Work time & absences
Overview of the Work Time module - request leave, follow your balances, see who is off, approve requests and configure absence types, schedules and holidays.
Who can do thisEmployeeManagerManager creatorScoped adminAdminSuper admin
The Work Time module manages absences and leave in OpenAleph. Employees request time off and follow their leave balances, managers approve their team's requests and see who is off, and admins configure the absence types, accrual policies, working schedules and public holidays that drive every calculation.
Note: Work Time is licensed per company. If you don't see Work Time in the sidebar, your company may not have the module enabled; ask your admin (see Modules and licences).
Where to find it
In the sidebar, open Work Time. Depending on your access level you see up to four entries:
| Menu entry | Who sees it | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Work Time › My Calendar | Everyone | Your own calendar, your leave balances and the history of your requests. This is the default page of the module. |
| Work Time › Planning | Everyone | The team planning: who is absent, when, across your team or the whole company. |
| Work Time › Requests | Manager and above | The approval queue for your team's absence requests. |
| Work Time › Configuration | Admin and above | Settings: Absence types, Holidays and Company schedules. |
Key concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Absence type | A kind of absence, for example paid leave, RTT, sick leave or unpaid leave. It has a colour, a category (Balanced or Unbalanced), a Paid / Unpaid flag and a Day counting mode. |
| Balanced absence type | A type that uses a day balance which is credited automatically by one or more policies (typical for paid leave). You can only take what your balance allows, unless the policy accepts a negative balance. |
| Unbalanced absence type | A type without a balance (typical for sick leave or special leave). Anyone can request it, there is nothing to accrue. |
| Policy | The accrual rule of a balanced absence type: how many days are credited (Earning rate), how often (Month or Year), when (Beginning of period or End of period), over which period, and until when the days can be used (Valid to). Employees are assigned to policies. |
| Leave balance | The number of days you have on a policy. It moves with accruals, approved absences, cancellations, manual adjustments and expiry. |
| Day counting | How an absence is priced: Worked days (the days you actually work), Open days (Monday to Saturday, French "jours ouvrables") or Calendar days (every day). Set once per absence type. |
| Company schedule | A working week (which days are worked full day, morning only, afternoon only or not at all). A default schedule, Monday to Friday, applies to everyone who is not assigned to another schedule. |
| Holiday | A company public holiday or closing day. It is excluded from worked-days and open-days counts. |
| Request statuses | Pending (waiting for approval), Approved, Rejected, Canceled. Only approved requests take days off your balance. |
| Reference contact | The colleague to contact while you are away. It defaults to your manager. |
Who does what
Access levels are explained in Roles and access and Access levels. Work Time relies on the manager set on each profile (see Edit and deactivate users): it decides who receives and approves requests.
| Role | What they can do in Work Time |
|---|---|
| Employee | See their calendar and balances, request absences (full or half days), attach a document, cancel a pending request, export their own balance history, see the planning (other people's absences show as "Absent" without details). |
| Manager | Everything an employee can do, plus: see the details of their direct and indirect reports' absences in the planning, approve or reject their pending requests, cancel their approved requests, receive an email for each new request of their direct reports. |
| Manager creator | Same as a manager, plus the Export absences (planning Excel file) and Export history (balance history for all members) exports from the planning page. |
| Scoped admin | Same as a manager in Work Time. The Requests page lists the requests of the people in their scope, but they can only approve or reject the requests of people who report to them. |
| Admin / Super admin | Everything above for the whole company, plus: add absences on behalf of one or several members, adjust balances, and configure absence types, policies, company schedules and holidays. |
Typical workflow
- An admin prepares the module in Work Time › Configuration: creates the absence types, a policy for each balanced type and assigns members to it, checks the default company schedule and adds the holidays.
- Balances are credited automatically, every month or every year, according to the policies (see Balances and exports).
- An employee requests an absence from My Calendar. The request is Pending and their manager receives an email and a notification.
- The manager approves or rejects it from Work Time › Requests, optionally with a message. The employee is notified. On approval, the days are taken from the balance.
- Everyone can check the planning to see who is off.
- Admins can add absences on behalf of members (for example a company closing day), adjust balances and export the planning or the balance history.
Pages in this section
- My calendar: your calendar, leave balances and request history.
- Request time off: submit, follow and cancel an absence request.
- Planning: see who is off across the team or the company.
- Approve requests: the manager's approval queue.
- Add absences on behalf and adjust balances: admin actions for other members.
- Absence types and policies: configure types, accrual policies and assignees.
- Company schedules: define working weeks and who follows them.
- Holidays: manage public holidays and company closing days.
- Balances and exports: how balances are calculated, and the Excel exports.
- Notifications and mobile app: emails, in-app notifications and Work Time on the mobile app.
My calendarUse Work Time › My Calendar to see your absences and holidays, check your leave balances, estimate a future balance and review your request history.Request time offSubmit an absence request in Work Time, choose full or half days, split the days across your leave balances, add a reference contact and attachment, and cancel it.PlanningUse Work Time › Planning to see who is absent across your team or the company, by month or week, with filters, and what managers and admins can do from it.Approve requestsReview your team's absence requests in Work Time › Requests - approve, reject or cancel one or several requests, add a message, and handle negative balances.Add absences on behalf and adjust balancesAdmins can add an absence for one member or for many at once from Work Time › Planning, and manually adjust a member's leave balance.Absence types and policiesConfigure absence types (balanced or unbalanced, paid or unpaid, day counting), create accrual policies and assign members to them in Work Time › Configuration.Company schedulesDefine the working weeks your company runs on (full days, half days, non-working days) and assign members to them in Work Time › Configuration › Company schedules.HolidaysAdd, rename and inactivate company public holidays and closing days in Work Time › Configuration › Holidays, and how they affect absence counts.Balances and exportsHow Work Time leave balances are credited, deducted, prorated and expired, and how to export the absence planning and balance history to Excel.Notifications and mobile appThe emails and notifications sent by Work Time (requests, decisions, cancellations, imposed absences, balance adjustments) and how to use Work Time on the mobile app.
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