Employee Availability
View and manage employee availability to assist with roster planning.
Overview
Employees set their own availability from Availability in the navigation (it also remains available as a tab on the Schedule page). See Availability for the employee view. As a manager or supervisor, you can also manage availability on behalf of employees from their Employee Detail page — limited to employees assigned to your location(s). Company Admins can manage availability for every employee.
The system supports:
- Recurring entries — weekly patterns (e.g., "unavailable Tuesdays")
- One-off entries — specific date ranges (e.g., "away April 10–12")
- Availability default — whether the employee is assumed available or unavailable when no entries exist
Availability vs. Leave
The two features are easy to mix up, so both pages explain the difference and link to each other:
| Use | For | Approval |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Recurring weekly patterns ("can't work Tuesdays") and short one-off days ("away on the 12th") | None — it is information for roster planning |
| Leave | Longer time off, such as vacation or unpaid leave | Approved by a supervisor or manager — see Leave Management |
If an employee submits a single-day leave request, the leave form suggests using availability instead, but still lets them submit it.
Availability Default
Set this on the employee profile under Default Availability:
| Setting | Best for | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Available (default) | Regular and part-time staff | Employee is available unless they mark otherwise |
| Unavailable | Zero-hour, seasonal, and temp workers | Employee is not available unless they mark otherwise |
This is important for the roster overlay — a zero-hour employee with no entries shows as unavailable across the board, while a regular employee with no entries shows as available.
Managing Availability for Employees
From the Employee Detail page, supervisors and above can:
- View the employee's recurring and one-off entries
- Add entries on their behalf (e.g., "employee called in — unavailable next week")
- Delete entries
The same form is used as the employee's self-service — recurring entries with day-of-week and optional time ranges, one-off entries with date ranges and optional time ranges.
Roster Builder Overlay
When viewing the roster builder, employee availability is shown as cell background colors:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red tint | Employee is unavailable |
| Green tint | Employee is available (for zero-hour employees who marked availability) |
| No color | Employee is available by default |
Cells with notes display a small note icon in the corner. Click it to open a popover with the availability type, time range (if set), and notes.
Conflict Warnings
When you assign a shift to an unavailable employee:
- A warning is shown with the employee's notes (if any)
- The shift is still created — the warning is informational, not a hard block
- The warning appears in compliance checks alongside other roster warnings
Resolution Order
When multiple entries could apply to the same date:
- One-off entry — highest priority (specific date overrides)
- Recurring entry — second priority (weekly pattern)
- Employee default — fallback (available or unavailable)
This allows employees to override their recurring patterns for specific dates.