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Guide
Set up time off
Define your types of time off and working calendars, then take one request from an employee through a manager’s approval.
Before you start
- A role with the permission to manage leave. That alone shows HR & TalentHR Settings in your menu with its “Time off” section. The built-in HR manager role has it.
- Each person’s manager set on their file. A request goes to the people above the requester in the reporting line.
- Each person’s start date and work location on their file. Earning starts at the start date, and the work location picks the calendar.
Set up the types
Step 1: Open the time off setup
Go to HR & TalentHR Settings and scroll to “Time off”. There are two cards: “Types of time off” and “Working calendars”.
Your instance starts with a set of types already there. Check them before adding your own: click the edit button on a row to change it.
Step 2: Add a type
On “Types of time off”, click “Add”. Enter a “Name”, then set the four switches: “Has a yearly allowance”, “Needs a manager’s approval”, “Paid” and “Can be taken by the hour”.
With “Can be taken by the hour” on, people can request part of a day, for example two hours for an appointment. Two lists appear: “Smallest amount” (15 min, 30 min, 1 hour or 2 hours) and “Most in one request” (“No limit”, or 1 to 6 hours). Anything longer than the most is requested as a half or whole day. Switch it off for a type that should only be taken in whole or half days.
With “Has a yearly allowance” off, the type is recorded with no limit and the allowance fields in step 3 are hidden.
When you later edit a type, one more switch appears: “Available to request”. Switch it off to stop people requesting that type without losing its history.Step 3: Set the allowance
Enter “Days per year”. For “Earned”, choose “All at the start of the year” or “A twelfth each month”. Enter “Days that carry over”: anything above this lapses at the end of the year. Switch on “Can go below zero” if people may request more than they have.
Step 4: Choose where this year starts
For a new type, “This year, people get” has two options:
- “The whole year’s allowance”: counting starts on 1 January. Then take off what each person has already used this year, from their employee file (step 12).
- “Only the share from this month on”: counting starts today.
Click “Save”. People are credited straight away, and can request the type as soon as it exists.
This choice is made once, when the type is created. Later, changing the allowance applies from the next period and does not recalculate days already credited.
Set up the calendars
Step 5: Add a working calendar
On “Working calendars”, click “Add”. Enter a “Name” and, if it is for one office, pick “Used for work location”. Under “Working days”, select the days of the week people work.
Set “Working day starts at” and “Hours in a working day” (between 1 and 24; it starts at 8). Time off taken by the hour is counted as a part of this day: 2 hours of an 8-hour day is a quarter of a day.
With no calendar at all, everyone is counted on a Monday to Friday week with no public holidays.
Step 6: Add the public holidays
Under “Public holidays”, click “Add a holiday” and enter the “Date” and “Holiday” name for each one. Holidays are never charged against someone’s time off.
Step 7: Pick the default
Switch on “Default calendar” for the calendar that applies to anyone whose work location matches no other calendar. There is always exactly one default, and your first calendar becomes it. Click “Save”.
Make and approve a first request
Step 8: An employee requests time off
The employee opens My WorkTime Off and clicks “Request time off”. They pick the “Type”. If the type can be taken by the hour, two buttons appear beside it: “Whole days” and “A few hours”.
For “Whole days” they pick the “First and last day”, and can tick “Half day on the first day” or “Half day on the last day” (for a single day, “Half a day”).
For “A few hours” they pick the “Day” and “Starts at”, then a length under “How long”. “Rest of the day” runs to the end of the working day, and “Other” shows an “Ends at” field for any other length.
The form shows what this uses, what is left after it, on which calendar it is counted and any holidays not counted. For a request of one day, or of hours on one day, it also shows who else in their team is out then, when the team has more than one person. They click “Send request”.
A request for one day, or for hours on one day, can be repeated: tick “Repeat every (weekday) for” and choose 2, 4, 6, 8 or 12 weeks. Each week is sent as its own request.
The “Note for your manager (optional)” is not the place for medical details. Only the type of time off is recorded.The same steps, written for the employee, are in Request time off.
Step 9: The manager decides
The employee’s manager is notified. They open My WorkTime Off and find the request under “Waiting for you”, with the days requested and the days available. They click “Approve”, or “Decline” and enter a “Reason”, which the employee sees.
