You can add a new staff member to the system either a) individually, or b) via bulk upload using our spreadsheet template, which is recommended if you have more than a handful of staff.

Add staff member manually

• From the settings menu, choose Users, then click "Create New User" on the right hand side.

Minimum fields required marked with (*)

• First name*
• Last name*
• Employment Start date*
  When the staff started employment with the company, could be useful when adding staff to Leave Policies and calculating their allowance.
• Allowance Calendar Year
  Defaulted to the company setup but you can select which month the Users allowances will run / start from (their normal holiday year start). 
• Working pattern
  A staff member can either be set to work to an existing WORK PATTERN (e.g. Mon - Fri 9am - 5pm) or you can set them NONE and add their work via the WORK PLANNER at a later date
• Pattern start date
  If you have applied a Work Pattern to this staff member, choose what date you would like it to start from, we normally suggest starting work on a Monday but of course it will depend on the users Work Pattern.
• User role*
  Specify which level of access the new staff member has to the system.
• Region*
  Specify a region for the staff member. Setting a region can determine which bank holidays (and other events) can be assigned to the staff member when using the Events area.
• Default group*
  This will assign the staff member to this group as well as allow them to be able to see the group. This will also be the group they see by default when they login to their account.
• Email address*
  This will become the username for the new staff member to access the account, used along with the password specified for access to WhosOffice. Users will also be able to receive email notifications from the system for Leave, Overtime etc. if the email address entered is valid).
• Password* 
  The Toggle Hide / Show function will allow you to either hide the password or view the password that has been entered, please note that once a password has been set they will never be displayed, it is only at the point of creating the password can you choose to Show it.
• Language
  Defaulted to the company setup you can specify the best suited language for the staff member to use the application in (currently only available in English).
• Time zone
  Defaulted to the company setup you can specify the time zone in which the staff member is located.
• Date format
  Defaulted to the company setup you can specify which format the staff member will see any dates on the system.
  
  Non-Essential Information
• Staff code, Title, Telephone (Mobile), Telephone (Work) are all optional fields that you can add now or at a later date if you wish. These fields are stored for "information only" purposes

Bulk import staff members

• From the Settings menu, choose Users, then click "Create New User", then select the "Bulk import" tab from the left hand side.
• Click on the "Download Template for your Company" link and save the file to a location on your computer.
• Complete the spreadsheet with the new staff members details.
  * Important - Please do not change the column names, the order of the columns or add any additional columns otherwise the system will not recognise the file once uploaded.
• Minimum fields required marked with (*) 
  • Staff Code
  • Title
  • First name*
  • Last name*
  • Employment Started*
  • Allowance Calendar Year*
  • Working pattern.  -  Select [NONE] if you want to set your working time using the WORK PLANNER
  • Pattern Start Date - Not Applicable if working pattern is [NONE]. Otherwise ensure you select the correct DAY the pattern starts on (Not always a Monday!)
  • User role* - Select from the available User Roles that have been setup on your account
  • Region* - Select from the available Regions that have been setup on your account 
  • Default Group* - Select from the available Groups that have been setup on your account
  • Email Address* - Enter the Users email address, used as a Username along with the Password to enable to staff member to log into the WhosOffice system.
  • Password* - Used along with the email address to allow the staff member to log in.   
• What will be set by default (according to the company setup)
  • Language
  • Time zone
  • Date format

Once you have created the staff member(s), don't forget to assign important additional information such as approvers, allowances, and setting the groups they are in / can see. This is done via the Settings menu > Users page.

If you need any further assistance with creating new staff members please do not hesitate to contact our support team.

By using Regions you can easily setup your Company Locations around the world (if applicable) and also allow you to manage the different Public / National Holidays in different Countries (or Regions) easier. You can import Public Holidays for a Region / Country and assign your Staff members into their appropriate Region.

CREATE A REGION

• From the Settings menu, select Regions, then Create new Region.
• In the space provided enter a Name for the Region (could be a Country or Location) and click Save
• The Users Tab will then become available on the left to Add Users into the Region.

A User can be in only one Region (this is commonly based on their Country of Work). A Users Region can also be changed in their individual record or on this page by using the "Include Users already assigned to another Region" tick box.

For more information on setting up Events (Public / National Holidays) to a Region see Events.

Company Groups are a big part of WhosOffice. Groups can be setup to reflect your Company Departments i.e. IT, Finance, Administration etc. and there is no limit on how many Groups a staff member can be in. Groups are also useful as you can control not only which Groups a user is in but also which Groups a user can see, for example, John Smith is in IT and Finance but can only See Finance.

CREATE A NEW GROUP

• From the Settings menu, select Company Groups then Create new Group, on the right hand side.
• Enter the Name for the Group and click Save, 
• You will then be able to set the Group Type, either Group / Department or Tag.
• The Users Tab will then become available, from here you can add Users to be IN the Group and also set which users can SEE this group.
• From the Leave Type tab, you can add the Leave Types this group can use, and the permissions for the Leave type, you can also do this for Overtime Types via the Overtime Type tab.

