Creating and managing a Time Off Request

Super Admin, Admin, Manager, Clerk and Employee roles have the have the rights to create, edit or view Time Off Requests

 

Time Off Request  

A Time Off Request can be requested for a single day, a contiguous range of days, or for a portion of a day/shift. 

The article covers the following topics:

To Initiate a Time Off Request

Time Off Request Fields

New Time Off Request Additional Fields/Actions

To Review a Time Off Request

To Manage a Time Off Request

Existing Time off Request Actions

 

To Initiate a Time Off Request

A Time Off request may be initiated from:

1. Any FLOW screen

2. Within the Plan>Time Off Calendar or Plan>Time Off List

3. From the Employee Mobile App see Mobile App - Time Off

From any FLOW screen:

1. Click on the  button on the Top Bar, next to the Search box 

2. A menu pops up, select Add Time Off Request

3. The Create Time Off Request Dialog opens
   
   
   If you are adding a Time Off Request with a shift cell or job selected in PLAN, the Time Off Request dialog is populated with selected Employee's name and shift date, or today's date if no shift is selected.

From Plan>Time Off Calendar or Plan>Time Off List

1. Click the + Add Time off Request button on the Main Pane Header or
   Click on the  Add Time off Request button on the Top Bar, next to the Search box
   and choose Add Time Off Request

2. Using either method, the New Time Off Request panel opens in the Right Pane
   

 

Time Off Request Fields

All Day:  

1. This box is checked by default to submit an All Day or Multiple Day Time Off Request.  

2. For a Partial day Time Off Request:  

   1. click on the checkbox to remove the checkmark 

   2. a time range is added to the request, under the date fields
      
      

      

Status:  

The Status dropdown includes four options :

1. Requested

2. Declined

3. Canceled

4. Approved 

Employee: 

Start typing an Employee’s Name. If the Employee already exists, they will appear in the list after typing the first few characters. Press Enter to accept the suggested Employee or use your mouse to select the Employee from the list.  
 

Start Date: 

To add a start date:

1. Click the Date picker field and either type a date or select it from the Calendar.

2. Enter a Start Date 

End Date:  

1. Because All Day is checked by default, the End Date will immediately default to the Start Date.

2. For a Multiple day request, enter the end date for the time off request or choose a date from the drop-down calendar.  Optionally include any days off that fall within your requested time off.

3. Note: For a Partial Day Time Off Request, the End date cannot be changed

Units:

For All Day or Multiple Day requests:

1.  Enter the number of total units (hours) to be used for the time off request. FLOW will allocate these hours evenly across shift days normally worked (e.g., 40 for 1 work week 5 days/8-hour days).  
   Note: For requests in excess of shift(s) hours, the hours entered on the TOR are recorded on the shift for the employee, and in the timecard(s) produced.

2. Days not normally worked are included in the time off request for scheduling purposes – indicating the employee is not available to work those days (e.g. vacation time, spanning weekends)  

For Partial Day requests:

1.  Start Time, End Time, and Units are Required fields
   Note: If any two of the fields are entered, the third will calculate.
   e.g., if Start time is entered as 8 and Units are entered as 2.66, the end time will calculate automatically as 10.66 in Shift Details, even though it may initially appear in the TOR as 10.75.

   1. Enter the start time, tab  

   2. Enter the end time. 

   3. The Units will automatically calculate (end time minus start time)

2. Additional editing line, for a Partial Day Request:
   As soon as the reason has been entered in the field, a second editing line appears in the dialog for the user to add times and a second partial reason, if necessary

Reason:

Only Absence Codes are displayed in the drop-down list.  Enter a few characters of the absence code for the request, and choose the appropriate code from the drop-down.

Preference:

This is a code designation of the employee’s preference for the time off – e.g. 1 for 1^st choice, etc. 

Comment:

Any comment that may help in the Approval process may be added here 
 

Bank Icon 

The Bank icon is activated when a Time Off Request is saved. To review an Employee’s Time Off Balances click on the icon to see their details. For more information on this feature, see Viewing and managing employee time off balances

 

New Time Off Request Additional Fields/Actions

In the Create Time Off Request dialog: 

1. Allow Multiple (keep open after save): this checkbox, when enabled, allows the user to enter multiple time off requests while skipping steps 1 to 3 above. 

2. Action buttons: 

   1. Cancel: cancels the request and closes the dialog box 

   2. Clear: clears the data in the dialog bow, but leaves it open for further data entry 

   3. Save: Saves the time off request.
      A toast message appears in the bottom right-hand corner

In the New Time off Request pane 

1. Action buttons: 

   1. Undo: cancels the changes being made and clears the fields on the panel 

   2. Save: Saves the time off request.
      A toast message appears in the bottom right-hand corner
      The time off request panel disappears from the right-hand pane.

 

To Review a Time Off Request

The time off request for an employee with an assigned Area/Group/Job will appear in the Plan> Time Off Calendar or Plan> Time Off List pane when the Area/Group is selected. 

Administrators and/or Supervisor Role

1. Reviews and moves the Time Off Request through the approval workflow 

2. Requests entered by admin/supervisor may be immediately approved (can skip the pending process) 

Time Off View Options

Time off requests can be viewed in two different formats: a Calendar view and a List view.  

