Why plan absences in Redmine

• One system the team already uses, no spreadsheet that is always out of date
• Employees book, superiors approve, HR sees the whole picture in one calendar
• Remaining leave is counted automatically against a yearly limit
• Absences feed resource planning, so capacity is right without extra work

Five steps, in this order

Step 1: User types

• Administration, HRM, tab User types
• Employees who book absences belong to a user type with the option Internal
• HR staff additionally need HRM permissions such as View HRM and Manage users

Every user starts with the type Default. Adjust it first, then create the types you are missing.

Step 2: Attendance types

• Same place, tab Attendance types: one type per kind of absence, for example Vacation, Sick leave, Training
• Leave type Absence, so the days do not count as working time
• Approval required for vacation, a Limit of days per year, input format half or full day

Anatomy of an attendance type

Step 3: Holidays and working hours calendars

• HRM, Holidays: the public holidays of the current and next year, otherwise they count as working days
• HRM, Working hours calendars: working days and hours, assigned to every internal user
• Internal users get the calendar Default automatically, check that it matches their real working time

Step 4: Employees book their absences

• My account, entry Attendance, link New attendance
• Choose the type, the date and half or full day, several days at once with Repeat up to and including
• Types with a limit show the days per year and the days already taken in the Attendance overview

A limit of 0 means the type cannot be booked at all. An empty limit means no limit.

From request to approval

Step 5: Approvals

• Superiors are assigned per user by someone with the HRM permission Manage users
• Pending entries appear in the dashboard block Required actions on the HRM overview, or My required actions on the home page
• Approve or reject via Edit, states undecided, approved and not approved, with a reason in the field Non-approval reason

The employee is not notified about the decision. Employees filter their list by Approval or use a counter box.

Who sees what

The absence calendar

• HRM area, tab Absence calendar: a month view of all absences of internal users
• Filters by user, group, user type, working hours calendar, superior, attendance type and approval
• Option Show holidays, filter by attendance type to colour entries by person
• Access needs the HRM permission View HRM, usually HR staff only

Good to know

• Leave type, approval and input format of a type are locked once entries exist, test before going live
• Limits reset on January 1st and can be adjusted per user
• Only one half or full day booking per date, hourly bookings use the from-to format
• HRM needs the Reporting plugin, both are part of the Enterprise+ bundle