Kin’s time off display has a brand new look! From your feedback over the past year, it was clear that we could do a much better job of explaining the ins-and-outs of an employee’s time off balance. We’ve just released an update to address many of your wishes.
With this new release, we’ve taken a few big steps with PTO:
- Policy details, balances and requests are broken down in a more accessible way.
- It’s now much easier to view and respond to time off requests.
- For accrual policies, we’ve added a brand new interface for viewing balances over time. Managers and employees alike can now see how balances will change each day, so everyone knows if there’s enough available balance to take that vacation later in the year.
Our previous employee time-off detail page
Our new employee time-off policy page and accrual policy chart
What’s new?
More detailed time off balances
The new employee time off page gives you a more straightforward picture of an employee’s time off balances. You can now see time taken, requested, and approved all on one line.
Here’s a quick look at the numbers:
Upfront Balances
- Available Balance Remaining: The amount of time an employee has available to use for the remainder of the policy period. This subtracts the amount of time requested, approved and taken from the total amount of time given for the policy period. If the available balance shows an asterisk (*), the employee’s balance may include carryover, have been prorated (new hires), and/or been manually adjusted by an HR Manager. Just click the box to view more details.
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
Accrual Balances
- Available as of Today: The amount of time an employee has available today. This subtracts the amount of time requested and taken through today from the total amount of time accrued for the policy period through today. If the available balance shows an asterisk (*), the employee’s balance may include carryover and/or been manually adjusted by an HR Manager. Just click the box to view more details. To see how the available time adjusts throughout the period, read about our new chart display.
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
- Left to Accrue to Date: The amount of time an employee has left to accrue for the remainder of the policy period.
Unlimited Balances
- Pending Approval: The amount of time an employee has requested that is waiting on a response from their Manager.
- Approved to Date: The amount of time an employee has requested that’s been approved, but not yet taken.
- Used to Date: The amount of time an employee has taken.
Pending, approved, and used-to-date requests with a single click
Need to see all of the requests an employee has entered this period? Now, you can view an employee’s requests in their current policy period by clicking on the Pending Approval, Approved to Date, and Used to Date balance boxes. Here, you’ll see a chronological list of requests and time used. Just click the request to approve, decline, or edit it.
Better policy information
Now, when you hover over the tooltip next to the policy name, you can view a lot more detail about the policy. Renewal dates, carryover policies, balance limits, new employee waiting periods, and work schedule information is readily available by hovering over the tooltip icon.
The old versus new versions of our time-off policy tooltips
Available balances per day on accrual policies
When we originally launched in 2013, our time off charts did not show you how an employee’s balance changed over time for an accrual policy. Last year, we released an update that displayed a table of future available balances. But, it was still missing some key information.
- How much time was carried over from previous policies?
- What day did carryover expire and how much was left?
- When was a manual adjustment made?
- When did someone reach their maximum accrued hours?
Now, we’ve added a brand new chart that breaks down all of this information by month, from the first day an employee was on a policy to the last day of their current policy period. Just click the chart icon to the right of an accrual policy to see the chart.
Next, simply hover over a day to see an employee’s available balance. Cycle between months using the month picker on the right. The chart also includes balance milestones—see when a policy renewed, how much carryover was applied and expired, approved requests, and if any other manual adjustments were made.
You can now use this display to accurately schedule time in the future and know where your employee’s balances will land, along with taking a look back at how their balances changed in the past.
Let us know what you think!
Have any questions or feedback on these updates? We’d love to hear them! Send us a message and we’ll be happy to chat.