Departments settings

The Departments section in absentify lets you organize employees into groups, assign managers for absence approvals, and configure department-specific settings such as maximum absences and the allowance rules new employees receive.

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Overview of departments

The Departments page provides a list of all departments in your organization. For each department, you can view:

• Name: The department’s title.
• Manager(s): Approvers for leave requests from the department’s members.
• Maximum absent: The maximum number of users allowed to be absent simultaneously in the department.
• Microsoft Entra ID/Teams Synchronization: Indicates synchronization status with Microsoft services.

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Adding a new department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments and select + Add new department.
2. Fill in the department details:

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General information

• Name: Enter the name of the department.
• Manager: Add one or more department managers. Managers act as default approvers for leave requests submitted by employees in the department.
  • Invisible manager (Essentials plan and above): Select the eye icon next to a manager to mark them as invisible. An invisible manager retains full approval and management rights but is hidden from department members. They do not appear in the department’s member lists, calendar, or team views, and their own absences stay hidden from the department. Admins, co-managers of the same department, and the invisible manager themselves can still see the entry. When an invisible manager approves a request, their name is still shown as the approver. In the department overview table, invisible managers are displayed as Name (Invisible manager).

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Approval process

• Select the approval flow for leave requests:
  • Linear – All must agree: Requests are sent sequentially, requiring approval from all managers.
  • Linear – One must agree: Requests are sent sequentially and approved when one manager accepts.
  • Parallel – All must agree: All managers are notified simultaneously, and all must approve the request.
  • Parallel – One must agree: All managers are notified simultaneously, and approval from any one of them suffices.

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Maximum absent

• Define the limit for simultaneous absences in the department:
  • No limit: No restrictions on the number of employees who can be absent at the same time.
  • Custom value: Specify the maximum number of absent employees.
  Admins can override the defined maximum absence limit when creating requests—both for individual employees and group requests. This provides flexibility in exceptional cases where the department’s configured limit must be exceeded.

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Allowance rules for new employees

• For every allowance type, pick the allowance rule that people joining this department should receive. The rule defines how much they earn, in which cycle, and what happens to unused allowance.
• Leave Organisation default selected to always follow the organisation’s default rule for that allowance type, including future changes to it. Picking a specific rule pins that rule for this department.
• If your workspace has not created any allowance rules yet, this section still shows the previous number fields for the current and next fiscal year until rules exist.

3. Select Save to create the department.

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Editing a department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments.
2. Select the pencil icon next to the department you wish to modify.
3. Update the department’s settings, such as adding/removing managers, adjusting the approval process, or changing the allowance rules for new employees.
4. Select Save to apply changes.

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Deleting a department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments.
2. Select the trash icon next to the department you want to delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

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Managing employees within departments

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Adding or moving users to a department

1. Go to Settings > Users.
2. Select the pencil icon next to the user you want to update.
3. In the Department dropdown, select the desired department(s).
4. Select Save to assign the user to the selected department(s).

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Privacy settings: department visibility

By default, employees can only see absences from their own department. To enable visibility of absences across all departments:

1. Navigate to Settings > General > Privacy.
2. Enable the toggle for Cross-department visibility.

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Best practices for department management

• Assign multiple managers: Ensure approval coverage by assigning more than one manager to a department. You can mark individual managers as invisible for HR or leadership oversight without exposing them to the team.
• Configure maximum absent limits: Avoid disruptions by setting appropriate absence limits for each department.
• Standardize allowance rules: Select the right rule per allowance type so everyone joining a department starts on the same policy, and keep Organisation default where the company-wide rule should apply.