SOURCE: Vacation Tracker TITLE: How Do I Set Shorter Leave Durations? URL: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-can-i-set-hourly-intervals-to-leave-policies/ LANG: en PUBLISHED: 2022-06-20 UPDATED: 2026-07-01 READING: 3 min SUMMARY: How Do I Set Shorter Leave Durations? # How Do I Set Shorter Leave Durations? # How Do I Set Shorter Leave Durations? Not every leave is a full day. The Shortest Leave Duration setting on each leave policy controls the smallest slice an employee can request — from full days and half-days down to 1 hour, 30 minutes, or 15 minutes. Plan gating The 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes options are only available on the Complete plan. Full Day and Half day are available on all plans. ## The Five Duration Options Every leave policy carries a Shortest Leave Duration dropdown with five choices. Pick the one that matches how the team actually uses that leave type. #### Full Day All plans Requests are in whole-day blocks only. A Sick Day or a Maternity Leave where it doesn't make sense to split the day. #### Half day All plans Employees can request a morning or afternoon half. Useful for appointments, early starts, or half-day Fridays. See How Do I Set Half-Day Intervals? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-half-day-intervals/) for the full walkthrough. #### 1 hour Complete plan One-hour increments. Good fit for quick errands, short appointments, or office time-off policies where hours are the natural unit. #### 30 minutes Complete plan Half-hour increments — useful for walk-in appointments or short pickups that genuinely aren't an hour. #### 15 minutes Complete plan Fine-grained quarter-hour tracking. The most granular option, appropriate for teams that bill or audit time by the quarter-hour. ## How to Change the Setting The setting lives on each leave policy — per Location, per Leave Type. A Sick Day policy can require Full Day while the same Location's Work From Home policy allows 15-minute increments. The toggles are independent. - Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io (https://app.vacationtracker.io/signin). - In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Locations. - On the Location you want to configure, click Edit Leave Policies. - Find the leave policy you want to update and click the edit (pencil) icon on its row. - Open the Shortest Leave Duration dropdown and pick one of the five options. - Click Update at the bottom of the page to save your changes. ![Leave policy editor with the shortest leave duration dropdown open and 1 hour highlighted](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_how_can_i_set_hourly_intervals_to_leave_policies_first_image_place_2ac6e0e5f7.png) Tip For time-based leaves that measure quota in hours rather than days (like a 100-hour sick bank), Vacation Tracker also supports dedicated Hourly leave type variants — look for leave types named (Hourly). Those surface a dedicated Date + Time range picker on the Request Leave form, which is the typical experience when you want employees to clock in a specific start and end time. ## Which Option Should I Pick? A few patterns we see in the wild: - Vacation: usually Full Day or Half day. Hourly vacation requests get noisy fast. - Sick Day: Full Day on most teams, or Half day if your culture allows "leave at lunch" for illness. - Work From Home: often 1 hour or shorter — people need to log "left early for the kids" without burning a half-day. - Appointments / Personal Time: 30 minutes or 15 minutes — the whole point of these leave types is small, precise time off. ## Common Questions What's the difference between Shortest Leave Duration and an Hourly leave type? Shortest Leave Duration is the smallest unit a policy will accept — a setting on any leave policy. An Hourly leave type (e.g., Vacation (Hourly)) is a distinct leave type whose quota is measured in hours rather than days, and whose request form asks for a Date + Time range directly. If you want employees to punch in specific start and end times, use an Hourly leave type; if you just want to shorten the minimum increment on an existing days-based policy, change Shortest Leave Duration. I'm on the Core plan and I only see Full Day and Half day. How do I get 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes? The 1 hour, 30 minute, and 15 minute increments are all part of the Complete plan — Core covers Full Day and Half day only. You can upgrade any time — see How Can I Change My Subscription? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-can-i-change-my-subscription-corecomplete-and-annualmonthly/) for the steps. Does this setting apply to every leave type at once? No — it's per leave policy, and every leave policy is tied to one Leave Type at one Location. You can allow 15-minute Work From Home on the Canada team while keeping US Vacation at Full Day. Each policy's setting is independent. ### What's Next? How Do I Set Half-Day Intervals? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-half-day-intervals/) How Can I Change My Subscription? (Core/Complete and Annual/Monthly) (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-can-i-change-my-subscription-corecomplete-and-annualmonthly/) How Do I Create and Configure Leave Policies? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-create-and-configure-leave-policies/) Need help? Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.