A Group Type allows you to choose what you can do with each Group within the system.

• A Group / Department will let you put staff in the Group and also see the group as well as being able to set Leave Types and Overtime Types to have access to this Group, for example Administration has access to certain leave types.
• A Tag only allows you to put staff in the group and see the group, it is commonly used as a way of just grouping staff together who have a common relation, without having to set any Leave Types or Overtime Types, i.e. if you just want to view your First-Aiders or Senior Managers in one place.

So you can choose if you want a user to be "In a Group" and / or just "See a Group". Sometimes it is useful to add staff to just see a Group, even if they are not in the group i.e. Management want to see their staff but not be in the same Group.

When you add a Leave Type to a Group, you need to set permissions of what the users in the Group can do with the leave type. For example, some Leave types, like Sick Leave, you might only let people Request, but not actually see the leave in the Calendar or the Notes related to the leave.

Company Alerts let you create a system wide message that your users will see on their dashboard once they are logged into the system you may also choose to email this to your staff members. You can set Start and End dates on Alerts so they can be become available, and then expire accordingly.

They appear as a red circle on the Icon Bar in the Mail Icon at the top of your WhosOffice account and also in the bottom right hand corner of your Dashboard under Company Messages. These Company Alerts also appear on an employees Mobile Application (either iOS or Android) as long as the alert is applied to the user.

CREATE AN ALERT

• From the Settings menu, select Company Alert, then Create new Alert.
• In the space provided enter a Title for the Alert.
• Below this, you can enter the Start Date and the End Date
• Then enter your message that you want to appear.

Once you have saved the alert you can then decide which users see the alert, by using the Groups tab on the left. You also have the option here to specify which user roles, within groups can see the alerts, For Example, you may only want the Approvers in Accounts to see this Alert.

There is also the option to distribute the Alert by email to the users specified above. (this is based on the email addresses entered in the system)

Under the My Details / Settings section you have 4 tabs available to customise, each can be seen below;

Personal

• Set your Title, First and Last names
• Enter your basic contact information i.e. Phone Numbers

Account Settings

• Change your Email Address
• Choose which Email Format you wish to receive emails in either HTML, Text or Emails Off (turning Emails Off means you wont receive any emails that the system sends out).
• Create a new, more memorable Password, the Toggle (Hide/Show) options allow you to double check the password before you click Save, of course Passwords are never visible once they have been saved.
• View the Group that will be displayed by default on any Team Views (this can only be adjusted by the account Administrator).

Location Settings

• Choose which Language you wish your account to be displayed in (currently only available in English).
• Set your Time Zone (remember any times you see on the Team Views within WhosOffice will be based on your local time, set here) and Date Format preferences

Feed Settings

This tab will depend on whether the Account Administrator has granted you / your company access to this area. However, the Feed Settings tab allows you to create a Calendar Feed specifically for you, you can choose what Leave, Work and Events you want to display on it as well as the Feed's duration*.

These feeds then allow you to subscribe to Internet Calendars within applications such as Outlook, Google etc. they present read-only information that allow you to view who might be on leave or when your colleagues are next at work without necessarily logging into WhosOffice.

*Feed Duration is how far in advance and previous you can view information on the calendar feed. For example, you could have it set to 6 Months (3 Months Forward, 3 Months Back) this would allow you to view any information you have set to show upto 3 months forward and previous of the current date.

The Feed will only allow you to view information that you have been setup to see within the system i.e. if you cannot view Sickness within the system, you cannot choose to view this on your Feed.

In Company setup you can change some of your default settings, add branding, or switch off the your whole Company's Emails.

GENERAL

Here you are able to adjust the Company Name and also view your companies Login URL as well as the companies Sub-domain.

BRANDING

At no additional cost you can implement branding to your WhosOffice account to make it look and feel like your current corporate scheme, branding is also applied to any PDF's and Emails generated by the system. Our branding team will be more than happy to try to assist with any branding specifications that you might have.

DEFAULTS

Find default settings here for when you initially create a user on the system:

• Language  (Currently only English is supported)
• Time Zone  (but you can also set individual time zones on Users)
• Date Format i.e. 30/Jan/2020 - 30th January 2020 etc.
• Yearly Start Month - (but you can set this individually on Users if you prefer).
• Working Week Start - Choose what the first day of your working week is, this takes reflection when using Calendar Date Pickers throughout WhosOffice.
• Working Pattern - Choose the default set of working time to apply to new members of staff, this can be changed later using the Work Planner or can be set differently when adding new staff.
• Allow Forward Planning - Lets users book past the end of their current set if working time (If no working time has been planned ahead)
• Time Per Day - The default deduction of any leave booked as forward planning (the usual duration of your shifts i.e. 8 hours, 12, hours, 1 day etc) when working time is planned, any leave that was booked using the Forward Planning deduction value, will be automatically re-calculated after approx. 1 hour.

