Approving and declining leave

This page is for coordinators and registered managers, and covers deciding a leave request and what each decision does to the rota.

Decide a request

Open “Leave” in the navigation.
Keep the “waiting” shelf selected. Each request is a card that reads as a sentence: who asks for how many days, which dates, and why.
Read what approving would do, in the line under it and the visits listed beneath, each with how many people are free to cover it.
Select “Approve” or “Decline” across the foot of the card. The pencil and the bin in its corner edit or remove the request.

What the card tells you first

Before you answer, the card does the arithmetic for you.

The allowance. “12 of 28 days used this year”. If this request would take them past their allowance, the line turns red and adds “over their allowance”. It is a fact for you to weigh, not a block.

The rota. Either “No visits assigned in this range, so approving changes nothing on the rota.”, or a count such as “4 visits need cover, and all have someone free.”, or in red “4 visits need cover; 1 have nobody free.”

The visits themselves. Up to four of them, each with its date, time and client, and each with a count: “2 free”, or “Nobody free” in red where the answer is nobody. A longer list ends with “and 2 more”. Each line opens the visit.

The same cover arithmetic is used again if you approve, so what you were shown is what you are offered.

Approving, with cover

Selecting “Approve” approves the request at once, and emails the person that their leave was approved.

Their visits are not emptied. Instead the suggestion dialog opens on the spot, headed “Review rota changes”, with the line “Cover the visits this leave affects for” and the person’s name. Ticked swaps are applied when you confirm, and each replacement is told about their new visit.

Untick any visit you would rather handle yourself.
Select “Apply 4 changes”.

Anyone put on a published visit is emailed straight away. Anything that could not be swapped is listed with its reason, and the rest still goes through. “Take back these 4 changes” undoes the lot.

If you would rather not deal with it now, “Dismiss suggestion” closes the offer for good and leaves the visits where they are, flagged. If nothing upcoming is affected, no dialog appears at all.

The offer also waits for you on the dashboard under “Rota suggestions”, so closing the dialog by accident loses nothing. See Reviewing and applying a suggestion.

Booking leave yourself, with “Book leave”, works the same way. It is approved as it is saved, and the cover dialog opens behind it.

Declining

Select “Decline” on the request.
Add a line under “Why (optional)” if it helps, for example that the week is already two short.
Select “Decline request”.

The person is emailed that the request was declined, and the decision shows on their profile as “Declined”.

Your line is kept with the request. It goes out in that email, under “They said:”, and it sits under the “Declined” badge on the “Leave” page and on their profile, as “Why it was declined:”. Leave it empty and the badge stands on its own.

A request is decided once. A decided request cannot be flipped later, and a declined one stays declined; if the answer changes, new dates are booked instead.

Withdrawing leave after it was approved

Approved leave is a decision, so only a coordinator can take it back.

Open “Leave” and select the “current and upcoming” shelf.
Find the row and select “Remove”.
Select “Remove” in “Remove this leave?” to confirm.

The person is emailed that their leave dates changed, and their flagged visits go back to normal.

The rota then raises a suggestion, “Give the days back”. It offers two things: cover that was arranged for those days can go back to the person whose leave it was, and any other open place on those days can be theirs. As with every suggestion, nothing moves until you apply it.

Editing approved leave with “Edit” does the same in proportion. Extending it offers cover for the new days; pulling it in offers the freed days back.