- What is availability and unavailability?
- Do I enter availability or unavailability?
- Adding your availability or unavailability
- Changing or deleting availability or unavailability
- FAQs
What is availability and unavailability?
Availability can be used to let your manager know when you can work and block your calendar when you are unable to work. When your manager is creating the schedule they will see your availability and know when you are available or unavailable to work. It can be set up in a recurring scenario such as a regular class that you attend once a week or as a one-off event such as a concert at your child's school.
Availability and unavailability does not require manager approval so even if your schedule is blocked your manager can override your unavailability and add a shift. If that happens they will get a warning that you have marked yourself as unavailable and you will get a notification that a shift was added.
You should always talk with your manager about adding availability or unavailability and ensure you follow company guidelines or policies. That may include not using unavailability for any type of time off request that requires manager approval such as paid time off, vacation or leave.
Do I enter availability or unavailability?
By default, Deputy assumes every team member is available all day, until the specific availability or unavailability information is entered.
When entering this information, whether you choose to enter availability OR unavailability is a personal preference. However, you only need to enter one or the other for each day. If you enter availability for a part of the day, then Deputy assumes you are unavailable for the rest of the day.
For example:
- Susan's availability has been entered as 10am til 4pm on Tuesdays. Deputy then assumes she is unavailable before 10am and after 4pm on Tuesday.
- Ned's unavailability has been entered as 4pm til midnight on Saturday. Deputy then assumes Ned is available to work any time on Saturday up until 4pm.
Adding availability or unavailability for yourself
You can add availability or unavailability in the Deputy app on your mobile device, on the web or your manager can add it on your behalf.
Adding your unavailability in the Deputy mobile app
In the Home tab scroll down the screen until you reach the Time off section, then tap on Unavailability.
Tap on the + icon on the top right of the screen to add a new availability or unavailability. (or tap on an existing availability or unavailability to edit it)
In the example below, we are demonstrating entering unavailability, but the process is the same for both availability and unavailability.
Select whether you want to enter the date and time period as Available or Unavailable. You should only choose one or the other, there's no need to enter both.
Use the date picker to select the start and end date for the unavailability.
If you select only one day then deselect the All day toggle, you will need to enter a start and end time.
Tap to select:
-
Repeat frequency:
- doesn't repeat
- every week
- every 2 weeks
- every 4 weeks
- every month on a specific date
- every month on a specific day of the week
- Which days of the week it occurs on
- Whether the recurring event has no end date. If you select Ends on, then you need to specify a date using the date picker
- Add an optional comment
Once you are happy with the setting, tap Save and the unavailability will be added to your list.
Adding your unavailability on the Deputy web application
Select your name in the top right corner of the page and then click on Profile.
Click Availability.
Select whether to add a new availability or unavailability.
Select whether you want to enter the date and time period as Available or Unavailable. You should only choose one or the other, there's no need to enter both for the same day.
In the example below on the left, we are demonstrating entering availability on Fridays, and the example on the right demonstrates adding unavailability on Saturdays
Use the date picker to select the start and end date for the unavailability.
If you select only one day, then deselect the All day toggle, you will need to enter a start and end time.
Select:
-
Repeat frequency:
- doesn't repeat
- every week
- every 2 weeks
- every 4 weeks
- every month on a specific date
- every month on a specific day of the week
- Which days of the week it occurs on
- Whether the recurring event has no end date. If you select Ends on, then you need to specify a date using the date picker
- Add an optional comment
Click Save.
Changing or deleting unavailability
Edit existing availability and unavailability
To edit a team member's existing availability, simply click Edit (or tap on the existing availability or unavailability information as entered in the mobile app), make the changes required and click or tap Save.
To delete unavailability
To delete a team member's existing availability, simply click Edit (or tap on the existing availability or unavailability information as entered in the mobile app) and click Delete.
Note: you will not be asked "Are you sure?", it will just delete.
FAQs
Can I still claim open shifts or shift offers for periods when I've said I'm unavailable?
Perhaps, it depends on whether your organisation allows this.
Please be aware that managers have the option to block team members who submit unavailability from claiming open shifts or viewing shift offers over the period they have submitted their unavailability.
Please check with your manager to see whether you can claim extra shifts while marked unavailable.
What historical unavailability can I see?
Only future unavailability is shown in the list views. Unavailability in the past is removed from the list automatically but will still display on the day in past schedules.
Why can't I add unavailability?
It's possible for managers to put a block on specific dates to stop team members from requesting leave or setting unavailability on those dates. In this case, you will get a warning message when you try to set unavailability.
Your business's System Administrator may have also disabled the ability for Team members to submit unavailability. If this is the case, please reach out to your manager to add or edit unavailability.
I put in unavailability, but I was still scheduled to work!
Unavailability is just letting your manager know that you would prefer not to work that date. They can still override the unavailability to schedule team members. If you need to request approved time off, you should request leave instead.