As a manager or admin, you can book holiday, sickness or other absences for an employee directly from the Planner, rather than waiting for them to request it through the mobile app.

Step 1: Open the Planner and choose the dates

1. Open Syncro Connect as a manager or admin, and click Planner on the left-hand menu.
2. Select the dates you need. Click a single date, or drag across several to book more than one day, for example the 23rd of September.
3. A pop-up window appears from the right-hand side.

Step 2: Set the booking details

1. Select the employee you are booking for.
2. Choose the group: Holiday, Bank Holiday, Sickness, Absence, Training or Other.
3. Choose a subtype within that group. Subtypes are ones you set up yourself, see Creating absence codes for the planner below.
4. The date range is already filled in from what you selected, but you can change it if needed.

Step 3: Check the pay and save

1. The paid hours come through automatically from your holiday setup. To change them, tick the Override Paid box and enter the hours.
2. Check the booking preview, which shows how many days are being booked and how many units it will take.
3. Click Save Booking, then Confirm on the final confirmation.

Booking from the Planner is the quickest way to record an absence you already know about, for example when someone tells you in person rather than requesting it through the app.

A global booking applies an absence to everyone at once, ideal for a company shutdown such as Christmas. You can also limit it to a particular site or department.

Step 1: Open the global booking window

1. Log in as an admin or manager and select Planner on the left-hand menu.
2. On the top menu bar, click the orange Global Booking button.

Step 2: Choose who it applies to

1. By default, Entire Company is already selected.
2. To book for just one site or department instead, untick Entire Company and the filters will appear for you to choose.
3. For a whole-company shutdown, leave Entire Company ticked.

Step 3: Set the booking details

1. Select the group and subcode. Subcodes are set up yourself, see Creating absence codes for the planner below.
2. Select the start and end date, and whether it is a full, first half or second half shift.
3. Add an optional note if you want.
4. Make sure Booked Working Days Only is ticked.

Booked Working Days Only means weekends, and non-working days for part-time staff, are not deducted from anyone’s holiday. Leave it ticked so people are not charged for days they were never going to work.

Step 4: Save

1. Click Save. You will be prompted to confirm, then click Save Booking.

Absence codes (planner codes) are the subtypes you book against in the Planner, for example a specific type of sickness or holiday. Set them up once with their own name, colour and pay rate, and they become available to book.

Step 1: Open planner codes

1. Log in to Syncro Connect as a manager or admin.
2. In the top right corner, click the settings cog.
3. From the grid of tabs, select Planner Codes.
4. You will see a grid of your existing absence types, each with its own colour, name and paid rate.

Step 2: Create a new code

1. On the top bar, select the group to add to, for example Sickness.
2. Give the code a name, for example Work Related Injury.
3. Add a code if you want. This is optional and normally links to your payroll system.
4. Choose a colour to display in the planner.
5. Set the paid rate. For unpaid, select no paid rate, or choose any alternative rate that appears in your system.

Step 3: Save

1. Click Add Planner Code. It is now available to book inside the planner.

When an employee requests holiday through the app, it lands in your inbox to approve or reject. You can do this in the app as a manager, but this guide covers doing it in the software.

Step 1: Open your inbox

1. Log in as a manager or admin and click Inbox on the left-hand menu.
2. If you have actions waiting, a circle with a number shows how many.
3. The inbox has two tabs: Leave Requests and Reports Inbox. This guide covers Leave Requests.

Step 2: Review and action requests

1. Your live requests are listed under Leave Requests. Click Accept or Reject on each one.
2. To check cover before you decide, click Who Else Is Off. A pop-up lists everyone off on the same day.

Step 3: Check history or find a request

1. Click the History tab to see all requests already approved or rejected, with their details.
2. To find a particular person’s request, use the search bar to the right of the buttons and type their name.

“Who else is off” is worth a quick look before approving, so you can keep enough cover in a team on any given day.

You can change a booking, for example if a general sickness later needs a different code, or remove it completely, from the Planner.

Step 1: Find the booking

1. Log in as a manager or admin and click Planner on the left-hand menu.
2. Move through the months, weeks or days to find the booking you want to change.
3. Click the booking to open it.

Step 2: Edit or delete

1. To change it, update the details, for example switch the group or code, then click Update Booking at the bottom.
2. To remove it completely, click Delete.

If a booking covers several days, you cannot delete just one day of it. You have to delete the whole booking and rebook, either on the employee’s behalf or by asking them to rebook through the app.

Holiday groups hold the entitlement rules for your staff: annual entitlement, whether it is tracked in days or hours, the carry-forward cap, and any long-service awards. Set them up under Settings, then assign them to employees.

Use a holiday group change for permanent entitlement changes. Use a holiday adjustment instead for one-off corrections that only apply to the current holiday year (see Making a one-off holiday adjustment below).

