Absence types

Absence Types is where you define the kinds of leave available across your workspace. This can include annual leave, sick leave, parental leave, or custom absence types that reflect your organisation's policies.

Each type carries its own rules — whether it's limited or unlimited, how it should be approved, and who can see it — so members request the right leave against the right allowance without admins having to police it manually.

Trellis provides workspace admins with a selection of ready-made leave types suitable for average UK businesses. You can enable these to get you started and configure your specific preferences.

How to create an absence type

Head to HR → Absence types and select Add new. Give it a name and description, then work through the settings to shape how the leave behaves: how much is allowed, whether it needs approval, who can see it, and any restrictions on how it's booked.

The settings

Not every setting applies to every leave type. Here's what each one shapes and when you'd reach for it:

• Limited vs Unlimited — cap the number of days available in each leave period, or leave it open-ended. Annual leave is usually limited; sick leave often isn't.
• Carry over — let members roll unused days into the next leave period, optionally with a cap.
• Pro rata — scale the allowance based on when a member joins the business during the middle of the annual leave calendar year. Requires each member's contract start date to be set on their profile — without it, Trellis can't work out the proportional allowance.
• Add to PTO balance — whether this leave type counts toward a member's overall paid time off total, or sits separately in reporting. A good example: regular annual leave and an additional amount of leave for long-serving team members both contribute to an overall pot which the member sees as part of the same allowance.
• Visible to users — when on, members see the type in their My Leaves page. When off, only admins see it. Useful for admin-only tracking like lateness, sickness patterns, or other internal events you don't want members seeing themselves on a day-to-day basis.
• Request vs Log — the key distinction between leave types. Request goes through admin approval before being counted. Log is recorded straight away without approval. Use Request for annual leave and anything that needs sign-off; use Log for retroactive entries like sick days or lateness where approval doesn't make sense.
• Half days — allow members to book the leave in half-day increments. Only works if your workspace calendar has half-day time spans configured under Settings → Calendar configuration.
• Restrictions — optional guardrails on how the leave can be booked. Set a maximum consecutive-day cap (e.g. no more than 10 annual leave days in a row), a minimum notice period (e.g. 2 weeks), and whether members must attach supporting documents or a note. Documents work well for sick leave; notes for compassionate or unpaid leave.

Changing a leave type that's already in use

Once a leave type is in use, changes behave differently to a fresh setup.

• Allowance changes apply in the next year, not straight away. If you edit the limit, carry-over, or pro-rata settings, the update only kicks in for the next calendar year for members who've already been allocated this type. To adjust the current year, use the Adjust Leave action on the member's row in Allocation.
• Members can only book across two calendar years. They'll see the current year and the next one when requesting or logging. Anything further out isn't available.
• Deleting is soft, not destructive. Existing allocations stay in place for the current leave period so historical data isn't lost, but the type won't renew next year and you can't allocate it to anyone new. If you want a clean break, remove the allocations first via the Allocation page.

Who can do what

Access to Absence types is restricted to Owners and Admins. Other roles can't view or manage absence type configuration.