TOOLS

During setup, its quite useful to be able to disable WhosOffice system emails, this Tool will allow you to switch off specific Groups emails, remember it is the staff members Default Group that controls this tool, not any Group they are a part of. Don't forget to Enable when you are ready to go!

NEW USERS

When you are setting up your account it is useful to be able to send everyone within a selected Group a welcome message. The New Users tool will allow you to send any new staff members on the system a Welcome Message notifying them of their login credentials. You can also send existing users who are already using the system a welcome message too, as well as check who has already logged in.

APPS / INTEGRATIONS 

Activate any integration package that your company might benefit from such as Onelogin for SSO, Google (G-Suite), Microsoft Azure.

ACTIVE DIRECTORY

Link your WhosOffice account with your companies local Intranet using Active Directory allowing your staff to login to the system using their Active Directory credentials.

HISTORY (LOG)

Records any changes made to the Company Default Settings, allowing you to track easier who's making changes and whats being changed.

User Roles define what areas of the system Users can access.  

A User Role enables you to set up Permissions / Access to certain areas of the system. You then assign that Role to a User. This way, it's easy to give a group of similar users the same permissions.

If you have a user that you want to give a particular set of permissions i.e. Access to the Invoicing and Payments area for your accounts Department, you will need to create a New Role for that particular user and if in the future another user needs those same permissions, you can just assign them to the same role. (You wont need to recreate the role)

To create a Role you can follow the steps below;.

CREATE A NEW ROLE

• From the Settings menu, select User Roles, then click Create new Role on the right hand side.
• In the space provided enter a name for the Role.
• Now click Save
• Next click the Permissions tab to select the level of permissions you want to set for each area of the system.

By adjusting the Permissions on a User Role you can easily manage what people in the organisation can do within WhosOffice.

Once you have created a USER ROLE - you can then assign permissions to that User Role. Users/Staff are assigned to the user role via the Users section under Settings, in addition they are assigned to a role when they are added onto the system either individually or via the Bulk Upload spreadsheet.

The default User Roles on initial setup are ADMINISTRATOR, APPROVER and STAFF.

PERMISSION TABS

GENERAL

• Calendar Feed  -  Allows people with this role to setup and subscribe to their own calendar feeds. (the user can choose to include any Groups that they can see)
• Staff Reports - Allows people with this role to access reports (this is not commonly associated with any Staff level roles, mainly for Approvers / Administrators).

WORK

• View Work - Access the Work views for the groups that they can see.
• Work Planner - Access and use the Work Planner for any groups that they can see - [including Read Only Option] - Additional permission to this allows people with access to the Planner the ability to maintain their own work schedule.
• Work in past, after leave booked? - Allows the user to plan / adjust work in the past when leave has been booked.
• Task Planner - Allows the users access to the Task Planner where they can plan / adjust tasks for Groups that they can See [including Read Only option] - this is an add on module, therefore only applicable if the module is switched on
• View Tasks - Allows the users to view any Tasks that have been allocated to them as well as any Groups that they can see.
• Pattern Codes - Access and administer Pattern Codes - [including Read Only Option]
• Work Patterns - Access and administer Work Patterns - [including Read Only Option]
• Work Attributes - Access and administer Work Attributes - [including Read Only Option]

LEAVE

• View/Request leave - Access the Leave views for the groups they can see and request leave for themselves.
• View Pending leave - Access to view/approve/decline any Pending leave for staff members who they are set to approve leave for.
• Leave Admin - Allow users to Manage and Request leave on behalf of any Staff member in the GROUPS they can see.
• Leave Management (For Approvers) - Allows users to Manage leave on behalf of the Staff that they APPROVE FOR.
• Leave Types - Access to administer the Leave Types - [including Read Only Option]
• Allowance Pots - Access to administer the Allowance Pot names - [including Read Only Option]
• Leave Policies - Access to administer the Leave Policies - [including Read Only Option]
• User Leave Allowances - Access to administer user Leave Allowances - [including Read Only Option]

EVENTS

• View Events - Allows access to view the Events Calendars for the user's Group or Region
• Events - Access to administer the Events - [including Read Only Option]

OVERTIME

• View/Request overtime - Access to request overtime, and view their own overtime records, and view overtime requests for Groups that they can see, dependant on the Overtime Type settings.
• View Pending overtime - Access to view/approve/decline any pending overtime for staff members for whom they are set to approve for - [including Read Only option]
• Overtime Admin -  Allow users to register overtime on behalf of the Staff in the GROUPS they can see.
• Overtime Management (for Approvers) - Allow users to manage overtime on behalf of the staff members they are set to approve for.
• Overtime Types  - Access to administer Overtime Types - [including Read Only option]

ADMINISTRATION

The below Permissions are generally only associated with individuals who are able to manage company settings and Users within the company, not likely to be associated with Staff and Approvers.

