SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     Guide: Leave Duration
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/guide-leave-duration/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2025-08-28
UPDATED:   2025-09-18
READING:   3 min
SUMMARY:   Leave Duration sets the smallest unit a leave type can be requested in—full day, half day, or hourly—configured per leave policy to match how your team works.

Guide: Leave Duration

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Last updated on September 18, 2025

Guide: Leave Duration

The smallest unit a leave type can be requested in: full day, half day, or hourly.

3-minute read

Leave Duration controls the smallest unit a leave type can be requested in. Some leaves only make sense as full days (a week's vacation). Others fit better in half-days (a personal appointment). Others still need to be tracked hourly (a quick errand, a doctor's visit). Vacation Tracker lets each leave policy pick the unit that matches how the team actually uses it.

Plan availability: full day and half day are available on Core and Complete. Hourly leave requests are Complete-plan only.

The duration options

Full day

Leaves are taken in whole-day increments. Simplest setting; matches how vacation is typically requested.

Half day

Morning or afternoon only. Good for half-day appointments and short personal leave.

Complete only

Hourly

Any number of hours within a day, up to a full day. Available on leave policies set to Hourly tracking.

Why this matters

  • Match the policy to reality: forcing a half-day appointment to be logged as a full day either inflates the balance or annoys the User. Matching the unit to actual use keeps the numbers honest
  • Better data for planning: when leaves are tracked in the right unit, Calendar, Wallchart, and reports show the real picture: half-days look like half-days, not full days
  • Fairness across leave types: vacation can stay in days while sick or personal leave switches to hours, all in the same workspace

Where duration is set

Duration is configured on the leave policy, not on the leave type itself. That means the same leave type can have different durations in different Locations or Departments if needed. For example: vacation in full days for most teams, vacation in hours for an hourly-paid team.

Common patterns

  • Vacation in days, sick leave in hours: respects the rhythm of each leave type without forcing one unit on both
  • Hourly tracking for hourly teams: shop floor, customer support, retail teams often pair Hourly Leave with Leave Duration set to hours to capture real coverage
  • Half-days for appointments: keep the leave policy at half-day precision, with a daily cap to keep abuse in check

What each role does

  • Administrator: picks the duration when creating or editing each leave policy. Owns the choice and can revise it as the team's needs change
  • Approver: sees the duration on incoming requests. Half-day or hourly requests show the exact slot, making coverage decisions easier
  • User: requests leave in the unit set on the policy. The request form changes based on the duration: a day picker for full days, a half-day toggle for half days, a time picker for hours

Common Questions

Yes, but only future requests use the new setting. Approved past leaves stay as they were calculated. If the change makes balances look strange (for example, switching from days to hours), an Admin can adjust a User's profile to clean up.

Yes, when the leave policy is set to half-day duration. Reports and balances show the leave in the same unit it was requested in, so a half-day stays as 0.5 days everywhere.

Yes. Leave Duration sets the smallest unit a request can be (the precision). The Leave Duration Automation sets the minimum and maximum length of a single request (the range). A policy in days with a 1-day minimum and 10-day maximum stops anyone from booking 11 days at once.

What's Next?

How Can I Set Leave Quotas in Hours Instead of Days? How Can I Set Hourly Intervals to Leave Policies? Guide: What Automations Does Vacation Tracker Offer?
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