Set up leave and run your first request

Set your time off types, annual allowance and carry-over rules, then take one request from submission to approval and see it on the planner.

People & HRBeginner12 minutesDay 10 of 30

Topics:HR and peopleGetting started

Before you start

Leave in Flowtly rests on three settings: the time off types people can request, the yearly allowance each contract variant earns, and what happens to unused days at the end of the year. Once those are in place, every request draws on a balance Flowtly can calculate.

This tutorial sets up all three, then runs one request end to end. The employee files it from My absences, a manager accepts it from Time off requests, and the absence appears on the Time off planner.

You need the Time off manager role to change these settings. Run the request with two accounts, one for the employee and one for the manager: the Time off requests list offers no Accept on your own request.

What you will have at the end

Your organisation has its time off types, a default annual allowance and a carry-over rule, and one request has been approved and shows on the planner.

What you need

  • The Time off manager role, or an administrator who can grant it.
  • An employee with an active agreement, for example an Employment contract, plus a second person to approve.
  • Your policy: yearly days per contract variant, and how many unused days may roll over and until when.

Complete these tutorials first

Try it in the demo

Click through these screens with sample data first. No account needed.

Open the live demo

Step-by-step

Complete the flow

  1. 1

    Choose your time off types

    Open Settings → People and click the Time off types tile. The page lists the types your team can request. Click Add time off type to add one. Predefined turns on a built-in type under a name you choose, picked from Built-in type. Custom creates a type of your own with a name, an icon and a color.

    Tips

    • A new type starts as Requires approval. Switch it to Accepted automatically only for absences nobody needs to sign off. The balance is still used up, and a request the balance cannot cover is still refused.
    • Approval count on the same page sets how many people must approve a request before it is booked. Enter the number and click Save.
    • If the absence behaves like one of the built-in types, choose Predefined and rename it rather than recreating it as Custom.
  2. 2

    Set the default annual allowance

    Back in Settings → People, open the Annual time off tile and click Add annual time off. Enter the Leave allowance in days, hours or minutes. Pick the Date from when it starts to apply, the Variant it covers (the contract type), such as Employment contract, and the Time off type it funds. Click Save.

    Tips

    • The allowance follows the contract variant. A person whose contract variant has no allowance gets a warning on their profile that no leave limit is set.
    • For one person who earns a different number of days, open their profile and add a personal row on the Annual time off tab. It overrides the organisation default for them.
  3. 3

    Decide what happens to unused days

    Open the Time off carry-over tile in Settings → People. Turn on Enable carry-over policy to let unused days roll into the next year. Set Expiry date (MM-DD), for example 03-31, and Max carried days, where 0 means unlimited. Turn on Consume carried days first if older days should be used before this year's allowance. Click Save.

    Tips

    • Under Carry-over per contract type you can override the main switch for a single contract type and give it its own expiry date.
    • If carry-over stays off, Flowtly keeps its legacy time off balance behavior.
  4. 4

    Submit a request as the employee

    Sign in as the employee and open My absences in the side menu. Click New time off request. Choose the Type, add a Description if your organisation asks for one, and select the dates in the calendar. The What this request changes panel shows the working days it costs and the balance before and after. Click Create request.

    Tips

    • Create request stays disabled until a type and dates are chosen and the range holds at least one working day. It also stays disabled when the request does not fit the balance.
    • For part of a day, select a single date and pick the number of Hours. Full day books the whole working day.
    • The request appears on the Time off requests tab of My absences with the status Pending.
  5. 5

    Approve it as the manager

    Sign in as the manager and open Time off → Time off requests in the side menu. Click the employee's row to open its details. Check the type, dates and duration, then click Accept. If the request should not go ahead, click Reject instead.

    Tips

    • With an Approval count above 1, the status shows how many approvals are in, for example Accepted 1 / 2, and the request stays open until the last one.
    • The Time off approvers tile in Settings → People shows who approves each person: someone assigned directly first, then their direct supervisor, then their department manager, then anyone with the Time off manager role.
    • The requests page needs the Time off manager or Time off verifier role. Your own request never shows Accept or Reject for you.
  6. 6

    See it on the planner

    Open the Time off planner tab. Each person is a row and each absence is a tile across its days. A request still waiting for approval reads Pending in front of its type, and the legend shows the Pending request key. After the final approval, the tile shows the type alone.

    Tips

    • The employee now finds the absence on the Time off history tab of My absences, with the status Accepted.
    • Remote requests are not drawn on the planner.

You’re finished!

Leave is configured and your first request has gone from submission to approval. Every new request now draws on the allowance you set and goes to the right approver.

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