, you can still make changes to leave dates (will require an approval again).

Go to My Time >> Leaves, and scroll down to the section ‘Past Leaves’ at the end of the screen. You can see list of all leaves, along with their approval status.

Click on the ‘Options’ icon to view links to edit the leave request

Clicking on ‘Edit Leave’, will give you an option to edit leave details including dates.

Once done with editing the leave details, click on ‘Update Leave’ button. The request will be submitted for approval again.

In case you are having trouble changing the leave dates, write to support@keka.com.

Editing or Canceling a leave request

At times, employees can apply for leaves well in advance only to realise later that they either need to change the dates of leaves or cancel the leaves altogether, due to some inevitable conditions.

Yes, Keka allows an employee to edit or cancel any future leaves he/she has applied for, which is either pending or approved.

IMPORTANT: Leave requests for past days can’t be edited or canceled by an employee, please approach your HR if you wish to make changes to past leaves you have applied for on Keka.

Leaves Pending Approval:

Whenever an employee applies leave for a future date (and the leave is pending approval) the option to Edit or Cancel the leave appears upfront, alongside the leave request.

Go to My Time >> Leaves to view list of all pending leave request.  Employee can click on ‘Edit’ icon to make changes to dates, leave type, reason etc. or click on ‘Cancel’ icon to cancel the leave request altogether.

Approved Leaves:

In case the leave request for a future date has been approved by the HR or Admin of your organisation, you can still make changes to leaves (will require an approval again) or cancel them.

Go to My Time >> Leaves, and scroll down to the section ‘Past Leaves’ at the end of the screen. You can see list of all leaves, along with their approval status.

Click on the ‘Options’ icon to view links to edit or cancel the leave request

Clicking on ‘Cancel Leave’ will cancel the leave request altogether and any leaves deducted will be credited back to your leave balance.

Clicking on ‘Edit Leave’, will give you an option to edit leave details

Once you edit the leave details, click on ‘Update Leave’ button. The request will be submitted for approval again.

Eventually, you have total control of editing or deleting your leave requests that are yet to be taken.

In case you are having trouble when editing or deleting your leave requests, write to support@keka.com.

Not able to apply for leave

If you are not able to apply for leave, please refer/revisit the restrictions that were set by organisation during the setup.

To view details of rules and restriction for any leave type, please go to My Time >> Leaves.  Click on ‘Explain’ link to view settings details.

You can find a detailed explanation related to quota, accrual, restriction, etc. on ‘Explain’ screen.

There might also be additional reasons which might restrict you from applying for leaves, such as, already approved/pending leave requests during the same time period you are trying to apply for leave.

Whenever you are not able to for leave, system will notify you with the exact reason of the error because of which you are not able to apply for leave.

Fix the error displayed in Red on right hand side and you should be able to apply for leave.

In case you are still not able to apply for leave, write to support@keka.com.

Note: This topic keeps updating whenever a new report is added to Keka

As of now, there are around 8 leave reports available on Keka with half a dozen others coming soon.  To view the available reports, please go to Time & Attendance >> Leaves Reports.

The reports currently available on Keka are as following:

1. Leave Requests: This report gives us the summary of the leaves that has been applied or requested for, by the employees. We can select start and end date to view the leaves applied by the employees during this selected period.
2. Leave Balances: This report gives us information of Accrued, Consumed and Balance leaves for each employee.  This is segregated by leave types applicable under selected leave plan.
3. Leave Adjustments: This report gives us the count of consumed leaves that has been imported to the system using ‘Consumed Leaves’ import file.
4. Leave Carryovers: This report gives us the count of carryover leaves that has been imported to the system using ‘Carryover Leave Balance’ import file.
5. Leaves Consumed: This report gives us the total number of leaves consumed by employees for any selected period of time.
6. Negative Balances: Any employee who has consumed more than available leaves, and thus making his leave balance negative, will be part of this report.
7. Comp off Requests: This report includes details of the comp-off requests made by employees, along with date it was applied on, who approved it, date of approval and the total number of comp-off days.
8. Exception Logs: This report gives us information of error(s) that users encountered when applying for leave.

