Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Shown here are the Earning Rules, Holidays & Company Closed, and Additional Leave modules. Each module contains a button bar for specific policies. If a policy is defined, clicking its View link shows a description of the policy in the blue column on the right.

Select Manager from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. In the top right of the screen is a settings indicator that displays the current Accrual Unit and Workday duration. Click the Edit link to change these settings.

Accrual Unit and Workday Duration module

Accrual Unit

Sets the base unit used to calculate earned leave. Days means leave will be awarded in whole day increments, while Hours means leave will be awarded in whole hour increments.

Be careful when modifying these settings, because changes are immediate and effect all Earning Rules and employees.

Note: Perq always displays leave time in days. So even if you set your accrual unit to Hours, the system will convert the time and display days in the Policy Descriptions.

Select Manager from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. In the top right of the screen is a settings indicator that displays the current Accrual Unit and Workday duration. Click the Edit link to change these settings.

Accrual Unit and Workday Duration module

Work day hours

Sets the duration of a standard workday (in hours) and is used to convert hours into days. Why convert to days? People naturally think of leave time in days, not hours. So Perq converts and displays all leave time as days, and therefore Perq needs to know how many hours are in your standard workday to make the conversion. Perq assumes a standard five day work-week for all leave calculations. If you enter 8 hours a day, Perq assumes you work a 40 hour work week. If you enter 10 hours a day, Perq assumes you work a 50 hour work week. The ability to customize the work week is planned for a future version of Perq.

Be careful when modifying these settings, because changes are immediate and affect all Earning Rules and employees.

Ideally, companies will set policy changes to become effective January 1st. Although changes can be made at any time, it is typically an easier transition for employees when policy changes occur on the first of the year. Activating new policy on January 1 avoids situations when a policy change might actually reduce currently available leave, as could be the case if switching from annual to accrual. Waiting for the new year may not be practical, so if policy must be changed before then, we recommend new policies become effective on the first of a month. Although not the same clean slate as implementing changes on January 1, there is still some benefit of a natural calendar-based transition point.

Earning Rules define how employees earn leave (time) in three Leave Type categories: Vacation, Personal, and Sick leave. Each Leave Type is optional, so you can configure the system to reflect how your company awards time off. The set of Earning Rules for each Leave Type comprises the Policy for that Leave Type.

Current and Replacement Earning Rules

Clicking on Create [Leave Type] Rule (where Leave Type is either Vacation, Personal, or Sick) launches a pop-up form for defining how employees earn leave.

Create Earning Rule screen

Policy Name

Each Earning Rule gets a unique name so it can be easily identified throughout the system by all users, including employees. Notice how the right column updates based on the policy attributes you select—this information dynamically builds the policy that is displayed to employees in the Policy Description area of the system.

Start Date

Specify when the policy should become active. If entering an existing policy, make sure to use the historical start date; i.e., if the policy started two years ago, you can backdate the start date by two years to match. If you are creating a new policy, we recommend a start date on the first of the month, or better still, the first of the year. You will notice you cannot set an end date; this is to avoid policy expiration. If you want a current policy to end, create a future policy to replace it.

Appropriate Use

Provide a brief description and examples of when this type of leave can be used. This text will appear in the Policy Description exactly as you enter it.

Number of Perqs

Select the number of Perq Benefit Levels this policy should support, up to three levels. Based on the number of Perqs selected, the form will be updated dynamically—either adding or removing Perq Benefit Levels. Be sure to scroll down to see how the form changes.

Perq Benefit Levels automatically adjust how an employee earns time off based on how long he or she has been employed. (See next question.)

Many companies reward longstanding employees by increasing the amount of leave an employee can earn relative to how long they have been employed; i.e., tenure-based leave. The Perq concept for this is Perq Benefit Levels.

The system allows for up to three Perq Benefit Levels within a single policy that award different leave benefits to employees based on their start date (how long they have been employed). For example: Perq Benefit Level 1 might cover leave allowance from an employee’s start date through his/her first 5 years, Perq Benefit Level 2 covers from 5 years to 10 years, and Perq Benefit Level 3 covers 11 years or more. Policy-makers are only required to define one Perq Benefit Level; it is not necessary to define more than one level if your company doesn’t increase leave allowances according to tenure.

Note: Perq Benefit Levels are not additive; they do not build upon each other. The settings for each Perq Benefit Level are unique. A good rule-of-thumb is to think of each Perq Benefit Level independently. The settings in one Perq Benefit Level have no impact on the settings of another. For example, Perq Benefit Level 1 can be set to earn time using accrual with no rollover, while Perq Benefit Level 2 can be set to earn time annually with unlimited rollover.