• Company Alerts - Allows the user to manage any Company Alerts, with the option to distribute them via Email [includes Read Only option]
• Regions - Allows the user access to the Reports interface where they will be able to run multiple reports on Work, Leave, Overtime and staff directory information for staff that they can SEE.
• Groups - Allows the user to create and manage any company Groups within the system, they will only be able to manage Groups that they can SEE
• User Management - This area grants them access to the User Management interface where they can adjust basic user details for any user that they can SEE within the system, they cannot adjust Allowances unless they also have the User Leave Allowances permission within the Leave permissions section.
• User Roles - Allows the user access to Edit / Create user roles within the system and customise their permissions.
• Rules - Allows the user to create and manage any Rules that have been established within the system i.e. Min Group Levels, Staff Restrictions. Users with access to this area will be able to manage any Rules that have been created for any Groups within the system, even if they cannot SEE that group.
• Company Details - Allows the user to customise default company settings, email tools and integrations within the application.
• Invoicing and Payments - Grants the user access to the finance side of the system including the updating of payment details, billing address and viewing / extracting invoices.

HR (only accessible when the HR module is active on the company account)

• My Cases - Allows the user to access and take action on any Cases that have been assigned to them / require their attention
• My Documents - Allows the user to access and view any documents associated with their profile (they cannot Edit these documents)
• My Emergency Contacts - Allows the user to view or maintain their Emergency Contacts, this can be granted to either Full Access or Read Only
• My Benefits & Memeberships - Allows the user to view any Benefits or Memberships that have been attributed to their profile
• My Training/Qualifications & Licences - Allows the user to view any Training, Qualifications or Licence records that have been created on their profile
• My Personnel Data - Via My Details / Settings, the user can view / edit their own personnel data.
• Emergency Contacts Directory - Allows the user to view the Emergency Contacts for other staff that they can SEE (they will not be able to see everyone's details, only the staff that they are set to SEE)
• Case Handler - If this permission has been granted, this user can be assigned as a Case Handler when applying Cases to specific Users / Groups, this will also grant them access to Pending Cases
• Personnel Data Management - Grants the user access to the Personnel Records, with Full Access they will also be able to Edit / Delete any information stored on the record, this can also be set to Read-only.
• Case Management - Allows the user to start / update or view any cases for staff members that they can SEE.
• Document Management - This allows the user to Add, Remove or Edit any documents that have been applied via the Document Admin section of the HR Menu (this permission alone does not give the user access to the Personnel Records where documents can also be uploaded)
• Category Management - Allows the user to maintain and create categories within the HR module
• Case Template Management - Allows the user to build and adjust any case templates that can be then applied to specific users or groups 

As a security enhancement, WhosOffice does not reveal any passwords on the application at any time, to any user, regardless of their User Level.

If you have forgotten your password, or if a staff member has forgotten their password, new passwords can be set using the following methods.

Password requirements

Passwords must be a minimum of 8 characters long. They can consist of a variation of alpha/numeric characters with special characters included. We would suggest keeping it something secure to ensure your account security. A list of accepted special characters can be found below.

@ % + \ / ' ! # $ ^ ? : . ( ) { } [ ] - _ 

Please note that we do not accept the character * as part of the password

ALL USERS

• From the Login page click on "Forgot my Password?".

• Then, in the space provided, enter your email address (the same as your WhosOffice Username), click Submit.
• You will then shortly after receive an email containing a system temporary password, click the link in the email to go back to the login page.
• Then enter your Username (Email Address) and the temporary password you received.
• You will then be required to create a New Password, once completed you will be logged straight in.

If, at any point, you wish to change your password yourself from within the system;

• Click on your Name in the navigation bar and select My Details / Settings
• Then click Account Settings on the left hand side of the page.
• You can then enter the new password in the fields provided.

ADMINISTRATORS

As the Administrator there are 2 ways to change a staff members password. 

SENDING A WELCOME MESSAGE

• From the Settings Menu click Users
• Then find and click on the required staff members Name
• On the left click on Account Settings.
• At the bottom of your screen click Send Welcome Message.

This process will generate a temporary password. Once the staff member uses this to login, they will be required to create a new password.

Alternatively, on the Account Settings screen (as above) you can manually create a New Password for them and then advise them separately.

From within the WhosOffice mobile application you can adjust any of your basic details such as your First / Last Names, Contact Telephone Numbers, Email Address, Password, Profile image* and Emergency contacts*.

• Ensure you are logged into your account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Settings"
• From this screen, amend your details as required. If you need to update your Email address or supply a new Password, this can be done at the bottom of the page under "Account Details".
• Once you have finished making the necessary changes, scroll down and press "Save Changes".

The system will confirm that the changes have been saved successfully.