Importing Consumed leave data

If your organisation signed up with Keka in the middle of current leave calendar year, it is recommended that you import data of leaves that were consumed by employees till date, before the employees are on-boarded to Keka system.  Though Keka can calculate the annual leave quota and accrual till date based on the leave settings done by you, for effective calculation of available leaves of employees, Keka needs to know leaves that were consumed already (while the employees were not using Keka system).

In order to import Consumed leave data, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays >> Initial Adjustments >> Import Consumed Leaves. Click on ‘Employee Leaves Summary’ section.

Step 2: On next screen that appears, download the Excel Template.

Step 3: Open the Excel Template you just downloaded and fill in the consumed leaves (under applicable leave type) for each employee.  If there is no consumed leave for an employee, leave it blank. For ‘Month’ column, select the current/previous month from drop-down.  The month is used for tracking number of leaves consumed as of today outside Keka system.

Save the file after you are done adding consumed leaves.

Step 4: Once done with adding consumed leaves in Excel file, go back to the upload screen and upload the file back by clicking on ‘Upload Excel File’ button and choosing the saved Excel file.

Step 5: On the next screen, click on ‘Import Leave Summary’ and then ‘Complete’ to finish the consumed leaves import.

In case you are having trouble importing consumed leaves, write to support@keka.com.

Importing Carryover leave data

If your organisation allows its employees to carry forward their unconsumed (either all or partial) leaves from one leave calendar year to the next one, you will be required to import carryover leave data (one time activity) in order to correctly display employees’ available leaves.

In order to import Carryover leave data, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays >> Initial Adjustments >> Import Carryover Balance. Click on ‘Carryover Balance’ section.

Step 2: On next screen that appears, download the Excel Template.

Step 3: Open the Excel Template you just downloaded and fill in the carryover balance (under applicable leave type) for each employee.  If there is no carryover balance for an employee, leave it blank. Save the file after you are done adding carryover balance.

Step 4: Once done with adding carryover balance in Excel file, go back to the upload screen and upload the file back by clicking on ‘Upload Excel File’ button and choosing the saved Excel file.

Step 5: On the next screen, click on ‘Import Leave Carryover Balances’ and then ‘Complete’ to finish the carryover import.

In case you are having trouble importing carryover leave balances, write to support@keka.com.

There can be cases when the actual leave quota of your employees is not matching the ones that is displayed on Keka system.  This discrepancy can be because of any of the following reasons:

1. Change in Leave policy in the middle of leave calendar year.
2. Started using Keka (for leave management) after start of leave calendar year, but leaves consumed by employees prior to using Keka, is missing on system.
3. Leaves of employees that were carry forwarded from last year to this year, is missing on the system.

To adjust any such discrepancy at any given point of time, Keka lets its user import consumed or carryover leave data as many times as required.  Though, importing of leave data multiple times is NOT ADVISABLE. Importing leave data overrides the previously imported leave data for employees.

If you think there is a discrepancy in leave data for your employees and needs to be updated, write to support@keka.com.

Setting a default Holiday List

IMPORTANT: When you create your first Holiday List during the initial Keka setup, it is automatically assigned to all employees in your organisation as the default leave plan.

To set a default Holiday List, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Holidays’ tab, you can see all ‘Holiday Lists’ that exists

Related: Can I create multiple holiday lists? How do I assign holiday list to employees?

Related: How do I add a new list of Holidays?

Step 3: Against each Holiday List you can see ‘Check’ icon under Default column.  Click on the Check icon against the Holiday List you wish to set as default.

Once done, the Check icon will turn ‘Blue’ indicating the default Holiday List.

In case you are having trouble to set your default Holiday List, write to support@keka.com.

Editing or deleting holidays from holiday list

If you have added holidays erroneously to holiday list, you would definitely want to correct it before your employees are notified about this holiday.  Also, having an incorrect holiday in list impacts the attendance of employees for that day, since the system is going to consider that all employees worked on a holiday.

IMPORTANT: Only upcoming holidays in calendar year can be edited or deleted.  Holidays with past dates can’t be changed.

For example, 25th August has been added as a holiday, erroneously. Now, 25th August holiday can only be edited/deleted till its occurrence, which means, any time before 25th August.  Once 25th August is over, the holiday can’t be edited/deleted, since system might have already calculated attendance/leaves for the day.