Waiting Period

Specify how many weeks new employees must be employed before they are first eligible to earn any leave under this policy. The Waiting Period can be set to zero, if desired, allowing new employees to start earning immediately.

Eligibility

For each additional Perq Benefit Level, you must specify how long an employee must be employed before he/she can earn leave for this Perq Benefit Level. Specify the number of weeks employees must be employed before they can earn leave with this Perq Benefit Level. For example, 3 years = 156 weeks, 5 years = 260 weeks, 10 years = 520 weeks.

Leave can be earned Annually, Accrued over a specified period, or both.

Annually and Accrued settings

Annually

All annual leave is earned and available for use on the first day of eligibility and the first day of each new year.

Accrued

The specified amount of Accrued leave is earned at the end of each specified period. (That is, x number of leave days is earned every y days/weeks/etc. of work.) Accrual periods include Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly (every two weeks), Semi-monthly (twice a month on the 1st and 15th), and Monthly.

Annually and Accrued can also be used in combination. For instance, Annually set to 4 days and Accrued set to .5 days per month would award a total of 10 days for the year. This scenario gives employees 4 days of leave, available on January 1st, while the remaining 6 days would be accrued over the course of the year.

Rollover allows employees to keep some or all of their unused leave from year to year.

Rollover settings

No

Disables Rollover and causes unused leave to expire on December 31st.

Yes, up to…

Enables limited Rollover. Enter the maximum amount of unused leave allowed to roll over into the next year.

Yes, unlimited…

Allows all unused leave to roll over into the next year.

If Rollover is enabled, there is an option to limit the total amount of leave that can be accumulated over the years. Specify a Maximum Leave amount to limit the total amount of leave an employee can accumulate. If your policy does not require a maximum, leave the field blank.

Note: Be sure the Maximum Leave value is greater than the annual total; otherwise, it will override your Annually or Accrued settings.

Replacement Rules are used to make policy changes seamless. Replacement Rules allow you to make changes in policy without affecting current rules—allowing you to explore the right configuration of earning rates and Perq Benefit Levels. Once the new policy is all set, you can specify a future date when the policy will go into effect. To make the policy transition smooth and easy to understand, we recommend a start date on the 1st of the month or, ideally, the 1st of the year.

Once a Replacement Rule is created, it will appear in the Replacement Rules list, where it can be modified or deleted at any time. Notice the current Earning Rule of the same Leave Type now has an end date that corresponds to the start of the Replacement Rule. On the start date of the Replacement Rule, the rule will move to the Current Rules list, replacing it’s predecessor, and a new Create Replacement Rule button will appear in its place.

New Replacement Rule

When a Replacement Rule becomes active, it becomes policy, overriding any settings of the previous rule. For instance, if rule replacement occurs in the middle of the year and the previous rule specified leave Annually, but the new rule specifies Accrued leave, the annual amounts of leave will immediately be replaced with year-to-date accrued values. In some cases, this could result in negative leave balances for employees who have taken more leave then they earned under the new accrual policy. This may seem strange, but the employee will earn back the time he/she has already taken.

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. In the Earning Rules module click the Create Vacation Rule button bar. Once the rule is created, you can edit the rule by clicking the Modify link. Be careful when modifying a current rule, because changes are immediate and affect all employees. Generally, it is best to create a Replacement Vacation Rule for changing policy.

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. In the Earning Rules module click the Create Personal Rule button bar. Once the rule is created, you can edit the rule by clicking the Modify link. Be careful when modifying a current rule, because changes are immediate and affect all employees. Generally, it is best to create a Replacement Personal Rule for changing policy.

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. In the Earning Rules module click the Create Sick Rule button bar. Once the rule is created, you can edit the rule by clicking the Modify link. Be careful when modifying a current rule, because changes are immediate and affect all employees. Generally, it is best to create a Replacement Sick Rule for changing policy.

Many companies consolidate some or all leave time into one comprehensive category of Personal or Paid Time Off (PTO). If this describes your company, we recommend using the Personal Earning Rule to create your policy. Since all Earning Rules provide the same level of flexibility, you should be able to configure the Personal rule to suit all your needs. Perq only requires one Earning Rule to establish Policy.

Yes. By default Perq automatically loads the U.S. Federal holidays for the current and following year (international holidays will be available in future versions) and sets them all to be observed on their official days, but each day can easily be modified to be not observed or it can be changed to a Floating Holiday.

Holidays settings

Here’s how to set up custom holidays:

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Click the Holidays & Company Closed module to open it, then click Modify for the year you wish to edit. In the Modify screen is a list of holidays; make the desired changes using the drop-down menu beside each day, in the Observe column. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the pane and Save.

