Startup guide
Welcome to absentify, your smart vacation planner!
This startup guide will help you successfully complete the initial setup. By the end, you'll have a good understanding of the basics and be ready to start tracking your team's absences.
We're happy you've decided to use absentify for managing your company's leave! To start you'll need to register your company from our website by clicking "Sign up".
Since absentify is integrated within Microsoft 365, you'll need a Microsoft e-mail address before moving forward.
Click on "Continue with Microsoft".
You'll then be prompted to log in to your microsoft account.
Once you've logged in, you'll be given the option to either register a company or join a company.
Click on "Register a new company".
Start by adding your company details to fill out your profile.
Click on "Settings" > "General".
From this page your can edit the following:
Company name
Default time zone: the time zone from which your company will operate. Please note that if some of your employees work in a different time zone, you can edit this from their profile.
Default date format: how the date will be displayed for your company's users
Default time format: how the time will be displayed for your company's users
Default week start: the first day of the week displayed for your company's users
Business hours: what your company's operating hours are
By adding departments, you can make sure your employee's time off is organized and easy to track for each individual department. The departments you create should correspond to your real company structure.
Don't forget that for each department you need a "manager" who will approve the department members' absences.
Start by navigating to "Settings" > "Departments".
You'll be prompted to fill out the following:
Name: name of the department
Manager: until you've invited your users, you can set yourself as the manager and edit this afterwards if need be
Approval process: select the order in which the time off requests will be sent to the managers if the department is to have more than one
Maximum absent: the maximum number of users within the departments that can be absent at once
Allowance (days): the default vacation allowance for members of the department (this can always be changed later in the user's details)
Once you're happy with your changes, click "Save".
To make any changes to a department, go to "Settings" > "Departments" and click the pencil icon next to the respective department for "Edit".
From here you can make any changes to the department, including changing the approving manager by selecting a user from those available in the dropdown list.
To learn more about what other department modifications are possible, read our helpdesk article Managing departments!
Does your team have days off on public holidays? If so, then we can add all these days directly to the calendar and assign them individually to each employee.
Remember that these public holidays will not be deducted from the user's yearly vacation quota.
Navigate to Public holidays
Start by going to "Settings" > "Public holidays" > " Add public holiday".
Select the country
Name the holiday and choose your desired country from the dropdown menu.
Select the region of said country
After choosing the country, you'll be prompted to select the region.
Click "Save" to save your changes
Your new public holiday will now appear in the main holiday list.
For more info on public holidays such as how to edit them or assign them to certain users, read our helpdesk article Public holidays to learn more.
Now you can start to build your team by registering your employees. First, go to Settings > Users
You'll be given two options on how you'd like to add your users whether it be one at a time or a bulk import by uploading the data from an Excel Spreadsheet.
Click on the plus sign for "Invite a new user".
The Invite a new user form will be displayed automatically where you'll be prompted to add the details of the employee. These include:
Name
E-mail: this will need to be a microsoft email address
Departments(s): select one or more department that they are a member of
Public holidays: select one or more public holidays that will show up on their calendar
Employment start date: specify when the user had/has their first working day
Annual allowance: the annual vacation quota (current year) that you'd like to set for the user
Before clicking "Save" to complete the registration, decide if you'd like absentify to automatically send them an invitation by flipping the toggle on under "Send invitation email". Shortly after, an invitation will be sent to the registered email address.
Please note that if you decide to flip the toggle off, you'll have to manually send the user an invitation later.
Click on " Import users".
You'll be prompted to download an Excel template. Click "Download".
The spreadsheet has three different sheets where you can fill out the info of your company.
From the "Import Data" page, you'll need to fill out the following:
Name: list all your employees' names
Email: list their email. Please note that absentify is developed for Microsoft 365 which means that all users you invite need to have a Microsoft account.
Department: list one or more department that they're a member of
Public holidays: list one or more public holidays that you want to show up on their calendar
Employment: specify when the user has their first working day
Annual allowance: this is the annual quota (current year) and is automatically calculated through the employment start date and the annual vacation contingent set for the department. This is just a suggestion from absentify and can be changed as desired.
From the Departments page you'll need to list all departments that you've already created in absentify.
From the Public holidays page you'll need to list all public holidays that you've already created in absentify.
These will have been all the public holidays that apply to your company and its employees.
As soon as you've filled out all the sheets provided in the template, it should look something like this:
Once you're finished, save your updated Excel spreadsheet and upload your updated version back to absentify by clicking "Upload".
Once the upload is complete, decide if you'd like absentify to automatically send all employees listed an invitation via email by flipping the toggle on under "Send invitation emails".
Please note that if you decide to flip the toggle off, you'll have to manually send the user an invitation later.
Click "Invite all users" to complete the registration.
Shortly after, an invitation will be sent to the email addresses registered.
For more info on adding users, read our helpdesk article Add users to learn more!
You can easily configure your operating hours under "Settings" > "General" > "Business hours". These hours will set the basis for the employee's schedules.
