Casual leave · Asha Rao
- Balance before
- 6.0
9.0 credited since Jan, 3.0 taken
- Fri 16 – Mon 19 Oct
- −2.0
Sat 17 and Sun 18 are weekly offs, and the sandwich rule is off for casual leave
- Balance after
- 4.0 days
Leave management system · 13:30 IST, midday
Leave that arrives with the answer worked out.
A leave management system for small teams. Every request shows which days count, the balance it leaves and the rule behind both, before anyone approves it.
Included in LekhaHR Operations: ₹79 per employee per month on annual billing for the first 25, no minimum; GST extra. See every band
Asha Rao · Casual leave
Fri 16 – Mon 19 Oct · 4 calendar days
2 days,not 4
Fri16Counts
Sat17Weekly off
Sun18Weekly off
Mon19Counts
because Sat 17 and Sun 18 are weekly offs, and the sandwich rule is off for casual leave.
Design preview · sample data · Paiteq Technologies
No. 02
The balance is a ledger
Nobody types a balance onto a card. It is the sum of lines you can open.
How does a leave management system keep a balance?
It adds each credit and takes away each approved request as a dated line, with carry-forward and adjustments written the same way, so a balance is a sum you can open, never a number someone typed. Asha's earned leave reads 14.25 days, and every line behind it shows its date and reason.
Credits on a date
Each monthly credit is its own line, with the policy that set it.
Year end, before it happens
Carry-forward and anything above the cap are shown before the year closes.
Corrections with a reason
An HR adjustment is a visible line that names who made it and why.
14.25 days of earned leave
15 a year · 1.25 on the 1st of each month. Up to 30 carry into 2027.
On 31 Dec 2026, if Asha takes no more
18.0 days carry into 2027
- Now
- 14.25
- Oct to Dec
- +3.75
0Carry-forward cap · 30 days
Every change, newest first
- Earned leave, Mon 11 – Fri 15 May
- −5.0
because five working days, and no holiday fell inside
- Credited, Jan to Sep
- +11.25
because 1.25 is credited on the 1st, nine times so far
- Carried forward from 2025
- +8.0
because 8.0 was left on 31 Dec 2025, under the 30-day cap
- Yours now
- 14.25
How it's counted
- Credit
- 1.25 on the 1st
- Year
- Jan to Dec
- Carry forward
- up to 30 days
- Above the cap
- encashed
No. 03
Sandwich rule, per type
The employee sees the count before submitting, so the weekend is never a surprise on the ledger.
Sandwich leave rule: a setting per leave type
When a weekly off or a holiday sits between two leave days, your policy decides whether it counts. Paiteq keeps it off for casual leave. The same dates on a type with the rule on would cost four days.
Same dates, two settings · Fri 16 – Mon 19 Oct
- Casual leave · rule off
- 2.0 days
because Sat 17 and Sun 18 are weekly offs and are not counted
- A leave type with the rule on
- 4.0 days
because weekly offs between two leave days count as leave
Design preview · sample data
- Earned leaveOffbecause under the OSH Code, holidays falling between, just before or just after annual leave days are not counted, for the workers it covers (managers, and supervisors earning over ₹18,000 a month, are outside it)
- Casual leaveOffbecause Paiteq's sample policy keeps short breaks short
- Sick leaveOffbecause Paiteq's sample policy counts only the working days of an illness
- Your own leave typesYour choicebecause the rule is set per type, with the date it takes effect
OSH Code, 2020, s.32 · in force 21 Nov 2025 · checked by the LekhaHR team, 30 Sep 2026
No. 04
Approve in one look
In a small team the approver is often the founder, between two other things.
The approver sees the count, the balance and the reason.
Meenal gets Asha's request on her phone with the working already done: which days count, what is left after, and why. She approves, rejects or asks a question.
Warnings, not silent blocks
A teammate's clash, a short-notice request or a sandwich rule shows as a warning on the request.
A question instead of a no
Asking a question keeps the request open, and the reply stays on its record.
Every state on the record
Pending, queried, approved, rejected and cancelled, each with its time and who acted.
To do1 waiting for you
Asha Rao
Senior Software Engineer
Fri 16 – Mon 19 Oct 2026 · 2 days
- Left after
- 4.0 of 6.0
- Counts
- 2 of 4 days
- Reason
- Family function in Mysuru
Approve 2 daysReject
Ask a question
Why it's 2 days
Fri16CountsSat17Weekly offSun18Weekly offMon19Counts
The sandwich rule is off for casual leave, so the weekend between stays a weekend.
No. 05
Cancel, and what comes back
A cancellation is a new line on the ledger. The original request stays on the record.
Cancel a day, and the balance comes back on its own.
On Mon 5 Oct, Asha cancels Fri 16 Oct. The day she will no longer take returns to her balance, and the request shrinks to the day that is left.
Cancel Fri 16 Oct · Casual leave
- After the approved request
- 4.0
the two-day request, approved 29 Sep
- Credited, 1 Oct
- +1.0
the October credit, 1.0 on the 1st of each month
- Balance before
- 5.0
on the day she cancels
- Fri 16 Oct returned
- +1.0
a day not yet taken comes back whole
- Balance after
- 6.0 days
Design preview · sample data
On a type with the sandwich rule on
Cancelling the Friday of a Friday-to-Monday request also returns Saturday and Sunday, because they no longer sit between two leave days. The request drops from four days to one, and the ledger shows each line that moved.
because the count is worked out again from the days that remain, never patched by hand.