To edit/delete holiday(s) from holiday list, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays >> Holidays.

Step 2: Click on ‘Manage’ button against the holiday list from which you need to edit/delete the holiday.

Step 3: On the next screen, you can see all holidays assigned under the chosen holiday list.  Click on ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ icon to make the required changes.

You can also do a bulk delete of holidays by selecting multiple holidays using checkboxes and clicking on ‘Delete Selected’ button.

Note: Edit/Delete icon will only appear for upcoming holidays in the calendar year. Past holidays can’t be edited/deleted.

In case you are having trouble editing/deleting holidays from holiday list, write to support@keka.com.

Now that you have created holiday list (one or many) that exists in your organisation, you will now add holidays to this Holiday List.  To add holidays to Holiday List, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves and Holidays >> Holidays.

Step 2: All holiday lists created by you will appear under ‘Holidays’ tab.  Click on ‘Manage’ button against the Holiday List you wish to add holidays to.

Step 3:  On the new screen, you have option to either add one holiday at a time (Using ‘+Add Holiday’ button), or do a bulk import of the holidays (Using Excel file).

Step 4: To add single holiday, click on ‘Add Holiday’.  Enter name and description of holiday and the date on which this would be observed. You can also indicate if this is a floating (optional) holiday. Once done, click on ‘Add’ button.

If you want to add holidays in bulk, download sample Excel (.XLSX format) file.  Fill in the required details, i.e. name & description of holiday, date on which the holiday would be observed and indicate (Yes/No) if the holiday if a floater holiday. Once done, save the file.

Step 5: To upload the saved file, click on ‘Excel’ icon and it would ask you to upload the desired file (.XLSX format).  Select the file to upload.

Following the steps above you should be able to add holidays to holiday list.

In case you are having trouble adding holidays to holiday list, write to support@keka.com.

Since it is common for organisations to have multiple work locations or demographics, having multiple holiday list in place for different sets of employees is a common practice.  For example, a holiday list for employees working in Delhi will be different from those working in Hyderabad or Chennai.  Factors like regional holidays and holidays of religious importance, play an important role in variation of holiday list across demographics.

Creating Multiple Holiday Lists

Yes, Keka lets you create multiple holiday lists and then assign them to employees to whom the list is applicable.

To create holiday list, please see: How do I add a new list of Holidays?

You can go ahead and repeat the above process to add as many holiday lists as applicable.

In case you have created single/multiple holiday list(s) and want to assign it to employees, follow the steps below:

• Assigning holiday list to an individual employee

Step 1: Go to employee’s profile by typing the employee’s name in the search bar

Step 2: Go to ‘Job’ tab of the employee’s profile

Step 3: Under ‘Job’ tab, go to ‘Time & Attendance’ section and you will find ‘Holiday List’. Choose applicable Holiday List from the drop-down and click on ‘Update’ button to assign the Holiday List.

The new Holiday List has now been assigned to the selected employee.

• Assigning Holiday Lists to multiple employees in bulk

Step 1: Go to Employees >> Employees >> Quick Links >> Import Employee Job Details

Step 2: From the new screen that you see, click and download the Excel Template

Step 3: Open the Excel file that you just downloaded.  Go to column S named ‘Holiday List’ and select the applicable Holiday List from the dropdown that appears on the selection of the cell against each employee.  Once done with updating the Holiday List, save this file.

Step 4: Once you are done with saving the updated file, go back to the previous screen and click on the ‘Upload Excel File’ button.

Step 5: Once done with uploading, you will be asked to review the information.  Once you have verified the correctness of data being imported, click on ‘Import’ on the next screen to import the data.

Step 6: Once the data is imported, you will see a confirmation screen, click on ‘Complete’.

You have successfully updated the Holiday List of employees in bulk.

In case you are not able to update Holiday List for your employees, write to support@keka.com.

Holiday list consists of statutory holidays given to employees by the organisation. There are 3 National holidays in India; 26th Jan, 15 Aug, and 2nd Oct.  Apart from 3 national holidays, there can be many regional holidays, and holidays of religious significance that the employees can be entitled to, as decided by the organisation.

