What's covered in this guide?
How Does Availability Work in Workforce?
Availability lets employees communicate when they can and can't work ahead of time.
There are two ways your availability can apply:
Ongoing Availability is your regular weekly or fortnightly availability. It sets the foundation for when you're available to work from week to week.
Temporary Changes let you override your ongoing availability for a specific date range. Use these when your availability differs from your usual pattern for a limited period, such as during school holidays, while travelling, or because of a short-term change in your schedule.
Both ongoing and temporary availability changes are submitted through the same Change Availability form.
When creating a request, you can indicate for each day whether you are:
Unavailable.
Available all day.
Available for specific times.
Your existing ongoing availability will be prefilled for the selected period, so you can see your current availability before making changes.
📝 Important to note: Ongoing Availability must be configured before temporary availability changes can be submitted. In some cases, your organisation may have already configured your ongoing availability
Changes to ongoing or temporary availability may require manager approval before they take effect.
Submitting an Availability Request
Web
To submit an availability request on the Workforce web platform:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Availability.
Select Change Availability.
Enter the Start date for the change.
Choose whether the change has an end date.
Select No to update your ongoing availability.
Select Yes to make a temporary change for a specific date range.
If the change has an end date, enter the Finish date and a Reason for the change.
Set your availability for each day.
Each day can be configured as:
Unavailable.
Available all day.
Specific times.
When selecting Specific times, enter the times you are available to work.
Your existing ongoing availability for the selected period will be prefilled in the form. Adjust only the days or times that need to change.
You can also use the bulk option to update multiple days at once.
Once complete, select Create to finalise the request or submit it to your manager for approval.
📝 Important to note: If a temporary change overlaps dates already covered by an approved temporary change, the newly approved request will override the existing temporary availability for those days.
Mobile App
To submit an availability request in the Workforce app:
Navigate to Leave > Availability.
Tap Change Availability.
Enter the Start date for the change.
Choose whether the change has an end date.
Select No to update your ongoing availability.
Select Yes to make a temporary change for a specific date range.
If the change has an end date, enter the Finish date and a Reason.
Set your availability for each day.
Each day can be configured as:
Unavailable.
Available all day.
Specific times.
Your existing ongoing availability will be prefilled for the selected period.
Tap Create to submit the request for approval.
📝 Important to note: Ongoing Availability must be set before temporary changes can be submitted. In some cases, your organisation may already have configured your ongoing availability.
Declining & Giving Away Shifts
When an employee declines a future shift or gives it away through a shift swap or replacement request, they can choose to automatically create an unavailability request for the time of that shift.
This helps prevent the employee from being offered another shift during a time they've already indicated they can't work.
If the employee selects Confirm as Unavailable, an availability request will be created for the time of the shift they can't work.
If your organisation requires manager approval for shift changes, such as replacements or shift swaps, the manager can confirm or adjust the employee's selection to be marked as unavailable when reviewing the request.
Viewing and Editing Your Requests
You can view your availability requests from the Time & Attendance > Availability section of Workforce.
Viewing Requests
Web
Navigate to: Time & Attendance > Availability
Pending requests are shown by default. Use the available filters to view requests by status, employee, date range, request type, or team, depending on your access.
Mobile App
Navigate to: Leave > Availability
Your requests are displayed in your availability overview. Depending on their status and timing, requests may appear as pending, upcoming, approved, or declined.
Editing Requests
To edit an availability request:
Navigate to Availability.
Open the relevant request.
Select Edit.
Make your changes.
Select Save changes to submit the update.
If you are not a manager or administrator, editing an already-approved request may return it to Pending status and require manager approval again.
To delete an upcoming request, open the request, select Edit, then choose Delete where available.
Managers can also edit availability requests for employees they manage from the Workforce web platform.
Viewing and Managing Your Employees' Availability
Mobile
Managers can view availability requests for employees they manage in the Workforce app.
Navigate to: Leave > Availability > Team
Both ongoing and temporary availability requests are displayed.
To review a request:
Open the request.
Tap Show Details.
Review the employee's availability change.
Select Approve or Decline.
Web
To view employee availability requests on the web:
Navigate to Time & Attendance > Availability.
Review the requests for your team.
Use the available search and filter options as required.
Open the relevant request or request menu.
Select Approve or Decline.
Managers may also be able to edit availability requests on behalf of employees they manage.
Notifications
Employees may receive notifications when an availability request is:
Approved.
Declined.
Managers may receive notifications when new availability requests require review.
Notification preferences can be managed from:
Mobile: Profile > Notification Preferences
Web: Notification icon > Notification Settings
In the Schedule
Availability information is displayed when scheduling employees so managers can see when employees are available or unavailable to work.
By default, unavailable times may be shown within the schedule to help managers avoid assigning shifts outside an employee's approved availability.
Where available, managers may also be able to switch the schedule view to display employees' available windows instead of unavailable periods.
📝 Important to note: An approved temporary availability change overrides the employee's ongoing availability for the dates covered by that request.
For those dates, only the temporary availability applies in the schedule.
Availability Settings and Permissions
Organisations can control which types of availability changes employees are allowed to submit.
Availability settings may include controls for:
Ongoing Availability
When changes to ongoing availability are enabled, employees can submit and modify their regular weekly or fortnightly availability.
When disabled, employees may no longer be able to submit changes to their ongoing availability.
Temporary Availability
When temporary availability changes are enabled, employees can submit temporary overrides for a specific date range.
When disabled, employees may no longer be able to submit or modify temporary availability requests.
Additional access may depend on the user's permission level and your organisation's Workforce configuration.
📝 Important to note: Availability restrictions, notice periods, approval requirements, and request limits may vary depending on your organisation's settings.
Permissions
Availability permissions can be configured further in the user's individual permission level settings.
Navigate to Settings > All Settings > Permission Settings > Advanced Settings > Customise Access & Roles Here, click View to adjust the following:
FAQs and Troubleshooting
When should I use Leave vs Availability?
When should I use Leave vs Availability?
Leave and Availability refer to similar but distinct concepts.
Leave is used to request time away from work, such as Annual Leave or Personal Leave.
Availability is used to indicate when you are generally available or unavailable to work. This is particularly useful for casual and part-time employees with varying work patterns.
Why can't an employee submit an availability request?
Why can't an employee submit an availability request?
They may be blocked from submitting a request if it falls within the organisation's minimum notice period for availability changes.
They may also be blocked if there is a custom event configured to prevent availability requests during that period.
Why is my employee's ongoing availability not showing in the rota?
Why is my employee's ongoing availability not showing in the rota?
If an employee has an approved temporary change, their ongoing availability does not apply for that date range. The rota will only show availability from the temporary request for those days. Check whether there is an active temporary change covering the dates in question.
Why was an availability request not blocked during an unavailability blackout period in the rota?
Why was an availability request not blocked during an unavailability blackout period in the rota?
Unavailability Restrictions in the rota do not apply to Ongoing Availability Requests, as they would then be impacted by all future rota events (which are not always relevant to the time period).
Additionally, only reductions in availability are prevented. If an employee is marking themselves as Available, rather than Unavailable, they will not be blocked from doing so.