SOURCE: Vacation Tracker TITLE: How Do I Enable Half-Day Holidays? URL: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-enable-half-day-holidays/ LANG: en PUBLISHED: 2023-01-05 UPDATED: 2026-09-07 READING: 3 min SUMMARY: How Do I Enable Half-Day Holidays? # How Do I Enable Half-Day Holidays? # How Do I Enable Half-Day Holidays? Some holidays don't take the whole day — Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, an afternoon-off company perk. Mark them as half-day holidays and Vacation Tracker treats them as half of the workday everywhere: calendar, notifications, balance math. ## How to Set a Half-Day Holiday - 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 card, click Edit Holidays (or click into the Location and open the Holidays tab). - Click Add a Holiday at the top right. - Fill in the Name and Assign to Locations. - In the Holiday type dropdown, pick Half-day holiday. - Set the date (or recurrence rule, if Recurring is Yes). - Click Save. ![Add a Holiday form with half-day selected in the holiday type dropdown](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_how_do_i_enable_half_day_holidays_first_image_place_b4d04839cb.png) You can also convert an existing holiday Already have a holiday set up as Single-day and want to change it to Half-day? Open the Holidays tab, click the edit (pencil) icon on that holiday's row, and switch the Holiday type to Half-day holiday. Works for both custom holidays and (within the allowed edit fields) imported ones. ## How Half-Day Holidays Show Up - On the Calendar view, they render as striped blocks — the same visual pattern Vacation Tracker uses for half-day leaves. Easy to distinguish from full-day holidays at a glance. - They're included in notifications along with your other holidays and leave updates. - They're automatically applied to every user in the Location — employees don't have to claim them, the system treats the afternoon off as a given. - They reduce the workday by half. For balance math, a leave crossing a half-day holiday counts as a half-day of leave on that day. Requesting leave around a half-day holiday Users can still submit a leave request that covers the other half of that day — for example, taking the full day off on Christmas Eve even though the afternoon is already a half-day holiday. They just need to select the half-day option on the leave request so the balance math works out correctly. ## Common Questions Which half of the day is the holiday — morning or afternoon? Vacation Tracker treats half-day holidays as counting for half of the workday — it doesn't hard-specify AM or PM. In practice, most companies treat the afternoon off (e.g., early close on Christmas Eve). The accounting is what matters; the specific half is a company convention. What if our workday isn't 8 hours? Half-day leaves require an 8-hour Length of Workday. If your Location uses a different workday length (set up under Edit Location General Settings on the Complete plan), half-day leave options are disabled — which means the Half-day holiday type is for Locations on the standard 8-hour workday. Can I make a recurring half-day holiday? Yes. When you set Recurring = Yes on the Add a Holiday form, the Half-day option in Holiday type still applies — the holiday repeats each year as a half-day observance (e.g., every Christmas Eve afternoon). ### What's Next? How Do I Set Holidays? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-holidays/) How Do I Set Shorter Leave Durations? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-can-i-set-hourly-intervals-to-leave-policies/) How Do I Edit a Location? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-edit-a-location/) Need help? Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.