SOURCE: Vacation Tracker TITLE: How Do I Set Half-Day Intervals? URL: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-half-day-intervals/ LANG: en PUBLISHED: 2020-12-29 UPDATED: 2026-01-27 READING: 1 min SUMMARY: Sometimes, somebody from your team may need to take a few hours from work but not the whole day. In these cases, it’s best to have a half-day policy set in place. # How Do I Set Half-Day Intervals? # How Do I Set Half-Day Intervals? Not every absence needs to be a full day. Half-day intervals let employees book a morning or afternoon off instead of burning a whole day of leave — useful for appointments, errands, or when someone just needs a shorter break. Priya has a dentist appointment at 2 PM. Instead of booking the whole Tuesday off, she requests a half-day. She works the morning, logs off at noon, and only half a day comes out of her PTO balance. Good to know Half-day intervals are available on both the Core and Complete plans. If you need to break leave down further — into 1 hour, 30 minute, or 15 minute chunks — that's the Hourly option, which requires the Complete plan. ## How to Enable Half-Day Intervals Half-day intervals are controlled by the Shortest Leave Duration setting on a leave policy. You set it per Location and per Leave Type, so you can turn half-days on for Vacation but keep Sick Day as full-day-only if you want. - Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io (https://app.vacationtracker.io/signin). - In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Locations. - Click Edit Leave Policies on the Location you want to configure. - Click the edit icon next to the leave policy you want to update (for example, Vacation or Personal Day). - Find the Shortest Leave Duration drop-down. - Select Half day. ![Shortest Leave Duration drop-down expanded, showing Full Day, Half day, 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_how_do_i_set_half_day_intervals_first_image_place_ae1d97e3d2.png) - Click Update to save your changes. Employees assigned to that Location and Leave Type will now see a Half day option when they submit a request for that leave type. ## Shortest Leave Duration Options The Shortest Leave Duration drop-down has five values, grouped into three levels of granularity. Click any option below for details. Full Day (Default) Every leave request takes a minimum of one full working day out of the balance. This is the default for new policies and works well for companies that only track whole days. Amy requests a single day off for a family event — that day is deducted from her PTO balance as one full day. Half day Users can request either a full day or a half day. When they pick Half day on a request, they choose the start hour for the half-day (for example 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12) — it's not locked to a fixed AM or PM block. 0.5 days is deducted from their balance instead of a full day. Oscar has a 2 PM dentist appointment. He books a half-day starting at noon — 0.5 days come out of his balance, and his team sees him available in the morning. Hourly (1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes) Complete On the Complete plan, the drop-down also includes 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes. Employees pick the time block they'll be away, and leave is deducted in hourly fractions of a day. Your team often steps out for errands or short appointments. Setting the shortest duration to 1 hour lets someone book a quick 2-hour gap in their day without using a half-day of PTO. ## Want Even Shorter Intervals? ### Hourly Intervals Complete If half-days aren't flexible enough — say, an employee only needs 90 minutes for an appointment — Hourly Intervals on the Complete plan let them request leave in 1 hour, 30 minute, or 15 minute blocks. Same screen, same setting, just a more granular choice. Set up Hourly Intervals (#) Tip The Shortest Leave Duration setting is per Location and per Leave Type. You can allow half-days on Vacation while keeping Sick Day as full-day-only, or let one office use hourly while another stays on full days. Each policy is independent. ## Common Questions ### What's Next? How Do I Create and Configure Leave Policies? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-create-and-configure-leave-policies/) How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-accruals/) How Do I Set a Brought Forward (Rollover) Policy? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-a-brought-forward-rollover-policy/) Need help? Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.