There can be a single holiday list throughout the organisation or, multiple holiday list depending on factors like employees’ location, shift/nature of work etc.

Adding Holiday List

To add a new holiday list for your organisation, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves and Holidays >> Holidays.

Step 2:  To create a new list of holidays, click on ‘Add New’ and give this holiday list a name and description for easy identification.  Once done adding the name and description, click on ‘Save’ button.

Step 3: Your new holiday list will start appearing under ‘Holidays’ tab.  Click on ‘Manage’ button against the list to start adding holidays to this list.

Step 4:  On the new screen, you have option to either add one holiday at a time (Using ‘+Add Holiday’ button), or do a bulk import of the holidays (Using Excel file).

Step 5: To add single holiday, click on ‘Add Holiday’.  Enter name and description of holiday and the date on which this would be observed. You can also indicate if this is a floating (optional) holiday. Once done, click on ‘Add’ button.

If you want to add holidays in bulk, download sample Excel (.XLSX format) file.  Fill in the required details, i.e. name & description of holiday, date on which the holiday would be observed and indicate (Yes/No) if the holiday if a floater holiday. Once done, save the file.

Step 6: To upload the saved file, click on ‘Excel’ icon and it would ask you to upload the desired file (.XLSX format).  Select the file to upload.

Following the steps above you should be able to create new holiday list.

In case you are having trouble adding holiday list, write to support@keka.com.

Viewing list of holidays

To view list of all holidays (by month) in your organisation, go to My Team >> Summary.

You will see list of holidays in current calendar month.  Use the navigation option for months to view list of holidays for any chosen month.

You and your employees will also be able to see the upcoming holidays on Dashboard.  Use navigation icon on top right to navigate through the list of holidays.

In case you are not able to view list of holidays, write to support@keka.com.

Requesting Compensatory off (Comp-off)

IMPORTANT: To enable employees to place comp-off request, you should have ‘Comp-off’ as one of the leave types setup under the ‘Leave Plan’ of your organization.  To review or create ‘Comp-off’ for your organziation, go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays >> Leave Plans.

While admin can award comp-off to their employees, employees have an option to request for comp-off as well for days (weekly-off or holiday) that they have worked on.  To request for comp-off, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to My Time >> Leaves

Step 2:  Under ‘Leave’ tab, on the right hand side, you will find ‘Request Compensatory Off’ link, click on this link to choose dates for which you want to request comp-off

Step 3: On the next screen, you need to choose the dates against which you are applying for comp-off.  Submit request once you are done with choosing dates and adding notes.

You have successfully requested for comp-off and the request has been sent to your reporting manager.  Once approved, you will see this comp-off balance under the Comp-off section of leaves.

Related:

How do I add a new leave type?

How do I setup a leave type?

If you are able to request for comp-off, write to support@keka.com.

Applying for leave on employee’s behalf

To apply for leave on employee’s behalf, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Employee’s profile

Step 2: Once on employee’s profile, go to Time >> Leave.  On the right hand side, you will find ‘Apply Leave’ button, click on this button to pick leave you want to apply for

Step 3: On the next screen, you need to choose the leave you are applying for (on employee’s behalf) along with dates of leave. You can also choose to add additional employee(s) whom you want to notify about applicant’s approved leaves.

While applying for leave, you will also be able to see a snapshot of number of days of leave, any error or restriction that might not let you apply for leave, etc. on the right hand side.  Fix all errors (if any – in Red) and click on ‘Request Leave’ button to apply for leave on employee’s behalf.

Once done, the leave will automatically be considered as approved sine you are the Reporting manager/HR admin/Global admin.

If you are not able to apply for leave on employee’s behalf, write to support@keka.com.

Assigning comp-off to employee

To assign comp-off to an employee, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to employee’s profile by typing the employee’s name in the search bar

Step 2: Go to ‘Time’ tab of the employee’s profile

Step 3: Under ‘Time’ tab, go to ‘Leaves’ section and you will find ‘Award Compensatory Off’ option on the right hand side.  Click on ‘Award Compensatory Off” link.

