Articles on: Microsoft integrations

Enable Out-of-Office Replies

Take advantage of absentify's automatic out-of-office replies synchronized with Outlook. Setting up this feature will create a general template to be automatically sent out whenever employees are scheduled to be out of the office within absentify.

Keep reading to learn more!


Let's get started



Tip: This feature is only available in the Enterprise Plan and is a global setting which requires Microsoft Tenant Admin rights to be enabled.

absentify uses the Microsoft Graph API with the Mail.ReadWrite permission on the entire tenant. We do not store any data or load any information from the users' mailboxes. We only use permission to set the out-of-office notification.

To get started, navigate to Settings > Integrations > Outlook out of office.



Click on Configuration.



Select the users whom you'd like to set up the out-of-office message for. Please note that the users you select will all have the same out-of-office template for the selected leave type.



Select the desired leave type from the drop down menu. You can always set up additional out-of-office templates for other leave types or edit existing ones from this page.



You'll now be prompted to formulate the text which will be sent to internal contacts.

Variables



By using the variables, absentify automatically sends the same out-of-office reply every time the user is scheduled to be on the selected leave.

If you decide to use the variables, these will be automatically filled out for you based on the details of your leave tracked in absentify. There is no need to fill out these variables yourself.

Start date: when your leave begins
Start time: when your leave ends
Date of return: the day you'll return from your leave (we will automatically calculate this date for you, based on your schedule, holidays, and other absences)
Time of return: the time of day you'll return from your leave
Manager name: the name of your manager
Manager email: the email address of your manager

If you decide to enter the "Date of return" manually, the user's automatic replies will be turned off as of that day and they’ll have to specify the time period again the next time you’re out of the office. Whereas with the use of the placeholders, absently will edit this automatically depending on the dates of the scheduled leave.

For example, if you use the placeholder {{DateOfReturn}} in your template, it will be replaced with the actual start date of your leave when the message is sent.



Send test E-mail



You'll have the option to view the E-Mail by clicking Preview. From here you can also click Send test email to see an example of how to message will look.



Head over to your Outlook to make sure the layout is to your liking.



Once you're happy with your message, click Next.


External contacts



If you decide that you'd like external contacts to also be sent a message, you can do so here by checking the box displayed.



However, if you only want this message to be sent to the user's contacts, select the box underneath as well for Send replies only to contacts.



Under Preview you'll also have the option to send this template as a test email.

Once you're satisfied with your changes, click Next.


Activate user customization



On the following page, you''ll have the option to decide if the users selected should also have permission to edit their out-of-office message.

Simply check the box before going forward.



Now when the user navigates to My preferences > Automatic replies, they have the option to customize their own message by activating the toggle.



If the user does not see this option, the admin may need to activate the Outlook out-of-office integration beforehand. This can be done easily under Settings > Microsoft > Outlook out of office reply (Beta).



If for some reason the out-of-office reply is undeliverable, the user will get an email notifying them to insert it manually in Outlook. Admins will also receive a notification in this event.


And that's it! Now whenever one of the users initially selected is scheduled for that leave type within absentify, they don't need to worry about setting up their out-of-office message.

This will relieve the stress of setting this up yourself before going on vacation! If you have any questions about this feature, please don't hesitate to contact us here. Our team is always happy to help!


Related:



Check out these other helpful articles:
Create out-of-office replies
Setting up Microsoft Integrations

Updated on: 16/02/2024

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