- Before you start
- Who can view and manage leave requests?
- Declining leave
- Leave approval workflow
- How are hours determined for a 'day of leave'?
- Leave timesheets and payroll
-
More leave approval examples
- Updating the start and end time of the day when approving leave
- Approving leave when a team member is already scheduled for the requested leave time period
- Approving leave from the past for scheduled shifts not worked
- Approving a leave entitlement that calculates a team member's average working hours
- Approving leave for a team member with regular agreed hours
- Approving leave for a team member with total agreed work hours per period
- Approving leave where the team member has standard hours entered in their employee profile
- Approving leave where the standard hours is based on the default shift length in your location settings
Before you start
Before you approve or decline leave requests ensure you can also read about how:
in Deputy.
Who can view and manage leave requests?
The ability to view 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.
Note: If the Decline button is greyed out it means you haven't entered a comment yet.
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 and 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.
Example
1. Employee Kim has sent the leave approval to her supervisor manager Tally which she can see on her Dashboard on the Me tab.
2. Supervisor Tally has approved the leave for the date range and nominated senior manager Bob to notify he needs to now approve the leave type. Note: If Tally wants to decline approval of the leave request date she will need to add a comment. The Decline button will be greyed out until a comment is entered.
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.
Example
1. Manager Bob has been notified that Supervisor Tally approved Kim's leave request date range and Manager Bob now needs to allocate the leave type and approve the leave request.
2. When Manager Bob 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, edit the start and end time, 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 are hours determined for a 'day of leave'?
When approving leave, you will see start and end times for each day of the request and the total amount of leave hours taken have been populated. These times will apply to the resulting timesheets for the leave. So how are these hours determined?
Deputy utilises a hierarchy of four possible settings that could be applied to set this value:
- Whether the team member has a leave policy is assigned that calculates the average working hours for the team member
- Whether the team member has regular agreed hours or total hours per period set up in their employee profile
- Whether a value is entered in the standard hours field in the employee profile or in Enterprise standard hours are set up in the employment term assigned to the employee)
- Default shift duration (minus default break duration) is set in Location settings
Deputy looks at each of these four settings in order and if the first one is not applicable, moves on to the next setting and so forth until a standard hours value can be applied to the leave request. This topic is discussed in more details in Setting standard hours for a work day when managing leave.
Alternatively, see more leave approval examples at the end of this article.
IMPORTANT: Make sure the hours populated in the leave request are correct before approving leave. If the leave request is for past dates and over multiple days then approving it will generate a new timesheet for each day in the request. Any incorrect information will then need to be corrected on each individual timesheet.
Leave timesheets and payroll
Leave timesheets
Leave is deducted from a team member's leave balance when a leave timesheet is generated and approved.
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 begun their shift (for example if a team member needs to go home sick) then the timesheet will need to be adjusted by the manager. Please read How do I adjust the timesheet for a partial sick day?
Exporting leave timesheets
Leave can be exported as timesheets to ADP Run, ADP Workforce Now, Xero (AU), MYOB, SmartPayroll, and other payroll systems.
If you need the leave timesheet to export with a specific code to match the leave entitlement in your payroll system you can configure this in the leave policy settings.
More leave approval examples
Updating the start and end time of the day when approving leave
If you need to update the start or end time of a leave request for approval just untick the All day check box and select the time from the drop-down field. Note that the drop-down menu presents time in 12-hour format at 5 min intervals. If you wish to enter another time format such as 24 hour time or a non 5-minute interval time then you can type the time into the field but ensure you hit Enter after typing the time to ensure the time is correctly entered and updates the time for subsequent days in the leave request (if a multi-day leave request)
The example below demonstrates how to select the time using the drop-down menu and also entering a 24-hour time format directly into the time field and hitting Enter.
Approving leave 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 the 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.
Approving a leave entitlement that calculates a team member's average working hours
If you have configured a leave policy that has enabled the option to calculate average working hours and assigned that leave policy to a team member, then Deputy will use this value when calculating leave entitlements for a day of leave. Managers may use a leave policy configured this way to calculate the length of a 'day of leave' when they have team member that works shifts where the length varies as shown below:
In this example below, the organisation's default shift length of 7 hr 30 min informs that 1 standard day is 7 h 30m. However when the manager selects a leave entitlement that calculates average working hours, the total hours per day for the leave then automatically populates with the average working hours for this team member of 6 hours 37min.
If you hover over the clock icon there is a reminder that this value is calculated based on paid hours from the past 52 weeks. The manager can approve this leave timesheet however the actual amount of leave to be deducted won't be calculated and applied to the leave balance until the first day of leave actually occurs.
The reason for this is that the team member could work significantly more or less hours in the period between the leave being approved and the leave being taken (especially if the request is submitted well in advance of the leave being taken) so the average working hours for this team member could change significantly. The leave timesheet that is created when the leave is taken, will display the correct calculated average working hours and apply this to the team member's leave balance.
You will note in the example above that the start and end time of the leave request is 'greyed out' and the manager will be unable to edit the start and end times of the leave or length of the day of leave since this average day is calculated by Deputy and is just an estimate until the day of leave is taken.
Partial day leave for a leave entitlement that calculates average working days
If your team member needs to take leave for only part of a day from an entitlement that uses average working hours to calculate the length of the working day then either the team member or the manager will need to deselect the All day tick box when creating the leave request or approving the leave. When the All day leave box is not ticked, then the team member or the manager will be able to select the specific hours required to take leave.
Note that for partial day leave requests the amount of hours approved by the manager will remain fixed for the leave timesheet. They will not be recalculated on the day that the leave timesheet is taken as is the case for full day leave requests that utilise a reference period to calculate average working hours.
Approving leave for a team member with regular working hours
If you have an employee who has regular fixed hours and days they have agreed to work you can set this up in their employee profile.
In this example, Felicity is set up to work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4pm - 10pm with a 30min meal beak.
When Felicity submits a leave request to take a week off work the dates she selects appear on the leave request with the standard shift length for that business by default. However, when the manager clicks on the ticks boxes next to the dates she has requested, Felicity regular hours will be populated.
After the boxes have been selected with the appropriate leave type you can see that Monday, Wednesday and Friday have been populated with her regular shift length less the 30min break so that one day of leave is equal to 5 hours and 30min.
Note that the manager selects Tuesday and Thursday as non working day for Felicity as she does not usually work on these days and no leave will be deducted for these days.
The manager then adds a comment and clicks Approve and notify.
Approving leave for a team member with total agreed work hours per period
If you have an employee who has agreed total hours per work period they have agreed to work you can set this up in their employee profile.
In this example, John is set up to work 10 hours per week over two shifts per week. So this equates to 5 hours a shift on average.
When John submits a leave request to take a week off work the dates he selects appear on the leave request with the standard shift length for that business by default. In this case, 7 hours 30min.
However, when the manager selects the leave type from the drop down menu, John's average shift length of 5 hours (from his employee profile working hours) will be populated in the leave request.
The manager can add a comment and click Approve & notify.
Approving leave where the team member has standard hours entered in their employee profile
A team member who has a leave policy that tracks in days assigned to them will have the option to have the number of hours a 'day of leave' entered in their employee profile.
In the example below, Zane has 4 hours entered as his standard hours for a day of leave in this employee profile.
Note: In Enterprise plan accounts, you can also create your own standard hours in Employment terms which will apply when approving leave hours.
Here, you can determine the start and end times, break duration, and leave deduction.
Approving leave where the standard hours is based on the default shift length in your location settings
If the team member whose leave you’re approving for doesn’t have standard hours entered in their employee profile the leave hours that populate the leave request will be 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.