Quickstart guide for managers
A Game-Changer for Team Management: absentify has revolutionized how we handle employee leave. The transparency it provides is invaluable—everyone knows exactly how much time they have left. An indispensable tool!
Welcome to absentify, the leave management system designed to make tracking employee time off easy and efficient!
This Quickstart guide for managers will walk you through the initial setup process so you can get started. By the end of this guide, you'll have a good understanding of how absentify works and how to use it to track your time off and manage your department.
Signing in
Overview page
My calendar view
Create a request
Manage requests
Reporting and Insights
Edit your preferences
New features and planned ideas
There are two possible ways to sign in to absentify and whether it be on the web or on the Microsoft Teams app, we make it easy for you to get started!
If you want to access absentify from your search engine, you can do so from our homepage by clicking Sign in.
if you want to access absentify on the Microsoft Teams app, you can do so by installing the absentify app in your Microsoft Teams account. Simply go to Microsoft Teams > Apps > search for absentify > click Add.
It will be installed automatically so you can start using absentify from your Microsoft Teams account.
You will need to be invited by your company's administrator before you can join.
Once you have been invited, you can join your company's absentify by clicking Join an existing company.
If you are not already logged into your microsoft account, you will be prompted to do so.
After logging in, you will be automatically redirected to the absentify dashboard.
From the Overview page, managers have a clear layout of the upcoming weeks where they can see when and which type of leave employees are scheduled for.
Users can change the time period to view previous or upcoming weeks by using the arrows in the top left corner.
Each leave of absence will be indicated by a symbol and certain fill color. To get more information about the leave, click on the day of the absence and a window will pop up displaying the following:
Leave type: which type of leave was requested and the date/time of the beginning and end of the absence
Status: which user is responsible for approving the leave and if it's been accepted, denied, or is pending
Taken from allowance: whether or not the leave was deducted from the vacation allowance and if so, how many days were deducted
Request created: the date and time that the request was submitted
As a manager, you'll have permission to cancel requests from employees within your department by clicking the three stacked dots on the bottom left. You'll be prompted to provide a reason for the cancellation before sending.
From the Overview page, you can search for any of your company's departments by using the Department search bar.
From the drop-down menu, you can select which department you want to view.
Some additional options include Absent today where absentify will automatically filter through employees who are not present today. To turn off the department filters, select All Departments.
As a department manager, you'll have the permission to view certain details pertaining to your department(s).
From the Overview page, you'll see the remaining vacation allowance from the employee's deductibles for the year. However, you won't be able to see this information for those outside of your department(s).
Below you'll notice that Diego's and Adele's deductible aren't indicated because they aren't in the user's department.
As a manager, you also won't be able to see some type of leave reasons for co-workers outside of your department.
For example, in the photo below Diego's sick days are only displayed as "Absent".
You can view your own or the calendar of any other user by selecting them from the Overview page. You'll be able to see further stats about vacation deductible and time-off.
In My calendar you will see an overview of the whole fiscal year. The following will be displayed:
Year: This section shows you all the data for your deductible leave.
Allowance: total vacation days received for the selected fiscal year
Carried over: total vacation days that have rolled over from previous fiscal year
Compensatory time off: total overtime overtime days worked that can be use as additional time off
Vacation: total vacation days logged for the selected fiscal year
Days remaining: total vacation days user is allowed to book for the selected fiscal year
Flextime: This section shows you all the data for the second type of allowance (if applicable)
Allowance: total allowance received for the selected fiscal year
Carried over: total days that have rolled over from previous fiscal year
Flextime: number of days used of the selected allowance type (in this case, "Flextime")
Non-deductible leave: This section shows you all the data for the non-deductible leave you've logged.
Public holidays: how many public holidays there are in the selected calendar year (these days will be displayed shaded in grey)
Absences: how many days of each specific absence you've taken for the selected year
Public holidays can easily be added to your company's calendar by navigating to Settings > Public holidays > Add public holidays or by reading our support article.
If you'd like to view the previous or following years, you can easily flip through by clicking on either the left or right arrows on the top left hand side
This feature is available for admins, but is limited to all other users, depending on their position (i.e. manager, approver, or a normal user). For more information on what's visible to which user, read our helpdesk article, permissions per user to learn more.
