---
title: Three worked leave examples
description: Seniority tiers, unlimited sick leave and sub-day leave, with the arithmetic worked through
order: 5
---

Three short scenarios that show the leave model with concrete numbers, each building on
the default policies from [How leave works in SquadBear](/docs/leave/concepts/).

## Seniority tiers

An accrual rule can rise with tenure. The default Vacation policy grants 26 days a year,
rising to 30 after 5 years, configured as a tier at **Workspace settings → Leave
policies → *[policy]* → Accrual schedule**. By default a tier counts calendar years from
the **Start date** on the employee record - the accrual year minus that date's year.

**Grant increases with** on that card picks what the tiers count from, for the whole
policy: *Time here* (the default), *Career service* - the person's **Career service
since** date on their profile, which covers earlier employers and any statutory credit
for education - or *Age*, from their date of birth. Radio buttons below it set whether a
tier *replaces the grant* or *adds to it*; under *adds to it* the tiers do not
accumulate, so someone past three tiers gets the highest one's bonus, not the sum of all
three. If a person has no career-service date or date of birth on file, their tier counts
from their employment start date instead.

Tomasz started at Northlake in 2019. In the 2026 accrual year his clock reads 7, past the
5-year tier, so his entitlement is 30 days rather than 26.

## Unlimited sick leave

Sick leave defaults to a policy with **0 days** annual accrual - the sentinel that means
"not balance-tracked" rather than "no days available." There is no balance row, so
nothing is checked and nothing is deducted. Approval is a separate setting - the seeded
Sick leave policy sets **Approval mode** to *Auto-approve*, so a request is approved on
submission.

The employee profile's **Leave** tab reads **Unlimited** for a leave type like this
instead of a day count, with *not balance-tracked* beneath it. It carries no chip on My
leave's balance strip and no balance suffix in the request form's type picker.

Marta takes 2 days of sick leave. Nothing is deducted anywhere, because there is no
balance to deduct from - her profile's **Leave** tab still reads **Unlimited**
afterward.

## Sub-day leave

Sub-day leave applies to single-day requests only - start date equals end date. A partial
amount on a range is rejected. The policy's **Booking increment** sets the smallest
bookable slice: full days, half days, 2-hour blocks, or 1-hour blocks. A half day charges
half that date's scheduled hours; an hourly increment charges exactly the hours
requested, in whole multiples of the increment; more than that date's scheduled hours is
rejected. The default Vacation policy allows half days; the default Unpaid leave policy
books whole days only, so a sub-day request against it fails validation instead of
rounding up.

Aleksandra books a half day of Vacation for a Friday scheduled at 8 hours. Her balance
moves by 4 hours, not a full day, and the request reads "0.5 days" across the app.
Picking *Full day* instead charges the full 8 hours.

> [!AGENT]
> Show me the accrual rule behind my Vacation policy, including any tenure tiers.

## Related

- [How leave works in SquadBear](/docs/leave/concepts/)
- [How leave approvals work](/docs/leave/approvals/)
- [Part-time and custom work schedules](/docs/leave/work-schedules/)