Leave types and balances explained
What each leave type is for, when to use it, and how quotas work across the fiscal year.
Your workspace's leave types come from the starter pack the owner picked during HR setup. The Indian Agency pack ships with eight types covering most agency use cases; other packs (UK Standard, US Startup, Remote-First Global) ship narrower lists tuned to their region. The names and quotas can be renamed by the owner from /settings/hr, but the eight base types we'll cover here are the most common starting point.
SL — Sick / Medical Leave
For genuine illness or injury. The Indian pack grants 12 days per FY; UK Standard grants more, US Startup pools sick into PTO. Most policies accept SL without attachment for short spells (1–2 days) but require a doctor's certificate URL for longer stretches.
CL — Casual Leave
Personal errands, family events, mental-health days — anything that isn't sickness or a long planned vacation. Typically 12 days per FY in Indian packs, with same-day or next-day turnaround typical. Routes through Manager → HR by default in multi-stage policies.
EL — Earned / Privilege Leave
The big one — your annual vacation allotment. Earned monthly (typically 7–18 days per FY depending on policy and tenure) and rolls over partially or fully across years if your workspace policy allows. Use this for trips, long weekends, family vacations, anything you'd plan a month or more ahead.
LWP — Leave Without Pay
The fallback when paid balances are exhausted. No quota cap (shows ∞). Requests still go through HR approval but the leave-day balance isn't deducted because LWP has no balance. Payroll integration treats LWP days as unpaid absences. Common in two situations — running over your quota, or planned long sabbaticals.
CEL — College Exam Leave
For student employees writing university or college exams. Indian packs include this because many agency interns are mid-degree. No quota cap; the request typically requires the exam routine URL as an attachment so HR can verify dates.
CTL — Class Test / Coaching Exam
Short-form variant of CEL — for class tests, internal assessments, and certification exams that aren't the main university session. No quota; attachment optional in most policies.
RH — Optional Religious Holiday
Lets each employee pick their own religious holidays from the workspace's optional-holiday list. Typically 2 days per FY in Indian packs — you might pick Janmashtami and Mahalaya one year, Diwali and Eid another. Most policies auto-approve RH requests; just submit and the day is yours.
COMP_OFF — Compensatory off
Earned by working past your shift, on Sundays, or on holidays — see "Track your overtime and earn comp-off". No quota cap; the balance grows from approved OT entries and shrinks when you spend it as leave.
How quotas reset
At the start of each fiscal year, all quota-capped types recompute:
- Annual-grant types (SL, CL) reset to their full annual quota — last year's unused days are lost unless your workspace policy carries them over.
- Earned types (EL) start fresh; the carry-over rule depends on policy.
- No-quota types (LWP, CEL, CTL, COMP_OFF) aren't affected by FY rollover — they don't have a balance to reset.
The "FY2026" label on your balance panel tells you which year you're currently spending against. Quotas are scoped to that year — applying for leave that crosses fiscal years splits the request across both years' balances.