From My calendar or Overview, you can create a request by either clicking Create request, a specific day, or a series of days. This will automatically open a window to book time off.
When booking time off, you'll have to specify the following:
Leave type: select the type of leave from the drop-down menu
Starting: specify when the leave will begin
Ending: specify when the leave will end
Reason: explain why you are requesting time off (this portion isn't mandatory)
If you are requesting to book off vacation time or another type of deductible leave, you'll also be notified how many days will be deducted from your overall vacation allowance before you send the request.
Once you've sent your request, you'll be able to see it logged in a faded color, which means it has not been approved by your approver/administrator yet. In certain cases you as a department manager may approve your own requests depending on the privacy settings set by your administrator.
Below you'll notice the request for vacation (yellow) hasn't been approved yet, but the request for a sick day (red) has.
Depending on how your system administrator has set up your company's absentify account, some or all requests may need to be approved including sick days. If you're unsure, clarify this with your company's approver or administrator, or simply check your calendar to see if your requests are logged directly after sending them.
As a manager, you have permission to create requests for other employees on their behalf so long as they're in your department(s).
You can create requests for employees by following the same steps you would for yourself, but instead selecting the employee's name from the roster.
As a manager, you may have to approve or deny time off requests from employees within your department(s) depending on the privacy settings set by your company administrator.
If your administrator has set up department requests so that they need to be approved by the department manager, you'll be able to view them by either clicking on the request from the Overview page, or the bell in the top right hand corner.
If there are pending requests, you'll have the option to either approve or decline them.
If you wish to deny a request, you'll be prompted to give a reason before you can click OK.
If you've forgotten to approve or deny a request, as an approver you'll receive a friendly reminder via E-mail 24 hours (and if necessary, 48 hours) after the request was created.
With this feature, you can rest assured that your approval process will be efficient and leave balances will be managed effectively. For more info, click here.
From the Insights page, you can gain valuable stats into leave patterns and trends, budget allocations, and employee burnout. absentify simplifies making informed decisions that optimize your team's productivity and overall well-being!
Here, you can view an overall outline from the employees within your department. This includes:
Booked: this is the total number of absence days booked for the year
Remaining: this the total number of contingent days that are left over after subtracting the booked days
Total allowance: this is the total of both Booked and Remaining days
Number of employees: the number of employees within the company
On the left side you can view which employees are a part of the department you've selected and who has a birthday coming up.
You'll also have the option to switch between viewing the insights only for certain departments, or to view all departments by making a selection from the drop-down menu. Please note that this will only show the departments that you manage and not all within the company.
The Annual Trend chart will show you which leave types are booked for each month of the current year.
You can easily filter out some leave types by clicking on them.
The Burnout Board is a useful tool because it shows you which employee urgently needs time off. This is calculated by factoring when was the last time the employee took a break and how long until they have an upcoming approved leave booked.
As soon as these employees are given time off, they'll automatically be removed from the Burnout Board.
In the top right hand corner you can access your preferences by clicking on your personal icon and selecting Your Preferences from the drop-down menu.
Under "General", you'll have the option to change to following:
Language: select your preferred language from the drop-down menu
Time zone: select your time zone from the drop-down menu
Date format: specify how you'd like the date to be shown
Time format: specify whether you'd like a 12 or a 24-hour clock
Week start: select which day you'd prefer to have shown as the start of the week
Display calendar weeks: activate this toggle to see each week's number in your calendar view
Under Notifications settings, you'll have the option to set how you'd like to be informed of new absence requests.
Allow absentify to send you notifications via E-mail or Teams by selecting an option from the drop-down menu.
Activate this toggle to receive updates on the latest features an improvements - including useful how-to's!
In the upper right hand corner you'll see a present icon, which will open up a sidebar where you can see all of the most recent updates from absentify.
As an absentify user, you can like or comment on announcements and become a part of the absentify network!
You can also view current ideas or upcoming planned features. Visit our Roadmap to post your own ideas on how absentify could improve the user experience as well as see and comment on other absentify user's recommendations - we'd love to hear your feedback!
Create out of office replies
Record sick leave
Install absentify in Teams
Welcome to absentify, the leave management system designed to make tracking employee time off easy and efficient!