Step 1: Open Holiday Groups

1. Open Settings, choose Holiday Setup, then select the Holiday Groups tab. This is where company holiday groups are created and managed.

Step 2: Create the new group

1. Click the green plus button to add a new group.
2. Enter a name, choose whether entitlement is tracked in Days or Hours, enter the full annual entitlement, set the holiday year, and enter the max carry-forward amount.

The carry-forward value is the default amount the system will try to carry forward at year end, but year end still goes through verification.

Step 3: Add long-service rules if needed

1. Use the Long Service tab if this group has long-service awards. Tick Enable long service awards for this group.
2. Choose whether the award applies at the next holiday year start, or immediately on the employee’s anniversary.
3. Add the years-in-service and award amount rows you need. The highest matching rule applies. Employees can still be excluded from long-service awards on their own Holiday tab.

Step 4: Confirm the group is active

1. After saving, check the group appears in the grid and its status is Active.

Groups can only be deleted while they are not in use. Once a group is assigned or linked to entitlement history, leave it inactive or retired rather than deleting it.

Assign or change an employee’s holiday group from their Holiday tab. The wizard handles how entitlement and booked holidays are recalculated, including mid-year contract changes and conversions between days and hours.

Step 1: Open the employee’s Holiday tab

1. Go to People, click More on the employee, and open the Holiday tab.
2. Review their entitlement, bookings and balance before changing anything.

Step 2: Open the group change wizard

1. Expand Configuration and click the pencil icon next to Holiday group.

Step 3: Choose the type of change

This choice controls how entitlement and booked holidays are calculated:

• Set/correct employee group: for new employee setup or fixing the wrong group. The employee is treated as being on the selected group for the whole holiday year, and all existing booked holidays that year are deducted from that entitlement. It does not split the year.
• Contract change from date: for when contract terms change part-way through the year. The old group closes the day before the change date. Bookings up to that date are deducted from the old group to give a closing balance, which is carried into the new group. Bookings after the change date are deducted from the new group.

For contract changes, the old and new entitlement split is calculated by calendar days in the holiday year. Days round up to the nearest 0.5, hours to the nearest 0.25.

Step 4: Select the new group

1. Select the new holiday group. If the current and new groups use the same unit (days to days, or hours to hours), no conversion review is needed.
2. If the change moves between days and hours, the wizard adds a Conversion step (see step 7).

Step 5: Enter the effective date (contract changes only)

1. For a Contract change from date, choose the date the new group starts from. The previous assignment closes the day before. This step is not shown for Set/correct changes.

Step 6: Review the summary

The summary shows the calculation before anything is confirmed:

• Old period closing balance: entitlement earned under the old group minus old-period bookings.
• New period entitlement: entitlement earned under the new group from the change date to year end.
• Projected new balance: the balance carried in, plus new period entitlement, minus new period bookings.

The balance carried into the new period can be edited before confirming. This value is stored as the opening balance on the new group assignment and used by the holiday calculator.

Step 7: Complete unit conversion if required

1. If moving between days and hours, the wizard shows a Conversion tab. Open the conversion review and complete it before continuing, you cannot proceed until it is done.
2. The review shows entitlement, brought-forward values, adjustments and bookings, with converted values suggested automatically (for example at 7.5 hours per day, a 1-day booking becomes 7.5 hours).
3. You can amend values, add an adjustment, or add a note before confirming.

Step 8: Check the activity log

1. After saving, open the employee’s Activity log tab, choose a date range and click Fetch.
2. The log records the change: before and after group, effective date, opening balance where applicable, and who made the change.

Permanent entitlement changes should be handled with holiday groups. One-off corrections for a single holiday year should be handled with a holiday adjustment instead.

A holiday adjustment adds or removes entitlement for one employee in the current holiday year. Use it for one-off corrections, carry-over fixes, goodwill changes or manual balance corrections.

Adjustments are one-time changes and only apply to the current holiday year. For permanent entitlement changes, update the employee’s holiday group instead (see Changing an employee’s holiday group above).

PDF Download the full holiday adjustments guide →

Step 1: Open the employee’s Holiday tab

1. Open People, click More on the employee you want to adjust, then go to the Holiday tab.

Step 2: Open the adjustment form

1. Expand the Breakdown section and select Add Adjustment. The breakdown shows the current entitlement parts before your adjustment.

Step 3: Enter the adjustment

1. Choose the type (Manual, Correction, Goodwill, Carry fix or Other).
2. Enter the amount. A positive amount adds entitlement, a negative amount reduces it.
3. Add a clear reason or note, then click Add Adjustment.

Step 4: Review the adjustment history

1. Open the History section on the Holiday tab and select View Adjustment History to see adjustments for the current holiday year.

Adjustments are view-only once added, they cannot be edited or deleted. If a value was wrong, add another adjustment with the correcting positive or negative amount and note the reason. The history is an audit trail.