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Getting started with Leave Management

See how the Leaves module works, what each screen is for and the order to set things up in.

Knowing who is available and when is the difference between filling a shift and losing it. The Leaves module keeps that information in one place: the leave your employees take, the times your contracted workers cannot work, and a calendar that shows it all together.

This guide explains how the module fits together. Each part then has its own detailed guide, linked below.

 

Before you begin

  • Leave Management is available on Agency Accelerator Pro.
  • You will need a user access level that allows you to manage leave. Approving leave and setting allowances may need a higher access level.

 

Leave or unavailability: which applies to which worker

What you record for a worker depends on how they are engaged with your agency, and the screens change to match.

  • PAYE employees are employed by your agency and have a leave entitlement. You record leave for them, and paid leave comes off their balance.
  • Workers engaged through their own limited company (PSC) or an umbrella company are not employed by you and have no leave entitlement with your agency. You record unavailability for them instead, which simply marks the times they cannot work.

When you choose a worker, the platform shows the right form for them automatically.

 

Leave types

There are three leave types, each available as paid or unpaid:

  • General: holidays and general time off
  • Sick Leave: time off through illness
  • Suspension: time off while a worker is suspended

Paid leave comes off the worker's balance once it is approved. Unpaid leave does not, so no balance can be set for unpaid types.

 

The four Leaves screens

Select Leaves in the left hand menu to see four options:

  • Leave Allowance: set how much paid leave each employee is entitled to each year, in days or hours. See How to set up leave allowances.
  • Add Leave: record leave for an employee or unavailability for a contracted worker. See How to add leave on behalf of a worker and How to manage worker availability.
  • Leave Requests: approve, reject or cancel leave, and check each request's history. See How to manage leave requests.
  • Leave Summary: a calendar of everyone's leave and unavailability. Covered below.

 

How leave moves through the module

  1. Set allowances. Give each PAYE employee their paid leave entitlement for the year in Leave Allowance.
  2. Leave is requested. A worker requests leave in the Care Hires Worker app, or your team records it for them in Add Leave. Either way, it is checked for clashes with shifts and existing leave.
  3. Leave is reviewed. The request waits in Leave Requests as Pending until someone approves or rejects it.
  4. Leave is confirmed. Once approved, the worker is notified, paid leave comes off their balance, and the leave shows in Leave Summary. The worker is not offered shifts at those times.
  5. Plans change. Approved leave can be cancelled, which puts paid leave back into the balance and makes the worker available for shifts again.

Unavailability for contracted workers is simpler. It is recorded in Add Leave and shows in Leave Summary straight away, with no balance and no approval.

Tip: Set up allowances before the first request of the leave year. A worker with an allowance of zero will look as though every request exceeds their entitlement.

 

Upcoming holidays

The Upcoming Holidays panel appears on the right of Add Leave and Leave Requests. It lists the year's holidays, with tabs for the previous and following year. Each one is marked BH for a bank holiday or SH for a special holiday, such as Christmas Day. It is a useful sense check whenever leave falls near a holiday.

 

Viewing everyone's time off in Leave Summary

Select Leaves, then Leave Summary, for a calendar of your whole workforce.

  • Find people and dates: use Search by Employee ID/Name, and the year and month dropdowns to move through the calendar.
  • Read the grid: each row is a worker, with their name, reference number and whether they are PAYE or PSC. Each column is a day of the month, with weekends highlighted.
  • Move through your workforce: use the page numbers and the results per page dropdown at the bottom.

The markers in the grid show what has been recorded:

  • A full circle: a full day of leave
  • A half circle: a half day of leave
  • A coloured square with a number: unavailability, with the number showing how many time windows there are that day

Hover over a marker for the detail, such as Full day (1D) or No of unavailability: 2. Select Leave Types Key at the top right to see what each colour means:

  • General, Sick Leave and Suspension each have their own colour, darker for paid and lighter for unpaid
  • Unavailability is a pink square
  • Non-working day is shown with stripes, taken from the worker's working schedule

Select a marker to open that day in more detail. See How to manage worker availability.

 

Looking at one worker

Select the chevron beside a worker's name in Leave Summary to open their record.

  • For a PAYE employee: an Employee Summary with their locations, a Leave Balance showing each leave type's allowance, amount used and amount remaining, and a Leave Summary listing every leave entry with its dates, duration, type, reason and status.
  • For a contracted worker: an Employee Summary and an Availability Summary for the next seven days.

The badge beside their name shows their profile status, such as Active, Draft or Suspended.

 

Where to go next

  • How to set up leave allowances: entitlements, days or hours, and balance history
  • How to add leave on behalf of a worker: recording leave for an employee, single or multiple days, and clashes
  • How to manage worker availability: unavailability for contracted workers, the day view and deleting entries
  • How to manage leave requests: approving, rejecting, cancelling and checking request history

 

If something looks wrong

  • You cannot see the Leaves menu. Leave Management is a Pro feature, and your access level must allow it.
  • The wrong form appears for a worker. Leave types for a contracted worker, or unavailability for a PAYE employee, usually means the employment type on their profile is incorrect.

If you cannot put something right, contact our Support Team with the worker's reference number and what you were trying to do.