Say goodbye to scheduling conflicts and welcome easier planning and a happier team. With real-time access to staff leave and availability, hospitality managers can create efficient rosters without the hassle of juggling availability and leave manually in a bunch of different places. Loaded’s new feature empowers managers to make informed staffing decisions, reduce errors and saves both financial and real headaches!
Prefer to watch a live session on using Leave & Availability requests? Click here to view a recording.
What problems are we solving?
Scheduling conflicts: Without visibility into leave and availability, you might end up scheduling unavailable staff, causing disruption and extra costs.
Wasted time: You currently spend too much time cross-referencing whose available or on leave, and manually updating rosters in Loaded.
Team member frustration: If leave or availability isn’t on the roster, your team can feel frustrated with miscommunication or last-minute changes.
Using Leave & Availability in Loaded you can:
Set up and manage Leave Types
Team members can request Leave & Availability from Loaded’s Team App - learn more here.
View and approve Leave & Availability requests in Loaded
View Leave & Availability on the Roster
Track the cost of Leave in your Labour reports
Leave vs. Availability
Leave and Availability are both roster scheduling tools, the main difference is that Leave can be included in Labour cost, but Availability does not have a cost associated to it.
| Leave | Availability |
Labour Cost | Paid leave can be included in Labour cost for reporting and shows on the Punches by Staff report. | Availability is not included in Labour cost and does not show on Punches by Staff. |
Who it applies to? | Full time & Part time team entitled to paid leave. | Casual staff, or Full time & Part time staff for general availability. |
Leave in Loaded vs. Leave in Payroll
Loaded complements your payroll system, and used together, Loaded and payroll give you the detail you need to manage Labour cost and leave. However there are some important differences you need to know, and currently Loaded does not integrate Leave data with your payroll system.
Here are the main differences between Loaded and payroll:
Loaded | Payroll |
Visibility of team members’ upcoming leave for rostering | Calculates accrued leave and time in lieu |
Approved leave incorporated into total Labour Cost | Source of truth for number of hours and $ value of accrued leave |
Simple leave request & approval process | Shows used and accrued leave on payslips |
Get Started with Leave Types
Before you get started, a couple of helpful things to check:
Permissions:
You’ll need Time + Payroll permissions to view and approve Leave & Availability requests in Loaded.
You'll need Approval Emails permission to receive email notifications of new Leave & Availability requests.
Staff members: check your staff members are set up with an email address entered for each staff member. Find out how to set up your staff members here.
Set up Leave Types:
Go to Time > Compliance > Leave Types
Click Add New Leave Type
Adjust the Leave Type Employees & Reporting (if needed)
Click Enable from the list of Loaded-managed Leave Types or create custom leave types.
Employee Conditions:
You can specify which staff members can apply for each Leave type by creating an Employee condition:
Under the Employees section, select “only employees” from the dropdown
Add the staff members or employment type who can create leave requests for the Leave Type
Leave Reporting:
“Show this leave as a cost on financial reports”
Turn this on to include the cost of leave in the labour cost in reports where this is shown.
Important note: if you’re using the 8% Holiday Pay adjustment, you won’t need to include leave as a cost on financial reports too as you’ll be duplicating this cost.
“When salaried employees take this leave reduce their Ordinary Pay accordingly”
Turn this on so that when salaried staff members take leave, their ordinary pay is reduced by the cost of the leave.
Jump to Reporting on Leave Cost for the full details on how these report settings work.
Loaded Managed Leave Types
These are the current leave types available to use for leave requests in Loaded.
Australia
Leave Type | Paid Leave | Paid at rate % | Team Members |
Annual Leave | Yes | 117.5%* | Full Time & Part Time |
Sick and Carer’s Leave | Yes | 100% | Full Time & Part Time |
Compassionate Leave | Yes | 100% | Full Time & Part Time |
Unpaid Leave | No | N/a | Full Time, Part Time & Casual |
An employer must pay an employee a loading of 17.5% on the amount payable to the employee under the NES for a period of paid annual leave, including a period of untaken paid annual leave when the employment of the employee ends.
New Zealand
Leave Type | Paid Leave | Paid at rate % | Team Members |
Annual Leave | Yes | 100% | Full Time & Part Time |
Sick Leave | Yes | 100% | Full Time & Part Time |
Bereavement Leave | Yes | 100% | Full Time & Part Time |
Unpaid Leave | No | N/a | Full Time, Part Time & Casual |
Create a Custom Leave Type
If you want to use custom leave types, you can create these under Team > Compliance > Leave > Add Leave Type > Add Custom Leave Type.