Step 4: On the pop-up screen that appears, choose ‘Leave Type’ (against which you want to add the comp-off balance) from the drop down.  Select the days against which the comp-off is being awarded, i.e. the days on which the employee has done over-time and is being compensated. Click on ‘Submit’ button to award comp-off.

Chosen employee has successfully been compensated with additional leave (comp-off) for the working week off or holiday.

Related:

How do I add a new leave type?

How do I setup a leave type?

In case you are not able to assign com-off to your employees, write to support@keka.com.

Yes, you can apply for half-day leave, given that the chosen leave type’s settings allows you to do so.

IMPORTANT: If you are an Admin user, you can allow/disallow applying for half-day leave by going to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays >> Leave Plans.

Click on ‘Edit’ icon against the Leave Type for which you want to make half-day setting changes.  On the wizard screen that comes up, go to 3rd Step (Applying for Leave), and configure the 1st option on the screen ‘Allow applying for a half-day’.  Click on ‘Yes’ and save the settings, if you want your employees to be able to avail half-day leave for this leave type.

Applying for half-day leave

To apply for half-day off, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to My Time >> Leaves

Step 2:  Under ‘Leave’ tab you will be able to review the leave balance available for you, before you apply for leave.  On the right hand side, you will find ‘Apply Leave’ button, click on this button to pick leave you want to apply for

Step 3: On the next screen, you need to choose the leave you want to apply for (from the dropdown).  If half-day leave is applicable for this leave type, you will find a ‘Avail Half days’ link below the date selection.  Click on it and you will be able to choose which half of the day (first/second) you want to apply leave for.  Once done, click on ‘Request Leave’ button.

You have successfully requested for half-day leave. Your reporting manager will be informed about your request and they can approve or reject it.

If you are not able to apply for half-day leave, write to support@keka.com.

Applying for leave

To apply for leaves, follow the steps below:

• Employee applying for own leave

Step 1: Go to My Time >> Leaves

Step 2:  Under ‘Leave’ tab you will be able to review the leave balance available for you, before you apply for leave.  On the right hand side, you will find ‘Apply Leave’ button, click on this button to pick leave you want to apply for

Step 3: On the next screen, you need to choose the leave you want to apply for (from the dropdown) along with dates of leave. You can also choose to add additional employee(s) whom you want to notify about your leaves once the leave gets approved.

While you are applying for leave, you will also be able to see a snapshot of number of days of leave, any error or restriction that might not let you apply for leave, etc. on the right hand side.  Fix all errors (if any – in Red) and click on ‘Request Leave’ button to apply for leave.

Once done, your reporting manager will be informed about your request and they can approve or reject it.

• Reporting manager, HR manager or Global admin applying on employee’s behalf

Step 1: Go to Employee’s profile

Step 2: Once on employee’s profile, go to Time >> Leave.  On the right hand side, you will find ‘Apply Leave’ button, click on this button to pick leave you want to apply for

Step 3: On the next screen, you need to choose the leave you are applying for (on employee’s behalf) along with dates of leave. You can also choose to add additional employee(s) whom you want to notify about applicant’s approved leaves.

While applying for leave, you will also be able to see a snapshot of number of days of leave, any error or restriction that might not let you apply for leave, etc. on the right hand side.  Fix all errors (if any – in Red) and click on ‘Request Leave’ button to apply for leave on employee’s behalf.

Once done, the leave will automatically be considered as approved sine you are the Reporting manager/HR admin/Global admin.

If you are not able to apply for leave, write to support@keka.com.

Deleting a leave type

To delete a leave type, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists and its associated ‘Leave Types’.  Click on Delete button against leave type you want to delete

Step 3: To confirm deletion of leave type, click on ‘Yes’ on the confirmation pop-up, and the selected leave type will be deleted from the leave plan

If you are having trouble deleting a leave type, write to support@keka.com.

Editing a leave type setting

To edit a leave type, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists and its associated ‘Leave Types’.  Click on ‘Edit’ icon against leave type you want to update

Step 3: You will be guided through a 7-steps wizard to edit/update the selected leave type.

