What it does
Administrators maintain holiday calendars at the organization, institution, or program level. Holidays defined higher up are inherited downward. Lower levels can override or exclude individual holidays. A paid holiday can automatically credit holiday time to everyone's benefit account, exactly once per holiday.
Who it's for
Organization and institution administrators define shared holiday calendars. Program administrators see the inherited calendar and can adjust it for their program. They also view holidays alongside approved time off on the program time-off calendar.
How it works
Holidays. Each holiday has a name, a date, and a paid or unpaid type. It can also have an observed date, used when the holiday falls on a weekend, and can repeat every year. Holidays live at one of three scopes — organization, institution, or program — and flow down, so a program sees its own holidays plus everything inherited from its institution and organization.
When an inherited holiday doesn't fit, a lower scope can:
Override it — replace the inherited entry with its own version. For example, a different observed date.
Exclude it — remove it from the effective calendar for that scope. The original is untouched.
The result is an "effective" calendar per program. It marks where each entry came from, and whether it was inherited or overridden.
Allocation. For paid holidays, an allocation setting can link the holiday to a time-off category and an amount (default: one standard 8-hour day). When the allocation runs, every active person receives that amount as a credit in the linked category.
Each run is tracked. If an allocation for the same holiday, category, and date already completed, running it again just returns the previous result — it will not pay people twice. A run already in progress cannot be started a second time.
Before you start
You need admin access at the scope where you want to add or change a holiday — organization, institution, or program.
Do this
Open the holiday manager (
/admin/benefits/holidays) → you should see tabs for Effective, Organization, Institution, and Program.Select Add Holiday → the Add Holiday dialog opens with scope, name, date, and paid/unpaid type fields.
Fill in the details in the dialog. For a paid holiday, link it to a time-off category and amount, then save → the holiday appears in the list for its scope.
To adjust an inherited holiday at your scope, open its row menu and choose Override here or Exclude here → overriding opens the Override Holiday dialog. Use it to replace the inherited date or type for this scope only.
Select the Effective tab → you should see the combined calendar with an Inherited or Overridden badge on each entry.
You're done when
The holiday shows on the Effective tab with the right date and paid/unpaid type.
A paid holiday linked to an allocation setting credits time to the right category once its allocation runs.
Boundaries and limits
Holiday auto-allocation will not double-credit the same holiday, category, scope, and date. A re-run just reports the original result.
An allocation already in progress blocks a second concurrent run.
Overrides and exclusions affect only the scope where they are made. The original holiday stays intact for other institutions or programs.
Auto-allocation requires a linked allocation setting. A paid holiday without one credits nothing.
Holidays alone do not block time-off requests. Blackout periods on the leave type are what block dates.
Unpaid holidays appear on calendars but never trigger allocations.
Common questions
Q: We observe a national holiday on a different day — how do we handle that? A: Set the observed date on the holiday, or override the inherited entry at your institution or program with the date you observe.
Q: What if a holiday allocation is run twice by mistake? A: Nothing is credited twice. The platform records each execution and returns the completed result instead of repeating it.
Q: How much time does a paid holiday grant? A: Whatever the holiday's allocation setting specifies. The default is one standard 8-hour day, credited to the linked time-off category.
Q: Can one program skip an organization-wide holiday? A: Yes. Exclude it at the program scope; it disappears from that program's effective calendar and stays everywhere else.
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