How can you customize leave requests in the FreeQuest app?

We are delighted to have your company in the number of FreeQuest users! From now on, scheduling vacations, remote work, and managing your employees’ absences will be available at your fingertips! Before you start with our app, check out the short step-by-step instructions. These will guide you through creating the requests necessary for you and your workers.

Setting up a new leave request

FreeQuest is a software solution you can flexibly customize to meet the needs of your company. In the app, you will find a list of all holidays and statutory days off. The types and number of holiday requests you can set yourself.

In the following paragraphs, we will guide you through the configuration of two leave requests: annual leave and on-demand leave requests. The setup consists of several simple steps, after which you will receive intuitive electronic vacation requests.

Annual leave

Depending on what part of the world you live in, you and the eligible employees may be entitled to as little as 5 to more than 50 days of paid leave! Fortunately, in FreeQuest, you can conveniently customize a vacation request for any number of days. How to set up employee paid leave requests in FreeQuest?

Step 1. Add a new request type

In the admin panel, you can find an option to create a new kind of leave request. Write down its name in the field „new type name” and choose the option “not working” in the section “display as”.

Step 2. Set the icon and color

In the next step, you can customize the paid leave request, so your workers can find it easier. In the section called “icon”, choose the icon for the annual leave report, and then customize its color using the shade palette.

Step 3. Adjust the details and limit of vacation days

In the section “limit details”, you will set up the length of a billing period and the limit of the paid leave days.

Attention! If your office hires self-employed individuals or people eligible for annual leave in different sizes, you can adjust the number of days limit in the requests to individual workers.

Below the gap for the number of vacation days, you will find several options that will customize the paid leave report according to the information obtained from the HR department and the Labor Code. These include:

• transfer of the unused days to the next billing period,
• extended period of the paid leave limit for the employee,
• the holidays and the days off to the employee’s vacation limit.

Using the slider at the bottom of the “limit details” section, you can link an electronic leave request to another existing request type pool.

Step 4. Application approval details

In the “request details” section, there are two fields that you can customize according to the policies of your office. In the “request approval by an authorized person” box, set whether the employer must approve the request. Below that, in the “request details visibility” box, decide which executives will handle the leave requests submitted by employees. Click “save” to add the paid leave report to the list of existing requests in FreeQuest.

On-demand leave

On-demand paid leave is a couple of days per year available to an employee when certain circumstances occur in her or his life. You can configure a request for leave on demand in FreeQuest just as easily as a paid leave form.

Step 1. Add a new request type

Similarly to the document for annual leave, create a new type of request in the admin panel, then complete its name and set the “not working” option.

Step 2. Set the icon and color

Personalize the icon shape and color so employees can easily find the leave on-demand request in the list of requests in FreeQuest.

Step 3. Join the new request with an existing one

Unlike in the case of annual leave, at this stage, a request for leave on demand requires two key actions. First, move the slider next to the “add to an existing request type pool” option, and then choose from the list the leave of absence request you created earlier to make a connection.

Step 4. Adjust the limit of vacation days

Click on the slider next to “limited number of days available for use” and enter the number corresponding to the limit of days available for on-demand paid leave. Also, select the correct dimension of the billing period (in this case, the calendar year), and then proceed to the following step by clicking “next.”

Step 5. Application approval details

Similar to configuring a paid leave report, in the “request details” section, adjust the options according to your company’s policies. Once tailored, click “save” to add the request for leave on demand to the list of existing requests in FreeQuest.

When you save the changes, the on-demand leave will be counted from the pool of annual leave days, but the employee will only be able to request it a few times a year. The number of unused on-demand leave days does not carry over to the following year but renews in the new pay period at the fixed amount provided by the regulations in your country.

You already know how to carry out complete automation of annual leave and leave-on-demand requests in the FreeQuest application. Similarly, you will complete your leave calendar with other unpaid and paid leave types, such as:

• maternity leave,
• paid family leave,
• paid parental leave,
• family and medical leave,
• jury duty,
• occasional leave,
• unpaid leave.

The FreeQuest application also allows you to set up a request for remote work or other leaves that belong to employee benefits. It will reduce the amount of paper-based employee documentation and give you control over all requests for days off or work mode changes.

The leave requests workflow – a glossary

If this is your first time using the FreeQuest application, not all terms may be intuitive to you. That’s why we’ve prepared a glossary of the most important terms so you can set up electronic paid leave requests quickly and stress-free.

Visual elements of leave requests

Here, we explain all the terms related to naming, symbols, and visibility of leave requests to both employees and decision-makers.

Request name – the name of each leave request should be understandable and adjusted to the Labor Code or Federal Law. It should be easy for the workers taking leave to select the types of requests they are interested in, so specific names are advisable, such as maternity leave, occasional leave, training leave, unpaid leave, etc.

Show in the app as… – this option allows you to assign the type of request to a list of working or non-working people. For example, you would select the “working” option for the person requesting remote work and “non-working” for an employee submitting one of the leave requests.

Visual representation – you can configure each application as you imagine. You can choose icons from over a dozen thematic designs and assign any color to them. This functionality allows you to distinguish the requests added by employees to the leave calendar at a glance and lets other users easily find the right option.

Vacation limits details

After the nuances related to the visual layer, we have some definitions for you regarding the day limits in paid leave requests and the setup of pay periods.

Billing period – is the unit of time in which employees can use the unpaid or paid leave day limit or days scheduled for remote work. You can choose from a year, a month, a week, or a “use once” option.

Number of days to use – here enter the number of days established in HR department documentation or the Labor Code for the particular application type. You can also set the option “unlimited”.

Carry over unused days to the next billing period – decide what should happen to unused vacation days when the pay period expires. If you leave this box unchecked, the number of days will revert to the original value in the next pay period. If you check this option, the unused days will be added to the vacation limits available in the leave calendar for the next year.

Allow employees to exceed the limit – when this option is selected, sending the application will be possible even if the amount of fixed days is exceeded. The information about exceeding the limit will be displayed to both the employee and the person eligible to accept the application.

Also include holidays – when submitting a request, the application subtracts only working days from the paid leave limit, ignoring any holidays occurring in the selected period. Check this option if holidays have to be subtracted from the limit set when configuring requests. This option is useful when configuring a medical leave request.

Summary

We hope our intuitive guide has helped you set up electronic leave requests and other types of employee absence reports. The tips we’ve prepared will surely help you get the most out of the FreeQuest application and create a convenient electronic leave report workflow.

Did you encounter problems during setup that you could not solve using the above instructions? If you didn’t find the answer in the text, please send a message to [email protected] and describe your doubts so our support can prepare the most precise answer to your inquiry.

Enjoy the FreeQuest app!