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Act 2: Setting Up the Kingdom

9. HR Foundations (Leave Types & Holidays)

Story

Sarah now focuses on configuring leave and holiday policies because time-off management directly affects employee experience, staffing visibility, attendance tracking, and payroll accuracy.

She defines leave categories, allocation rules, carry-forward behavior, and holiday calendars so employees clearly understand their entitlements while approvals, attendance, payroll, and reporting workflows remain consistent and automated.

Happy Path

Leave and holiday policies are configured successfully, allowing requests, balances, approvals, and attendance adjustments to work automatically across the organization.

  • Define leave types with quota, paid or unpaid status, carry-forward, and partial-day rules
  • Configure leave allocation and carry-forward behavior
  • Set up approval requirements and leave policy controls
  • Create holidays with full-day, half-day, or optional holiday types
  • Configure recurring and non-recurring holiday calendars
  • Automatically apply leave and holiday rules during attendance and payroll processing

Failure Modes

FailureWhat the user seesWhat happens next
Duplicate leave type nameValidation rejects duplicate leave typeUse a unique leave type name
Negative leave quota configuredValidation rejectionEnter a valid positive quota value
Leave quota modified after leave already bookedBalance recalculation warning shownConfirm recalculation or adjust policy carefully
Delete leave type with active leave requestsDeletion blocked or cascade warning shownResolve active requests before deletion
Holiday date created in the past for non-recurring holidayWarning displayed during saveConfirm creation or adjust holiday date
Multiple holidays overlap on the same dateOverlap warning shownReview and adjust holiday calendar if needed
Recurring holiday overlaps with approved leaveHoliday days automatically excluded from leave calculationSystem recalculates leave duration automatically

Edge Cases

ScenarioBehaviorWhy
Carry-forward percentage changed during the yearNew rule applies during the next carry-forward cyclePrevents retroactive balance inconsistencies
Unpaid leave type configuredNo leave quota tracking is applied but approval flow still worksSupports unpaid absence management
Optional holiday provided by company policyEmployees may opts in or skip the holidaySupports flexible holiday benefits
Half-day holiday configuredAttendance and leave calculations adjust automaticallyMaintains accurate working-hour calculations
Holiday falls on a weekendSystem follows configured observed-holiday policySupports organization-specific holiday practices

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