No. 06
Private leave
Protected leave is nobody's business but the person's and the HR roles you allow.
The team sees “on leave”. Nothing more.
Maternity, medical and other protected leave sit apart from the ordinary balances. A manager can plan around the absence without learning its reason.
Who sees what · protected leave
- Team calendar
- On leave
because colleagues only need to know who is away
- Manager
- On leave, with dates
because planning needs the dates, not the reason
- HR roles you allow
- Type and documents
because someone has to process it, and each view is logged
- The person
- Everything
because it is their record
Maternity benefit is statutory under the Code on Social Security, 2020 (in force 21 Nov 2025), in establishments with 10 or more employees. ESIC pays it to an insured woman who qualifies under ESI; otherwise the employer pays. It never draws on the ordinary leave balance.
LeaveAsha
Casual leave
4.0 days to use
- Earned leave
- 14.25
- Next
- 16–19 Oct
Coming up
Approved Fri 16 – Mon 19 Oct · 2 days
- Earned leave, line by lineEvery credit and every day used
- Maternity and other protected leaveSeparate from your balance. Private to you and HR.
No. 07
Carried to attendance and payroll
One approval, three places it shows. Nobody types it in twice.
An approved leave writes the day and the payroll input.
Leave, attendance and payroll read one record. The day reads “on leave”, paid leave counts as a paid day, and leave without pay arrives in the payroll run as loss of pay.
Leave
Priya Menon · casual leave · 29–30 Sep, approved Mon 28 Sep
Attendance
On leave on both days, with the approval as its reason
Payroll inputs
counted as paid days, because casual leave is paid leave. 29–30 Sep fall after the 25 Sep payroll cutoff, so they are read in October's input
- Leave without pay
- loss of pay, by the day
because the payroll run reads it from the locked attendance cycle
- Earned leave above the cap at year end
- staged for encashment
because it is paid in the payroll run, and the ledger shows the days leaving
- Worked a weekly off
- comp-off, from the worked day
because the attendance record of that day is the evidence for the credit
Design preview · sample data · Paiteq Technologies, September 2026
No. 08
An honest note
because the right tool for your team matters more than one more sign-up.
Who LekhaHR leave is written for.
Written for you if
Teams that want the count settled before anyone approves.
- Your leave policy lives in a spreadsheet, and someone recounts every weekend by hand.
- You want each balance to open into the credits and requests behind it.
- Your approver is the founder, who needs to decide in one look.
Talk to us first if
Some policies need a conversation before an invite.
- You grant leave in hours or quarter days. Requests go in full and half days.
- You want a tool to choose your leave policy for you. LekhaHR applies the policy you set and dates each change.
No. 09
Questions
Statutory answers carry the date the law took effect.
What small teams ask before they move leave out of a spreadsheet.
What is a leave management system?
It is software that applies your leave policy to a request, counts the days it will use, routes it to the right approver and keeps every balance as a history you can open. In LekhaHR each balance is a ledger: credits, requests, carry-forward and adjustments, each with its date and reason.
What is the sandwich leave rule?
The sandwich rule counts a weekend or holiday as leave when it falls between two leave days: take Friday and Monday off, and Saturday and Sunday count too. In LekhaHR it is a setting on each leave type, and the request shows exactly which days will count before anyone submits it.
Is the sandwich leave policy legal in India?
Not for annual leave under the OSH Code, in force since 21 Nov 2025: holidays falling between, just before or just after annual leave days are not counted as leave, so neither a sandwich rule nor a prefix-suffix rule can apply to it. For casual or company leave it is a policy choice, within your state's Shops and Establishments law.
What happens to unused leave at year end?
It carries forward up to the cap in your policy, which cannot be lower than 30 days for the workers the OSH Code covers. For them, days above 30 are paid out on the worker's demand at year end, and all unused annual leave is encashed on exit. LekhaHR stages any encashment for payroll.
How many paid leaves are allowed in India?
There is no single national number. Where the OSH Code applies (in force 21 Nov 2025), a worker who has worked 180 days or more in a calendar year earns annual leave at 1 day for every 20 days worked. Casual, sick and festival leave follow each state's Shops and Establishments law, and your policy can be more generous.
Do new hires accrue leave during probation?
Probation is a company policy term. Under the OSH Code, annual leave is earned on days worked in a calendar year, and days worked on probation are days worked. LekhaHR keeps the ledger accruing through probation and lets your plan limit only what can be taken before confirmation.
Can a manager see why someone is on leave?
Not for protected leave. The team calendar and a manager's view show only that the person is on leave. The type, the reason and any documents are visible to the person and to HR roles you allow, and every view of them is logged.
The OSH Code annual leave rules, and why casual and sick leave vary by state, are set out with the free leave tracker in Excel.
Year-end encashment above 30 days: the Ministry's FAQs (16 Mar 2026, reply 26) read it as applying to leave the worker applied for and was refused; where your policy is silent, pay out the excess on demand as s.32 reads. Where a state law is more favourable to the worker, it prevails (reply 25).
OSH Code, 2020, s.32 · in force 21 Nov 2025 · checked by the LekhaHR team, 30 Sep 2026
No. 10 · By invitation
Let the next leave request arrive worked out.
because the bill is sized to the team you have. We reply to every request by email.