Time Off - Calendar View or List View

To view the details of a specific request, click on the appropriate cell. 

In either Time Off View, the durations to view Time Off requests are 1 Day, 1 Week, 2 Weeks, 3 Weeks, and 4 Weeks. If any duration greater than 1 week is chosen, a scroll bar will appear. 

 

Find an Employee to Review their Requests

If an employee is scheduled but is not assigned to an Area/Group/Job, the user can use Advanced Search, clear all filters, and search for the specific employee in that dialog. 

The user can also Filter, Group, and Sort in the Time Off View main pane toolbar, and in the more options menu choose to save the layout as a default.

The approver will need to determine which employee to grant time off if more than one employee requests the same time. For Example:

1. group by shift pattern to ensure you do not allow more than x employees off from the same shift (crew)

2. group by occupation to ensure you do not allow too many employees from the same trade-off for the same dates
   
   

To Manage a Time Off Request

Time Off Request Statuses

• Requested - acknowledges the user has submitted the request  

• Approved - 1st level of approval . If single Approval has been chosen in Location Settings, this will be the final approval status to publish the request to the schedule

• Accepted - 2nd level of approval if using 

• On Hold - acknowledges the approver has seen the request but has not made a decision 

• Declined - request is declined 

• Canceled - the user has canceled the request. Once a request is canceled, it cannot transition to another status; the user would need to submit a new time off request for the same dates 

• Publish - time off has been published to the schedule 

To Update the status of a Time Off Request:

1. Click on the current status displayed in the Time Off Pane

2. Choose one of the available options

3. Click Save
   A toast message will appear. The status will be changed in the Time Off Pane and in the Time Off Cell or List line item for the date(s) requested. 

4. Note: If a TOR field is edited after an Unapprove, the status button is dimmed until the user tabs out of the changed field and Saves the entry.

Posting a Request on the Schedule 

Once a time off request is updated to its final state, it will update the employee's schedule. The Final State Status is determined by the approval status chosen in the Location Settings. (e.g., with Single Approval, Approved is the final status)

In the Time Off Pane, the request is Approved/Published. In the Schedule, the time off is noted and a vacancy created.  The Time Off Balance table in the Employee profile is updated accordingly.

 For an All Day(s) Request: 

• The employee is unscheduled from the shifts/timecard for the day(s) 

• The hours from the request are distributed across those days 

• The timecard start time shows that time off is starting at midnight 

• If the Auto-create Vacancy for the job is checked, a Vacancy will be created for the days booked off 

• If the employee has multiple jobs for a given day.  

  • Within the day, the hours will be distributed across the jobs. 

  • The timecard start/end times will be aligned one after another (starting from midnight 

For a Partial Day Request:

• The employee is unscheduled from the shifts/timecard for the portion of the day requested 

• If the Auto-create Vacancy for the job is checked,

  • The employee is unscheduled from the shifts/timecard for the intersecting times 

  • An absence for the intersecting (matching) shift portions found on the shift is created 

• If the employee's assigned job has no shifts (no shift pattern) the partial day Time Off Request is generated.

• If there are no matching shift portions, the validation message - "Employee is assigned job for date; Time off Request times do not match expected shift" will appear. 

 Updates to Time Off Balances Grid

 A Time off Request with a status of published updates the time off balances accordingly. 

• If the Time Off Request date is greater than the current date the TOR units appear in the planned column 

• If the Time Off Request date is earlier than or equal to today's date the TOR units appear in the taken column 

• Both Planned and Taken are subtracted from Earned to calculate Available hours. 

Undo an Approved/Published Time Off Request

A  Time Off Request can be canceled or returned to Requested status. 

1. The employee is rescheduled back to their assigned shift template, and the Time Off Balances are updated in the accruals table. A Time Off Request with the status of Requested or On Hold appears in the last column in the Time Off Balances grid.

2. If any other employee has been scheduled for the same shift portion (overlapping), the replacement employee is maintained by moving the employee to a new shift on the same job. 

  

Existing Time off Request Actions

To take action on an existing Time Off Request:

1. Click the three-dot (…) icon in the right pane and select from the Time Off Requests Options menu

Delete Time Off Request 

To delete an unpublished Time Off Request from the right pane:

Users can delete an unpublished Time off Request from the more options menu. An unpublished Time Off Request has not been committed to the schedule or the Time Off Balances table, so the TOR disappears.

• Ensure the Time Off Request is not published

• Click the three-dot icon from the right pane

• Select Delete Time Off Request
  The time off request is deleted

To ‘delete’ a published Time Off Request from the right pane:

A published TOR cannot be immediately deleted from the More Options menu.  A confirmation message will appear, and the user will have to adjust the schedule accordingly is they delete prior to returning the request to an unpublished state.

1. Choose a Time Off Request with an Approved/Published Status

2. Click the three-dot icon from the right pane

3. Select Delete Time Off Request

4. A confirmation message appears:
   
   

   

    

5. Click No,

   1. The message closes.

   2. Return to the Status field in the right pane and choose an unpublished status for the TOR to be removed from the schedule and the Time Off Balances grid for the employee.

   3. Select Delete Time Off Request from the more options menu
      The time off request is deleted

6. Note: If the User chooses to click Yes in the dialog, the Time Off Balance table will be inaccurate until each cell showing the deleted approved time off is manually adjusted.