A balance is the time an employee can still take. HR looks at it in three places under **Leaves**: **Leave Allocation** for the period total, **Leave Ledger** for each change, and **PTO Report** for a payroll view as of a date.

Employees see their own days on **Time off**. Pending requests stay in the available balance until they are approved. Projected is what would remain after those waiting requests.

## Record a balance

1. Open **Leaves**, then **Leave Allocation**.
2. Choose **New Leave Allocation**.
3. Choose the **Employee** and the **Leave Type**.
4. Enter **From Date** and **To Date**.
5. Enter **Allocated Days**. **Used Days** and **Carried Forward** are on the same form.
6. Leave **Status** as **Active**, or set **Expired** or **Cancelled**.
7. Choose **Create Leave Allocation**. You should see **Leave Allocation created**.

The list columns are **Employee**, **Leave Type**, **Allocated**, **Used**, and **Status**. An empty list says **No leave allocations yet** and **Assign leave balances to employees for each period.**

**Employee**, **Leave Type**, **From Date**, and **To Date** are required. If one is empty, the notice names it and says it is required. The allocation is not created. Another failure says **Failed to save**, and the form says **Save failed. Your edits are still here.**

An employee with no active allocation sees **No leave balance yet** on **Time off**, and **Request time off** cannot use that type until a balance exists. An unlimited leave type does not need a day count. It shows **Unlimited**.

## Read the ledger

Open **Leaves**, then **Leave Ledger**. Each row is one change: **Employee**, **Leave Type**, **Posting Date**, **Type**, and **Days**.

Choose **New Leave Ledger Entry** to record a change yourself. Fill **Employee**, **Leave Type**, **Posting Date**, **Transaction Type**, and **Days**. Transaction type is **Allocation**, **Application**, **Expiry**, or **Encashment**. **Balance After** and **Notes** are on the same form. Choose **Create Leave Ledger Entry**. You should see **Leave Ledger Entry created**.

An empty list says **No leave ledger yet** and **Audit leave credits and debits across your organization.**

A missing required field is named in the notice, and the entry is not created. Days already posted stay on the list.

## Read the PTO report

Open **Leaves**, then **PTO Report**. The subtitle says the report is current balances, pending requests, projected availability, and year-to-date usage for payroll and planning.

1. Set **As of**. The report reloads for that date.
2. Use **Search** with the placeholder **Employee or leave type** to narrow the table.
3. Read the totals: **Employees**, **Pending requests**, **Available days**, **Pending days**, and **Used this year**.
4. Each row shows **Employee**, **Leave type**, **Available**, **Pending**, **Projected**, and **Used YTD**. An unlimited type shows **Unlimited** in **Available** and **Projected**.

Choose **Download CSV**. The button tooltip is **Download payroll-ready CSV**. The file uses the **As of** date on the screen.

If nobody has a policy assignment or an allocation, the page says **No PTO balances found** and **Assign a leave policy or allocate an opening balance to include employees in this report.**

If the download fails, the notice is **Could not download the PTO report**. The table on the screen is unchanged.

## Next

Put a type and an annual amount on a policy before you expect the report to fill in. See [Time off policies](/hrms/leaves/leave-policy). Employees send the requests that move pending and used days. See [Request time off](/hrms/leaves/leave-application).