Booking and Cancelling Leave

This guide covers assigning a leave allowance to a staff member, requesting/cancelling leave and approving/rejecting it.

Notifying a Management Group of Leave affairs

When a staff member submits a leave request, or cancels their own leave, an email notification can be sent to one or more Management Groups. Management Groups are designed to allow multiple managers to be kept informed of staff absences; they are selected from within the staff profile but have to be created as a Distribution List. To select a Distribution List as a Management Group simply click the edit (pencil) icon to the right of the field. This then opens the edit option which is a list of the available public Distribution Lists (or Management Group(s)); private Distribution Lists cannot be selected as a Management Group. From here you can select the one you want and then click the Save button.

Once this has been done, each member of the group is emailed when the staff member themselves submits a leave request or cancels their own leave (the staff member and any disabled users in the group are not emailed). Each group member’s own notification preferences decide whether they receive these emails (see ‘Cancelling a Leave Request’ below). Management Groups are not emailed when leave is approved or refused, or when a personnel manager cancels leave on the staff member’s behalf.

Distribution Lists are created via: Laboratory Management > Distribution Lists > New Distribution List

Home OU

Management Groups get notified but staff with appropriate permissions can also view others’ Leave details. To protect users’ privacy, every staff member has a Home OU assigned. On enterprise accounts, if one isn’t declared upon user creation, the system assigns the default OU in the account (the field can’t be left blank). On standard (non-enterprise) accounts, the field can be left blank. The Home OU restricts visibility of the user’s personal details, including Leave and Illness information, to staff members who have permission to view them within that person’s Organisational Unit. If the Home OU is left blank, this restriction does not apply: any staff member who has the relevant permission (for example, Staff Records:View Leave) on any Organisational Unit can view that user’s details.

Leave Allowance

Before a user can book leave within iPassport they need to have a leave allowance allocated to them.

Setting Leave Allowance

Depending on the permissions the user has, they may not be able to do this themselves as it is stored within their staff profile. All users have access to their personnel record through Desktop > Profile (on the top right of the screen) but not all are allowed to edit every detail.

On a staff member’s record in Personnel Management > Staff Profiles, the Leave tab is always shown to account administrators, site administrators and the staff member themselves. Other users need the "Staff Records:View Leave" permission on the staff member’s home OU to see the Staff Member Leave tab and Leave record.

On your own Desktop > Profile screen, the Leave tab is shown only if you have the "Staff Records:Request Leave" permission on at least one OU. It is not shown to account administrators on this screen.

To set Leave:

1. Go to Personnel Management > Staff Profiles > Search Staff
2. Type the user’s name in the Search field (partial entries start narrowing the results below)
3. Click the row of the user in the results list below to open the user’s profile
4. Find the label, Leave; it includes two fields with pencil icons
5. Click the edit (pencil) icon on the right of "Not Set" to choose a time unit
6. Select a unit of time from the list
   
   
   • The available units are configured as Leave Time Types, each with its own conversion rate, so you are not limited to a fixed choice of units; the default units are:
     • ‘Days (8 Hours)’ – 1 unit is equivalent to 8 hours
     • ‘Hours’ – 1 unit is equivalent to 1 hour
   • With the Staff Records:Edit Leave Time Types permission, new units can be created using the settings (spanner) icon; deleting a unit requires Staff Records:Delete Leave Time Types
   • There are time fields to refine the total requested time in the ‘Request Leave’ section
     
     
7. Click the edit (pencil) icon on the right of "0.0" to set the total annual leave allowance
8. Enter a value according to the unit of time and click Save

Once you are happy with the selection simply leave the personnel record, this is then the leave allocation for the staff member concerned.

Requesting Leave

Once a staff member has leave allocated to them they are free to book it within iPassport.

To access the personal leave summary, go to: Desktop > Profile > Leave (shown above).

The view filter automatically defaults to show the current year leave allocation (above is shown as 2018). The Leave tab also provides an outline of Total Entitlement Allowed, Entitlement Used, Entitlement Booked and Entitlement Remaining. The staff member and the manager can see the same details (via different screens).

The Leave History information panel shows previous leave taken, leave cancelled and leave refused, while the Leave Pending information panel shows leave that has been requested but not approved.

To request leave:

1. Click the Request Leave button in the lower right of the screen
   
   
   • If the message ‘It appears that you have no leave remaining.’ is shown, the staff member’s leave allowance has not been set up (no unit of time selected, or an allowance that is blank or zero) – see Setting Leave Allowance above
     
     
2. Click inside the text-box to the right of Start and select a start date from the calendar tool
3. Click inside the text-box to the right of End and select an end date from the calendar tool
   
   
   • Whatever unit of time the leave allowance is set in, you can edit the "All Day" fields by clicking them and selecting specific times
   • You can also use the time fields if an absence is requested for a portion of a day
     
     
4. If appropriate, enter a value for the Time to exclude from leave (e.g. weekends)
   
   
   • If the requested leave spans the start of a new leave year, this field is disabled with the message ‘Please split your leave into two periods if you wish to exclude time.’ If you save the request without splitting it, it is automatically saved as two separate leave records, one in each leave year
     
