Time off usage hierarchy
Last updated: September 11, 2025
Workday has a set of validations used to enforce a hierarchy for time off usage, following UW time off policies. Time Off usage validations do not apply to employees on an approved Sick/Injured or Becoming a Parent Leave of Absence; these employees may use their Time Offs in any order.
For Professional Staff
A professional staff employee’s time off balance, based on already approved time off requests, is assessed in this order:
- Must exhaust all Holiday Credit Time Off before using Compensatory, Discretionary and Vacation Time Off – to improve user experience this is not enforced in Workday; however, employees should still be aware that exhausting this Time Off first is UW policy
- Must exhaust all Compensatory Time Off before using Discretionary and Vacation Time Off
- Must exhaust all Discretionary Time Off before using Vacation Time Off
- Must exhaust all Holiday Credit, Compensatory, Discretionary and Vacation Time Off before using Unpaid Time Off
For Classified Staff
A classified staff employee’s time off balance, based on already approved time off requests, is assessed in this order:
- Must exhaust all Compensatory Time Off before using Vacation Time Off
- Must exhaust all Holiday Credit, Compensatory and Vacation Time Off before using Unpaid Time Off
Common Errors
When time offs are not used in the order expected, Workday will return a validation message preventing the request from being submitted. If the Time & Absence Initiate completes the process on behalf of a worker, Workday will return a warning message when applicable. The Time & Absence Initiate can transact around the warning message and submit the time off request.
Message text
Error – Quantity per Day
You have an available Holiday Credit, Discretionary, or Compensatory Time balance that must be used first. Please revise your request. The Daily Quantity cannot be more than 0 hours.
As the hierarchy rules assess approved time off requests, additional consideration is needed in scenarios where an employee is requesting time offs that impact multiple hierarchy rules under a single request.
Example 1
As of January 1, a full-time Professional Staff employee has an available balance of 8 hours of Discretionary Time Off and 32 hours of Vacation Time Off.
The worker will receive the validation error referenced above if a single time off request is initiated using both time off types, even if the hierarchy/order of time off usage is followed. E.g. Monday – 8 hours of Discretionary Time Off and Tuesday-Thursday 32 hours of Vacation Time Off.
Example 2
As of January 1, a full-time contract classified employee has an available balance of 16 hours Vacation Time Off and has received approval to take 8 hours of Unpaid Time Off for an upcoming absence. The worker will receive the validation error referenced above if a single time off request is initiated for the remaining Vacation Time Off and the Unpaid Time Off even if the hierarchy/order of time off usage is followed. E.g. Wednesday-Thursday – 16 hours of Vacation Time Off and Friday – 8 hours of Unpaid Time Off.
In these scenarios, the worker has 2 options:
- Submit separate time off requests by time off type, in order of the hierarchy rules: Submit the time off request for the first time off type and wait for approval. Submit the time off request for the next time off type and wait for approval.
- Contact the Time & Absence Initiate who can transact around the hierarchy messages and submit a single time off request on behalf of the employee.