*If these features are enabled

DASHBOARD QUICK ACCESS

When logged in on the Dashboard, you can also quickly access your details by pressing the top right icon.

When setting up your WhosOffice account, there are a number of things you might look to do before you actually roll the system out to your staff. This might include updating shifts and rotas planned in for the coming weeks / months, booking leave entries that have already been taken / submitted for the future, among other things. By managing what notifications are sent out to your staff and when, you are able to control when your staff are told about the system.

DISABLING/ENABLING EMAILS

One useful tool is being able to completely disable email notifications from being sent out from WhosOffice. This allows you to build up your company's WhosOffice profile, without revealing the system to staff.

• From the Settings menu click Company
• Then click on Tools on the left hand side of the screen

On this page, you will immediately see any Groups that have been setup on your account, as well as their current Email Status*. By using the tool on the right hand side of the page, you can change the email status for either a single group, or All Groups.

*A user's email status is determined by what default group they are assigned to - you may want to check this setting for particular users before making any adjustments. If they do not have a default group, they will not be affected by any adjustments made to the email status.

Update Group Email Settings

• First you'll need to select which Group, or All Groups, you would like to adjust the email settings for.
• Then, select whether you need to Enable or Disable the email notifications for the selected group(s)

Following these options, click on Submit. 

ROLLING WHOSOFFICE OUT TO YOUR STAFF

One of the easiest methods of rolling WhosOffice out to your staff is by using the New Users feature. This allows you to quickly, and easily, send out multiple welcome messages to new staff on WhosOffice. These welcome messages provide each staff member with the information needed to access their account, including;

• The company's dedicated login URL for WhosOffice
• Their Username (Email Address)
• A temporary password*
• Download links for the iOS and Android mobile applications

To access this feature, you can;

• From the Settings menu click Company
• Then click on the New Users tab on the left hand side of the page**

On the resulting page, it will automatically show you a list of all staff currently registered on your WhosOffice account who have not yet logged in. By default all staff will be selected in preparation to send them a welcome message, however this can be changed by either unticking each Send? tick box in line with their name, or by clicking on the Un-Select All Staff option on the right hand side of the page.

You can also choose to view any staff members who have already logged into the system, by ticking the Include Staff Already Logged In? box on the right. This may be because someone may have forgotten their login credentials.

By using the Group option, you can filter the staff members down to either one specific group, or all groups. Therefore you can control who you are sending a welcome message out to, for example you might want to perform a gradual roll out of WhosOffice, rather than releasing it to the entire company altogether. When you are ready and have selected the staff you want to email, click on Send, followed by confirming the on screen dialogue.

*Temporary passwords are used on welcome messages to ensure that the staff member is forced to create themselves a more memorable password when they first login.

**The New Users tab will only be available if at least one Groups email status is set to Enabled. If All Groups have their email status as Disabled, this tab will not be available to use.

SENDING OUT A WELCOME MESSAGE INDIVIDUALLY

Sometimes you don't need to send welcome messages out en-masse, therefore being able to do this individually allows you to assist staff who may have forgotten their login credentials. To do this you can;

From the Settings menu click on Users

Then, locate and click on the required staff members Name

On the left hand side of the page click on Account Settings

Then in the bottom right hand corner of the page (next to the Save button) click on Send Welcome Message - this option is only visible if their email status is set as Enabled.

Importantly, if you make any changes to a staff members email address, you will need to Save these changes before attempting to send them a welcome message.

WhosOffice mobile allows you to both update your password or recover your account should you forget it. This can be done as described below.

PASSWORD CHANGE

In order to change your password:

• Ensure you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Settings"
• From this view, press on "Account details"
• You will be presented with 2 password fields, "New password" and "Confirm password"
• Enter your desired password in the two boxes
• Once the password is valid and matches both in both boxes, press "Save Changes" to apply your new password

PASSWORD RECOVERY

In order to recover your password via Mobile:

• Provided you are not logged in
• If you are prompted for your email address, enter it in the box marked "Username" (its possible this may be prefilled if you were previously logged in)
• Press "Continue"
• You should now be on the password view, press "Forgot password"
• You will now be given the option to change the email you wish to recover for (if this already has the correct email you can leave this)
• Press "Submit"
• This will return you to the previous view and send a randomly generated recovery password to your email (provided it is within our system)
• Enter this new password and press "Login"

On successful login, you will be prompted to set a new password before continuing, once this is done you will have succcesfully recovered your account and can continue as normal.

WhosOffice mobile allows you to both update your password or recover your account should you forget it. This can be done as described below.

