Glossary
Comp Off (Compensatory Off)
Also known as: Comp leave, compensatory leave
Compensatory off (comp off) is a paid day of leave an employee earns by working on a designated weekly off, national holiday, or festival holiday. Instead of overtime pay, the employee banks an equivalent day off to take later. It is a common way Indian IT firms and agencies balance project deadlines with rest entitlements.
Comp off exists because business needs sometimes require people to work on their scheduled rest day, such as a release weekend or a client go-live. Rather than losing that rest permanently, the employee accrues a credit that can be redeemed as a full or half day off. This keeps the total rest balance fair over a month or quarter.
Most companies define a clear policy: which days qualify, how soon the comp off must be used before it lapses, and whether manager approval is needed both to work the off day and to redeem the credit. Without written rules, comp off balances become disputed at appraisal time and create payroll friction.
For services businesses that bill clients by the hour, comp off also has a cost dimension. A day worked on a weekend may be billable to the client, while the redeemed day off is an internal cost, so tracking both accurately matters for margin visibility. Accurate session records are the foundation for getting this right.
India context
Weekly rest and holiday entitlements are governed by state Shops and Establishments Acts and the Factories Act, and are being consolidated under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. Comp off is a contractual arrangement rather than a statutory mandate, so the exact rules depend on your employment policy and applicable state law.
How Workclave handles this
Workclave links every work session to a date and project, so a session logged on a weekly off is flagged automatically and can trigger a comp off credit after manager approval. Balances are visible to both the employee and the ops lead, so nothing is lost at month end. project time tracking with approvals.
Related terms
Loss of Pay (LOP) is a deduction from an employee's salary for days they were absent from work without any available paid leave to cover the absence. The day is treated as unpaid, and the per-day salary is subtracted from that month's earnings. LOP is calculated from attendance data at the end of each pay cycle.
Read definition →Overtime (OT) is the additional compensation owed when an employee works beyond the normal daily or weekly hours set by law or contract. In India, statutory overtime is generally paid at a premium rate, commonly twice the ordinary wage for covered workers. Accurate hour tracking is essential to calculate it correctly.
Read definition →A manager approval workflow is the defined path by which attendance, leave, or time entries are reviewed and approved by the right manager before they become official. It turns self-reported data into an authoritative record. Approvals create accountability and an audit trail for payroll and billing.
Read definition →Leave Without Pay (LWP) is approved leave that the employee takes when they have no paid leave balance, so the day is unpaid but authorised. Loss of Pay (LOP) is the resulting salary deduction for any unpaid day, whether authorised or not. In practice LWP is the leave type and LOP is the payroll effect, and many organisations use the terms loosely.
Read definition →