Overview
Time off lets staff submit requests for time away from work, and allows approvers review, approve, reject or cancel those requests. Approved time off automatically reduces availability on the Capacity Planning tool and automatically creates a non-billable timesheet entry.
Availability and access
Time off is available on the Pro and Advanced plans.
If Time off isn't visible in the navigation, check with an administrator or review plan details.
Setting up leave types
Before staff can submit a time off request, an administrator needs to set up at least one leave type.
A leave type is a category of time off (for example, annual leave or sick leave). Each leave type has:
- A name and optional description.
- A colour, chosen from a preset list – this is how the leave type appears on the Capacity Planning grid.
- A job and task, used to generate the non-billable timesheet entry when a request in this leave type is approved.
To set up a leave type
- Go to Settings > General > Time off.
- Open the Leave types tab.
- Add a new leave type, or edit an existing one.
- Enter a name and optional description.
- Choose a colour.
- Select the job and task to map this leave type to.
- Save.
The job and task mapped here are used to create the timesheet entry once a request is approved – see How approved time off affects timesheets.
Setting up the approval workflow
Approval rules for time off are configured separately from leave types, in the Approvals area of settings – the same area used for timesheet approvals.
To set up time off approvers
- Go to Settings > Approvals > Time off.
- Under Customise approvers, set up approval groups – who approves time off requests for which staff.
- Optionally, use Copy from approval timesheets to copy existing timesheet approver groups as a starting point, then adjust as needed.
- Under Rejection reasons, configure the reasons an approver can select when rejecting a request.
Time off reuses the same underlying approval framework as timesheet approvals. Where timesheet approval groups already exist for an organisation, copying them is usually the fastest way to get started.
An approver can only act on time off requests for staff they're configured as an approver for, based on these approval groups. There's currently no "approve any request" role that bypasses this setup – every approver must be explicitly included in an approval group for the relevant staff member.
Requesting time off
Staff submit and track their own time off requests from the Time off page.
To submit a request
- Go to Time off.
- On the My time off tab, click New time off request.
- Select the leave type.
- Select the start and end dates.
- Enter the hours for each day covered by the request – days can have different hours (for example, a full day followed by a half day).
- Add an optional comment.
- Submit the request.
The request appears on the My time off tab with a status of Pending, and the configured approver is emailed automatically.
Submitting on behalf of someone else
Where an approver is set up for a staff member, that approver can submit a time off request on the staff member's behalf using the same New time off request flow, selecting that staff member instead of themselves.
Viewing and filtering requests
The My time off tab lists a staff member's own requests. Requests can be filtered by status: All, Pending, Approved, Declined or Cancelled.
Editing or cancelling a request
- A request can be edited while it's Pending or Approved.
If an approved request is edited, it returns to Pending and needs to be re-approved. Editing an approved request does not remove the timesheet entry created by the original approval – if the edited request is later cancelled, that cleanup happens as normal at that point.
- A request can be cancelled while it's Pending or Approved.
- Multiple requests can be selected on the My time off tab and cancelled together.
Approving, rejecting, and cancelling requests
Approvers review and action requests from the Team time off tab.
Reviewing pending requests
- Go to Time off > Team time off.
- Requests awaiting approval appear in the pending list (and in a pending-approvals banner at the top of the tab).
- Open a request to review its details – leave type, dates, hours per day, and any comment from the requester.
- Approve the request, or Reject it and select a rejection reason.
A calendar view of the team's time off is also available alongside the pending list.
Cancelling a request as an approver
In addition to the request holder, an approver can cancel a request that's Pending or Approved.
Request states
A time off request moves through the following states:
- Pending – submitted, awaiting approver action.
- Approved – approved by the configured approver.
- Declined – rejected by the approver, with a rejection reason.
- Cancelled – cancelled by the holder or the approver.
Once a request is Declined or Cancelled, it can't be reopened – a new request needs to be submitted.
Every action on a request (submission, approval, rejection, cancellation, and edits to an approved request) is recorded in the request's history, providing a full record of who did what and when.
How approved time off affects Capacity Planning
Time off requests appear on the Capacity Planning tool as soon as they're submitted – both Pending and Approved requests are shown, making upcoming time off visible before it's confirmed.
- Each request is shown as a coloured bar in the staff member's row, using the colour set on its leave type.
- Pending and approved requests are visually distinguished from each other on the grid.
If a request is cancelled, it's removed from the grid.
How approved time off affects timesheets
When a request is approved, it automatically creates a non-billable timesheet entry for each day covered by the request, using the job and task mapped to that request's leave type.
If the request is later cancelled, those auto-generated timesheet entries are automatically deleted.
This automatic cleanup happens on cancellation. If an approved request is edited instead of cancelled, the original timesheet entries from that approval are not automatically removed at the point of editing.
Email notifications
The time off feature sends the following email notifications:
- When a request is submitted, the configured approver is emailed.
- When an approver approves or rejects a request, the requester is emailed.