Click on "View & edit" to specify both the day and time window within which you'd like to schedule you employees.
Here you'll have the option to change the start and end of the shift for each weekday as well as if the user's absences should be deducted as either a full or half day.
If you want employees to have the option to book absences for half days, you must select the boxes for both the morning and afternoon shift.
Once you're happy with your selected business hours, click "Save" to save your changes. Remember, these won't be permanent; adjustments can be made at any time!
By default, the user is assigned the company's working hours, but if the user has a different work schedule, these can easily be customized.
You can edit a separate work schedule for each user under "Settings" > "Users" > "Schedule".
Click on "View and edit" under the user's active schedule and make any desired changes including the date when the new schedule should begin. As of that date, the user's calendar will be updated with their new schedule, instead of that from the company.
For more info on assigning users a schedule, visit our helpdesk article Set business hours to learn more.
If you want to create new absence types for your users, or edit/delete the default one provided, you can easily customize them to your company's needs.
The most common absence reasons are already listed in absentify such as vacation, sick leave and unpaid leave, but adding additional, user-defined reasons for absences is easy to do!
Go to "Settings" > "Leave Types" > "Add new leave type".
You'll be prompted to fill out the following:
Name: name of the absence when the user's select it as a requested leave.
Minimum daily absence unit: select whether this absence can be taken as half days or is only possible as a full day.
Outlook Calendar entry show as: decide how users will be shown in their calendar to other employees when logging this leave type (i.e. busy, out of office, etc.).
Event's subject: how the absence will be displayed in the Outlook calendar, if your user's decide to sync their absentify account with their Outlook calendar.
Once you've filled out the details of the leave, activate or deactivate any of the privacy toggles to your desire. These include:
Deduct from allowance: with this enabled, the days-off requested will be deducted from the user's vacation quota.
Requires approval: with this enabled, a manager or approver must approve or deny the request for the user's absence.
Include in maximum absent: with this enabled, any new requests for absenteeism will be automatically rejected if the user's department has already reached the maximum number of employees that can be absent at once.
Privacy: with this enabled, only the respective user's approver, manager and the admin can see the reason for the absence, whereas if it's disabled, then everyone in the company can see the reason for the user's absence.
For more information of creating absence types, visit our helpdesk article, Create absence types and for info on which users have which permissions, read our Permissions per user article.
Now that your company's absence manager is all set up, read our Quickstart guide and learn how to start using absentify to track and manage staff leave!
This startup guide will help you successfully complete the initial setup. By the end, you'll have a good understanding of the basics and be ready to start tracking your team's absences.
Register your company
We're happy you've decided to use absentify for managing your company's leave! To start you'll need to register your company from our website by clicking "Sign up".
Hint:
Since absentify is integrated within Microsoft 365, you'll need a Microsoft e-mail address before moving forward.
Click on "Continue with Microsoft".
You'll then be prompted to log in to your microsoft account.
Once you've logged in, you'll be given the option to either register a company or join a company.
Click on "Register a new company".
Input your company's details
Start by adding your company details to fill out your profile.
Click on "Settings" > "General".
From this page your can edit the following:
Company name
Default time zone: the time zone from which your company will operate. Please note that if some of your employees work in a different time zone, you can edit this from their profile.
Default date format: how the date will be displayed for your company's users
Default time format: how the time will be displayed for your company's users
Default week start: the first day of the week displayed for your company's users
Business hours: what your company's operating hours are
Add departments
By adding departments, you can make sure your employee's time off is organized and easy to track for each individual department. The departments you create should correspond to your real company structure.
Hint:
Don't forget that for each department you need a "manager" who will approve the department members' absences.
Start by navigating to "Settings" > "Departments".
You'll be prompted to fill out the following:
Name: name of the department
Manager: until you've invited your users, you can set yourself as the manager and edit this afterwards if need be
Approval process: select the order in which the time off requests will be sent to the managers if the department is to have more than one
Maximum absent: the maximum number of users within the departments that can be absent at once
Allowance (days): the default vacation allowance for members of the department (this can always be changed later in the user's details)
Once you're happy with your changes, click "Save".
To make any changes to a department, go to "Settings" > "Departments" and click the pencil icon next to the respective department for "Edit".
From here you can make any changes to the department, including changing the approving manager by selecting a user from those available in the dropdown list.
To learn more about what other department modifications are possible, read our helpdesk article Managing departments!
Add public holidays
Does your team have days off on public holidays? If so, then we can add all these days directly to the calendar and assign them individually to each employee.
Hint:
Remember that these public holidays will not be deducted from the user's yearly vacation quota.
Navigate to Public holidays
Start by going to "Settings" > "Public holidays" > " Add public holiday".
Select the country
Name the holiday and choose your desired country from the dropdown menu.
Select the region of said country
After choosing the country, you'll be prompted to select the region.
Click "Save" to save your changes
Your new public holiday will now appear in the main holiday list.
For more info on public holidays such as how to edit them or assign them to certain users, read our helpdesk article Public holidays to learn more.