Find below the summary of these 7 steps:

1. Leave Quota: This is where you define the annual leave quota, number of leaves to be allocated in case employee joins in middle of the month, and threshold date after which no leave allocation happens.
2. Leave Accrual: Define the leave accrual policy for the leave type, i.e. if the employees can avail the total leave quota at a time, or there is a regular accrual policy by which the leaves gets allocated. In case you have selected regular accrual of leaves to happen, you can configure additional conditions, such as leave accrual variation for employees who are in probation and those completed probation.
3. Applying for Leave: Can this leave be availed as half-day leave?  Only manager can apply on employees behalf, or employees should be able to apply for leaves themselves as well? Is any prior notice required to apply for this leave? Do you require document proof when employee takes this leave?  Answers to these questions can be configured on this screen.
4. Leave Restrictions: Questions like, Is there any restriction on applying for this leave when an employee is in probation period? How many times can this leave be availed? etc. can be configured on this screen.  You can define all restrictions associated with this leave type.
5. Holidays & Weekoffs: Under this section, you can define what happens when a leave is taken along with weekoffs or holidays. Should they be considered as leave as well, or ignored.
6. Leave Approval: Configure if approval is required for this leave type, and if there exists any approval chain for this leave type in you organization.
7. Year End Processing: You can define what happens with the leave balances (remaining or negative) at the end of the leave calendar year.  Does it get carry forwarded, expires, or get paid out?

If you are having trouble with updating leave configuration, write to support@keka.com.

Setting up a leave type

IMPORTANT: Before setting up a leave type, the leave type needs to be assigned to a leave plan.

To set up a leave type, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists and its associated ‘Leave Types’.  Click on Setup button against leave type you want to configure

Related: How do I assign a leave type to a leave plan?

Step 3: You will be guided through a 7-steps wizard to configure the selected leave type.

Find below the summary of these 7 steps:

1. Leave Quota: This is where you define the annual leave quota, number of leaves to be allocated in case employee joins in middle of the month, and threshold date after which no leave allocation happens.
2. Leave Accrual: Define the leave accrual policy for the leave type, i.e. if the employees can avail the total leave quota at a time, or there is a regular accrual policy by which the leaves gets allocated. In case you have selected regular accrual of leaves to happen, you can configure additional conditions, such as leave accrual variation for employees who are in probation and those completed probation.
3. Applying for Leave: Can this leave be availed as half-day leave?  Only manager can apply on employees behalf, or employees should be able to apply for leaves themselves as well? Is any prior notice required to apply for this leave? Do you require document proof when employee takes this leave?  Answers to these questions can be configured on this screen.
4. Leave Restrictions: Questions like, Is there any restriction on applying for this leave when an employee is in probation period? How many times can this leave be availed? etc. can be configured on this screen.  You can define all restrictions associated with this leave type.
5. Holidays & Weekoffs: Under this section, you can define what happens when a leave is taken along with weekoffs or holidays. Should they be considered as leave as well, or ignored.
6. Leave Approval: Configure if approval is required for this leave type, and if there exists any approval chain for this leave type in you organization.
7. Year End Processing: You can define what happens with the leave balances (remaining or negative) at the end of the leave calendar year.  Does it get carry forwarded, expires, or get paid out?

If you are having trouble with leave configuration, write to support@keka.com.

Creating and assigning a new leave type to a Leave Plan

To create and assign a new leave type to a leave plan, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists

Step 3: Against each leave plan you can see ‘+ ADD LEAVE TYPE’ link.  Click on the link against the Leave plan under which you want to create and assign the new leave type. On next screen, click on the link ‘+ Add new leave type’.

Step 4: On the pop-up screen that appears, you can give name & description to the new leave type, and choose additional option you wish to define for this leave type.  Once done, click on ‘Save’ button to create the new leave type

Step 5: Once saved, click on the checkbox to select the new leave type you just created and assign it to the Leave plan.

If you are not able to create and assign a new leave type, write to support@keka.com.

Assigning a leave type to a Leave Plan

To assign leave type to a leave plan, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists

Step 3: Against each leave plan you can see ‘+ ADD LEAVE TYPE’ link.  Click on the link against the Leave plan you wish to add leave types to. You will now be asked to ‘Add Leave Types’ to the selected Leave Plan.  Use checkboxes to select the leave types you want to assign to this leave plan and click on ‘Assign Leave Types’.

