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Table of Contents
Introduction
Need to apply for a well-deserved vacation 🏖️? Or maybe you'll be on a business trip 💼 soon and need to request out of office hours? You can effortlessly do so in the Out of the office widget on your Employee Portal dashboard. But that’s not all—if you have subordinates in the organisation chart or have been granted the necessary permissions—you can also use this handy tool to apply for leave on behalf of others.
To see how to proceed on the Out of the office widget, just keep reading this article 😉
🧠 Good-to-know
Using the Indigo Mobile app is another very quick and easy way to submit your leave requests. It also keeps you updated about your leave balance and history, and allows you to check who's already on leave on a selected date. More on this 👉 here.
Remember that permissions need to be granted to use the Indigo Mobile app.
Applying for Leave
For Yourself
Click the Apply button in the Out of the office widget.
The Apply For Leave window will pop up displaying the a weekly calendar.
Use the the From and To fields to change days.
Click on the plus ➕ icon on next to the desired day to apply for leave.
The Apply For Leave window will open. Your full name will show in the Applicant field along with your assigned Leave hours schedule, both greyed out.
Insert the dates when your leave request starts and finishes in the Date from/to fields.
Select a Leave Group (e.g. Vacation) or a Leave Type (e.g. VAC25) to deduct hours from. One choice will grey out the other field. You can learn more about the difference between the two 👉 here.
Choose a Leave hour schedule detail for the requested leave (E.g. Full Day, Morning, Afternoon, Hours, etc.).
Time from/to fields will appear only if you previously select a 'variable hours' leave hour schedule detail (e.g. Hours). This would allow you to enter a specific time frame (e.g. the employee works full time, but they need to take only two hours of leave during the day. In such scenario you would insert the starting and finishing time to cover those two hours leave.)
Enter e Reference no. or a note in the Remarks field if needed.
Click on Submit to confirm the selections, and notify both the applier and the direct approver via e-mail.
🧠 Tip
The options available in the Leave hour schedule detail dropdown depends on what you set up in Payroll & Leave > Leave hour schedule > select a leave hour schedule record > Dates tab > Details tab. More on this 👉 here.
🤔 Remember
If you apply for a leave type with a pay rate is 0.99 or less, a warning message will be displayed to the user. This pop-up appears in both the Applying for Leave widget and the Leave Request Audit.
On Behalf of Someone Else
To apply for leave on behalf of another employee, hover over the 🔽 arrow on the Apply button in the Out of the office widget. The On behalf of button will show if you are eligible to apply for people other than yourself. Select it, and proceed exactly as you would do for yourself. The employee you are applying on behalf of will be notified via email.
You can also cancel leave on behalf of someone as 🔽 Cancel button behaves exactly as the Apply one.
👀 Check this out
If you have an Administrator (or HR Administrator) role assigned, you can directly insert leave requests via the 👉 Leave Request Audit page in the Payroll & Leave module.
⚠️ No one will be notified about the inserted request, which will get automatically approved.
How to Allow an Employee to Apply on Behalf of Someone Else?
How to Allow an Employee to Apply on Behalf of Someone Else?
Usually managers have people reporting to them and might need to submit or cancel leave on their behalf via the Out of the Office widget. To enable the On behalf of button, you need to properly set up a hierarchy in the organisation chart, ensuring the managers are positioned above their subordinates. In the image below we can see that:
Mick has four people reporting to him, one of them being Joan Jett.
Joan has a direct subordinate, Micki Steele.
Mick can apply for leave on behalf of his four direct subordinates including Joan's (Micki).
Joan can request leave for herself and on behalf of Micki.
It's also possible to set up an exception in the organisation chart. Find out how by expanding the collapsible below.
👈 Example of Exception in the Organisation Chart
👈 Example of Exception in the Organisation Chart
Imagine you have a receptionist (Mick) and a cleaner (Rose) in your company. Rose isn't part of Mick's team, so she doesn't need to be in the organisation chart. However, Mick is her point of contact for communicating with the company.
