Assigning Time Off Policies to Employees

Purpose

A time off policy does nothing until it is assigned. You can assign policies individually from the employee profile, or in bulk with the Time Off Import template. The template also lets you set starting balances, which is essential when you migrate mid-year from another system.

Who can do this: Users whose role grants Full Access to the employee-level time off policy permission for the employees in question. The Employer Administrator has this for everyone. Custom-role admins have it for the employees their role can reach. Reporting Managers do not have it by default. Creating the policies themselves is a separate, company-level permission (Adding and Managing Time Off Policies).

Prerequisites

• Policies created in the Time Off module (Adding and Managing Time Off Policies).
• For bulk import: each employee's intended starting balance.
• If approved time off should be paid through UZIO Payroll, the policy must also be linked to a Vacation, Sick or Unpaid Time Off earning. Assignment alone does not create that link. See Setting Up Company Level Earnings.

Assigning individually

1. Go to the Employees tab and click the employee's name.
2. Open the Time Off tab of their profile.
3. Click Assign or Remove Policy and select the policies.

[Screenshot: Employee profile Time Off tab with the Assign or Remove Policy button]

Assigning in bulk (Time Off Import)

1. Go to Time Off > Policies and click Time Off Import. The button sits directly on the Policies screen.

[Screenshot: Time Off Import dialog]

1. Download the Time Off Template. UZIO pre-populates it with one row per active employee for each Active or Incomplete policy, so you assign, unassign, or set balances rather than build rows from scratch. Terminated employees are not listed. Where an employee is already on a policy, the row shows their current balance. Read the instructions tab inside the downloaded sheet before filling it out. The data tab's columns: Employee First Name, Employee Last Name, Employee ID, Class, Employment Type, Pay Type, Work Location, Opening Balance, Policy Name. Opening Balance is the one you edit per row.
2. For each employee/policy row, enter the opening balance to assign the policy with that balance. Leave the opening balance blank when you do not want to assign that policy to that employee. To assign more than one policy to the same employee, add a separate row for each policy with that employee's information and the relevant Policy Name and Opening Balance.
3. In the import dialog, click Browse file to select your completed file, set the Effective Date (MM/DD/YYYY), and click Start Upload.

What happens at assignment

• The policy's status moves from Incomplete to Active once the first employee is assigned.
• The employee can request time off against the policy from the policy effective date onward, subject to any usage waiting period.
• If the policy is prorated, the employee's first, prorated accrual is credited immediately and appears as an Accrual row in their Time Off History.
• If the policy accrues At the end of Waiting Period and the employee's waiting period has already passed, the grant is credited immediately.
• Otherwise the balance starts at the opening balance you entered (or zero) and builds from the next scheduled accrual.
• Starting balances from the template become each employee's opening balance as of the Effective Date you set in the import dialog.

Removing or de-activating a policy assignment

There are two ways to take a policy away from one employee, and they treat the balance differently.

Neither action affects the employee's other policies. When an employee is terminated, UZIO sets all of their policy assignments to inactive automatically; you do not need to remove them. Any remaining balance on a policy with Balance Payout on Termination? = Yes is paid through payroll (details).

Common problems

My upload fails with a template error

"The template you are trying to upload is no longer supported by the system. Please download the latest version of template and try again." You uploaded an old copy of the Time Off Template. The sheet carries a version stamp the system checks. Download a fresh template from the Time Off Import dialog and re-enter your balances there. Do not reuse files saved from earlier migrations.

Balances changed for employees I did not mean to touch

The import overrides existing balances for every row where you entered an Opening Balance. It is not additive. Restore affected employees with a balance adjustment; their Time Off History shows the pre-import balance. On the next import, leave the Opening Balance cell blank for anyone you do not want changed.

I assigned a policy but the employee shows zero balance

Assignment alone starts everyone at zero unless the policy is prorated or grants at the end of a waiting period that has already passed. Accruals then build on the policy's schedule. For tenured employees migrating mid-year, set the Opening Balance in the import template, or make a balance adjustment with Include in Accrual Balance: No.

How do I take one policy away from one employee?

Use the policy card's De-activate Policy link if the employee should keep their balance and history. Untick the policy under Assign or Remove Policy if the balance should be cleared as well. See the table above.

Some employees are missing from the downloaded template

The template lists active employees only. Terminated employees are excluded. If your role does not have edit access to time off policies for some employees, their rows are also left out; the Employer Administrator's download includes everyone.

Related articles

• Adding and Managing Time Off Policies
• Adjusting Employee PTO Balances
• Understanding Accruals, Carryover, and Balance Resets
• Setting Up Company Level Earnings