For each custom leave type, you’ll choose:
Name (e.g. Birthday Leave)
Paid or Unpaid
Pay rate (if paid)
Auto-approve? (skip manager approval)
Who can access this leave type (e.g. just full-timers)
Whether it appears in labour cost reports
If salaried staff should have ordinary hours reduced when they take it
Creating Leave & Availability Requests
📱Loaded Team App:
Your team members can submit Leave or Availability requests from Loaded’s Team App. Find out more here: Loaded's Team App.
If your team members aren’t using Loaded’s Team App, you can still enter their Leave or Availability in Loaded. Note this only for Loaded users with Time + Payroll permissions.
Create a Leave Request:
Go to Time > Workforce > Staff Members > Leave tab
Click ‘Request’ under the Leave Summary section for the required Leave Type.
Enter the request details: start day/time, end day/time, reason and supporting file
Approve the request (auto approve or send for approval)
Pending and Approved leave requests will show in the Upcoming Leave section, on the Approvals page and on the Roster.
Update One-off Unavailability:
Go to Time > Workforce > Staff Members > Availability tab
Click ‘Create Request’
Enter the request details: start day and time, end day and time and reason
Click Request
Pending and Approved one-off unavailability will show in the Upcoming One-Off Unavailability section, on the Approvals page and on the Roster.
Update Weekly Unavailability:
Go to Time > Workforce > Staff Members > Availability tab
Click ‘Edit’
Add the days, times and reason the staff member is unavailable to work. This section works a bit like adding shifts to the roster, however you’re adding the times they’re unavailable.
Click ‘Request Update’
Enter the date that the new Unavailability will apply from, then click ‘Send’
Pending and Approved weekly unavailability will show in the Weekly Unavailability section, on the Approvals page and on the Roster.
Approve or decline Leave & Availability
There are 3 ways you can approve or decline a leave or availability request that is created in Loaded:
Automatically approve: tick the “Automatically approve this request” checkbox when you’re creating the Leave or Availability to approve it straight away
Approvals page: Go to Time > Workforce > Approvals to find the pending request. Open the request to Approve or Decline it.
Hint: filter this page by Request Type, Team Member, Date or Status to easily find the request you’re looking for.
‘Requests between’ is based on the date the request was created (not the date the leave or availability is for).
Click the arrow icon to open a request, approve or decline it, and also see who else is out at the same time.
Email notification: All Loaded users with the Approval Emails permissions will receive leave & availability request emails where they can approve or decline the request from the email.
Resend or cancel a request
Resend an approval email for a pending leave request: Open the staff member record > Leave Tab > ‘View’ Leave Request > ‘Resend Request’
Cancel a pending or approved leave request: Open the staff member record > Leave Tab > ‘View’ Leave Request > ‘Cancel Request’
Leave & Availability on the Roster
Pending and approved Leave and Availability will show on the Roster so you know when you’re team have got time off coming up.
How does it work?
Leave and Availability show as a grey banner:
Week View: Spans full days (even if the request is for specific hours)
Day View: Shows specific hours
Leave requests will display the Leave Type
Availability will display the hours the staff member is unavailable
Published Rosters: Team members can see approved Leave or Availability on the roster accessed via web link (but not in the Team App):
Approved Leave or Availability on the roster:
Hint: click and hold the Leave or Availability to see the reason.
Pending Leave or Availability on the roster:
The orange icon indicates the Leave or Availability is pending and has not been approved.
Reporting on Leave Cost
You can choose if you want to report on the cost of leave in your labour cost, and how you do this:
(NZ only) 8% Holiday Pay adjustment: this automatically adds an additional 8% to the base pay of staff shifts, meaning the cost of leave is incorporated each week, OR
Leave on financial reports: the cost of leave will be included in your labour cost for the period that the leave is taken.
There are two settings that will affect leave cost in your reporting:
Financial Reports: “Show this leave as a cost on financial reports”
Reduce Ordinary Pay (Salary only): “When salaried employees take this leave reduce their Ordinary Pay accordingly”*
*This is set to on and can't be disabled for Loaded managed leave types, you can only disable it for Custom Leave Types.
"Show this leave as a cost on financial reports"
How does this setting work?
Turned OFF: the cost of leave will not be included in any of the reports in Loaded that show Labour cost.
Turned ON: the cost of leave will be included in reports in Loaded that show Labour cost.
