How to Configure Public Holidays and Mandatory Leaves in Odoo 19
Introduction
Managing employee leave is an important part of maintaining an organized work schedule. Businesses often need to define official public holidays and specific company-wide days when employees should not request time off.
Odoo 19 provides dedicated options in the Time Off application to configure Public Holidays and Mandatory Days. These configurations help businesses maintain accurate employee schedules and ensure that leave requests follow company policies.
In this blog, we will see how to configure a public holiday and a mandatory day in Odoo 19 using simple examples.
Configure Public Holidays and Mandatory Days
To configure these options, open the Time Off application.
Navigate to:
Time Off → Configuration
Here, Odoo provides options such as Public Holidays and Mandatory Days.
What Are Public Holidays?
A Public Holiday is a day designated as an official holiday during which employees are generally not expected to work.
For example, a company can configure Independence Day as a public holiday. This allows the holiday to be considered when managing employee working schedules and time off.
Step 1: Create a Public Holiday
To create a public holiday, navigate to:
Time Off → Configuration → Public Holidays
Click New to create a new public holiday.
Enter the required details.
For this example, we configure:
Name: Independence Day
Start Date: August 15, 2026
End Date: August 15, 2026
Working Hours: Standard 40 hours/week
After entering the details, click Save.
The public holiday is now configured in Odoo 19.
What Are Mandatory Days?
Mandatory Days are used to define specific days when employees are not allowed to request time off.
For example, a company may have an annual company event or a particular working policy that requires employees to be available or prevents leave requests on a specific date.
Odoo allows these days to be configured from the Mandatory Days menu.
Step 2: Create a Mandatory Day
Navigate to:
Time Off → Configuration → Mandatory Days
Click New to create a mandatory day.
For this example, we configure:
Name: Company Annual Day
Start Date: August 20, 2026
End Date: August 20, 2026
Color: Blue
If company, department, or working-hours fields are available, configure them according to the organization's requirements.
Click Save after entering the details.
The mandatory day is now configured successfully.
Step 3: Check the Mandatory Day in Time Off Overview
After configuring the mandatory day, you can check it from the Time Off overview.
Navigate to:
Time Off → Overview
The configured mandatory day can be identified in the overview.
In this example, August 20, 2026 – Company Annual Day is displayed in blue.
This provides a quick visual way to identify the configured mandatory day when managing employee time off.
Public Holidays vs Mandatory Days
Although both features are related to employee schedules, they serve different purposes.
Public Holidays | Mandatory Days |
Used to configure official holidays | Used to define specific restricted days |
Can represent national or company holidays | Can represent company-specific mandatory dates |
Example: Independence Day | Example: Company Annual Day |
Configured from Public Holidays | Configured from Mandatory Days |
Using the appropriate configuration helps businesses maintain accurate and organized employee schedules.
Benefits of Configuring Public Holidays and Mandatory Days
Configuring these dates in Odoo 19 provides several benefits:
Helps maintain accurate employee schedules.
Reduces incorrect leave requests.
Makes company holidays easier to manage.
Provides better visibility of important dates.
Helps HR teams manage employee time off efficiently.
Keeps leave management consistent with company policies.