> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hr-easy.nlead.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Leave and absence

> Requesting, approving and tracking absence — balances, day portions, and manager scoping.

Absence covers everything that takes someone away from work, whether or not it is paid
and whether or not it needs approval.

## Absence types

| Type         | Meaning                                                                                                     |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `HOLIDAY`    | Vacation (Ferien), drawn from the entitlement balance.                                                      |
| `ABSENT`     | Other absence — unpaid leave, military service, compassionate leave.                                        |
| `SICK`       | Illness. See [Sick leave](/guides/time-absence/sick-leave).                                                 |
| `CHILD_SICK` | Caring for a sick child — a distinct statutory entitlement.                                                 |
| `ACCIDENT`   | Accident, work-related or not. Separate from illness because the payout routes through a different Lohnart. |

The distinction between `SICK` and `ACCIDENT` is not cosmetic: they hit different
insurance and different payroll items, so recording an accident as illness produces a
wrong declaration.

## Day portions

An absence is not always a whole day:

| Portion  | Duration                                                |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `FULL`   | Derived from the employee's work schedule for that day. |
| `HALF`   | Half of that.                                           |
| `CUSTOM` | An explicit number of hours supplied by the requester.  |

`FULL` and `HALF` deliberately derive their hours from the schedule rather than
assuming 8.4 — a 60% employee's full day is not a full-timer's full day, and getting
this wrong quietly corrupts every balance.

## Requesting and approving

<Steps>
  <Step title="Request">
    The employee submits from the portal, the iOS app, or the dashboard. They see their current
    balance while requesting, so there are no surprises.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approval">
    The request goes to the line manager, resolved through the org graph. HR can approve for anyone.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Outcome">
    Approved, rejected, or — for an already-approved absence — cancelled. Every transition is
    audited and notifies the requester.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Permissions and scoping

| Permission               | Who                                | Effect                                                                |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `staff-absence:view`     | `EMPLOYEE`, `MANAGER`, `HR_STAFF`+ | See absences within your scope.                                       |
| `staff-absence:view-all` | `HR_STAFF`+                        | See everyone's.                                                       |
| `staff-absence:create`   | `EMPLOYEE`, `MANAGER`, `HR_STAFF`+ | Create a request. Without `:manage` you may only create for yourself. |
| `staff-absence:manage`   | `HR_STAFF`+                        | Create and edit for anyone.                                           |
| `staff-absence:approve`  | `MANAGER`, `HR_STAFF`+             | Drive the status transitions.                                         |

<Note>
  `staff-absence:create` exists as its own permission rather than reusing `:view`. A read permission
  authorising a write is how role drift turns into a security bug — widening `:view` later would
  have silently granted the ability to create.
</Note>

## Balances

Vacation entitlement comes from the employment period — the Swiss statutory minimum is
four weeks, five for employees under 20 (OR Art. 329a), and your contracts may grant
more. The balance is computed as:

```
entitlement (pro-rated by Pensum and by period)
  + carry-over from the previous year
  − approved and taken
  − approved and future
  = remaining
```

Pro-rating follows the employment periods, so a mid-year Pensum change produces the
right entitlement without a manual calculation.

## The team view

Managers get a calendar of their team's absences — who is away when, and where
requests would collide. This is what makes approval a decision rather than a guess.

## Absence and payroll

Absences feed the monthly run. Unpaid absence reduces the salary base; sick leave and
accident route through their own Lohnarten and the salary-continuation entitlement;
untaken vacation is settled at the end of employment. See
[The monthly run](/guides/payroll/monthly-run).