PASSWORD CHANGE

In order to change your password:

• Ensure you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Settings"
• From this view, press on "Account details"
• You will be presented with 2 password fields, "New password" and "Confirm password"
• Enter your desired password in the two boxes
• Once the password is valid and matches both in both boxes, press "Save Changes" to apply your new password

PASSWORD RECOVERY

In order to recover your password via Mobile:

• Provided you are not logged in
• If you are prompted for your email address, enter it in the box marked "Username" (its possible this may be prefilled if you were previously logged in)
• Press "Continue"
• You should now be on the password view, press "Forgot password"
• You will now be given the option to change the email you wish to recover for (if this already has the correct email you can leave this)
• Press "Submit"
• This will return you to the previous view and send a randomly generated recovery password to your email (provided it is within our system)
• Enter this new password and press "Login"

On successful login, you will be prompted to set a new password before continuing, once this is done you will have succcesfully recovered your account and can continue as normal.

WhosOffice mobile allows you to access company documents via My Documents (Depending on WhosOffice Permissions), this allows you to easily download* and view documents on mobile.

In order to access this (if available) you can do the following:

• Ensure you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation, press "HR" and then "My Documents"
• From this view, you can see any documents that have been made available to you organized into Categories
• If you have many documents and just need to see a certain Category use the drop-down to filter just the Category you are interested in
• When you have found the Category you are looking for, simply press its name in order to drop-down all the Documents within this Category
• To download, a file simply press on the file.
• Once the file is on your device a menu will appear with several options; "Open", "Delete" and "Close" to close the menu.
• Within this menu, you can view the file you downloaded by pressing "Open", this will open the file on your device.
• If you wish to delete the file on just your device you can press "Delete" in this menu

*WhosOffice mobile stores all downloaded documents within the app install, however further share/save options are offered by iOS / Android when viewing these files. 

WhosOffice mobile allows you to manage any files you have downloaded from either Cases or My Documents*, this guide will show you how to do this (Note: if you don't currently have any files downloaded via WhosOffice mobile this section will not appear):

• Ensure that you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation drawer select "Settings"
• From this view, if you have files downloaded via WhosOffice, you should see "Locally downloaded files", press this section to expand it
• From here you can access any Documents or Case Files you have downloaded on your device
• You can open these by pressing on them or delete individual files by pressing the Bin icon to the right of them

If you wish to delete all local files:

• Simply press the "Delete all local files" button at the bottom of this section.
• You will be prompted to confirm your decision, either press "Delete all" to complete the process or "Cancel" to go back

*WhosOffice mobile stores all downloaded documents/case files within the app install, however further share/save options are offered by iOS / Android when viewing these files. 

WhosOffice mobile allows you to process any Pending Cases you might have (Provided that you have the correct WhosOffice permissions), here are the steps required to do so:

• Ensure that you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "HR" then "Pending Cases"
• From this view you can now handle any cases you have available to you
• Cases on this screen will display the Staff Member name to below the Case Template

FILTERING CASES

From this view you can choose to filter the cases you wish to see, the "View" drop-down allows you to change the types of cases that are displayed to you, by default this will be "Active Cases".

You can also choose to filter which Case Templates you want to see from the results, this is done by changing the "Template" drop-down.

HANDLING A CASE

In order to handle a case:

• Press on the case in the list you wish to handle (Cases marked with "WAITING FOR YOU" require your attention)
• This will expand the details of the case giving you information such as who the handler for the case is, start and required by dates
• Press "View Timeline" to view the steps for this case
• From this view you have the ability to see the different case steps including any steps that are currently waiting for you to complete
• Go to the step that you need to complete and give the required response (See STEP TYPES below for more details)
• Once you have filled out the step, press "Mark step as complete" to complete the step

On an Active Case, the current step will always be marked by a "CURRENT STEP" tag along with who the step needs to be completed by.

STEP TYPES

There are several different step types available, these are as follows:

• Confirmation step - This step simply requires you to "Mark step as complete", this could be important information to be acknowledged before continuing the process
• Agreement step - This step requires you to select a response from the "Response" drop-down to indicate your acceptance of a step with "Yes" or "No"
• Document submission step - This step requires you to upload a document (or image) to complete the step, the chosen file will be uploaded once "Mark step as complete" has been pressed
• Text step - This step requires you to supply text with your step submission

DOWNLOADING ATTATCHED FILES

Documents may be available for download both as attatchments to a step or as submissions for a step, these can be accessed as follows:

• To view a file, first press on the file to perform a download, once the file changes from "Download" to "Open" press the file again, this will open the file on your device.
• To delete a file, press "Delete Local File" below the file (This option is only available if the file is downloaded)

Note: WhosOffice mobile stores all downloaded my case files within the app install, however further share/save options are offered by iOS / Android when viewing these files. 

There are a number of payment options available on WhosOffice, here we explain those options and the differences between them.

Managing payments within WhosOffice

• Login to your WhosOffice account
• From the "Settings" menu, select "Invoicing and Payments"
• On the resulting screen, click on the "Payment details" tab on the left hand side, you will then be presented with the first two options below.

