You can manage all of your time off requests from within the Requests section of your Schedule Xpress. You'll have access to approve, decline or add time off requests on behalf of your employees.

This article will cover the following steps of the Requests section in Schedule Xpress:

Finding your Requests

Time off request settings

Giving access to the Requests feature

Adding Time off types

Employee access to Time off

Time off request notifications

View schedule in Requests (Time off)

Managing your Requests

Adding Time off on behalf of employees

Time off validations when scheduling

Time Off report

You can find the Requests section on the command strip on the left-edge of Schedule Xpress. It appears as a check mark inside of a suitcase.

The Employee Time off settings allows you to define:

Let's look at how you can set them up.

You can set a parameter to cancel an approved time off request prior to it taking place.

For example, if you chose 48 hours, the employees could cancel the time off request up to 48 hours before. Anytime within 48 hours will NOT allow the employees to cancel the time off request.

Employees can create and modify their time off records using From and Up to dates.

Let's look at From dates for Time off requests.

If All dates is selected, the employees will be able to select any future date to create or modify time off requests.

On or after 'x' date means that employees can select the From date on or after the selected date (example shows 06/30/2023). Any date before this date CAN NOT be selected or modified.

You can choose 'x' days before/after or after the current date (example if 7 days) as a parameter for when employees can create or modify Time off records.

You can use the dropdown to choose before or after.

Let's look at Up to dates for Time off requests.

If All dates is selected, the employees will be able to select any future date.

On or before 'x' date means that employees can select the Up to date on or after the selected date (example shows 06/30/2023). Any date after this date CAN NOT be selected or modified.

You can choose 'x' days before/after or after the current date (example if 7 days) as a parameter for when employees can create or modify Time off records.

You can use the dropdown to choose before or after.

You can use the Time off requests blocked feature to prevent employees from requesting time off on certain dates.

This can be found in Schedule Xpress, under Settings > Security > Additional Employee settings > Employee Time off settings.

You can use this feature to choose any dates you want to block your employees from being able to request time off for. If they do request time off, they will receive an error message in their Team Xpress app.

If a day in your schedule is blocked for time off requests, it will also be shown in the Schedule info widget.

The employee will receive the following error if they attempt to book time off on a blocked date.

If you haven't been given access to see and use this feature, it may not appear for you. If you require it, please contact your supervisor to enable it in your Feature access group.

If you want to add new Time off types that employees can request, you can do so in either Schedule Xpress or eTime Xpress.

Inside Schedule Xpress, head to Settings > Branch defaults > Time off types.

You'll see your list of Time off types and codes.

If you want to Add or adjust Time off type, click the Edit time off types option in the top-right corner.

Ensure you click Show codes if you're adding a new Time off type.

To edit an existing code, just retype over the description in the Time off type column.

Note: You cannot adjust the code of an existing Time off type.

Press + Add Time off type to add a new Time off type. You'll then see a new line is added and you can add your Time off code and Time off type.

Note: Ensure that you give employees access to request a new or existing Time off type.

Inside eTime Xpress, head to Configuration > Company/Branch > Branch > Branch Codes > Branch Time Off Codes.

Inside, you can click the green + to add a new Time off type.

Your Time Off settings allow you to add an optional reason or comment when approving or declining requests, helping you communicate more effectively with employees. This feature is called Manage Comment.

To enable your Time Off settings, go to Settings > Branch Defaults > Time Off. Click 'Edit time off types' in the top-right corner, then set the flag to 'Yes' before saving.

Employee access to submit time off requests from within their Team Xpress app is dependent on the settings in their Employee access group.

In the Time off section of any Employee access group, you're able to define:

If you've allowed employees to cancel time off after approval, you'll have to set a cancellation deadline prior to the time off start time. You can do this in your General settings.

If an employee cancels an approved time off, you'll be notified and it will list as Cancelled within your Requests. This will allow them to be scheduled.

For example, if you set this time as 48 hours before time off start time, the employee will be able to cancel their time off up to 48 hours prior to it beginning. If they don't do this in time, they'll be unable to cancel it.

If you still want to allow them to cancel a request after the deadline has passed, you can decline the time off request to ensure that they can be scheduled.

Many companies like to restrict when employees can request time off. This is often to prevent last-minute changes to the schedule. An example is that an employee can request time no less than 14 days after the current date.

You can set this up in eTime Xpress, under Visual Scheduler > Tools > Time Off Schedule > File > Time Off Entry Settings.

You can choose your From Time Off Entry Date and To Time Off Entry Date. If you want a certain period between the current date and when an employee can request time off, you can choose the #days Days After Current Date, as below.

