Requesting and approving vacation

As an employee: requesting vacation

1. On the left, open Absences. On the right is the New request card — it is always open; there is no button you have to click to expand it.
2. Under Type, choose Vacation.
3. Enter From and To.
4. Optionally a Comment (“Flight is booked”, “Cover agreed with Ali”).
5. Click Submit request.

The result: The request has the status Requested and is visible to management. As soon as a decision has been made, Zeitflex sends a push notification to the app — also for a decline, with the reason in the text. This notification depends on the personal switch Approvals & decisions under Notifications; anyone who switches it off only sees the decision in the list.

When you submit, Zeitflex checks one thing: do you yourself already have an open or approved request for this period? If so, “A request already exists for this period” appears and the new one is not created. If you want to extend a vacation, withdraw the old request (see below) and submit a new one covering the full span.

Half days cannot be selected in the request form. If you only need Friday morning off, agree this with management and write it in the comment — the day is then counted as a full day.

As management: deciding

1. Open Absences. On the Dashboard, the Open requests tile shows how many there are.
2. Find the request in the list. The list shows the current calendar year, sorted by start date — the latest period is at the top, not the open requests first. Each row shows person, type, period, comment and the status as a chip; there is nothing to expand.
3. In the same row, click Approve or Decline.

When declining, a reason is required — at least three characters; without text the request cannot be declined. The person sees the reason in their notification. This is not an obstacle but a help: a refusal without a reason costs more trust than the refusal itself. When approving, Zeitflex asks nothing further — one click, done; there is no comment field there.

A new request appears as a task in the bell, in the list and on the dashboard — one look a day is usually enough. Anyone who also wants it as a push notification switches on New requests in the team under Notifications; it is off by default. The notification reads “New request: name” with the period, without the type, and only goes to whoever may decide on the request: a shift manager's request reaches the owner, not the other shift managers.

These absence types exist

Approved vacation and sick days flow as counts into the month-end close and the payroll export. Whether and how they are paid is decided by the payroll office — Zeitflex prepares payroll; it does not run it.

How the entitlement is calculated

The annual entitlement is stored for each person under Employees in the field Vacation days/year. When a person is created, 20 days are preset there; 0 to 60 are allowed. This number is the only source — Zeitflex knows no collective agreement and no works agreement.

In which unit is this number? Zeitflex stores the number without a unit; it is used up the way Zeitflex counts — today in calendar days, after the switch (see below) in workdays under the stored working-time model. If the employment contract states the entitlement in Werktage ("working days" in the sense of the BUrlG (German Federal Vacation Act): under § 3(2) every calendar day except Sundays and public holidays, Saturday included; § 3(1) sets the statutory minimum at 24 of them), convert it before entering it: Werktage × workdays per week ÷ 6. 24 Werktage become 20 workdays on a five-day week, 16 on a four-day week. Check this value before the effective date of the switch is set: the stored number stays the same, its meaning changes.

From the annual entitlement, Zeitflex calculates the entitlement for the current calendar year. The rule is the full entitlement, not the pro-rated one (§ 4 BUrlG): anyone who completes the six-month qualifying period within the calendar year has the full annual entitlement — even if they joined during the year.

Only in three cases is the entitlement pro-rated in twelfths (partial leave under § 5(1) BUrlG):

• The qualifying period is not completed within the calendar year — the start date is so late that the six months are only reached in the following year.
• The person leaves before the qualifying period ends.
• The person leaves in the first half of the year, that is, on 30 June at the latest.

Anyone leaving in the second half of the year who has completed the qualifying period keeps the full annual entitlement.

This is how partial leave is calculated:

• Only full months of employment count. A month is full if the start date is on the 1st of that month at the latest and the leaving date (if entered) is on the last day of the month at the earliest.
• Share = annual entitlement × full months ÷ 12.
• Fractions of half a day or more are rounded up to a full day (§ 5(2) BUrlG). Smaller fractions remain — the statute expressly does not let them lapse, so Zeitflex does not round them away either.

Taken are all approved days of the types Vacation and Special leave in the calendar year. Remaining vacation is entitlement minus taken — with no further rounding, so that the three numbers in a row always add up. The person sees their remaining vacation in the mobile app in the Times tab as a ring next to the overtime balance. In the browser the same calculation is shown to owners and management in the Vacation accounts card under Absences: entitlement, days taken, remainder and expiry date per person. Employees find the list of their own requests there; their remaining vacation stays in the mobile app.

Whether approved vacation days reduce the target hours is set by your business itself — under Settings → Time tracking & rules, per type of absence. Out of the box only time off in lieu reduces it, so for vacation the overtime balance still calculates actual minus unchanged target — a vacation week without clock-ins then appears in the account as a minus. How those days are paid stays with the payroll office in any case — Zeitflex supplies the number of days for it. What the switch does to the balance is described under Flexitime and overtime account.

