Odoo 18 Time Off is part of the free Employees suite: you define leave types with their own approval level and accrual rules, employees request days against a balance they can see, and approved leave appears on the team calendar and in everyone's planning. Nothing here needs an Enterprise subscription except feeding the result into payroll.
Poorly managed leave policies lead to payroll errors, understaffing, and employee dissatisfaction. With Odoo 18's Time Off module, you gain complete visibility and control over every vacation, sick leave, or holiday — while making the process easy for your staff and HR team.
Creating Leave Types and Policies
You can define multiple types of time off based on your company's policies:
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Sick Leave
- Unpaid Leave
- Maternity/Paternity Leave
- Public Holidays
Each leave type can have its own accrual rules, approval levels, carryover policies, and balance limits.
How Employees Request Time Off
Employees can submit time-off requests easily through the Odoo portal:
- Select leave type
- Choose dates (full days or half days)
- Add optional notes or attachments (like a doctor's letter)
They can also view their remaining leave balance, see their request history, and check approval status in real-time.
Approval Workflows for Managers
Odoo offers configurable approval flows, such as:
- Single-step approval (Manager ➤ HR)
- Two-step approval for longer or special leaves
- Email and in-app notifications for approvers
- Auto-deny rules if policies are violated (e.g., exceeding available balance)
This speeds up the process while ensuring accountability and consistency.
Calendar and Team Planning Views
Odoo's calendar makes it easy for teams to plan around each other's absences:
- Color-coded time-off calendar by department or role
- Filter by leave type or employee
- Prevent overlapping absences in critical roles
- Sync leave data with shared calendars (Google Calendar integration available)
It's a simple way to maintain staffing balance — especially for shift-based teams.
Integration with Payroll and Contracts
Time-off records are linked directly to HR contracts and payroll, so you can:
- Automatically deduct leave balances and reflect them in payslips
- Manage paid vs unpaid time for accurate salary calculations
- Update balances after promotions or contract changes
This ensures your financial data stays clean and compliant.
Time Off Reports and Usage Tracking
Track how time off is used across your organization:
- Leave summaries by employee or department
- Unused leave balances
- Average leave taken per employee
- Absenteeism trends and flags for overuse
These insights help improve workforce planning and policy adjustments.
Best Practices for Leave Management
- Set clear leave policies and communicate them during onboarding
- Encourage timely submissions — avoid last-minute leave requests
- Use team calendars for visibility and planning
- Regularly audit leave balances for accuracy
- Link leave usage to performance and burnout prevention strategies
Conclusion
With Odoo 18, managing employee time off becomes seamless, fair, and transparent. Empower your people to take the time they need — without creating operational headaches or compliance risks.
Need help configuring time-off workflows for your team? Let our Odoo experts support you!
Questions we get asked
Is Time Off free in Odoo 18?
Yes. The hr_holidays module is LGPL-3 and ships with Odoo 18 Community, including leave types, allocations, accrual plans, approval flows, the calendar and the reporting. What is Enterprise is Payroll: pushing approved leave onto payslips needs the Payroll app, which is licensed OEEL-1 and only carries salary rules for the countries Odoo has localised.
What approval levels can a leave type have in Odoo 18?
Four: no validation at all, approval by the Time Off Officer, approval by the employee's approver, or approval by both, with the approver first and the officer second. Allocations carry the same four options and are configured separately, so you can let line managers approve days off while HR keeps control of how many days are granted.
How do accruals work in Odoo 18 Time Off?
An accrual plan grants days or hours on a schedule, and it can have several levels that take over after a given period of service, so a long-serving employee accrues faster than a new joiner. A plan can cap the balance, decide what happens to unused days at the end of the year, and pro-rate someone who starts mid-period.
Can employees take half days in Odoo 18?
Yes. Each leave type has a duration unit set to Day, Half Day or Hours, so full-day annual leave and hourly personal time can coexist in the same database. When the type is in hours, the employee picks a start and end time and Odoo deducts the balance using their working schedule rather than a flat eight-hour day.
Does Odoo 18 stop someone requesting leave they do not have?
Yes, when the leave type requires an allocation. Odoo checks the remaining balance for the requested dates and will not validate a request that goes beyond it. Leave types that do not require an allocation, such as unpaid leave, have no balance to check, which is how you let people record an absence without maintaining a quota for it.