     
5. Check the Total Leave Requested field to confirm the calculation matches the request
   
   
   • The Save Leave Request button stays disabled until a valid total is calculated
   • If the dates or times entered are not valid, the field shows Invalid; if leave is already booked for that time, it shows Already Booked
   • If the total is more than the staff member’s remaining entitlement (and Do not take time from entitlement is not ticked), the total is shown but the Save Leave Request button stays disabled, with no further message
     
     
6. If appropriate, tick the checkbox next to Do not take time from entitlement (e.g. leave for training)
7. Click the text-box under Leave Type to select a reason (this is a required field)
   
   
   • With appropriate permissions (Staff Records:Edit Leave Types), a spanner icon will be visible to the right. This allows adding "Leave Types" to the list available (see details below)
     
     
8. A Description can be optionally added by clicking the field below the caption
9. Click the Save Leave Request button to submit details for approval
   
   
   The requested leave should appear in the section, "Leave Pending". The details can be viewed by clicking the magnifying glass under Actions. A user can view the status of their Leave request at any point, via: Desktop > Profile > Leave > Leave Pending.

Adding a Leave Type

To add a Leave Type (within Request Leave area):

1. Click the settings (spanner) icon to the right of the text-box
2. Click [+] Add Leave Type in the pop-up window
3. Enter the type of leave in the Name field that appears
4. Click Create Leave Type to add it to the list in the pop-up window
5. If required, you can use the edit (pencil) and the delete (bin/trash) icons under Actions to modify the list
   
   
   • If a leave type is in use, the delete (bin/trash) icon will not be visible
   • Deleting a leave type also requires the Staff Records:Delete Leave Types permission
   • The default leave types (Bereavement, Maternity, Bank Holiday, Holiday and General Absence) are set up as non-editable system types, so they are not intended to be changed or removed
     
     
6. Click the close (X) icon on the top left to exit the pop-up window

Cancelling a Leave Request

To cancel a leave request:

1. Click the delete (trash) icon in the Actions column of the Leave Pending area to open the Cancel Leave pop-up window
   
   
   • On your own leave, the delete icon is only shown if you have the Staff Records:Cancel Own Leave permission (this applies to pending and approved leave). On another staff member’s record, it requires Staff Records:Manage Leave
     
     
2. You are required to provide a comment in the Please enter a reason below field for the records
3. Click the Cancel Leave button in the lower right corner of the pop-up window

When leave is cancelled, iPassport sends an email notification, but the recipient depends on who cancels it — the two paths are mutually exclusive:

• If the staff member cancels their own leave, the notification goes to the Management Group(s) only — the staff member is not emailed.
• If a personnel manager cancels approved leave on someone else’s behalf (see ‘Cancelling Approved Leave for Other Users’ below), the notification goes to the affected staff member only — the Management Group(s) are not copied in.

Each of these notifications is controlled by its own separate preference (under, 'My Profile > Preferences > Absence Notification Settings'), which can be switched on or off independently.

Approving and Rejecting Leave

The preference Notify me when my leave requests are updated, determines whether emails notifying you of changes to your request are sent to you; if this has been disabled then no email notification is distributed. All leave updates are recorded in the Leave tab of a user’s Profile.

If the person approving the leave is also the person that requested the leave then no email is distributed, regardless of the preference.

To approve/reject leave requests:

1. Go to Personnel Management > Staff Absence > Leave Requests
   
   
   • The Staff Absence menu item requires the Desktop:Show Staff Absence Menu Item permission, and the Leave Requests and Leave Summary tabs require Staff Records:View Leave. Opening, approving or refusing a request requires Staff Records:Manage Leave on the staff member’s home OU
   • Use the Requests type filter to show All requests, or only those For My Attention (requests from staff whose Management Group includes you). On enterprise accounts, you can also filter by Facility
     
     
2. Click the row of the request to open the "Leave Request for " pop-up window
3. To approve, click Approve Leave; no comments required
4. To reject, a comment must be entered, then click Refuse Leave

In both cases, a record is made but no time is deducted from the Leave Allowance if the request is rejected.

Checking Leave Records (as Personnel Manager)

To view leave records:

1. Go to Personnel Management > Staff Absence > Leave Summary
2. Use filters to search for particular records:
   
   
   • Filter by User - a dropdown list of all active staff, ordered by first name then surname; type the first few letters of the first name to jump to the name
   • Filter By Status - narrow results down to Approved, Cancelled or Refused
   • Filter by Year - type in a year to only bring up those records
   • Order Results By- choices are -
     • Name (Surname A-Z)
     • Name (Surname Z-A)
     • Start Time (Oldest first)
     • Start Time (Newest first)
     • End Time (Oldest first)
     • End Time (Newest first)
     • Status (A-Z)
     • Status (Z-A)
3. To download the results, click Export List in the Leave Booked header; this exports the currently filtered list as a CSV file

Checking Personal Leave Records (as user)

To view personal leave records go to Profile > Leave

There are two sections, Leave History and Leave Pending. You can cancel approved leave here, following the same steps from, Cancelling a Leave Request.

Cancelling Approved Leave for Other Users

Personnel managers can also cancel approved leave if required in the same way as pending requests.

To cancel approved leave:

1. Go to Personnel Management > Staff Absence
2. Find the record by following the steps from Checking Leave Records (as Personnel Manager)
3. Follow the steps from Cancelling a Leave Request