This Quickstart guide for managers will walk you through the initial setup process so you can get started. By the end of this guide, you'll have a good understanding of how absentify works and how to use it to track your time off and manage your department.
Jump to:
Signing in
Overview page
My calendar view
Create a request
Manage requests
Reporting and Insights
Edit your preferences
New features and planned ideas
Sign in
There are two possible ways to sign in to absentify and whether it be on the web or on the Microsoft Teams app, we make it easy for you to get started!
On the web:
If you want to access absentify from your search engine, you can do so from our homepage by clicking Sign in.
On the Teams app:
if you want to access absentify on the Microsoft Teams app, you can do so by installing the absentify app in your Microsoft Teams account. Simply go to Microsoft Teams > Apps > search for absentify > click Add.
It will be installed automatically so you can start using absentify from your Microsoft Teams account.
You will need to be invited by your company's administrator before you can join.
Once you have been invited, you can join your company's absentify by clicking Join an existing company.
If you are not already logged into your microsoft account, you will be prompted to do so.
After logging in, you will be automatically redirected to the absentify dashboard.
Overview
From the Overview page, managers have a clear layout of the upcoming weeks where they can see when and which type of leave employees are scheduled for.
Users can change the time period to view previous or upcoming weeks by using the arrows in the top left corner.
Each leave of absence will be indicated by a symbol and certain fill color. To get more information about the leave, click on the day of the absence and a window will pop up displaying the following:
Leave type: which type of leave was requested and the date/time of the beginning and end of the absence
Status: which user is responsible for approving the leave and if it's been accepted, denied, or is pending
Taken from allowance: whether or not the leave was deducted from the vacation allowance and if so, how many days were deducted
Request created: the date and time that the request was submitted
As a manager, you'll have permission to cancel requests from employees within your department by clicking the three stacked dots on the bottom left. You'll be prompted to provide a reason for the cancellation before sending.
Departments
From the Overview page, you can search for any of your company's departments by using the Department search bar.
From the drop-down menu, you can select which department you want to view.
Some additional options include Absent today where absentify will automatically filter through employees who are not present today. To turn off the department filters, select All Departments.
Your department
As a department manager, you'll have the permission to view certain details pertaining to your department(s).
From the Overview page, you'll see the remaining vacation allowance from the employee's deductibles for the year. However, you won't be able to see this information for those outside of your department(s).
Below you'll notice that Diego's and Adele's deductible aren't indicated because they aren't in the user's department.
As a manager, you also won't be able to see some type of leave reasons for co-workers outside of your department.
For example, in the photo below Diego's sick days are only displayed as "Absent".
My calendar
You can view your own or the calendar of any other user by selecting them from the Overview page. You'll be able to see further stats about vacation deductible and time-off.
In My calendar you will see an overview of the whole fiscal year. The following will be displayed:
Year: This section shows you all the data for your deductible leave.
Allowance: total vacation days received for the selected fiscal year
Carried over: total vacation days that have rolled over from previous fiscal year
Compensatory time off: total overtime overtime days worked that can be use as additional time off
Vacation: total vacation days logged for the selected fiscal year
Days remaining: total vacation days user is allowed to book for the selected fiscal year
Flextime: This section shows you all the data for the second type of allowance (if applicable)
Allowance: total allowance received for the selected fiscal year
Carried over: total days that have rolled over from previous fiscal year
Flextime: number of days used of the selected allowance type (in this case, "Flextime")
Non-deductible leave: This section shows you all the data for the non-deductible leave you've logged.
Public holidays: how many public holidays there are in the selected calendar year (these days will be displayed shaded in grey)
Absences: how many days of each specific absence you've taken for the selected year
Public holidays can easily be added to your company's calendar by navigating to Settings > Public holidays > Add public holidays or by reading our support article.
If you'd like to view the previous or following years, you can easily flip through by clicking on either the left or right arrows on the top left hand side
This feature is available for admins, but is limited to all other users, depending on their position (i.e. manager, approver, or a normal user). For more information on what's visible to which user, read our helpdesk article, permissions per user to learn more.
Create a request
From My calendar or Overview, you can create a request by either clicking Create request, a specific day, or a series of days. This will automatically open a window to book time off.
