Future off Requests

To help with long term schedule planning (such as coordinating summer vacation times), ByteBloc allows providers to enter off requests up to five years in advance. Select the 'Provider' tab > 'Future off Requests' to access this screen. Future off Requests is transferred to the 'Shift Requests' screen when the associated request schedule is available.

View List

View List: Select the 'View List' button. The Request days off page displays all of your provider's requests. You have the ability to filter the requests by 'Location', 'Provider', 'Start date', 'End date', and 'Status'. It shows 'Provider', 'Year', 'Dates', 'Request type', 'Request status', 'Approval' (optional), 'Comment', and 'Date Created'.

Provider: The 'Provider name' will be listed.

Year: The request was made. You have the option to filter the years.

Dates: An arrange of 'Dates' requested will be listed.

Request type: It will usually be Need off and Wish off. Unless, the Off reason tracking option is set up by the schedule administrator. Then, it will be 'Need off - Vacation', 'Need off - Admin', 'Need off - CME', and 'Need off - Personal', and the same for 'Wish off'.

The future off request grid includes the reasons chosen by the providers when creating the requests.

Request status: Displays the current status of the off requests.

Approved - When the schedule administrator approves the request. The recipient will receive an email message that the request has been approved.

Denied - When the schedule administrator denies the request. The recipient will receive an email message that the request has been denied with an optional comment.

Ignored - Indicates a 'Draft' or 'As-scheduled' schedule was available without ever having a 'Requests' schedule accessible.

Pending - When a request is made prior to the publication of any schedule and it hasn't been reviewed by the schedule administrator.

Requested - When a request is made prior to the publication of any schedule and it doesn't need to be approved.

Comment: If you entered a comment it will be displayed in this column.

Date Created: A time stamp of the date and time when the request was created will be displayed in this column.

Note: 'Future off Requests' for prior schedules can be retrieved in the Future off Request 'View List' (tabular view). From the view, a report for the requests is available through the use of the table export tool.

View Calendar

View Calendar: Select the 'View Calendar' button to enter in 'Future off Requests'.

You can set the status for yourself by clicking on the menu next to the date in the calendar or selecting the key combination on the menu for that day, as:

Times off

Need off (N + click menu)

Wish off (W + click menu)

Available (F + click menu)

Request Time Off: Future off time can be requested for a portion of a day or days based on a time range. You can mark off by selecting the 'Request Time off' button from the top menu or 'Times off' menu next to the date within the calendar.

Select the 'Times off' option and the 'Request time off' window will display. Here you have the option to choose from 'Need off' or 'Wish off' for your request. Then, you'll be able to select a 'Starts' and 'Ends' time for the days you end up taking off. Next, click the 'Applicable locations' option for which the time off applies to. If your schedule administrator uses reasons off, you'll see a 'Reason off' drop down menu. A comment is optional to enter in a message to your schedule administrator.

You also, have the option to make this a recurring event by choosing the 'Recur' feature. Therefore, select the days of the week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, and Sat) on which your time off occurs on by selecting 'Occurs on days'. The time off displays next to your name.

Month: Select the 'Month' from the drop down menu that's available to enter in days off. A pop up calendar will appear and you can select the month within the year or click the back or forward arrows to access the years (5 year period). If the 'Shift Requests' are available for the current month, you'll receive a warning, 'This calendar month has been locked to further entries for the location. 'If you entered in 'Future off Requests' for that month it will inform you that your requests were transferred to the 'Shift Requests' screen within the 'Provider' tab. Future off Requests can be displayed to 16 months prior to the current month.

Future off request comment: The pencil icon will display at the bottom of the day after entering in your request for that specific day. Enter your personal comment within the 'Future off request comment' window. There's also, an option to Copy the comment to days off adjacent to this day that are requested off, too. By default this option is checked off. Your comment will be visible to both you and your schedule administrator when the schedule is available in the 'Provider' tab > 'Shift Requests' page. The comment will be highlighted in yellow.

Optional: If required by your schedule administrator, you can make your 'Need off' and 'Wish off' requests for the day more specific by holding down the appropriate letter key before clicking the date; 'A' for admin, 'C' for CME, 'X' for personal, 'V' for vacation and click the menu at the same time.

To make the selection for requests click on the menu in the top right corner of the day. You'll have the following selections to choose from:

Need off - Vacation (V + click)

Need off - Admin (A + click)

Need off - CME (C + click)

Need off - Personal (X + click)

Wish off - Vacation (V + click)

Wish off - Admin (A + click)

Wish off - CME (C + click)

Wish off - Personal (X + click)

Note:

For example, to mark several days as 'Need off' (N + click) on the first day, then select the letter 'N + click' on the last day you 'Need off'. Repeat steps to mark several days as 'Wish off'.

You can remove an existing request by clicking on the menu and selecting the 'Available' (F + click) combination or clicking the option from the menu.

At this time, your schedule administrator has NOT set a limit to the number of providers who may take a day 'Need off'. Please be aware that if a limit is placed in the future, and if your request for the day off was made after that limit was reached, your 'Need off' request may be automatically changed to a 'Wish off' when the actual request schedule including that shift is accessible.

If you enter time off requests only as future off requests, then you'll receive reminders from the system since future off requests alone may not cover all of the time off you desire within the schedule. Reminders can be stopped by requesting a shift request and then removing the request by using the 'available' option.

Note: 'W(N)' is now shown when your 'Need off' request is converted to 'Wish off' due to the schedule administrator limit of how many 'Need off' requests per day