Available for the following HR plans: Standard, Premium, Platinum
Available for the following User Access levels: Employee, Manager, Admin
The overlapping time off validation feature ensures that time off requests remain accurate and payroll remains consistent. By checking for conflicts across all time off categories, the system helps you avoid accidental double-bookings of your time off. While employees are prevented from submitting conflicting requests, managers and admins maintain the flexibility to manage specific statutory requirements on behalf of their team.
This article shows you how to manage the following:
- Understand time off overlap rules
- Submit time off requests without conflicts
- Manage team time off as a manager or admin
- Further information
Understand time off overlap rules
The system automatically checks for conflicts whenever you create or edit a time off request. This check applies across all time off types, such as time off and sick time off.
- Full-day overlaps: You cannot submit a full day of time off if another request already exists for that same date.
- Half-day overlaps: You can book a morning half-day and an afternoon half-day on the same day using different time off types. However, you cannot book two morning sessions or two afternoon sessions on the same date.
- Hour-based time off: If you use units or hours, the system totalizes your time off for the day. You can split your day between time off types as long as the total does not exceed your scheduled working hours.
- Status check: Only approved or pending time off requests trigger a block. If a previous request was declined, you can book new time off for those same dates.
Submit time off requests without conflicts
If you attempt to book time off that overlaps with an existing request, an alert will appear on your web browser or mobile app. Follow these steps to proceed:
- Read the alert message to confirm which dates are currently conflicted.
- Adjust the start or end dates on your current time off application to remove the overlap.
- If you need to change your existing time off instead, navigate to your time off history and edit the pending request.
- Submit the updated request once the dates no longer conflict with other entries.
Helpful Hint
If your request is for more than 14 days, the validation might happen in the background. If a conflict is found, you will receive an email notification and will need to resubmit your request with corrected dates.
Manage team time off as a manager or admin
Managers and HR Admins can bypass the cross-category block when submitting time off on behalf of an employee. This is useful for specific scenarios like top-up payments or reclassifying time off types.
- Log in to Employment Hero on a web browser.
- Navigate to the time off submission page for your direct report.
- Enter the time off dates and details.
- Review the clash indicator that appears to confirm you are aware of the overlap.
- Submit the request to successfully save the overlapping record.
Important
While you can bypass overlaps between different time off categories, you cannot bypass overlaps of the same time off type. The system will still block duplicate entries of the same category for the same date.
Further information
| Scenario | System Behaviour |
| Bank Holidays | Public holidays are managed separately and do not cause overlap blocks. |
| Declined Requests | If a time off request is declined, the dates become available for new submissions immediately. |
| Reverse Time off | Requests with negative units used for corrective adjustments bypass overlap validation. |
| Work Schedules | If an employee has no assigned work schedule, the system uses a default of 7.6 hours to calculate daily limits. |