When booking time off, you'll have to specify the following:
Leave type: select the type of leave from the drop-down menu
Starting: specify when the leave will begin
Ending: specify when the leave will end
Reason: explain why you are requesting time off (this portion isn't mandatory)
If you are requesting to book off vacation time or another type of deductible leave, you'll also be notified how many days will be deducted from your overall vacation allowance before you send the request.
Once you've sent your request, you'll be able to see it logged in a faded color, which means it has not been approved by your approver/administrator yet. In certain cases you as a department manager may approve your own requests depending on the privacy settings set by your administrator.
Below you'll notice the request for vacation (yellow) hasn't been approved yet, but the request for a sick day (red) has.
Depending on how your system administrator has set up your company's absentify account, some or all requests may need to be approved including sick days. If you're unsure, clarify this with your company's approver or administrator, or simply check your calendar to see if your requests are logged directly after sending them.
Creating requests for employees
As a manager, you have permission to create requests for other employees on their behalf so long as they're in your department(s).
You can create requests for employees by following the same steps you would for yourself, but instead selecting the employee's name from the roster.
Managing requests
As a manager, you may have to approve or deny time off requests from employees within your department(s) depending on the privacy settings set by your company administrator.
If your administrator has set up department requests so that they need to be approved by the department manager, you'll be able to view them by either clicking on the request from the Overview page, or the bell in the top right hand corner.
If there are pending requests, you'll have the option to either approve or decline them.
If you wish to deny a request, you'll be prompted to give a reason before you can click OK.
Reminder E-Mails
If you've forgotten to approve or deny a request, as an approver you'll receive a friendly reminder via E-mail 24 hours (and if necessary, 48 hours) after the request was created.
With this feature, you can rest assured that your approval process will be efficient and leave balances will be managed effectively. For more info, click here.
Enhanced Reporting and Insights
From the Insights page, you can gain valuable stats into leave patterns and trends, budget allocations, and employee burnout. absentify simplifies making informed decisions that optimize your team's productivity and overall well-being!
Here, you can view an overall outline from the employees within your department. This includes:
Booked: this is the total number of absence days booked for the year
Remaining: this the total number of contingent days that are left over after subtracting the booked days
Total allowance: this is the total of both Booked and Remaining days
Number of employees: the number of employees within the company
On the left side you can view which employees are a part of the department you've selected and who has a birthday coming up.
You'll also have the option to switch between viewing the insights only for certain departments, or to view all departments by making a selection from the drop-down menu. Please note that this will only show the departments that you manage and not all within the company.
Annual Trend
The Annual Trend chart will show you which leave types are booked for each month of the current year.
You can easily filter out some leave types by clicking on them.
Burnout Board
The Burnout Board is a useful tool because it shows you which employee urgently needs time off. This is calculated by factoring when was the last time the employee took a break and how long until they have an upcoming approved leave booked.
As soon as these employees are given time off, they'll automatically be removed from the Burnout Board.
My Preferences
In the top right hand corner you can access your preferences by clicking on your personal icon and selecting Your Preferences from the drop-down menu.
General
Under "General", you'll have the option to change to following:
Language: select your preferred language from the drop-down menu
Time zone: select your time zone from the drop-down menu
Date format: specify how you'd like the date to be shown
Time format: specify whether you'd like a 12 or a 24-hour clock
Week start: select which day you'd prefer to have shown as the start of the week
Display calendar weeks: activate this toggle to see each week's number in your calendar view
Notifications Settings
Under Notifications settings, you'll have the option to set how you'd like to be informed of new absence requests.
Absence request notifications
Allow absentify to send you notifications via E-mail or Teams by selecting an option from the drop-down menu.
absentify updates
Activate this toggle to receive updates on the latest features an improvements - including useful how-to's!
Announcements and Ideas
In the upper right hand corner you'll see a present icon, which will open up a sidebar where you can see all of the most recent updates from absentify.
As an absentify user, you can like or comment on announcements and become a part of the absentify network!
You can also view current ideas or upcoming planned features. Visit our Roadmap to post your own ideas on how absentify could improve the user experience as well as see and comment on other absentify user's recommendations - we'd love to hear your feedback!
Related articles:
Create out of office replies
Record sick leave
Install absentify in Teams
Updated on: 05/11/2023
Thank you!