Activity Messenger Help Center Time off: requests, approvals and banks Time off requests give staff a formal way to ask for vacation, sick leave, personal time, unpaid leave or another absence. Staff pick the days they will be away in a calendar. Managers approve or deny each request, choose whether to notify the staff member, and approved time off appears automatically as unavailable time on the staff schedule. If your organization uses time-off banks, each request can also draw from a balance that builds up over the year. Before you begin Your organization needs the staff schedule module with the Time Off Requests switch on, under Organization settings › Team & operations › Staff scheduling & management. See Staff operations. Each person who requests time off must be a user of your organization linked to at least one staff resource. The resource is required because approved time off is added to the staff schedule as an unavailable period. Time-off banks are a separate option that support enables, and they also need Staff management. Who can approve depends on Approve time off. Account owners, Organization owners and Human Resources users always can. Others need Can modify other staff schedule, or a hierarchy setting of Staff below them or All staff. Hierarchy managers only see requests from the staff they are allowed to manage. Where to find time off Staff open the user menu, choose Schedule, then the Time Off tab. This tab only lists their own requests, even for someone who is also a manager. Managers open User management › Staff schedule › Time Off. A count on the tab shows pending requests. With time-off banks, User management › Staff management › Time Off holds the Policies and Balances tabs, and each staff profile has its own Time Off tab. Request time off Open the Time Off tab and click Request Time Off. If your organization uses time-off banks, choose the Time-off bank to draw from, or keep No bank (request only). Without a bank, choose a Request Type: Vacation, Sick Leave, Personal, Unpaid Leave or Other. Under Days off, click each day you will be away. The days do not need to be consecutive. If you picked a single day, keep Full day on, or turn it off and enter a start and end time. Optionally enter a Reason, then click Submit. When your organization uses time-off banks, the same window also has a Time-off bank selector and an estimate of the balance. See Use a time-off bank when requesting below. Each new request is Pending. A pending request does not yet make the person unavailable. If your organization uses the user hierarchy, the person's manager is notified by email or text message. Pick days in the calendar Click a day to add it, and click it again to remove it. Shift-click a second day to add every day between the last day you clicked and this one. Use the arrows to change months. Click the month name to choose another month and year; months that already contain picked days show how many. Click Today to return to the current month, or Clear to remove every picked day. Days can be picked up to five years ahead. A summary above the calendar shows how many days are picked. Long selections are grouped by month. Every picked day is requested, including weekends. Each run of consecutive days becomes its own request. For example, picking Monday to Wednesday and the following Friday creates two requests, and each one is reviewed separately. A partial day is only available when exactly one day is picked. To request hours on several days, submit one request per day. Managers can also click Request Time Off and choose a Staff member to enter a request on that person's behalf. Track or change your requests The list shows the type or bank, the dates and duration, the status, the reason and when the request was made. Use the type, status and date filters to narrow a long history; if nothing matches, click Clear filters. Open the … menu on a request to change it: Edit a Pending request. A request covers consecutive days only; submit any other days as a new request. Delete a Pending or Denied request. An Approved request cannot be edited or deleted by the person who made it. Click a Denied status to read the denial reason. The reason is also shown under the status. Approve or deny a request Pending requests show Approve and Deny buttons directly in the row. Other actions are in the … menu. Click the pending count at the top of the page to show only pending requests, and use the staff filter to focus on one person. To approve: Click Approve. The Approve Request window shows the dates and the number of affected assignments: the person's classes, bookings and shifts during the time off. If there are assignments, choose a replacement for each one, or click Approve without assigning. Choose whether to Send by email (on by default) or Send by text message, then click Approve Request. If you cannot assign replacements, a shorter confirmation window opens instead. For approved leave, Assign replacements stays available later in the … menu. To deny, click Deny, enter the required Denial reason, choose the notifications and click Deny. For a request that uses a bank, see Review a request that uses a bank below. A pending request, or a denied request without a bank, can be approved. A denied request that uses a bank must be submitted again. A pending or approved request can be denied. A manager can also use Cancel leave on approved leave, which returns its time to the bank. Replacement assignments stay as they are. Who's off lists approved leave for the dates you choose. What approval changes on the schedule Approval adds an unavailable period for every staff resource linked to the person: A full-day request blocks each of its days, from the start of the first day to the end of the last day. A partial-day request blocks only the chosen time range. The request reason is copied to the unavailable period. The absence is then part of the same availability checks used for classes, bookings and shifts, so schedulers see that the person is away when assigning work. Availability is guidance rather than a strict block, so review conflict warnings. Denying or cancelling an approved request removes its unavailable period. Pending and denied requests never create one. Use a