If you want to see how an employee will request time off from within their Team Xpress app, please visit our Submitting Time Off Requests in Team Xpress article.

You can ensure that you receive notifications for any time off requests sent by employees, and also any changes such as time off request cancellations. These can be received through you Notifications bell in the top-right corner of your Schedule Xpress.

Please ensure you have Time off requests check marked in order to receive notifications.

You can receive email notifications for time off requests. The setup is in Schedule Xpress, under Settings > Branch features > Notifications > Time off.

Inside, you can define message templates, notification quiet times and general Notification settings.

For the Notification settings, you can use your Global defaults settings or choose Custom. If you choose Custom, you'll be able to define how time off notifications are distributed to employees, and input a generic email address to receive all time off email notifications.

If you want multiple email addresses to receive these notifications, add the email addresses and separate them with semicolons (;). See example below.

Here's an example of a time off email notification. You can click Review Time Off Requests to access the request.

The schedule view options in your Requests module enables you to see the schedule of an individual employee or the schedules of all your employees at once.

This allows users to view their schedules before accepting any time off requests, helping to prevent oversights.

When you click 'View *Employee Name's* Schedule', a new tab will open, displaying their schedule for the date(s) specified in the time off request.

The example below shows the schedule for Chris Smith during the period of a Paid Time Off request from November 21st to November 22nd. This helps the user see that Chris is scheduled to work on one of those two days, which may influence their decision to approve the request.

When you click 'View All Employees Schedule', a new tab will open, displaying the entire schedule for the date(s) specified in the time off request.

This can assist users in determining whether they have adequate coverage if they choose to approve the request.

Let's break down how you can use the Request module to best manage your time off requests.

Upon entering Requests, you'll find yourself in the Approvals section. This section shows all time off requests which require you to Approve or Decline.

If you have any requests to action, they will be listed here. The orange toggle at the top of your screen will show with the number of requests you need to action.

Note: The Requests section is also home to Shift drops.

You can choose filters to find specific requests. The filters are:

If you select an option within a filter, press Apply to take ensure it takes effect.

You can Clear all filters to undo any filters.

You have the decision to Approve or Decline any time off request. To do so, highlight the specific request by check marking it on the left-edge, and choose Approve or Decline.

The employee will be informed of your decision via in-app notification in Team Xpress, and email or SMS if they've consented to receive them.

Whether you choose to Approve or Decline, or they remain in Requested or Cancelled status, all of the time off requests will be inside of the All requests section.

When approving or declining a request, you can leave a comment for the employee.

The employee will be able to view this directly within the specific request in their Team Xpress app.

This will also be visible in their notifications panel.

The All requests section is home to ALL of your requests. That includes:

You need to ensure that your date range is showing the range of data you want to see. But before picking your date range, you need to ensure that you've chosen sent on or for date.

You can choose either sent on or for date for your date range.

Let's look at sent on.

If you choose sent on, you can search for:

The example above shows a search for requests that were sent between April 1st - April 30th. The results will be indicated in the Sent column.

If we choose for date, you're able to select:

The requests listed under for date will show the exact dates in the Date column of your All requests.

If you want to remove or add columns, you can use the 3 dots on the top-right corner of the grid.

You can add time off on behalf of employees. This may be because they don't have access, or simply don't know how to do it.

To do so, click Add time off in the top-right corner of the All requests section.

You'll be required to fill the form, which consists of:

This section is especially important, as it will reflect in your Payroll. It's entirely dependent on how you want to operate.

If you want to choose the Auto calculate debit amount option, you can select Yes. If not, ensure that you press No.

If you choose to Auto calculate, the debit amount will reflect the hours you've chosen in your Start date/End date and Start time/End time. For example, if you choose to pay for Vacation and an employee typically works 8 hours a day, you need to reflect those 8 hours in the date and time. Not 12:00am-12:00am.

Alternatively, if you want the time off requests to be 12:00am-12:00am (all day), but only reflect 8 debit hours for the actual time the employee would have worked, you can turn the Auto calculate debit amount to No, and manually add the 8 hours.
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It's important to know that your Schedule Xpress will prevent you from scheduling someone if they have an Approved time off request on the given day(s). This will appear a Time Off Conflict.

Dependent on your system setup, it will appear as either an error or a warning. If an error, you will not be able to bypass it, and will only be able to discard the shift. If a warning, you can decide whether to ignore the warning, or discard the shift.

You can access the Time Off report inside eTime Xpress. It is located under Reports > Customer & Employee > Time Off.

You can choose parameters for:

Here's an example of a report.

If you require any support with managing your time off requests, please Contact Support now!