Leave Management

Leave management that doesn't break payroll

Ten leave types built around the Employment Act. Balances that cascade correctly. Approvals that route to the right person. And a direct line into payroll, so unpaid leave becomes a deduction rather than a spreadsheet.

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Built around the Employment Act Document checks built in Payroll-integrated
Leave Types

Ten leave types, ready on day one

Nine types set up from the start, plus a configurable Other for company-specific leave. Each carries its own days, notice, approval flow, and document rules.

The leave types
Core HR
Annual (21 days), sick (30 full-pay plus 15 half-pay), maternity (90 calendar days), paternity (14), adoptive (30), compassionate, emergency, leave without pay, and advance. Each type has its own entitlement, notice period, and approval flow, set once and reused across every request.
Half-day support
Core HR
Request a half-day at the start of leave, at the end, or as the entire request. Balances are charged as 0.5 days, and the total is confirmed by the server when the request is submitted.
Configurable Other
Core HR
For company-specific leave — study leave, sabbaticals, volunteer days — an admin creates a subtype with its own pay type, approval flow, and document rules. Deactivated subtypes stop accepting new requests immediately, and past requests stay on record.
Balances

Balances that cascade correctly

Each leave type carries its own balance. Sick leave cascades from full-pay days to half-pay days, drawn in that order, so the record matches what payroll will pay.

Named buckets, not one number
Payroll
Annual leave has its own balance. Sick leave has two: full-pay and half-pay. Compassionate has three paid days and a virtual unpaid extension. Emergency has its own. Maternity, paternity, and adoptive leave are statutory entitlements that do not reduce any balance.
Sick leave draws full, then half
Payroll
Full-pay days are drawn first. Once they're used up, half-pay days take over. The two are never added together on the balance screen, because the pay rate per day is different — the split is visible on hover and on the export.
Carry-forward expiry
Payroll
Annual leave days older than 18 months from accrual are flagged expired and cannot be used. The employee is notified 30 days before. This limit follows the Employment Act.
Approvals

Routed to the right person, every time

Each leave type carries its own approval chain. The system walks the chain in order, blocks self-approval, and falls back to HR when a department has no manager.

Chain-aware routing
Security
A type's approval flow is manager-only, HR-only, manager-then-HR, or admin-only. Two-step chains walk through both approvers in order, and the balance is only drawn on the final step. Rejection from any step is terminal.
Department-scoped managers
Core HR
A manager sees and approves only their own department's requests. When a department has no assigned manager — or the manager is the requester, or their account is inactive — HR takes the step, and the audit trail records why.
Self-approval blocked
Security
Nobody approves their own leave. A manager's request routes to HR, and a self-approval attempt is refused with a clear message. The request itself stays visible on their own queue so staffing is still visible.
Compliance

Built around the Employment Act

Entitlements, notice periods, sex eligibility, document requirements, and carry-forward limits come from the law — not from a settings page.

Statutory entitlements
Compliance
Days, notice, and carry-forward limits are set from the Employment Act 2007, the Wages Order, and Kenyan case law. They are read-only on the admin settings page, because they are not a company policy choice.
Document checks
Compliance
Maternity, sick, and adoptive leave require a supporting document before approval. Paternity and compassionate leave allow provisional approval with a deadline after the leave ends. Documents are uploaded as PDFs and verified by HR, and overdue ones surface in a dedicated queue.
Sex eligibility, enforced
Compliance
Maternity leave is restricted to female employees; paternity to male. Pre-adoptive leave is open to either parent. When an employee's gender is not on record, the request is allowed through and flagged for the approver, who cannot approve it until the record is completed.
Payroll

Leave that flows into payroll

The approved leave record is what payroll reads. No manual adjustments, no spreadsheet lookups — the deduction is applied from the leave itself.

See Payroll in Detail →
Unpaid leave, automatic
Payroll
Leave without pay and the unpaid portion of compassionate leave are recorded as unpaid on the leave. The next payroll run picks up the deduction automatically, and the payslip shows the deduction in the same run.
Mixed-tier sick leave
Payroll
A sick leave that draws some full-pay days and some half-pay days records both tiers. The payslip shows the split, so the employee can reconcile the deduction against the leave they actually took.
Statutory leave, untouched
Payroll
Maternity, paternity, and adoptive leave are statutory entitlements. They do not reduce any balance and payroll does not deduct for them — the pay is the employee's for the period the leave covers.
The Difference

What changes when leave runs on PawaHR

Task Without With
Leave balances
Kept in a spreadsheet, updated after each approval.
Drawn automatically when a request is approved.
Sick leave pay
Full or half pay, decided each time a request comes in.
Full-pay days draw first, then half-pay — the split lands on the payslip.
Approvals
Messages back and forth, with no record of who decided what.
Routed to the right approver, with an audit trail on every decision.
Unpaid leave
Deducted by hand in the next payroll run, or forgotten.
Automatic — the approved record is what payroll reads.
FAQ

Leave questions, answered

What employers ask about leave management in PawaHR.

Ten leave types built around the Employment Act: annual, sick, maternity, paternity, adoptive, compassionate, emergency, leave without pay, advance, and a configurable "Other" for company-specific leave. Each carries its own entitlement, notice period, approval flow, and document requirements.

Balances are tracked per employee and per leave type. Sick leave draws from a full-pay balance first, then cascades to half-pay when the first is used up. Annual, compassionate, and emergency leave each carry their own balance. Maternity, paternity, and adoptive leave are statutory entitlements that do not reduce any balance.

It depends on the leave type. Most leave is approved by the employee's manager. Maternity, adoptive, and leave without pay require both the manager and HR. Emergency and advance leave are approved by an admin. Managers only see and approve requests from their own department, and nobody can approve their own request.

Entitlements, notice periods, sex eligibility, document requirements, and carry-forward limits are built around the Employment Act 2007, the Wages Order, and Kenyan case law. Maternity leave is restricted to female employees, paternity to male employees, and pre-adoptive leave is open to either parent.

Leave without pay and the unpaid portion of compassionate leave are recorded as unpaid on the leave. When the next payroll run is processed, the deduction is applied automatically — no manual adjustment needed.

Three leave capabilities are on the roadmap: converting approved days from one leave type to another, cancelling or returning early from approved leave, and richer lifecycle statuses beyond pending, approved, and rejected. They will appear on this page when they ship.

See leave management in action

Book a walkthrough and we'll show how leave runs in PawaHR, from the request form to the payslip.

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