While you are on this screen, you can also choose to edit the Leave type (name, description, if applicable to specific gender etc.). Click on ‘Edit’ link beside the leave type you want to edit, and a new pop-up opens up to let you edit the information.

In case you are not able to assign Leave Type to a Leave Plan, write to support@keka.com.

When working with an organization, every employee is entitled for certain number of leaves per year.  These leaves are excluding holidays and weekly offs, and can be availed in accordance with the company rules and policies.  The most common leave types are Earned Leave, Sick Leave, Casual Leave, Maternity leave etc. Every leave type can be only exercised under some defined conditions.

In simple words, multiple Leave types are grouped together to form Leave plan of an organization.  Number of leave types and rules/criteria around them can vary from one leave plan to other.

Related: How do I add a new leave type in a leave plan?

Related: How do I assign an existing leave type to a leave plan?

If you are facing problem assigning leave types, or creating leave types, write to support@keka.com.

Deleting a Leave Plan

Yes, Leave Plans can be deleted, given that they are not assigned to any employee in the organization.

To delete a leave plan, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists

Step 3: Against each leave plan you can see ‘DELETE’ link.  Click on the link against the Leave plan you wish to delete.  It will ask for confirmation before deleting the leave plan.  Click on ‘Yes’ to continue deleting the leave plan

If this leave type is not assigned to any employee, it will be deleted.

Else, it will throw an error informing you that this leave plan is already assigned to employees and thus can’t be deleted. To remove employee assignment from this leave plan (and assign some other leave plan) and thereafter delete it, view this topic:

How do I assign Leave Plan to employees?

In case you are not able to delete Leave Plans, write to support@keka.com.

Editing a Leave Plan

To edit a leave plan, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists

Step 3: Against each leave plan you can see ‘EDIT’ link.  Click on the link against the Leave plan you wish to edit.  On ‘Edit Leave Plan’ screen, you can edit the name & description of leave plan and the calendar start year.  Once done, click on Update.

If you wish to add/delete leave types from a Leave plan, or wish to update settings of a leave type already existing in a leave plan, view these topics:

How do I assign leave types to a leave plan?

How do I setup a leave type?

How do I edit a leave type setting?

How do I delete leave type from a leave plan?

In case you are not able to update Leave Plans, write to support@keka.com.

Setting a default leave plan

To set a default leave plan, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, you can see list of all ‘Leave Plans’ that exists

Step 3: Against each leave plan you can see ‘SET AS DEFAULT’ link.  Click on the link against the Leave plan you wish to set as default.

Once done, the link will turn into a check mark indicating the default leave plan in the list of leave plans.

In case you are having trouble to set your default leave plan, write to support@keka.com.

Assigning Leave Plan to employees

IMPORTANT: When you create your first Leave Plan during the initial Keka setup, it is automatically assigned to all employees in your organization as the default leave plan.

In case you have created multiple leave plans and want to assign it to different employees, follow the steps below:

• Assigning leave plan to individual employee

Step 1: Go to employee’s profile by typing the employee’s name in the search bar

Step 2: Go to ‘Job’ tab of the employee’s profile

Step 3: Under ‘Job’ tab, go to ‘Job Info’ section and you will find ‘Leave Plan’ assigned to selected employee and a ‘Change’ link to update the leave plan.

Step 4: On click of ‘Change’ link, you will see a new screen asking for reason to change leave plan.  You will also see the details of leave types associated with the current leave plan as well as the new one (when selected).  Choose the new leave plan from drop-down, review the details, and click on ‘Update’ to assign the new leave plan to the selected employee.

The new shift has now been assigned to the selected employee.

• Assigning leave plan to multiple employees in bulk

Step 1: Go to Employees >> Employees >> Quick Links >> Import Employee Job Details

Step 2: From the new screen that you see, click and download the Excel Template

Step 3: Open the Excel file that you just downloaded.  Go to column J named ‘Leave Plan’ and select the new applicable leave plan from the dropdown that appears on the selection of the cell against each employee.  Once done with updating the leave plan, save this file.