Since Rose doesn't have access to a computer—and company policy requires that all absence requests be processed in Indigo—you would open Mick's employee profile and insert Rose in the Apply On Behalf Of tab.
You can find the Apply On Behalf Of tab going to HR > Employees > select an employee (applier on behalf) > Apply On Behalf Of tab. Once there:
Click on the ➕ Insert button on the far left of the toolbar.
Start typing the name of the employee to have the suggestions showing.
Select the employee you need and click on ✔️ Save.
Now, Mick can specifically apply for leave on behalf of Rose Axel, even though she isn't his direct subordinate in the organisation chart.
🤔 Remember
Both the Organisation Chart and the Apply On Behalf Of tab, can only be accessed by people having the proper roles (e.g. Administrator, HR Administrator) or permissions assigned.
The Apply On Behalf Of tab only allows to submit leave for the inserted employee. The approval process will still follow the organisation chart structure.
Uploading Attachments to Leave Requests
When Applying for Leave
After following the steps to apply for leave here:
Click the Upload Leave Attachment button at the bottom of the window.
In the next screen, add a file either by dragging and dropping it into the blue box or by clicking in the blue box to open the file selector.
When you've added the file, click Submit.
After Applying for Leave
In the Out of Office widget, click the View button.
When the View Leave Request window opens, you'll see a list of leave requests. Find the entry you need, then click the Add Files button on the right end of the entry.
The window view will change, showing the file uploader on the left and the file details on the right. Click the upload box to open the file selector. You can also drag and drop the file.
When you've selected the file, the Upload File button will now be activated—go ahead and click it.
Once the file uploads, you'll see the file's details listed on the right of the window.
Submitting and Managing Sick Leave Requests
People having the proper role or permissions assigned will see the Sick button on the Out of the Office widget.
This means that they can promptly record a sick leave request once an employee calls sick, by simply clicking on the Sick button.
📋 Note
You can decide to have one person applying for sick leave (eg. the receptionist getting the sick call), and another one approving it (e.g. HR once they get the doctor certificate from the employee).
You might also want to have a person specifically managing sick leave requests without being an administrator.
To achieve any of the mentioned scenarios check out the permissions to assign below.
Permissions
Permissions
HR_ApproveSickLeave to only approve sick leave.
HR_SickLeaveRequestAudit to only request sick leave.
Don't forget to also assign the HR_Employee permission to give them access to all the employees for the companies they are assigned to.
A modal will pop up titled Sick Leave Request Audit, showing any sick leave requests pending your approval (blinking), along with three action buttons at the bottom right of the modal: ➕ Create Leave, ✔️ Submit and ❌ Close.
Select the ➕ Create Leave button to open the Apply For Sick Leave modal and proceed as you would do with a regular leave request. The only available leave groups are Sick Leave and Injury Leave. Please also note that no one will be notified via email.
Use the approve (green) or decline (orange) related buttons to proceed as needed for the showing requests, then click on ✔️ Submit to confirm your choice.
Good to know 🧠
You can save files to sick leave entries, in exactly the same way you would for other leave entries. The only difference is that for sick leave, the process starts from the Sick button in the Out of Office widget.
Can Sick Leave Requests be Submitted Without Permissions?
Can Sick Leave Requests be Submitted Without Permissions?
The ideal scenario when inserting sick leave requests is to have specifically designated people with the proper role and permissions assigned.
However, you might want to go for a more independent approach by allowing your employees to apply for sick leave on their own. The direct approvers as determined in the organisation chart will then be notified via email, just like for regular leave.
To allow your employees to apply for sick leave, navigate to Payroll & Leave > Main > Settings, then select Payroll and then Leave in the left sidebar.
Now, tick the Can employee apply for sick leave from portal checkbox.
Sick leave and Injury leave will show in the Leave Group dropdown in the Apply For Leave modal (NOT in the Apply for Sick Leave modal we discussed here).
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