For more information on setting up Leave in Deputy please read Leave Management and also Awareness of Leave to see how to view requested and already approved leave.
This article will show you how to approve and decline leave using the Deputy website and will cover:
- Who can see and manage leave requests?
- Declining leave
- Leave approval workflow
- How leave hours are determined
- When a team member is already scheduled for the requested leave time period
- Timesheets and pay
Who can see and manage leave requests?
The ability to see and approve leave requests is restricted to the managers of the employee, including any direct Supervisors, Location managers and System Administrators.
It is also possible for these users to approve and decline leave in the Deputy iOS mobile app.
Declining leave
If you are aware of a new leave request that you need to decline, you need to leave a comment explaining to the team member the reason for declining the leave, and click Decline & Notify Team Member.
Deputy will notify the team member by email and push notification, and the status of the leave request and your comment will be visible to them in both the notification and their Me tab.
Leave approval workflow
When it comes to approving new leave requests, your workflow may depend on the reporting hierarchy in your organisation.
You may have one person (usually a manager or above) who approves leave all requests or two levels of people who approve the requested date range and leave type separately. In this 2-step approval workflow, the date range of the request is approved by a supervisor, then the type of leave requested is approved by a manager above the supervisor.
We’ll cover both workflows here, starting with 2-Step approval, where a supervisor must approve the date first.
2-Step approval
1st Step: Supervisors first approve date range only
Supervisors can only approve the date range of the leave request, not the leave type.
Note: In Deputy Enterprise plan accounts, you can make new roles with customized access levels and permissions. Roles that are able to approve the date range only can be configured in the Enterprise tab, under Access Levels & Permissions.
In the example below, employee Abby has sent the leave approval to her supervisor manager Grace. Supervisor Grace has approved the leave for the date range, added a comment and nominated Grace's manager Ed to notify them they need to now approve the leave type.
2nd Step: Managers (and above) approve leave type
Once the Supervisor has approved the date range of the leave request, the next step is for the Manager, or another role above the Supervisor to approve the leave type. They will be notified by the bell icon (or push notifications on the mobile app if enabled) and also see the leave request on Dashboard.
When the manager Ed is viewing the leave request, you will see that only the date has been approved. Below are options to decline or approve, set the leave type, add a comment and approve and notify the team member.
1 Step approval - How Location Managers and above approve leave
Managers and above are able to approve leave without any other party’s approval needed. You can approve it quickly using two clicks, or you can adjust pay, time, and leave type before approving. We’ll explore both methods here.
Approving quickly for paid, working days only
Click Approve Leave. If the request’s date range doesn’t include unpaid non-working days, and the leave type is appropriate, you can click Approve & Notify Team Member.
Assigning leave type and accounting for non-working days
For leave requests that include unpaid, non-working days (typically weekends), select any days that the team member would normally work and set the Leave Type for the days in the requested period that the team member is taking as leave. The non-selected days will be left as non-working days as shown in the example below.
Note:
- there is a setting that System Administrators and Location managers can enable in the Location settings so that any days that your location is 'closed' according to the operating hours you have set up will default to a non-working day in leave requests submitted by employees in that location. However, this can still be edited by the manager reviewing the leave request using the drop-down menu for that day to select the correct option.
- there is a setting that System Administrators and Location managers can enable in the Location settings so that any days that are set as a public holiday in your location will default to a non-working day. However, this can still be edited by the manager reviewing the leave request using the drop-down menu for that day to select the correct option.
Then add a comment and click Approve to notify the team member.
Adjusting leave type
You can adjust the leave type for any of the days within the request, as well as adjust the typical work hours that would be paid for the request.
In the below example, Abby has to go to the dentist but has accidentally requested to use Vacation Leave for this. Abby’s manager Ed adjusts the leave type for the selected days to Sick Leave using the drop-down menu for the leave type. You can also adjust leave type and working hours for each individual day.
How leave hours are determined
When approving leave, you will see start and end times for each day of the request. These times will apply to the resulting timesheets for those days, and are based on either:
Default shift length in your location settings
If the team member whose leave you’re approving doesn’t have an employment term assigned to them, the leave hours are based on your location’s open time, plus the default shift duration, minus the default meal break duration.
On the Location page you can edit your Location settings in the Scheduling section to set shift duration and meal break duration as shown below.
In this example, the location's default shift duration is 8 hours with a default meal break of 30 minutes.
8hrs - 30min = 7hrs 30min
This means the leave time for a standard day will be entered as 7hrs 30min and the team member will be paid for 7hrs 30min hours on each timesheet.
In the General section of this Location settings, the opening hours are set at 8 am so that will be the default time that is entered for all leave time at this Location as shown in the example below.
Note: Make sure these details are correct before approving leave. If the leave is in the past, approving it will generate a new timesheet for each day in the request, and any incorrect information will need to be corrected on each individual timesheet.
Standard hours in the employment term
If you use Deputy to calculate pay, then you’ve assigned employment terms to your team members. Employment terms include a team member's typical work days, hours, pay conditions such as regular and overtime, and Leave Conditions such as vacation, unpaid PTO, sick, and FMLA leave. You can make adjustments to employment terms by editing the team member profile, and clicking on Pay Rates.
In the example below the team member has a Standard Day of 7hr 36min set in her employment terms so that is the amount applied for 1 day of leave.
In Enterprise plan accounts, you can create your own standard hours which will apply when approving leave hours.
Here, you can determine the start and end times, break duration, and leave deduction.
When a team member is already scheduled for the requested leave time period
The team member requesting leave may already be scheduled to work during the leave date requested.
Whether the team member is applying for sick leave due to shifts missed in the recent past, or a last-minute request in the near future, Deputy will notify you of the scheduled shifts on the request.
In the example above, the approving manager receives a warning that Abby is already scheduled for a shift during the period she is requesting leave in the next week.
The manager has the option to make the shift open or empty before approving the leave.
If the shift is made open then other team members will be able to claim it to work it instead of Abby once the leave is approved.
If the shift is made empty then it will be up to the manager to find a replacement for Abby once her leave is approved.
If neither of the above two options are selected and the manager approves the leave then Abby's shift will still appear in the schedule with a warning icon. When the shift is opened it will display more explanations for the warning. The manager will need to find a replacement for Abby on this shift by clicking on Shift Actions.
Approving leave from past for scheduled shifts not worked
In the below example, Frank missed his shift last Thursday and is submitting bereavement leave for that day. The shift is in the past, so there’s no reason to make the shift empty or open. Because he never clocked in, no timesheet was generated, and once the manager sets the Leave Type and Approves the Leave a timesheet will be created for that day with the standard hours.
Timesheets and Pay
Leave timesheets
If the leave is in the future and is approved, timesheets will automatically generate at the start time of the first day of the request, and continue as each day of the request passes.
If the leave is in the past for a shift that was scheduled but not worked then a timesheet will be created when the leave is approved.
If the leave is being applied to a shift where the team member has already begin their shift (for example if a team member needs to go home sick) then the timesheet will need to be adjusted.
Exporting leave
Leave can be exported to ADP Run, ADP Workforce Now, Xero (AUS), MYOB, SmartPayroll, and more.
For more information on setting up Leave in Deputy please read Leave Management.