Under each request the manager sees the employee’s week and how many of the team would be away. If one employee has several requests waiting, the first one also offers “Approve all N of (first name)’s requests” and “Decline several”. Declining several asks for a “Reason for all of them”, or tick “Give a different reason for each”; untick any request you want to leave waiting.
Anyone above the employee in the reporting line can decide, and so can someone with the permission to manage leave. Nobody can decide their own request.
The same steps, written for the manager, are in Approve your team’s time off.
Step 10: Types that need no approval
If the type has “Needs a manager’s approval” off, the button reads “Record time off” and the time off is recorded straight away, with nobody asked.
Step 11: Cancel if plans change
Under “My requests”, the employee can click “Cancel” on a request still waiting, or on an approved one that has not started yet. The days go back to their balance. Once time off has started, someone with the permission to manage leave has to cancel it.
Correct a balance
Step 12: Adjust someone's balance
Go to HR & TalentPeople, open the person and select the “Time off” tab. Click “Adjust balance”, choose the “Type”, enter the “Days to add or remove” (use a minus sign to remove days, for example -2) and a “Reason”. Click “Adjust”.
The adjustment is added to the balance history with your name and the reason.
Step 13: Time off for someone who cannot ask for it themselves
Nobody can enter a time off request for another person: not HR, not a manager and not an administrator. “Request time off” always makes the request for whoever is signed in, and neither the person’s “Time off” tab nor the manager’s screens have a button for it.
For someone who is off sick and cannot sign in, you have two choices. Have them make the request themselves once they can sign in. Or take the days off their balance now with “Adjust balance” in step 12, entering a minus number and the reason.
“Adjust balance” is offered only for a type that has a yearly allowance. A type without one has no balance to change: the button is missing when the person has no type with an allowance, and such a type is not in the “Type” list. For that type the only record is the request the person makes when they can sign in again.
An adjustment changes the balance only. It is not a request, so it has no dates: the person does not appear on the “Who’s out” calendar for those days, and nothing goes to their manager to approve.
What someone with the permission to manage leave can do on another person’s request is cancel it: on their “Time off” tab, click “Cancel” beside a request that is waiting or approved.
What you should see
The employee’s request shows “Waiting for approval”, then “Approved”, and their tile shows fewer days available. They are notified of the decision.
The “Who’s out” calendar on My WorkTime Off shows the time off to the people around them. Their peers see only that they are out, not the type.
If something goes wrong
- The Request time off button is greyed out, or "HR has not set up any type of time off yet."
- No type is available to request. Add one in HR Settings, or edit a type and switch on Available to request.
- "Those dates contain no working days, so there is nothing to request."
- The dates fall only on non-working days or holidays on that person’s calendar. Check the calendar matching their work location.
- "You only have … available", or "Not enough … left"
- The request is larger than the available days. Days in requests still waiting for a decision are already held back. Adjust the balance, or switch on Can go below zero for that type.
- "You already have time off requested for some of those days."
- The dates overlap a request that is waiting or approved. Cancel that one first or pick other dates.
- "Hours cannot be added to a day that already has a whole or half day off."
- A day holds either a whole or half day, or time off by the hour, never both. Pick another day, or cancel the other request first.
- The form says a booking by the hour overlaps one the employee already has.
- Two bookings by the hour on one day cannot overlap. Click the Start at … instead button the form offers, or pick another length.
- Whole days and A few hours are not shown in the request form.
- The type is kept to whole days. Edit the type in HR Settings and switch on Can be taken by the hour.
- The manager does not see the request under Waiting for you.
- Requests go to the people above the employee in the reporting line. Check the Manager on the employee’s file. Someone with the permission to manage leave sees every waiting request and can decide it meanwhile.
- You want to record sick leave or book holiday for another person, and there is no button for it.
- There is none: a request can only be made by the person it is for. Ask them to make it, or use Adjust balance as step 13 describes. Adjust balance works only for a type that has a yearly allowance; for a type without one, the request the person makes later is the only record.
- "This time off has already started. Ask HR to change it."
- An employee cannot cancel approved time off once it has begun. Someone with the permission to manage leave can.
- "Make another calendar the default before deleting this one."
- Edit another calendar and switch on Default calendar, then delete this one.
Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.