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Time off policies

Learn how to manage vacation, sick, and holiday time off policies

Time off policies ensure that employees are granted the appropriate type of paid or unpaid time off, and that this time is accurately reflected in their payroll.

Policy types

Gusto supports three types of time-off policies:

  • Vacation: How employees accrue and use paid vacation time.
  • Sick: How employees accrue and use sick leave.
  • Holiday: Policies that define whether specific federal holidays are paid, and how those payments are applied to employees.

Vacation and sick policies allow employees to accrue time based on the rules defined at the company level, such as per hour worked, per calendar year, or unlimited. Accrued balances can then be applied when running payroll.

Holiday policies let companies select which federal holidays are considered paid. Those hours are automatically applied to employees who are enrolled in the policy.

Policy rules

A company can have multiple policies of each type. For example, a company might have two vacation policies, one for hourly employees and one for salaried employees.

However, an employee can only be enrolled in one policy of each type. An employee can be enrolled in a vacation policy, a sick policy, and a holiday policy simultaneously.