Time-Out Zone

One engine for every PTO policy you will ever need

A PTO policy in Time-Out Zone is a set of switches, not a document. Pick pay treatment, allotment, grant model, reset cycle, and carry-over, add the guardrails you want, and assign the result anywhere in the organization. The engine resolves exactly one effective policy for every employee.

View pricing
  • Lab Test Analyzer logo
  • Promics Edge logo
  • SelfHacked logo
  • SelfDecode logo
  • OmicsEdge logo

Sixteen switches, one policy

Every leave type is assembled from the same parts. Here is what each one does, and where to read more.

Paid or unpaid

The first switch on every leave type: paid types get the full balance machinery, unpaid types simply record the absence. Everything below applies per leave type, so vacation and sick leave can behave completely differently.

Unlimited balance

Flip a type to unlimited and the balance math steps aside: no allotment, no accrual, no carry-over. Approval, notice, and every other guardrail you leave on still apply.

Explore

Grant model

How days arrive: all upfront as a lump sum, earned through the year on one of five accrual schedules (daily to monthly), or a hybrid of both. This switch shapes how the balance grows every single day of the cycle.

Explore

Reset cycle

Calendar resets everyone on January 1; anniversary follows each person's hire date. The cycle anchors accrual, carry-over, and spending periods, so every other switch ticks to this clock.

Explore

Carry-over policy

Five strategies for cycle end: carry everything, carry a capped part (days or percent, with optional expiry), reset to zero, mark for payout, or split payout and carry-over. Carry-over policies are reusable objects you assign to as many leave types as you like.

Explore

Waiting period for new hires

Delay a new hire's first requestable days by days or months. Optionally let the balance accrue during the wait, visible but locked until the period ends.

Explore

Advance notice

Require requests a set number of days ahead. It is per leave type, so vacation can demand two weeks of notice while sick leave demands none.

Explore

Tenure bonuses

Add days automatically at the service milestones you define. Tiers stack on top of the yearly allotment and flow straight into the accrual math, no annual manual edits.

Explore

Spending limits

Cap how much of the allotment can be spent per month, quarter, or half-year, in days or percent. Off by default; switch it on where seasonality matters.

Explore

Blackout periods

Date ranges where this leave type cannot be requested: year-end close, launch week. Set per leave type, separate from team-level coverage rules.

Explore

Negative balance

Let people borrow against future days, capped in fixed days or a percentage, with a reconciliation strategy for when the cycle ends: auto-deduct, forgive, or charge.

Explore

Requires approval

Decide per leave type whether requests need a manager's yes or approve themselves. The approval chains behind that yes (multi-step, deputies) are their own machine.

Explore

Documentation required

Requests must carry an attachment, like a doctor's note, before they can be submitted. Useful on sick leave, invisible everywhere else.

Explore

Reason required

Require a written reason with every request of this type. One switch, no configuration to maintain.

Explore

Half-day requests

Allow half-day increments so a dentist appointment does not cost a full day. The balance math handles the 0.5 automatically.

Explore

Past-dated requests

Off by default. When enabled, you define how far back a request may reach, and the maximum can never exceed the type's yearly allotment.

Explore

No two companies set policies the same way

95%+

of employers offer paid vacation, holiday, and sick leave

68%

combine vacation and sick days into a single PTO bank

78%

scale leave amounts by an employee's service time

6%

run open or unlimited leave policies

SHRM 2025 Employee Benefits Survey. With numbers this spread out, a time off policy cannot be a hardcoded template. It has to be an engine.

Precedence

Exactly one policy per person

Time-Out Zone resolves one effective policy for each employee through a fixed precedence order. A direct assignment to a person always wins. Then come tag-based rules, then team, then department, and finally location as the baseline. Location is the statutory fallback, it applies only when nothing above it does, which makes it the right place for legal minimums per country or state.

  • User first: a personal assignment beats everything.
  • Tags can replace the inherited policy or add days on top of it.
  • Location is the compliance floor, not an override.

Assignments

Define once, assign everywhere

A policy is one source of truth with many assignments. Set a location baseline, refine it for a department or team, single out groups with tags, and adjust individuals directly, all from the same policy objects.

  • Change a policy at a higher level and everyone inheriting it updates automatically.
  • No duplicated rules: twenty teams can share one policy object.
  • The effective result is computed, never maintained by hand.

Transparency

See where every value comes from

For each employee, admins and the employee can see which level contributed each value of the effective policy. Fewer back-and-forth questions, easier audits, no mystery numbers.

  • Every value is traceable to user, tag, team, department, or location.
  • Employees see their own effective policy, not an org chart puzzle.

Ready to get started?

Give us a call. We will build a policy with you live, from the wizard to the effective policy per person.

Grant models

How days arrive: upfront, accrued, or hybrid.

Explore

Carry-over

What happens to unused days at cycle end.

Explore

Frequently asked questions

How do I create a PTO policy?
Decide five things: paid or unpaid, how many days per year, how days arrive (upfront, accrued, or hybrid), when the cycle resets, and what happens to unused days. Add request rules like advance notice or approval. In Time-Out Zone this is a single two-step wizard.
What should a PTO policy include?
At minimum: the yearly allotment, a grant model, a reset cycle, and a carry-over rule. Most companies add guardrails such as advance notice, blackout dates, spending caps, or tenure bonuses. Time-Out Zone treats each of these as a switch on the leave type, so nothing needs a policy document rewrite.
How much PTO is standard?
SHRM's 2025 survey puts combined PTO at about 12 days for employees with under a year of service, rising to 26 days at twenty years. 78% of employers scale leave by tenure. Time-Out Zone automates exactly that pattern with tenure tiers on top of the base allotment.
Which policy applies when an employee matches several levels?
The precedence order is fixed: a direct user assignment wins, then tag, then team, then department, then location. Location is the fallback for statutory minimums and applies only when no higher level sets a policy. Time-Out Zone resolves this automatically and shows which level contributed each value.
Can one company run different policies per location?
Yes, that is the intended pattern. Each location carries its own baseline policy, for example to match local statutory minimums, and departments, teams, tags, or individuals override it where needed. Time-Out Zone computes the effective policy per person, so mixed-country companies need no duplicate rulebooks.