Planned absences are records of any leave you have taken or are planning to take in the current recording period, e.g. in the current year. If you have a Planned Absence such as a holiday, they can be booked and requested using the Book absence feature.

You can access the Book absence feature from the menu in the drop-down Header pane and selecting Planned absence. It can also be accessed from the Absence profile and from the Menu and Shortcuts widgets which may be displayed on your Dashboard.

The following page opens:

Select the type of absence you wish to Request from the Code drop-down list. The list of possible codes is configurable by your system administrator but may include: 'Company Business' and 'Holiday' (default).

Enter the Start and End dates for the absence. The default is the current date. The Period drop-down list allows you to select the part of the day the absence is to cover: 'First Half', 'Second half', 'Either' or 'Full day'.

• Full day — selecting Full day means the absence applies to the entire Shift

• First half, Second half or Either — selecting one of these options causes an extra field, Absence duration, to be displayed. This allows you to define the absence more precisely. There are three options:

1. • Half of shift — the default option which covers the entire half of the Shift
   • To/From Break — selecting this option means the absence covers the part of the Shift up to or following a scheduled break
   • Custom — selecting this option displays a new Hours field to enter the duration of the absence in hours

If you work more than one Shift in a day, the Apply to Shift drop-down list allows you to select the Shift to which the absence applies. The options are: 'All' (default) 'First', 'Second', 'Third' and 'Fourth'.

The Reason field allows you to enter additional details to support your request for absence.

A preference may be set to display two additional fields to enter the 'Start time' and 'End time' of your absence in hours. For example:

This preference may be used to specify your availability during your absence. If you have permission, go to System preferences > Absence booking > Non-rostered absence and select the Non-rostered absence active and display times check boxes to set the preference.

When you have finished recording the details for your Planned absence, click  Submit .