Quickstart guide for managers
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.
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 at https://absentify.com/de 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 dahsboard.
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 Lynne's deductible isn't indicated because she isn'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 Lynne's sick day is only displayed as "Absent".
In "My calendar" you will see an overview of the whole year. The following will be displayed:
Year: This section shows you all the data for your deductible leave.
Allowance: how many paid vacation days you receive for the selected year
Brought forward: how many vacation days have rolled over from previous year
Days remaining: how many days you're still allowed to book for the selected year
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)
Parental leave: how many parental leave days you've requested
Sick leave: how many sick days you've taken
Home office: how many days you've worked in home office
Unpaid vacation: how many days of unpaid vacation you've taken
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.
For those within your department, you can click their name from the Overview page and you'll be brought to their calendar where you can view further stats about their vacation deductible and time off.
However, if they're outside of your department, their calendar will look like the photo below, where the leave stats aren't shown, nor are some of the reason's for the employee's absence due to privacy.
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
If you are requesting to book off vacation time, 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, 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 clicking the bell in the top right hand corner.
If there are pending requests, you'll have the option to either accept or deny them.
If you wish to deny a requests, you'll be prompted to give a reason before you can click "OK".
From the Insights page, 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 the subtracting the Booked days
Total Allowance: this is the total of both "Booked" and "Remaining" days (the pie chart includes these totals)
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 departments or to view all departments by selecting a department 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. For example, in the photo below, "Sick day" has been filtered out.
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
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
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office reply from Outlook during the time of your absence and once you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off.
If the "Automatic replies" option isn't shown under your preferences, you'll need to enable the Outlook out of the office reply feature. Please contact your administrator to do so.
As soon as you see the "Automatic replies" option, you're ready to set up this feature.
Select the type of leave for which you'd like absentify to automatically send a reply whenever this leave shows up in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can also customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave. You’ll also have the option to use placeholders so that your message will look just the way you want it.
Once you've selected the template for the leave type, you'll see two template options:
Inside organization template: This message will be sent to your internal contacts.
Outside organization template: This message will be sent to your external contacts.
If you decide you’d like absentify to send automatic out-of-office replies to external contacts, check the box for “Send replies outside your organisation”. Otherwise, check the box for "Send replies only to contacts".
By using the variables, absentify automatically sends the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away.
To edit a template, simply edit the text in the text editor. Within your text, you can decide where the placeholders should sit in your out-of-office message. There are 6 available:
Start date: the day your leave starts
Start time: the time of day your leave starts
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 "End date" manually, your automatic replies will be turned off as of that day and you’ll have to specify the time period again the next time you’re out of the office.
Whereas if you use the placeholders, absentify will edit this automatically for you whenever you take a leave of absence of the selected type.
After editing your templates, click "Send test email" to send a test email to yourself and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Once you're happy with your template, click "Save".
From here, you can save a different template for each type of leave by selecting a new "Leave type template" from the top of the page.
If the automatic out of office reply can't be set for some reason, you'll get an email with the text that you can copy and paste manually into Outlook. To do this, copy the text from the email and go to "Settings" > "Mail" > "Automatic Replies" in Outlook. Paste the text in the text box and click "Save".
Under "Email notifications", you'll have the option to allow absentify to send you Email notifications by flipping the toggle and clicking "Save".
Please note that for some users the toggle may not be shown for "Calendar invitations", depending on how your company's administrator has set up this function.
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!
The present icon will also allow you to access "Ideas" where you can post your own ideas on how absentify could improve the user experience as well as see and comment on what other people have posted as recommendations.
This concludes the Quickstart guide for managers. You should now have a good understanding of how absentify works and how to get started. For more information, please refer to our other guides in the Help Center or share your ideas with us at feedback.absentify.com.
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.
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 at https://absentify.com/de 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 dahsboard.
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 Lynne's deductible isn't indicated because she isn'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 Lynne's sick day is only displayed as "Absent".