Withdrawing or revoking a request

A request is never deleted. It changes to the status Cancelled and stays in the list — with the original comment and an appended note. There are two ways to do this, and who may take which depends on the status of the request:

How to withdraw your own open request:

1. Open Absences.
2. Click Withdraw on the request.
3. Confirm. The note “Withdrawn by the requester.” is appended.

How management revokes an approved request:

1. Open Absences and the request.
2. Click Revoke and enter the reason (“Vacation postponed at the employee's request”, “wrong period entered”).
3. Confirm. The person concerned receives the notification “Entry revoked” with the reason — otherwise a day is missing from the balance at the end of the month and nobody knows why.

If the affected month is already locked for payroll or exported, an approved day in it can no longer be revoked — not even by the owner. Zeitflex then shows the notice that the month is closed. In this case the correction goes through the payroll office and takes effect in the following month; see Corrections after locking. A request that spans two months (28 March to 3 April) is locked as soon as one of the two months is locked.

An exception applies to sick notes and child-sick reports: because they count as approved immediately without a decision, the person may withdraw them themselves on the day they were entered — a typo in the date is thus sorted out in ten seconds. From the next calendar day on, only management can revoke them, with a reason.

The tax adviser can only view absences — they can neither decide nor revoke.

What Zeitflex can do for vacation — and what it cannot

Can:

• Request, approval, decline with a notification to the person
• Check whether the person already has a request of their own for the period
• Conflict display against the shift plan — as a breach for approved vacation, as a warning for a request still open
• Store the vacation entitlement per person — in full under § 4 BUrlG, pro-rated in twelfths only for partial leave under § 5(1) BUrlG
• Entitlement and remaining vacation per person in the mobile app (Times tab)
• Team calendar for the whole year as the first card under Absences: one row per person, bars for vacation, sickness and other absence, plus the public holidays — employees see their own row in it
• The Vacation accounts card in the browser for owners and management: entitlement, days taken, remainder and expiry date per person, with a warning when the remainder runs low
• Withdrawal and revocation with a note instead of deletion
• Approved absences in your own calendar subscription if you wish (see Your shift plan in your own calendar)

Cannot:

• No blackout periods (“no vacation during stocktaking week”)
• No automatic carry-over into the following year with an expiry date
• No minimum staffing rule (“at most two away at the same time”)
• No workday count yet — calendar days are counted until the switch has an announced effective date (see “How the entitlement is calculated”)
• No count in Werktage under § 3 BUrlG — even after the switch Zeitflex counts workdays under the working-time model, not Werktage (Monday to Saturday)
• No half days in the request form

The business makes the decision; Zeitflex records it.

Frequently asked questions

I accidentally requested two weeks instead of one. What now?

As long as the request has the status Requested, withdraw it yourself and submit it again. If it is already approved, ask management to revoke it — they need a reason for that; “Period entered incorrectly” is enough.

Why does the vacation balance show fewer days than the contract says?

Three possible causes. First: the person joined during the current year; then Zeitflex only counts full months of employment. Second: an approved request ran over a weekend or over a public holiday, and Zeitflex counted the calendar days. Third: the contract counts in Werktage (including Saturday), while the field Vacation days/year counts workdays — 24 Werktage are 20 workdays on a five-day week. All three are described in the section “How the entitlement is calculated” — which also says what changes with the switch to workdays.

Our employment contracts count in Werktage (Monday to Saturday). What do we have to do?

Zeitflex keeps exactly one number per person: the field Vacation days/year. It is used up the way Zeitflex counts — today in calendar days, after the switch in workdays under the working-time model. A count in Werktage under § 3 BUrlG is available neither today nor afterwards; the way is to convert, in three steps:

1. Convert before entering: Werktage × workdays per week ÷ 6. 24 Werktage become 20 workdays on a five-day week, 16 on a four-day week. Whoever enters the 24 unchanged grants, after the switch and on a five-day week, a fifth more vacation than the contract promises — and never notices, because the field holds the number from the contract.
2. Record which unit the number is in — in the contract, in an addendum or in the personnel file. The stored number does not carry its unit with it, and at the next change in administration it would be unclear again.
3. Convert back for statements: workdays × 6 ÷ workdays per week. If an audit or a reference letter asks for the value in Werktage, that is the way; Zeitflex supplies the number of days in the unit it is kept in.

If a person's working-time model changes (from five to four days, say), the conversion changes with it. The stored annual entitlement stays as it is — it then has to be recalculated and entered again.

Two colleagues have requested the same period. Does Zeitflex warn me?

No. The overlap check only applies to requests from the same person. Whether two people may be absent at the same time is something you see in the list of absences — and in the shift plan, as soon as a shift is on a day with an absence.

The month is closed, but the vacation was not taken after all.

The approved day is part of the exported month and can no longer be revoked in Zeitflex. Report the change to the payroll office; it corrects it in the following month. The request remains as a record.

Still stuck?

Write to support. If someone is absent at short notice, the orderly way for the shift is a shift swap; sick days work differently from vacation, see Sick note.