Setting Up Time Off and Availability for Staff

First things first, locate and click on the Schedule tab within your platform. This is where you'll manage your team's working hours and any exceptions.

Once you're on the Schedule tab, make sure you are viewing the schedule in Staff View. This layout will allow you to see each staff member individually.

Scroll down the list of staff members until you find the employee you want to set time off or availability for.

Once you've found the staff member (let's use Bob Barker as in the video), hover over the day or time that you would like to create time off for. Select the option labeled Time Off.

A new window or section will appear for you to input the time off details.

Title (Optional): Enter a brief description for the time off if you wish. If you leave it blank it will default to displaying the words "Time Off" on the schedule.

Time: The system will default to an all-day event, but you can toggle that off and choose a specific time range.

Repeat: In most cases for simple time off like a sick day, you'll select an option like "Does not repeat" or leave any repeat settings unselected.

Notes (Optional): You can add any relevant notes about the time off in the notes section.

Save: Once you've entered all the necessary information, click the Save button. You should now see the time off block on Bob Barker's schedule.

Now, let's say you need to set up recurring unavailability for a staff member, like Brandon, who has soccer practice. Again, find Brandon's name in the Staff View and click the Time Off button.

Reason: Enter a description for the unavailability. For Brandon, you would type "Soccer Practice". If you leave the description blank, the default title display will be "Unavailable".

Time: You can specify the start and end times or select all day.

Repeat: Choose from the repeat options of daily, weekly, or does not repeat.

End Date (Optional but Recommended for Recurring Events): To prevent this unavailability from continuing indefinitely, you can select that it ends on a specific date and then choose that date or select to end after a certain number of occurrences.

Notes (Optional): Add any relevant notes if needed.

Save: Click the Save button. You will now see the recurring unavailability blocks on schedule.

Once you've set up time off or availability, the system will take this into account when you are scheduling staff.

If you are using an auto-scheduler, it should avoid scheduling staff during their time off or unavailability.

When manually scheduling, you will likely see a visual indicator, such as a conflict icon, if you attempt to schedule someone during their recorded time off or unavailability. This helps you avoid scheduling errors.