Step 4: Once you are done with saving the updated file, go back to the previous screen and click on the ‘Upload Excel File’ button.

Step 5: Once done with uploading, you will be asked to review the information.  Once you have verified the correctness of data being imported, click on ‘Import’ on the next screen to import the data.

Step 6: Once the data is imported, you will see a confirmation screen, click on ‘Complete’.

You have successfully updated the leave plan of employees in bulk.

In case you are not able to update leave plan for your employees, write to support@keka.com.

Creating multiple leave plan

Yes, you can create as many leave plans as you want for different set of employees.  Do remember that you can assign only one leave plan per employee, i.e. same employee cannot have more than one leave plan.

To learn how to create a new leave plan, go to How do I add new Leave Plan?

Related: How do I assign Leave Plan to employees?

If you are not able to create multiple leave plans, write to support@keka.com.

Adding Leave Plan

To add leave plan for your organization, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves & Holidays

Step 2: Under ‘Leave Plans’ tab, click on ‘Add Leave Plan’ button

Step 3: On ‘Add Leave Plan’ screen, give a name & description to leave plan for easy identification (example – Management Team Leave Plan, Sales Team Leave Plan, etc.).  Choose the calendar start month, and click on ‘Save & Continue’.

Step 4: You will now be asked to ‘Add Leave Types’ to the newly created Leave Plan.  Use checkboxes to select the leave types you want to assign to this leave plan and click on ‘Assign Leave Types’.

You have successfully added a new leave plan.  As a next step, you will need to setup the assigned leave types.

Learn how to setup a leave type: How do I setup a leave type?

In case you are not able to add leave plan, write to support@keka.com.

Leave Calendar Year

A leave calendar year is that duration of year during which the leave accrual starts for employees, and at the end, the remaining balance is either carry-forwarded or paid out.  A leave calendar year can be defined for each Leave plan and the date is used to track Leave accruals and balances in a given year.

Leave calendar year in most companies either starts from January or from April. It is a matter of your organization preference. You can also have two different leave plans one starting January and another from April. At the end of each leave calendar year, there are few year-end operations that need to be processed – such as Leave encashment, carry forward etc.

If you need help to setup leave calendar year for your organization, write to support@keka.com.

Leave Plan Definition

A Leave plan is a group of leave types such as a sick leave, casual leave etc. and the corresponding settings defined. If all your employees have same number of paid, sick leaves etc, you can define one leave plan and set it as default. If your organization has different leave policies for different groups of employees, they you might want to create multiple leave plans. Each employee can be assigned one leave plan in their profile.

A paid leave type in Leave Plan 1 can have 12 leaves/annum whereas the same Paid leave type in Leave Plan 2 can have 18 leaves/annum.

Example of Multiple Leave Plan:

Employees who are in management group (CXOs, Managers etc.) of  your organization are eligible for 30 Casual leaves, 20 Sick leaves and 10 Paid leaves during the leave calendar year.

Employees in sales team are eligible for 10 Casual leaves and 10 Sick leaves during the leave calendar year.

And, all other employees are eligible for 12 Casual leaves and 6 Sick leaves during the same leave calendar year.

In the above case, the organization are having 3 different Leave Plans and it varies based on employees job group.  When creating each Leave plan you need to define the leave types (Casual, Sick, Paid etc.) applicable in a plan and its corresponding settings.

Example of Single Leave Plan:

All employees in the organization are eligible for 24 Casual leaves and 12 Sick leaves during the leave calendar year.

In this case, there is just one Leave plan followed across the organization, so you need to define the leave types (Casual & Sick) applicable and its corresponding settings.

Related: What is leave calendar year?

Related: What are leave types?

Need help with setting up Leave Plan for your organization?  Write to support@keka.com.

Configuring Leave Notification

To notify admins about any leave that are being applied for in the organisation, please add them to ‘Notify’ list as detailed below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Leaves and Holidays >> Notify.

Step 2: On ‘Notify’ screen,  click on ‘Add Recipient’ and enter and select the name (from suggestion) of the admin who should be notified whenever an employee requests for a leave.

If you are having trouble adding users for notification, write to support@keka.com.