When should we create a new policy?
For example, this could be because:
You are creating a new employee group
Hourly employees
Fixed paid employees without upper work hours
Fixed paid employees with collective agreement
Part time employees with a fixed day off
Apprentices and trainees
You are expanding to a new country
You are changing vacation or leave rules
You are changing the time registration method
You are creating new rules for hour bank or standard hours
How do I create a new policy?
Click: Setup Admin -> Modules -> Create new policy:
Select country (a policy with default settings for the selected country will be created)
Copy an existing policy (reuse previously created settings)
In most cases, it is recommended to:
copy an existing policy for a new employee group
adjust the rules and settings on the policy
If you need to create a new country, select the country from the list. The policy will then be created with the default settings for that country.
Which guide should I use?
A policy is built from settings for leave and time registration. Therefore, there is not one single technical setup guide for a policy. There are several. The situation determines where you should find further information:
Situation | Start here |
New country | |
New vacation setup | |
New extra balance rule | |
New public holiday | |
New method for time registration without hour bank | |
New method for time registration with hour bank | |
New standard hours | |
New employee group | 📑 Country-specific guide + relevant registration types |
New type of leave | |
New hourly wage rate | |
New company | 📑 Copy relevant policy, set rules, and enter company information under "Enterprise settings" |
New self-paid break |
How policies are structured
Existing policies can often be reused as templates for new employee groups or country setups.
Country + employee group determines:
Vacation year & vacation earning
Access to balances
Public holidays
Standard hours
Types of leave
Time registration method
Therefore, always check the setup of each registration type when you create a new policy.
The policy's four balances
When you create or copy a policy, you need to check which balances the policy should include and how each balance works.
BitaBIZ works with four main balance types:
Balance | Typical use | Unit | Period |
Vacation | Vacation days | Days | Period-based |
Extra balance | E.g. other vacation, care days, or OK days | Days or hours | Period-based |
Hour bank | Saved hours, flex time, overtime, or time off | Hours | Ongoing balance without period end |
Day bank | Saved days, e.g. senior days, child's day, or days off | Days | Ongoing balance without period end |
Vacation and extra balance are period-based balances. This means the balance follows a defined period, with rules for earning, taking, transferring, paying out, or deleting at the end of the period.
Hour bank and day bank are ongoing balances without a period end. The balance continues without a fixed end to a period.
Employees can earn to the hour bank and day bank via plus-registrations, if this is enabled in the policy. A plus-registration increases the balance by the number of hours or days registered.
Therefore, always check:
which of the four balance types the policy should use
whether the balance is registered in days or hours
whether the balance is period-based or ongoing
whether employees can earn to the balance via plus-registrations
whether the balance can be used before it is earned
whether the balance can go negative
which rules apply when changing policy, hiring, termination, and any period end
Earning to a balance
All 4 balances can have earning attached. Annual earning or monthly earning,
The hour bank, extra balance & day bank also have semi-annual earning.
The policy's two time registration methods
When you create or copy a policy, you also need to choose which time registration method employees should use.
BitaBIZ supports two main methods for time registration:
Time registration method | Typical use | Methods | When is it used? |
Time registration without hour bank | Registering work hours, project time, or payroll hours |
| Used when work hours only need to be documented or sent to payroll/statistics |
Time registration with hour bank | Flex time, overtime, time off, or saving hours |
| Used when work hours should affect an hour bank balance that the employee can earn to or take from |
Time registration without hour bank is used when an employee's work hours need to be registered without building up a balance. For example, this could be for documenting work hours, registering project time, or registering payroll hours for hourly paid employees.
Time registration with hour bank is used when an employee's work hours should be collected in a balance. For example, this could be for flex time, overtime, or time off. When using an hour bank, registrations can increase or reduce the employee's hour bank balance depending on the policy setup.
Always check:
whether the employee group should register time with or without hour bank
whether work hours should only be documented, or if they should affect a balance
whether employees are allowed to earn hours in the hour bank
whether employees are allowed to take hours from the hour bank
whether the hour bank can go negative
whether the time registration should be used for payroll, statistics, projects, or absence management
Important when changing policies
If employees need to be moved from an existing policy to a new policy, it's important to check whether the policy change affects:
vacation period
vacation earning
extra balance (other vacation)
standard hours
existing balances
In some cases, a policy change may require:
creating a new employee profile
converting the vacation period
manual handling of balances
📑 Read more: Policy change
FAQ
We have 2 balances, both earning hours. How should we set this up?
We have 2 balances, both earning hours. How should we set this up?
If employees are entitled to several different hour balances, you first need to decide whether the hours should be in the same balance or in separate balances.
In BitaBIZ, a policy can have several balances at the same time, for example:
vacation
extra balance
hour bank
day bank
If the 2 hour balances have different rules, they should normally be set up as separate balances.
Example:
Employees in a country are entitled to:
2 hours per month
30 hours per year
If the 2 hours per month should be earned continuously as an hour account, they can be set up as fixed earning to hour bank.
If the 30 hours per year are a separate day-off scheme, such as other vacation, OK-hours, or a local collective agreement balance, they can be set up as an extra balance in hours.
Use these articles for setup:
Fixed earning to hour bank: when hours should be earned regularly to the hour bank per month, quarter, or year.
Extra balance: when the hours are a separate day-off scheme with its own rules for earning, taking, period, transfer, or reset.
Besides vacation, we have other vacation in hours and care days/senior days in days. How do we set this up?
Besides vacation, we have other vacation in hours and care days/senior days in days. How do we set this up?
If an employee group has both other vacation in hours and care days and senior days, you first need to decide whether the balances should be separate.
In BitaBIZ, regular vacation is handled as vacation. The vacation balance is typically only used for vacation. Extra days off and leave balances are typically handled as extra balance or day bank, depending on how the balance should work.
A typical setup could be:
Vacation: used for regular vacation.
Other vacation in hours: set up as extra balance in hours if the balance should have its own earning, taking period, and rules for e.g. transfer, payout, or reset.
Care days/senior days in days: set up as day bank if the days should be a running balance without a fixed period end. If the days should follow a specific period with rules for earning, taking, transfer, or reset, they should instead be considered as an extra balance in days.
Use these articles for setup:
Vacation policy: when regular vacation needs to be set up.
Extra balance: when other vacation, 6th vacation week, OK-days, or other extra days off should have their own periods and rules.
Day bank: when care days, senior days, or other days off should be handled as a running balance in days.
If the 3 hour balances have different rules, they should normally be set up as separate balances.
We are considering adding a new country to our account, how do we do that?
We are considering adding a new country to our account, how do we do that?
To add a new country to your account (e.g. Norway, Sweden, Germany), you need to create policies that cover the country's rules for absence and time registration.
How to do it
Click: Setup Admin -> Modules -> Create new policy -> Select the country you want to add -> A policy with the country's standard absence settings is created. Adjust the settings to fit your company.
Once your policies for the country are created, you can import employees and link them to the correct policy for the country. Read more about adding employees here!
We have companies in several countries. Can they be set up with local rules and integrated with our local payroll system?
We have companies in several countries. Can they be set up with local rules and integrated with our local payroll system?
Yes, you can add multiple companies to your BitaBIZ account. This is done via your policies. A policy is always targeted at a staff group in a country and possibly a company. So start by creating the policies you need to cover the local staff groups in your countries.
You can activate multiple payroll systems for your account. For example, one payroll system per country. Activate your local payroll systems here: Setup Admin -> Integrations -> Payroll systems -> under each country, select your payroll systems.