Option 1: Monthly, in arrears (by debit/credit card)

This is the most popular option for payments as you are only charged for the users you have registered on your account, so if you have fluctuating staff numbers we would recommend you choose Option 1.

Once you have entered your card details, we will register these details with our secure payment provider; we do not store any card details. You will not have to keep re-entering your details.

At the end of each payable month, we will raise an invoice against your account based on the number of users you have registered on the system at that time (normally counted on the last working day of each month).

We will then collect payment of this invoice against the card you have registered, on the 15th of the following month. If successful the invoice will be marked as paid. In the event a payment attempt is refused, the card details will be removed from our payment providers system and you will need to register new credit/debit card details before the invoice can be paid, to avoid your account being suspended.

Note: Upon choosing monthly payments you will be required to register a card prior to this method being activated on your account.

Option 2: In advance (by debit/credit card)

If you would prefer to pay for between 2 and 15 months up front, option 2 may be best suited to your company.

Advanced payments offer you the flexibility of choosing how long you would like to purchase licences for and how many (Min. 10 users).

The minimum advance payment you can make is two months to a maximum of fifteen months. This allows companies to pick a time span that suits them and also enables companies that would like to pay yearly to establish a yearly cycle.

You will start to receive reminder messages when you have 30 days to go before the end of your selected licence period! Allowing you to select your next licence period. You will also need to enter your Card details each time using this method.

If you miss renewing your licences your account will be suspended until you contact us to reactivate your account. We will then issue an invoice for immediate payment. You will need to pay for, at least, that current month plus as many additional months as you advise us you require.

Option 3: Payment via BACs/Bank Payment 

If your company prefers to pay for your subscription on invoice, we can setup your WhosOffice account to invoice you Quarterly or Yearly (in advance). All invoices raised on this option need to be paid in advance of your current subscription expiring.

Option 3 is subject to special request and a minimum of 50 users per account. If you have an account with WhosOffice please contact your account manager or drop an email to the support team (support@whosoffice.com).

Requesting leave is one of the basic fundamentals of using WhosOffice, this will help to highlight how to run this process both as a staff member, and as an Administrator.

• From the Leave Menu
• click Request Leave

If you are an Administrator, or have been given the necessary permissions, you may be able to Add leave for other staff members.  

• Select the User (skip this if you are requesting leave for yourself)
• Select the Leave Type
• Choose the Start Date
• Then select a Duration option, these can be seen below;
  • All Day - Useful for just booking the odd day off
  • Single Shift: e.g. Saturday 9th May 1800 - Sunday 10th May 0600 - This makes booking a shift off even easier for Night Shift workers instead of using the All Day option*
  • Part of a Day - only available when the start date is a working day, this splits your working day in 2 parts i.e. AM or PM
  • Greater than one Day - Useful for booking a week off or just a couple of days
  • Greater than one Day, Between times - Useful for booking a week off but starting during the day i.e. You might leave work on 10th at 1230 and the last day of your leave might end on 15th at 1800
  • Specified Times - Useful for booking specific time slots (in 15 minute increments), perhaps for Meetings, Doctors etc.
  • Multiple Shifts - This option allows a user to book off multiple night shift bookings in one go, without having to worry about specific times that their shift covers.*
• Click check Request

*These options will only appear for users who have selected the Start Date that falls on the start of their Night Shift.

If you have selected Multiple Shifts, you will then need to specify the no. of shifts that you would like to book off.

If your company uses the Approval process it will run according to the settings on the Leave type (either single approver or multiple approval, including "chain" approval)

Allowance will be deducted (if applicable) at the time of submitting a leave request regardless if it goes into a Pending state or Approved.

When you submit leave on behalf of a staff member (as an Administrator or user with additional Permissions) when you click Check Request the system will display any warnings that it thinks you should be aware of i.e. there is a rule setup on the Mininum Number of people that need to be in on any given day within this users group, although the system displays these warnings you will be able to ignore them by proceeding to submit the request**.

**This is based on you having the appropriate permissions to do so.

If there are no Leave types available this may be because:

• The Leave type is not available to the GROUP(S) that you or the user are in, this would involve getting the Administrator to check what Leave Types are currently available to you and make any adjustments where necessary.
• You or the Staff Member may not have the correct Allowance Pot that the chosen Leave Type relates to, the Administrator would then need to check your allowances to ensure everything is setup correctly to allow you to submit the correct time off, or you might have the correct allowance pot but wrong Unit i.e. Days / Hours.

When you submit a leave request, an email is automatically generated and sent to you and your approver (depending on the leave type settings), it will also generate a Push Notification onto their Mobile Application for WhosOffice (as long as they have downloaded the app and logged in on their device)***.

***Push notifications inform the user on their device via the WhosOffice application (iOS and Android) of any leave requests / approvals that they have made or require their approval . Notifications options are set by the individual via their device. 