Add users
Now you can start to build your team by registering your employees. First, go to Settings > Users
You'll be given two options on how you'd like to add your users whether it be one at a time or a bulk import by uploading the data from an Excel Spreadsheet.
Individually
Click on the plus sign for "Invite a new user".
The Invite a new user form will be displayed automatically where you'll be prompted to add the details of the employee. These include:
Name
E-mail: this will need to be a microsoft email address
Departments(s): select one or more department that they are a member of
Public holidays: select one or more public holidays that will show up on their calendar
Employment start date: specify when the user had/has their first working day
Annual allowance: the annual vacation quota (current year) that you'd like to set for the user
Hint:
Before clicking "Save" to complete the registration, decide if you'd like absentify to automatically send them an invitation by flipping the toggle on under "Send invitation email". Shortly after, an invitation will be sent to the registered email address.
Please note that if you decide to flip the toggle off, you'll have to manually send the user an invitation later.
via import
Click on " Import users".
You'll be prompted to download an Excel template. Click "Download".
The spreadsheet has three different sheets where you can fill out the info of your company.
Import Data
From the "Import Data" page, you'll need to fill out the following:
Name: list all your employees' names
Email: list their email. Please note that absentify is developed for Microsoft 365 which means that all users you invite need to have a Microsoft account.
Department: list one or more department that they're a member of
Public holidays: list one or more public holidays that you want to show up on their calendar
Employment: specify when the user has their first working day
Annual allowance: this is the annual quota (current year) and is automatically calculated through the employment start date and the annual vacation contingent set for the department. This is just a suggestion from absentify and can be changed as desired.
Departments
From the Departments page you'll need to list all departments that you've already created in absentify.
Public holidays
From the Public holidays page you'll need to list all public holidays that you've already created in absentify.
These will have been all the public holidays that apply to your company and its employees.
As soon as you've filled out all the sheets provided in the template, it should look something like this:
Once you're finished, save your updated Excel spreadsheet and upload your updated version back to absentify by clicking "Upload".
Once the upload is complete, decide if you'd like absentify to automatically send all employees listed an invitation via email by flipping the toggle on under "Send invitation emails".
Hint:
Please note that if you decide to flip the toggle off, you'll have to manually send the user an invitation later.
Click "Invite all users" to complete the registration.
Shortly after, an invitation will be sent to the email addresses registered.
For more info on adding users, read our helpdesk article Add users to learn more!
Set your business hours
You can easily configure your operating hours under "Settings" > "General" > "Business hours". These hours will set the basis for the employee's schedules.
Click on "View & edit" to specify both the day and time window within which you'd like to schedule you employees.
Here you'll have the option to change the start and end of the shift for each weekday as well as if the user's absences should be deducted as either a full or half day.
If you want employees to have the option to book absences for half days, you must select the boxes for both the morning and afternoon shift.
Once you're happy with your selected business hours, click "Save" to save your changes. Remember, these won't be permanent; adjustments can be made at any time!
Hint:
By default, the user is assigned the company's working hours, but if the user has a different work schedule, these can easily be customized.
You can edit a separate work schedule for each user under "Settings" > "Users" > "Schedule".
Click on "View and edit" under the user's active schedule and make any desired changes including the date when the new schedule should begin. As of that date, the user's calendar will be updated with their new schedule, instead of that from the company.
For more info on assigning users a schedule, visit our helpdesk article Set business hours to learn more.
Customize absences
If you want to create new absence types for your users, or edit/delete the default one provided, you can easily customize them to your company's needs.
Add a new type of leave
The most common absence reasons are already listed in absentify such as vacation, sick leave and unpaid leave, but adding additional, user-defined reasons for absences is easy to do!
Go to "Settings" > "Leave Types" > "Add new leave type".
You'll be prompted to fill out the following:
Name: name of the absence when the user's select it as a requested leave.
Minimum daily absence unit: select whether this absence can be taken as half days or is only possible as a full day.
Outlook Calendar entry show as: decide how users will be shown in their calendar to other employees when logging this leave type (i.e. busy, out of office, etc.).
Event's subject: how the absence will be displayed in the Outlook calendar, if your user's decide to sync their absentify account with their Outlook calendar.
Once you've filled out the details of the leave, activate or deactivate any of the privacy toggles to your desire. These include:
Deduct from allowance: with this enabled, the days-off requested will be deducted from the user's vacation quota.
Requires approval: with this enabled, a manager or approver must approve or deny the request for the user's absence.
Include in maximum absent: with this enabled, any new requests for absenteeism will be automatically rejected if the user's department has already reached the maximum number of employees that can be absent at once.
Privacy: with this enabled, only the respective user's approver, manager and the admin can see the reason for the absence, whereas if it's disabled, then everyone in the company can see the reason for the user's absence.
For more information of creating absence types, visit our helpdesk article, Create absence types and for info on which users have which permissions, read our Permissions per user article.
Start using absentify
Now that your company's absence manager is all set up, read our Quickstart guide and learn how to start using absentify to track and manage staff leave!
Updated on: 25/10/2023
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