time-off bank when requesting When you are assigned to an active bank, the request window shows a Time-off bank selector. Selecting a bank shows: your Current balance; This request: the amount the picked days will use; an estimate for each month of the request: the Start balance, time Added by the policy (accruals and carried-over time), time Removed (yearly resets, expired time and other approved leave), time Taken by the request, and what is Left. Click Show each date to see one line per run of days instead of one per month. Each picked day counts as one day, or as the policy's working-day length when the bank is in hours. A partial day counts the chosen hours. Organization holidays are not counted. The bank is only charged when the request is approved, and pending requests are not deducted from the estimate. If the bank resets every year and the request goes into a later year, a note explains how much unused time carries over. If the balance would go below zero on any date, that line turns red and the request may be refused on approval, unless the policy allows a negative balance. Review a request that uses a bank For a request that uses a bank, the Deny Request window, and the confirmation window for approvers who cannot assign replacements, also show the bank: its yearly allowance, Current balance, Future approved leave, Other pending requests, This request, the Balance on the first day off and what is Left if approved. A red amount means approving would put the bank below zero on that date, and the approval can be refused. Approving charges the bank, and Cancel leave returns the time. Set up time-off banks Administrators who can edit every staff profile manage banks in User management › Staff management › Time Off. Create a policy A policy describes one kind of bank, such as vacation or sick leave. On the Policies tab, click New policy. To keep related policies together, such as 20, 25 and 30-day tiers, create a New policy group first and choose it in Policy group (optional). Enter a Name and the Length of a working day, used to convert hours and partial days. Under How does this policy work?, choose Staff build up a balance or Unlimited time off (track usage). Unlimited policies record approved time off without needing a balance. Under How staff get time, choose How often is time added?: Monthly, Twice a month, Every two weeks, Weekly, Once a year, upfront or I add time myself. Enter the amount As a total per year or Each time it is added. A yearly total is split across the dates so that each year adds up exactly. Choose whether to Start counting from a date you choose or Each staff member's assignment date. Answer the remaining questions: a waiting period in days or months, whether the first accrual is the full amount or prorated, a maximum balance, and whether to Allow a negative balance. Under Carryover, answer Is there a yearly reset?. If yes, choose the reset date (the same date for everyone or each assignment anniversary), how much unused time carries over (all, up to a limit, or none), whether carried-over time expires, and whether to Approve each reset before it applies. Advanced lets carried-over time move into another policy's bank. Check the Summary, then click Save. When staff are already assigned, changes to accrual and carryover rules apply from the next day. Time already posted to banks does not change. Add or remove staff On the Policies tab, click View staff on a policy. Select people under Available staff and use the arrows to move them to On this policy. Double-click moves one person. Set the Start date for added staff and an optional Opening balance. Click Save changes. Nothing changes until you save. Removing someone ends their bank today. Their balance and history are kept, and new accruals and requests stop. A person whose bank was ended cannot be added to the same policy again from this window. You can also assign a policy to several people at once with Assign a policy on the Balances tab. Follow balances The Balances tab groups banks by staff member, with totals for each person. Search by staff name, filter by policy, and use Show to see All staff, Needs attention (for example, a balance below zero) or Resets to approve. Add time gives or removes time for several staff on the same policy. Use a negative amount to remove time. The reason is optional, and each person gets an entry in their bank history. History opens a bank's history: every accrual, adjustment, approved leave, reset and expiry, plus pending requests and resets not applied yet. From there you can make a Manual adjustment, use the Balance calculator to estimate a future balance, or End assignment. When a policy requires approval for yearly resets, a banner shows how many are waiting. Click Review resets, then approve them together. The staff profile Time Off tab Each staff profile has a Time Off tab showing that person's banks: the available amount, Current balance, Future approved leave and Pending requests, with History and Request buttons. Request opens the request window with that bank already selected. Below the banks, Time off requests lists the person's Upcoming or All requests. Troubleshooting A staff member cannot submit a request. Confirm that a staff resource is linked to their user. A manager cannot see a request. Check Approve time off, Can modify other staff schedule or the requester's place in the user hierarchy. A day cannot be picked. It is more than five years ahead. Editing says a request covers consecutive days only. Remove the extra days and submit them as a new request. A bank is missing from the request window. Confirm that the person has an active assignment to an active policy. Approval is refused for a bank request. The balance would drop below what the policy allows on one of the days. Add time, or ask the staff member to request fewer days or no bank. An approved request does not appear as unavailable. Confirm that it is still approved and that the person's staff resource is correct. No submission notification was sent. Confirm that the user hierarchy is on, a manager is assigned, and that manager has an email address or mobile number. Related guides Staff operations Staff profile and forms Staff management and scheduling: first-time setup