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Using Leave Embargoes

Preventing staff from requesting leave on certain days

James Denham avatar
Written by James Denham
Updated over a year ago

Leave Embargoes can be used to prevent employees from submitting leave requests for specific dates. This can be particularly useful during busy periods, such as public holidays, staff meetings, or training.

Viewing the Embargoes page

To manage your embargoes, go to the Leave page, click the 'Tools' menu and select ‘Embargoes’.

A screenshot of the Embargoes tool, highlighted within the Tools menu on the Leave page.

You will be redirected to the Leave Embargoes page. Here, you can add a new embargo by clicking the blue '+' icon, edit an existing one by clicking its row, or delete an embargo using the red 'X' to the right of each entry.

A screenshot of the Leave Embargoes page, showing two existing Leave Embargoes as well as the Add New Embargo button.

Adding a new Embargo

Click the blue ‘+’ to begin adding a new embargo. You’ll be directed to the Add Leave Embargo page.

A screenshot of the Add Leave Embargo page, with all fields correctly filled.

Choose a start and end date for the embargo by clicking on each field and selecting the dates from the calendar. If the embargo contains a half day, you can use the AM/PM dropdowns to set this.

Next, you can optionally enter a message to be sent to any employee who tries to request leave on an embargoed day. If an employee submits a holiday request where one or more days fall within the embargoed period, their request will be blocked, and they will be shown the custom message you have set.

Use the 'Apply To' menu to choose whether this embargo applies to all staff or only a select few. If you choose 'Selected employees', select the employees to whom it should apply by ticking the box next to their names.

A screenshot of the Add Leave Embargo page, with the form set to apply to 'Selected Employees', and several employees ticked to have the embargo applied to them.

When you’re done, click ‘Save’, and the embargo will now be operational.

Existing leave & overriding Embargoes

Leave Embargoes have no effect on leave that has already been requested or booked, so existing leave records will remain unchanged after an embargo has been added, and pending requests can be dealt with in the usual way.

In addition, once an embargo has been created, an Administrator (or a Manager with the relevant permissions) can still manually add leave to the system on an embargoed date. Embargoes only affect incoming Leave Requests from Employees.

For even more control over leave requests, Request Rules can monitor the number of staff members available to work and automatically filter leave requests based on your business' availability.

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