Setting availability (vs. absence)

Setting availability

Availability is not the same as an absence. It tells scheduling when you can generally work — and when not.

Difference at a glance

Aspect	Availability	Absence
Purpose	Planning preference	Concrete time off
Approval needed?	No	Yes (except Sick)
Draws down vacation account?	No	Only for type Vacation
Period	By day, weekly grid	Date range

Example: You cannot work on Tuesdays (studying) — that is an availability. You need time off from August 12 to 19 — that is a vacation request.

Opening the weekly view

Go to Availability. You land on the current calendar week and can navigate through the weeks via Previous, Today, and Next. The grid shows one row per employee and seven columns for Mon–Sun.

Entering availability

Click a cell and choose:

• Available — fully ready to work (default).
• Not available — this day is ruled out for planning.
• Optional: From / To times to offer only a specific time window.
• Optional: Note, e.g. "Mornings only".

Your organization's rules

Admins can set two thresholds under the Availability rules that apply to all employees:

• Edit deadline (editdeadlinehours): How many hours in advance must an entry be in place? If you try to change a cell within the deadline, Shiftdesk blocks it with "Edit deadline: availability must be entered at least Xh in advance."
• Min days ahead (mindaysahead): the minimum lead time in days from which an entry may be made at all.

This keeps scheduling reliable while you retain flexibility for long-term changes.