My calendar
In "My calendar" you will see an overview of the whole year. The following will be displayed:
Year: This section shows you all the data for your deductible leave.
Allowance: how many paid vacation days you receive for the selected year
Brought forward: how many vacation days have rolled over from previous year
Days remaining: how many days you're still allowed to book for the selected year
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)
Parental leave: how many parental leave days you've requested
Sick leave: how many sick days you've taken
Home office: how many days you've worked in home office
Unpaid vacation: how many days of unpaid vacation you've taken
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.
Viewing employee calendars
For those within your department, you can click their name from the Overview page and you'll be brought to their calendar where you can view further stats about their vacation deductible and time off.
However, if they're outside of your department, their calendar will look like the photo below, where the leave stats aren't shown, nor are some of the reason's for the employee's absence due to privacy.
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
If you are requesting to book off vacation time, 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, 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 clicking the bell in the top right hand corner.
If there are pending requests, you'll have the option to either accept or deny them.
If you wish to deny a requests, you'll be prompted to give a reason before you can click "OK".
Insights
From the Insights page, 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 the subtracting the Booked days
Total Allowance: this is the total of both "Booked" and "Remaining" days (the pie chart includes these totals)
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 departments or to view all departments by selecting a department 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. For example, in the photo below, "Sick day" has been filtered out.
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.
Your 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
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
Automatic replies
absentify will automatically send your desired out-of-office reply from Outlook during the time of your absence and once you’re back in the office, this feature will be turned off.
If the "Automatic replies" option isn't shown under your preferences, you'll need to enable the Outlook out of the office reply feature. Please contact your administrator to do so.
As soon as you see the "Automatic replies" option, you're ready to set up this feature.
Select the type of leave for which you'd like absentify to automatically send a reply whenever this leave shows up in your calendar.
Flip the toggle to view the templates provided.
You can also customize your out-of-office reply for each individual leave. You’ll also have the option to use placeholders so that your message will look just the way you want it.
Once you've selected the template for the leave type, you'll see two template options:
Inside organization template: This message will be sent to your internal contacts.
Outside organization template: This message will be sent to your external contacts.
If you decide you’d like absentify to send automatic out-of-office replies to external contacts, check the box for “Send replies outside your organisation”. Otherwise, check the box for "Send replies only to contacts".
By using the variables, absentify automatically sends the same out-of-office reply every time you're scheduled to be away.
To edit a template, simply edit the text in the text editor. Within your text, you can decide where the placeholders should sit in your out-of-office message. There are 6 available:
Start date: the day your leave starts
Start time: the time of day your leave starts
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 "End date" manually, your automatic replies will be turned off as of that day and you’ll have to specify the time period again the next time you’re out of the office.
Whereas if you use the placeholders, absentify will edit this automatically for you whenever you take a leave of absence of the selected type.
After editing your templates, click "Send test email" to send a test email to yourself and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Once you're happy with your template, click "Save".
From here, you can save a different template for each type of leave by selecting a new "Leave type template" from the top of the page.
If the automatic out of office reply can't be set for some reason, you'll get an email with the text that you can copy and paste manually into Outlook. To do this, copy the text from the email and go to "Settings" > "Mail" > "Automatic Replies" in Outlook. Paste the text in the text box and click "Save".
Email notifications
Under "Email notifications", you'll have the option to allow absentify to send you Email notifications by flipping the toggle and clicking "Save".
Please note that for some users the toggle may not be shown for "Calendar invitations", depending on how your company's administrator has set up this function.
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!
The present icon will also allow you to access "Ideas" where you can post your own ideas on how absentify could improve the user experience as well as see and comment on what other people have posted as recommendations.
This concludes the Quickstart guide for managers. You should now have a good understanding of how absentify works and how to get started. For more information, please refer to our other guides in the Help Center or share your ideas with us at feedback.absentify.com.
Updated on: 05/03/2023
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