How time off and holiday work

Time off in Yes Chef is a request and an answer. Someone asks for days off, a person who approves time off at their location says yes or no, and an approved request keeps them off the rota for those days. Holiday is the one type of time off that is counted against a balance.

A request

A request has a type, a first and last day, the hours each day is worth, and an optional reason. It is in one of three states:

• Waiting: sent, and with the people who approve time off.
• Approved: the person cannot be put on a shift on those days.
• Declined: always with a reason, which the person is shown.

A request can also be Cancelled: by the person who asked while it waits, and by them or a manager after it is approved, until its first day starts. It cannot be edited. See Cancel or change a time-off request.

The four types

Holiday, Sick, Personal and Unpaid. All four are asked for and answered the same way, and all four block shifts once approved. Only Holiday is taken from the holiday balance.

The holiday balance

Everyone has a balance for the current leave year, kept in hours and shown in days as well. It is worked out from your location’s rules and the person’s contract or approved hours, less the holiday they have taken and booked. How holiday builds up has the sums. Asking for more holiday than is left does not stop a request: the person approving sees what it would leave and decides.

Who does what, and where

• Everyone asks for time off and sees their own balance and requests on the iPhone app. The website shows a person their waiting and newly answered requests on Home and in the inbox, but has no form to ask and no page for their own balance.
• People with the “Approve time off” permission (Supervisors, Location Managers and Admins by default) answer requests and see everyone’s balances, on the web and the phone.
• People who can edit staff details (Location Managers and Admins by default) can change how one person’s holiday is worked out, on the web.
• People who can edit a location’s settings (Admins by default) set the holiday rules, on the web.

Time off is part of Rota & Team, and is there only at locations with that switched on.

For everyone

• Ask for time off
• Check on a time-off request
• See your holiday balance
• Cancel or change a time-off request

For managers

• Approve or decline time off
• See everyone’s holiday balances
• Change someone’s holiday allowance
• Set the holiday rules for a location
• Time off on the rota

Time off sits beside the rota and timesheets: see How the rota works and How clocking and timesheets work.