How do I ask for time off or say when I can't work?

For staff and managers — ask for holiday, sick, can't work or other time off from your rota page or the venue's devices, set the times you can't work each week, and how managers answer. Sick takes the dates only.

Asking for time off

Open your rota page (the Open my rota link in your rota email — no sign-in) or, on the venue's devices, sign in with your PIN and open Requests. Choose Time off, then:

• Holiday, Sick, Can’t work or Other, and the dates.
• For holiday or other you can add a note for your manager. Please don't put anything about your health in it.
• Sick takes the dates only — there's no note box. Only the people who run the rota see it's sickness; everyone else, on the rota and the venue's devices, sees "Off". Your private rota-page link opens without signing in, so it shows sick days, can't-work days and other time off all as "Off", and leaves out the notes on all your requests; signed in, you see each type and your notes.

Press Send my request (or Tell my manager I’m off sick). Your manager is told and says yes or no (a sick notice is just noted — never refused); you're told by email. Your venue may approve short requests by itself, ask for some notice, or take requests in person only — the page says so. When your venue approves short requests by itself, a sick notice that short is recorded straight away too.

Sick only appears if your venue takes sick notices online — most venues ask you to phone instead, and the page says so. Your manager then records it for you.

Some dates may be blocked out for holiday (Christmas week, say), and your venue can set how many people can be on holiday on the same day. A holiday on a blocked-out date or a full day is either still sent for your manager to decide (never approved automatically) or refused with the reason, depending on your venue. Sick days and other time off never count.

You can cancel a request while it's waiting, or an approved one before it starts. If it was already approved, the people who approve requests are told — any of your shifts that were opened for cover stay open until your manager sorts the rota.

When you can't work

Under When I can’t work, tap the times you can't work each week (daytime, evening, after 23:00 or all day), add one-off days, then save. Your venue may need a manager's yes first. Your manager sees it on the rota and gets a warning before putting you on then — it warns, it never blocks.

Holiday allowance

If your venue tracks holiday, you see what you have left this holiday year — your allowance (or what you've built up), what's carried in, what's taken and what's booked. Holiday counts as booked as soon as it's approved, and as taken from its first day (today counts as taken). Cancelling it gives it back.

How much a holiday uses:

• Counted in days — only the days you normally work come off. Your usual days off (an "always off" day) and the days your venue is closed don't count. One day can be Half a day.
• Counted in hours — the hours of your shifts already on the rota for those days. With no shift planned, your contracted hours a day (your set hours — your hours a week divided by your days a week) on the days you work. If neither is known, your request waits for your manager to fill in the hours — it's never guessed.

Holiday can be a set amount, or build up as you work (12.07% of your hours, the rule for irregular-hours and part-year workers) — your venue ticks who builds it up. Hours means your shifts on the published rota; if your venue uses clocking in, it may count your clocked hours instead (a shift with a missing clock-in or clock-out counts its rota hours until your manager sorts it). If your holiday builds up, you can't ask for more than you'll have built up by the holiday's first day — counting the shifts already on the rota until then — and the page says how much that is. On a set amount, you can't ask for more than you have left ("You have 3 days of holiday left — this asks for 5.") — only a manager can give you more. Unused holiday can carry over, up to your venue's limit. ResoFlow doesn't work out holiday pay — that's your venue's payroll.

If you started part-way through the holiday year, your allowance is worked out for the part you work (for example 28 days × 214/365 = 16.5 days, rounded up to the half day).

For managers: answering requests

Open Requests in the Team area. Approve or Decline each request — a sick notice only has Got it (sickness is never refused). Each waiting request shows Who else is off on those days — names, dates and the areas they work (holiday by name; any other time off, sickness included, as "Off"; waiting requests say so) — and, for holiday, any of your limits it goes past: a date you've blocked out (Blocked-out dates) or a day or area already at the most people off. You decide — a manager is never refused. To record time off for someone who phoned in sick, say, press Add time off for someone.

If the person has shifts on those days and your venue uses Open shifts, you're asked each time: Make it an open shift (someone else can take it) or Remove the shift. With open shifts off, their shifts are simply removed. Removed shifts sit in Recently deleted on the Rota page for 30 days; nothing asks for a PIN or password. Staff keep seeing the rota as last sent until you press Send changes. Marking someone Off, Sick or On holiday straight from the rota asks the same — see How do I build the rota?. If someone cancels time off you'd approved, everyone who approves requests gets a bell ("Sam cancelled their holiday"; "their time off" for any other kind, so a sick day is never named); their shifts aren't put back by themselves, so check the rota. The When people can’t work tab shows everyone's times and any change waiting for your yes.

For managers: days off and holiday figures

To set someone's regular day off yourself — "always off Tuesdays", say — open their Staff page → Work (or click their name on the rota) → When they work → Change. Tick their Always off days, add any other times they can’t work (Add a weekly time or Add one day, with From and Until), then Save. The rota greys those days ("Off (Tue)"), warns if a shift lands on one, and Fill the week for me leaves them free. Set each person's holiday on their Staff page → Work → Holiday (or Change on Holidays — the same window): whether it builds up from hours worked, their own allowance, Started working here (a part-year starter's allowance is worked out for the part they work — their own allowance always wins), and Holiday so far (before ResoFlow) for a venue moving to ResoFlow part-way through the year — Already used this holiday year, Left right now, or Built up so far with what they've already used, each as at a day (holiday booked in ResoFlow before that day is treated as already inside the figure). When you add holiday for someone or approve it, the amount it uses is filled in by the rules above and you can change it (days in halves, hours in quarters). If someone would go beyond what they'll have built up (holiday that builds up) or beyond what they have left (a set allowance), you're told by how much and can press Approve anyway (or Add anyway) — it's recorded, and Holidays shows them that much over.

For managers: the venue's time-off switches

The venue's holiday switches are in Rota settings, where Staff ask for time off online and Staff can send sick notices online are separate switches. Sick notices online are off unless you switch them on — staff then phone the venue. If you take sick notices online but not other time off, every request your staff send is a sick notice, so Rota settings reminds you that anyone who sees a member of staff's rota link can tell a waiting day off is a sick notice. With Approve short time off automatically on, a sick notice up to the same length is recorded at once and its shifts open for cover; you're still told. With open shifts off, a short request that would remove someone's shifts waits for you instead, and a holiday that meets one of your limits always waits for you. Sickness records are your venue's own staff data and count as health data — the ICO's guidance on health data at work (on ico.org.uk) explains how to look after them.

Switching between days and hours

Change Count holiday in (Rota settings, or the rota set-up) and, if anyone has their own figures — their own allowance, what's carried over, their holiday so far — ResoFlow asks once: Convert everyone’s figures? It lists each person with their figures old and new, converted at that person's own day: their average day on the rota this holiday year, else their set hours a day, else the usual 8 hours (the list says which). Days round to the half day and hours to the quarter hour. Convert changes them all (each change is in the Activity log); Leave as they are keeps the numbers as typed, read in the new unit — you can change anyone's figures on their Staff page later.

Related: Where do I see my shifts? · How do swaps work?