Leave types
A leave type is a reason for time off — annual leave, sick leave, parental leave, and so on. Deckchair doesn’t ship with a built-in list; you define the types that match your company’s policy under Settings → Leave types.
Fields on a leave type
Section titled “Fields on a leave type”| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Name | Shown everywhere — on the request form, wallchart, and emails. |
| Colour | Used on the wallchart so the team can tell types apart at a glance. |
| Description | Optional. Shown on the request form to clarify policy (e.g., “Submit a doctor’s note for absences longer than 3 days”). |
| Deducts from allowance | If on, approved requests reduce the member’s balance. If off, the request is recorded but doesn’t affect balance. |
| Requires approval | If on, requests are pending until a manager reviews them. If off, requests are auto-approved at submission. |
| Minimum notice (days) | Blocks submissions fewer than N days before the start date. Zero means no minimum. |
| Active | Inactive types don’t appear on the request form but stay visible on historical requests. |
Designing your set
Section titled “Designing your set”A good starting configuration for most teams:
| Type | Deducts | Requires approval | Min notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual leave | ✓ | ✓ | 7 |
| Sick leave | — | — | 0 |
| Personal day | ✓ | ✓ | 1 |
| Parental leave | — | ✓ | 14 |
| Unpaid leave | — | ✓ | 7 |
| Bereavement | — | — | 0 |
| Jury duty | — | — | 0 |
Rules of thumb:
- Deducts + requires approval — planned time off you want visibility on. Annual leave, personal days.
- Doesn’t deduct + doesn’t require approval — unplanned or tracked-for-record-only absences. Sick leave, bereavement.
- Doesn’t deduct + requires approval — long absences your HR team tracks separately. Parental leave, sabbaticals.
- Deducts + doesn’t require approval — rare. Usually only for organizations with a “take what you need” culture.
Minimum notice
Section titled “Minimum notice”The minimum notice setting is enforced on submission — a member can’t submit a request if the start date is closer than N days away. It’s not a hard block on the leave itself: an approver can still book leave on behalf of the member for sooner dates.
Use it gently. A 14-day minimum on annual leave makes sense; a 14-day minimum on sick leave would be absurd (and prevent legitimate use). Keep it at zero for anything that can be genuinely last-minute.
Retiring a leave type
Section titled “Retiring a leave type”If you stop offering a type (e.g., the company ends its sabbatical programme), don’t delete it — deactivate it instead. Toggle Active off:
- New requests can’t use the type.
- Historical requests keep the type name and colour on display.
- The type stays in reports and exports.
Deleting is only appropriate for types that were created by mistake and never used.
Changing a type’s settings
Section titled “Changing a type’s settings”You can edit any field on an active type. The change applies going forward:
- Changing Deducts from allowance: existing approved requests keep their original balance impact. Only new requests use the new setting.
- Changing Requires approval: existing pending requests stay pending (you still need to review them). New requests use the new setting.
- Changing the colour: updates everywhere, including historical requests on the wallchart.
- Changing the name: updates everywhere. If the type is used on historical requests, those requests now show the new name — so prefer small corrections over wholesale rebranding.