How to create bonus modifiers in Time Off

A bonus modifier is useful when you want to give your employees more days or hours depending on their seniority, team or department, year of employment, etc.

To see real-life examples of bonus modifiers, please scroll to the end of this article.

Creating a bonus modifier 

To create a bonus modifier: 

1. Click on Time Off on the left hand-side menu, then Manage Time off, and then Policies.

2. Click Edit Policy on the policy you want to adjust. 

3. Click Bonus Modifiers. 

4. Then click Add bonus modifier.

We recommend adding a descriptive name to the bonus modifier, for example: Vacation 5 years, Vacation 6 years. This will make it easier to differentiate your bonus modifiers once you have created them all.

 

Under Bonus amount to be given, enter how many days an employee will receive when the bonus applies. For example, enter 5 days if employees who have been 5 years at the company get an extra 5 days of vacation.

In the Accrual section, select how you’d like the bonus to apply:

• Just once on the next accrual, meaning the bonus modifier will only apply once. 

• On every scheduled accrual date (Date), meaning the bonus modifier will apply every month or every year, depending on the scheduled accrual set up on the Time Off policy. 

• On every (selection) accrual date thereafter, meaning the bonus modifier will apply after X number of rounds. For example, if you select every third accrual date, the bonus modifier will look something like this:

Bonus amount to be given is 5 days, accrued on the third anniversary. 

1st year, Jan 1, 2021: 5 days to be given 

2nd year, Jan 1, 2022: 0 days 

3rd year, Jan 1, 2023: 0 days 

4th year, Jan 1, 2024: 5 days to be given 

In the Changes on the amount given over time section, add if the amount should increase overtime and set up any limits. 

In the Membership rules section, you can set up rules for whom the bonus modifier should apply (if not all employees). We offer multiple options to set parameters around a bonus, from which department/team should get the bonus to how many years of employment trigger the bonus and more. 

Bonus modifiers examples

Example 1: Bonus modifiers according to years of employment

Your vacation policy is that all employees get 15 days of vacation per year, but employees get one day extra every year after 5 years of employment. 

Employees accrue 15 days every April 14.

Employees >5 years: +1 day

Employees >6 years: +2 days 

Employees >7 years: +3 days 

The maximum number of days an employee can get per accrual is 18 days. 

You should set up 3 bonus modifiers, as shown below:

Bonus modifier #1: Vacation >5 years 

Bonus modifier #2: Vacation >6 years 

Bonus modifier #3: Vacation >7 years 

Every April 14, the system will give 1 extra day according to the eligibility criteria. 

Sara, with 5 years of employment by April 14, will get 16 vacation days, 15 from the time off policy + 1 of the bonus modifier. 

Tom, with 7 years of employment by April 14, will get 18 vacation days, 15 from the time off policy, 1 day per each bonus modifier he is eligible for (vacation >5, vacation <6, vacation <7). 

	Time off	Bonus modifier 5 years	Bonus modifier 6 years	Bonus modifier 7 years	Total
Sara (5 years)	15 days	+1	x	x	16 days
Tom (7 years)	15 days	+1	+1	+1	18 days

Example 2: An extra vacation day accruing each year after employees are employed for more than 5 years. 

The amount increases by 1 every accrual and there’s a limit of 20 days per year on the bonus. 

Set up the eligibility criteria as shown in the screenshot below.

Next accrual date 

If the bonus modifier was created in May 2022, the next accrual date will be April 14, 2023.

Sara, with 5 years of employment, will receive 16 vacation days. 15 from the Time Off policy and 1 from the bonus modifier 

Tom, with 7 years of employment, will receive 16 vacation days, 15 from the Time Off policy and 1 from the bonus modifier. 

Even though Sara and Tom have different years of service they will receive the same amount of days. The bonus modifier applies to everyone who has more than 5 years of employment.

How it looks over time 

Accrual date: April 14, 2025

Both Sara and Tom will receive 17 vacation days

Sara, with 5 years of employment, will receive 17 vacation days. 15 from the Time Off policy and 2 from the bonus modifiers 

Tom, with 7 years of employment, will receive 17 vacation days, 15 from the Time Off policy and 2 from the bonus modifiers. 

	Time off	Bonus modifier 2023	Bonus modifier 2024
	15 days	+ 1 day (base)	+ 1 day (increase)
Sara total	15 days	16 days	17 days
Tom total	15 days	16 days	17 days

Accrual date: April 14, 2028 

Sara and Tom will receive 20 days, even though they should receive +1 every year, the bonus modifier has a maximum of 20 days, which they have reached since the last accrual in 2027. 

	Time off 2022	Bonus modifier 2023	Bonus modifier 2024	Bonus modifier 2025	Bonus modifier 2026	Bonus modifier 2027	Bonus modifier 2028
	15 days	+ 1 day	+ 1 day	+ 1 day	+ 1 day	+ 1 day	+ 1 day
Total	15 days	16 days	17 days	18 days	19 days	20 days	20 days

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