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Holidays and leave are separate but connected operational records. Holiday groups describe dates and the people or structural contexts they apply to. Leave types describe how a category is configured. Leave records identify a member, leave type, start and end date/time, status, and calculated minutes. Leave-balance rules can add configured balances to selected members on a schedule. Use these features to plan service coverage and review workforce data. They do not establish statutory leave entitlement, labor-law compliance, payment entitlement, or payroll outcome.

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When to use it

Use holiday groups when different service locations or teams follow different operating calendars. Use leave types before recording leave. Use leave records when a specific member’s time away must be recorded. Use leave-balance rules when the organization has approved a repeatable operational balance configuration. For the Syrian Citizen Services Directorate, the Damascus Service Counter may use a standard holiday group, while a mobile intake team has a deliberate assignment override because its service calendar differs.

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Configuration

When an assignment has no explicit holiday override, the holiday-group selector can use matching scope context from the member, member groups, position, node, and location. When an override is enabled, select the intended groups deliberately. Do not use overrides to compensate for an incorrect node, location, or position.

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Workflow

  1. Create holiday groups and enter the dates the organization has approved for that group.
  2. Assign groups through the appropriate organization context. Review a representative assignment to see which groups are eligible.
  3. Create leave types and clearly distinguish paid, unpaid, and partially-paid organization settings.
  4. Record leave for a member with the correct leave type and start/end date and time. The end must be after the start. Save and review the calculated minutes.
  5. If the organization uses balances, create a rule with the selected members, leave type, unit, amount, frequency, effective date, expiry behavior, and active status.
  6. Review service coverage separately: identify which position or member will cover operational work while the person is away.

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Review calculated leave duration

For a multi-day leave with a resolvable shift, each save counts only the requested interval inside scheduled working windows on work days, subtracting breaks and full-day holidays in the member’s assigned holiday groups. Single-day leave and leave without a resolvable shift keep the interval-based calculation with full-day holiday exclusion. Assignment effective dates and the shift’s timezone determine which days apply. Overlapping holidays count once. Partial-day holidays are not subtracted by this calculation. The requested start and end stay unchanged, and supplied or previously stored minute totals do not override the calculation. If the total is unexpected, check the member, interval, effective assignment, assigned holiday groups, and shift timezone before changing the request. Test an interval spanning a full-day holiday, then compare a partial-day holiday and overlapping groups in the test environment. Review existing records through the authorized correction process; this change does not promise an automatic recalculation of every old record. These calculations do not grant leave approval, additional access, or a payroll entitlement.

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Worked example

Rania, an Intake Adviser at the Damascus Service Counter, records one day of annual leave.
Holiday group: Damascus Counter Calendar Leave type: Annual Leave — organization-configured paid setting Leave record: Rania, 12 September, one day Coverage action: another Intake Adviser covers the counter window Balance rule: annual-leave days credited to the intended member selector each year, with the organization’s approved effective date and expiry setting
The manager first checks that Rania’s assignment resolves the expected holiday group. If the mobile intake assignment legitimately uses a different calendar, the manager enables an assignment override and chooses that group. The manager does not infer that the leave record changes Rania’s payroll, eligibility, or legal status; those questions require the organization’s separate approved review.

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Testing

Test with temporary, clearly marked records and no live workforce/payout reliance.
  1. Create one temporary holiday group with one future test date.
  2. Attach it through a temporary structural context and verify an assignment sees it.
  3. Enable an assignment override only for a temporary exception and compare the two results.
  4. Create a temporary leave type and leave record for a temporary member.
  5. Create a balance-rule test with a small, non-sensitive days/hours amount; verify the rule is active and effective before expecting any calculation.
  6. Remove or retire the temporary configuration according to approved cleanup practice.
Never test by changing a holiday group or balance rule that live service scheduling depends on.

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Troubleshooting

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Permissions and data-quality limits

Holiday groups, leave types, leave records, and balance rules are separate records with their own capabilities and scopes. A supervisor’s position does not automatically permit them to create or change all leave configuration. Keep leave notes and dates limited to the information needed for operations. Do not present paid/unpaid settings, balance calculations, or a leave record as legal advice, an automatic salary calculation, or proof of a statutory entitlement. KayanOS leave request and holiday for a example public-service organization employee.