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Starting Guide to Unavailability

How to set it up, how to set your user’s unavailability, and how your users can set it themselves.

Shoshana Fleischmann avatar
Written by Shoshana Fleischmann
Updated over 2 weeks ago

The Job Scheduler will simplify and shorten your scheduling process. As an administrator, you will be able to plan, dispatch, and oversee the execution of your schedule with ease. One of these capabilities is the ability to set users' unavailability. This generates a visual indication in your schedule, giving you an easy way of understanding who can be scheduled and who cannot. You can set your user’s unavailability in the dashboard, and even better, your users can set it directly from their mobile devices. 

In this article we will go over:

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Enabling Unavailability for Mobile Users

You have too many users, and it takes too long for you to add each one’s unavailability. Do you wish they could add it themselves? Here at Connecteam, we understand you. This is why we give you the option to allow users to set their own unavailability, directly from the mobile app.

Let’s take a look at how to set this up.

To set up unavailability in the mobile app follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Job Scheduler feature on the left sidebar.

  2. Click Access Schedule

  3. Click on Settings > Mobile app tab.

  4. Make sure Enable Availability is checked on

  5. Then click on Save Changes

  6. All done - from this point on, all your users will have the ability to mark their own unavailability from the mobile app!

Please note: If you wish to disable the unavailability, simply unmark the 'Enable Availability' option. When it's not marked, employees will not be able to add their unavailability.

Setting Unavailability on Behalf of My Users

Do you want to set unavailability on behalf of your users? No problem. To set your user’s unavailability, simply do the following:

  1. Click on Access Schedule

  2. Click on the Add button on the top right corner and select the option Add Unavailability

  3. Add all the details of the user's unavailability: select the specific users, set the date, add a note, and choose if they will be unavailable all day, or only for specific hours.

    Screenshot of add unavailability function in Connecteam's Job Scheduler admin dashboard

  4. Once you click on Save Unavailability, you will be able to view it on the schedule as follows:

    Screenshot of unavailability in Connecteam's Job Scheduler admin dashboard

If you prefer to work on the monthly view of the schedule, you can also easily manage unavailabilities from there. To switch to the monthly view click on "Week" and then click on "Month". Unavailabilities will appear on the monthly view as well, and you can add the unavailability by clicking on "Add", and then clicking on Add unavailability:

This is what unavailability looks like on the monthly view:

Deleting/Editing an Unavailability on Behalf of My Users

If you or your users made a mistake when adding their unavailability and wish to edit it, you will need to delete it completely and create it again. Simply hover over the unavailability on the schedule and a trash icon will appear. Click on it to delete it.

How Does Setting Unavailability Look For Users

Users can set their unavailability directly from their mobile app. They can choose a full day or just a couple of hours. To do this they should enter their Job Scheduler, and access the My Availability tab. 

GIF of setting unavailability as a user in Connecteam's Job Scheduler mobile app

Note that if a user is already assigned a shift, they will not be able to mark themselves as unavailable. An indication will appear letting them know they have an overlapping shift

💡Tip: Admins or owners can still schedule users at any time, even if they marked themselves as unavailable.

How to Check When Users Submitted Availability

You can see when users submit availability through the general Activity log, the Job Scheduler's Activity log, or the user profile's personal activity log.

  • General Activity Log - Click on the Activity tab on the sidebar to access the general activity log. This Activity Log will show you actions done on the platform over the past month.

  • Job Scheduler's Activity Log - Navigate to the Job Scheduler and select the relevant schedule. Click on the three dots at the top right of your schedule and select Activity.

  • User Profile - Go to the Users tab and click on a user. Go to the Activity tab to view all the user's activity.

Summary

In this article, we went over the job schedule unavailability capability. We went over how to enable it for mobile users, how to set unavailability on behalf of users, and how these look on the schedule. Finally, we went over how users can set these on their own. One of the most important parts of running a business is understanding which of your employees are available/unavailable to work at any given time - now that you know of the unavailability feature works get started enhancing your schedule management

Additional Resources on Unavailability

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