On observation date

This default setting means the company observes the Federal Holiday on the same day as specified by the U.S. Federal Government and it is not a company workday. (For reference, the Federal date is listed in the Observation Date column.) All calendars reflect the holiday and Return date will include the holiday in its calculations.

As Floating Holiday

Removes the holiday from the calendar, signifying the company operates normally on the actual holiday, and awards the day to employees in the Floating Holiday Leave Type, to be taken at another time.

Do not observe

Removes the holiday from the calendar signifying the company operates normally on that day.

Be careful when modifying the current year, because changes are immediate and affect all employees. Generally, it is best to modify holiday schedules a year in advance.

As you edit your holidays, the blue column on the right indicates your changes and shows you how the policy description will appear to employees. The changes are also reflected in the calendar view at the bottom of the page.

Note: If a holiday’s date has already passed, it will be grayed out and no longer editable.

A Floating Holiday is used when a company chooses to recognize a Federal holiday, but gives employees the option of taking the time off on a different day. This option allows employees to take a Floating Holiday any time during the same year (much like a regular vacation day). Floating Holidays can be setup in the Holidays & Company Closed module.

Yes. Perq supports the creation of Company Closed days that can be used to supplement the default U.S. Federal holidays or replace them altogether.

Company Closed settings

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Click the Holidays & Company Closed module to open it, then click Modify for the year you wish to edit. Use the Company Closed module to add days when your company will be closed. Simply enter a description and date, and click the Add button. The closed day is added to your calendar immediately.

To delete a specific day, Click the Remove link beside the day in the Company Closed list. As you edit your holidays, the blue column on the right indicates your changes and shows you how the policy description will appear to employees. The changes are also reflected in the calendar view at the bottom.

Be careful when modifying the current year, because changes are immediate and affect all employees. Generally, it is best to modify Company Closed days a year in advance.

Note: If a closed date has already passed, it will be grayed out and no longer removable.

Select Manager from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Click the Additional Leave module to open it, then click Create Medical Leave Rule or if the medical rule already exists, click the Modify link.

Medical Leave settings, with Maternity and Paternity Leave

Many companies consider maternity/paternity leave as part of medical leave, and Perq readily supports setting up that policy. But Perq also provides flexibility by supporting medical, maternity, and paternity leave as unique Leave Types.

To activate a specific medical Leave Type, click the checkbox beside its name, then specify the number of days given as leave. If appropriate, you can also specify how many days of this Leave Type are paid time off. For example, in this scenario “Medical Leave is 10 day(s) of which 5 day(s) is paid time off,” the total Medical Leave is 10 days, but half of those days (5), will be paid based on regular compensation. If the paid time off field is left blank, then none of the Leave Type will be paid time off.

As you edit Medical Leave policy, the blue column on the right indicates your changes and shows you how the policy description will appear to employees.

Note: The medical Leave Types are each unique; therefore, activating all three will add three new Leave Types to company policy.

Select Manager from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Click the Additional Leave module to open it, then click Create Bereavement Rule or if the rule already exists, click the Modify link.

Bereavement Leave settings

For Immediate Family Members

Allows you to set the number of days leave an employee may take for a loss of an immediate family member. There is also the ability to define specifically who company policy considers to be immediate family. Simply click the checkbox next to each relation to be included in the policy definition. You can also define your own, if necessary.

Extended Family Members

Allows you to create a unique Leave Type and set the number of days leave an employee may take for the loss of an extended family member. Extended Family is defined by default as any family member not included in the Immediate Family Member list.

Non-Family Members

Allows you to create a unique Leave Type and set the number of days leave an employee may take for the loss of a close, non-family relation.

As you edit Bereavement Leave policy, the blue column on the right indicates your changes and shows you how the policy description will appear to employees.

Select Manage from the primary navigation and then select the Policy tab. Click the Additional Leave module to open it, then click the checkbox beside the Leave Type you wish to activate or deactivate.

Additional Leave module

Activating any of these Leave Types will cause it to appear to employees as options in the Other leave types drop-down on the Request Leave form.

These Leave Types typically don’t have defined durations; however, Perq still supports them as leave categories. Instead of specifying usage limits, the approver determines appropriate use of these Leave Types on a case-by-case basis.

When you set up policy for the first time and add employees, you will, of course, want to make everyone’s leave balances accurate and up-to-date. Because there is almost always leave that has already occurred in the same year you set up Perq, you will need to account for that leave so that employees' leave balances are accurate.

The solution is to have employees create requests for each instance of leave they have already taken this year, and then for an Approver to review and approve those requests. (Yes, Perq supports requests for the past dates in the current year.) With your policy properly set up and past leave requests approved, all leave balances will be current and accurate.

The good news is that you only ever have to do this once!