For example:
A staff member is on an hourly rate of $25/hour,
They have clock ins for the report week from Tuesday to Friday, 8:00am-4:00pm (32 hours)
They have 8 hours paid leave approved on Saturday of the report week
Then this is what Loaded will calculate:
‘Show this leave as a cost on financial reports’ | OFF | ON |
Total ordinary pay | $800 | $800 |
Total leave pay | $200 | $200 |
Total hours worked | 32 | 32 |
Total hours including leave | 40 | 40 |
Punches by Staff weekly pay | $1,000 | $1,000 |
Labour reports weekly pay | $800 | $1,000 |
Example on the Punches by Staff page:
Example in the Labour > Overview report when ‘Show this leave as a cost on financial reports’ is ON:
A couple of other things to note:
Paid vs. Unpaid leave: only paid leave will have a cost that is included in financial reports. Unpaid leave has no cost associated with it.
Leave status: only approved leave will show as a cost on financial reports. The cost of Pending, Decline or Canceled leave will not be included in financial reports.
"When salaried employees take this leave reduce their Ordinary Pay accordingly"
How does this setting work?
Turned ON: when a salaried staff member has approved leave in a report period, their ordinary pay will be reduced by the leave cost. This means their total pay for the report period remains the same.
Turned OFF: when a salaried staff member has approved leave in a report period, their ordinary pay will not be affected, and their total pay will be calculated as their ordinary pay plus the leave cost.
Note this setting is set to ON for all Loaded managed leave types and can only be turned OFF for custom leave types.
For example:
A staff member is on an annual salary of $52,000
The company regular working hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 8:00am-4:00pm (40 hours)
Their calculated hourly rate is $25 per hour*
They have 8 hours paid leave approved on Saturday of the report week
The ‘Show this leave as a cost on financial reports’ setting is OFF
Then this is what Loaded will calculate:
When salaried employees take this leave reduce their Ordinary Pay accordingly | ON | OFF |
Total ordinary pay | $800 | $1,000 |
Total leave pay | $200 | $200 |
Total ordinary hours worked | 32 | 32 |
Total hours including leave | 40 | 40 |
Punches by Staff weekly pay | $1,000 | $1,200 |
Labour reports weekly pay | $800 | $1,000 |
Example on the Punches by Staff page when reduce ordinary pay = ON:
🦘Australian Annual Leave example:
Australian annual leave is paid at 117.5% of the staff member’s base hourly rate.
A staff member is on an annual salary of $52,000
The company regular working hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 8:00am-4:00pm (40 hours)
Their calculated hourly rate is $25 per hour*
They have 8 hours paid leave approved on Saturday of the report week
The ‘Show this leave as a cost on financial reports’ setting is OFF
Then this is what Loaded will calculate:
When salaried employees take this leave reduce their Ordinary Pay accordingly | ON | OFF |
Total ordinary pay | $800 | $1,000 |
Total leave pay | $235 | $235 |
Total ordinary hours worked | 32 | 32 |
Total hours including leave | 40 | 40 |
Punches by Staff weekly pay | $1,035 | $1,235 |
Labour reports weekly pay | $800 | $1,000 |
Example on the Punches by Staff page when reduce ordinary pay = ON:
*Hourly rate is calculated as:
Annual salary / 52 = weekly pay
Weekly pay / weekly hours = hourly rate
FAQs
Can staff request leave in the Team App? Yes, staff can request leave under the Leave tab of the Team App. Approving and managing leave requests is then handled by users with Time + Payroll permissions.
Does Loaded track leave entitlements or balances? No, leave entitlement and accrual balances are up to your team to manage in payroll.
Does leave prevent scheduling someone on the roster? Not currently. Leave appears on the roster as a visual guide, but it won’t block scheduling a team member for a shift.
Is leave data included in payroll? Not yet. Leave must be manually entered into payroll systems like Xero, however approved leave will show on the Punches by Staff report so you can see the hours and cost of the leave.
What permissions do I need to use Leave & Availability:
View, create & manage Leave & Availability requests on the Loaded Hub Approvals page = Time + Payroll permissions
View Leave & Availability on the Roster: Time permissions
Receive email notifications for Leave + Availability requests: Approval Emails permission
How are the hours for a leave request calculated? Loaded uses the Default Regular Working Hours to calculate the number of leave hours requested, even if there is a specific start time and end time. For example, if you request leave from 12:00pm to 6:00pm, but the company DRWH are set to 9:00am-5:00pm, the leave request will be for 8 hours.
If a staff member has Leave or Availability showing on the Roster, can I still schedule a shift on the same day? Yes you can. Leave and Availability act as a visual guide to use when creating the roster, but do not stop you scheduling a shift for a staff member.