Managing and Recording Worker Leaves & Availability

Knowing who is available and when is the difference between filling a shift and losing it. The Leaves area is where that information lives — both the leave your employees take and the days your contracted workers tell you they cannot work.

What you record depends on how the worker is engaged, and the screen changes to match:

PAYE employees are employed by your agency and have a leave entitlement, so you record leave against them and it draws down 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, so you record unavailability instead

Both are recorded on the same screen, and both appear on the same calendar afterwards.

Before you begin

You will need a user access level that allows you to manage leave.
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.
For paid leave, check the worker's remaining balance before you record anything. The screen shows it for you once you select them.
Have any supporting documents ready, such as a fit note.

Finding the screen

Select Leaves in the left-hand menu.
Choose Add leave.

The Upcoming Holidays panel on the right lists the bank holidays and special holidays for the year, with tabs to look at the previous or following year. Use it as a sense check before booking time off — a request that includes a bank holiday often needs a different conversation.

Recording leave for a PAYE employee

Enter the worker's name or email address in the Employee field and select them from the list.
Their leave summary appears in the panel on the right, showing the leave year, the days Utilised, the days Available and the total days allocated. Check there is enough remaining before going further.
Choose the Leave Type. Each type comes in a paid and an unpaid version:

General — Paid or Unpaid
Sick Leave — Paid or Unpaid
Suspension — Paid or Unpaid

Add a Reason for Leave if it would help. This is optional, but it is worth completing for anything unusual.
Select ADD DOCUMENTS under Supporting Materials to attach a fit note or any other evidence.
Choose the Leave Duration:

Single Day — for one day off
Multiple Days — for a period

Set the dates. For a single day, choose the date. For multiple days, set the Start Date and End Date.
Every date in the range appears in a table underneath. Set the Time off Duration for each one:

Full day (1D)
First Half (0.5D)
Second Half (0.5D) A green tick confirms a day has been set. Any day left blank must be completed before you can save.

Select + ADD LEAVE.

Tip: Setting each day individually means you can record a period accurately rather than rounding it up. A worker leaving at lunchtime on the Friday costs them half a day, not a whole one.

Please note: Paid leave types draw down the worker's balance. Unpaid types do not, which is why no balance is shown against them.

Recording unavailability for a contracted worker

Where a worker is engaged through their own limited company or an umbrella company, the form changes. There is no leave entitlement to draw from, so you are simply recording the days they cannot work.

Enter the worker's name or email address in the Employee field and select them.
Their availability for the coming week appears on the right, with tabs for Last 7 days and Upcoming 7 days so you can see what is already recorded.
Choose the Unavailability Type.
Add Additional Notes if there is anything worth recording, such as the reason they are unavailable.
Attach anything relevant using ADD DOCUMENTS.
Set the date, or the start and end dates for a longer period.
Select + ADD UNAVAILABILITY.

Tip: Record unavailability as soon as a worker tells you about it. It stops the shift being offered to someone who has already said no, which is a quick way to lose their goodwill.

Viewing everyone's time off

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

Use the search box to find a particular worker, and the year and month dropdowns to move through the calendar. Each row is a worker, showing their name, reference number and whether they are PAYE or PSC, and each column is a day of the month, with weekends shaded.

The markers in the grid tell you 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 — recorded unavailability, with the number showing how many entries there are

Hover over any marker to see the detail, such as Full day (1D) or the number of unavailability entries. Select Leave Types Key at the top right for a full explanation of what each marker means.

Looking at one worker in detail

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

For a PAYE employee you will see:

Employee Summary — their primary location and any other assigned locations
Leave Balance — each leave type with the total allowance, the amount utilised and the remaining balance
Leave Summary — every leave entry, with its dates, duration, type, reason and status, and an option to view each one in full

For a contracted worker you will see their Employee Summary followed by an Availability Summary for the next seven days, showing each day and whether they are available.

The badge beside their name shows the state of their profile, such as Active, Draft or Suspended.

If something looks wrong

If a worker cannot be found when you search, check their profile is complete and active.

If the wrong fields appear — leave types for a contracted worker, or unavailability for a PAYE employee — the employment type on their profile is likely to be incorrect. Check the profile first, and contact our Support Team with the worker's reference number if you cannot put it right.

If a balance looks wrong, see How to set up leave allowances before recording any further leave against that worker.