Allowance Pots are used to manage staff members' different leave allowances, for example, John Smith could have 20 Days of Paid Leave and 5 Days of Unpaid Leave.

Once you have created your pot names, they can then be selected in the Leave Allowances area on the User Record

CREATE AN ALLOWANCE POT 

• From the Leave menu, select Allowance Pots, then Create new Allowance Pot.
• In the space provided enter a name for the pot e.g. Paid Leave or Vacation or Annual Leave

When you add an allowance pot for a user, on the user record, at that point you can choose if it will be Hours or Days

You can use multiple Allowance pots to manage different types of leave entitlement such as Holiday/Vacation, Sick days, Unpaid leave.

ASSINGING ALLOWANCE POTS TO LEAVE TYPES

When you set up your Leave Types, you can select from which ALLOWANCE POT(s) the leave should be deducted (if applicable) by;

• From the Leave Menu click Leave Types
• Click on the Name of a Leave Type i.e. Holiday
• On the left hand side of the page click the Leave Pots tab, to choose which Allowance Pot(s) you wish allowance to be deducted from when staff use this leave type.

If you don't need to limit how much of a leave type staff can book, you dont need to assign any allowance pots to that leave type.

You can also setup multiple allowance pots to a leave type. If multiple allowance pots are assigned to a leave type, then it will deduct from the allowances in the order shown on the Leave Pots tab (top to bottom) - in any case, if the user has Carryover available to be used, Carryover will always be deducted from first (unless the Carryover has expired), if you need further assistance with this contact Support.

Create Leave Types that your organization uses, e.g. Annual Leave, Meeting, Sickness, Compassionate etc. We set you up with some to get you going, but you can add more or change these to best suit your company.

For each Leave type you can set different options such as;

• Whether it affects allowance and if so from which Leave pot(s) the allowance should be deducted,
• Who can use the Leave Type
• Which level of approval (if any) the leave type needs.

Tip: Make sure to set who (which groups) can see / request the Leave type otherwise staff may not be able to request it or even see it in the calendar views!

CREATE LEAVE TYPES

• From the Leave menu, select Leave Types, then Create new Leave Type.
• Select a Code which will be displayed in the calendar i.e. H for Holiday
• Enter a name and Select a colour
• Select if the leave is given in Hours or Days*
• Then, if the leave type affects Allowance,  select the Allowance pot**

Then click Save, you will then find the other tabs on the left become available.

*This will be important if you have chosen to deduct allowance from a specific allowance pot, as staff will need to have the same allowance pot and unit to use this type of leave

**After clicking Save you will see an option "Deduct Allowance" appear, here you can set how the leave type will deduct allowance either Based on Working Time or Based on Duration.

• Based on Working Time - When you submit a leave request, the allowance to be deducted will be based on your Working Time i.e. if you book Monday to Sunday off it will deduct 5 Days if you only work Mon - Fri
• Based on Duration - When you submit a leave request, the allowance to be deducted is based on the duration of the request and not the working time i.e. if you book Monday to Sunday off it will deduct 7 Days even if you only work Mon - Fri.

LEAVE POTS

Here you can set which Allowance Pots are associated with this leave type, you can either have 1 allowance pot i.e. Paid Leave or you can have multiple Pots - so that when your staff run out of Paid Leave, Holiday will deduct from the next pot such as Time Off In Lieu.

**Please Note**

Carryover (if applicable) will be deducted from each pot first. Once all the Carryover, from all pots (if applicable) has been exhausted, the Leave will then be deducted from each pot, again based on the Order of Deductions shown on the Leave Pots page (within the leave type itself).

APPROVALS

You can set here if the Leave type requires Approval, or multiple approval;

• No Approval required - When leave is submitted it will automatically approve
• Single, First Approver Only - Leave will require approval from your first approver only and will not required further approval
• Single, Any Approver - Leave can be approved by either your First or Second Approver (if you have a second approver) and will be approved after the first approval.
• Both Approvers - Leave will require approval from both your first and second approver, in any order, if one Approver declines the request it will be declined immediately and will not require further approval - if you only have one approver, the request will be finalised after the approver has taken action.
• Chain, First Approver then Second Approver - Leave will require approval from both your first and second approvers but the first approver must take action first, before it goes to your second approver. If your first Approver declines the request it will be declined immediately and will not require further approval - if you only have one approver, the request will be finalised after the approver has taken action.

You can also choose who will receive certain emails and notifications from the system during the request leave / approval process. You can also choose whether the leave type can be Auto Approved when your Approvers / Administrators submit leave on a persons behalf or to Never allow the requests to be auto approved.

RESTRICTIONS

From here you can set certain parameters around how much time off can be requested and whether a certain amount of notice is required.

• Min. Interval - The minimum amount of time off that can be booked in a single request i.e. You might only want staff to be able to request 1 day off minimum
• Max. Interval - The maximum number of working days that can be booked in a single request i.e. Staff can only book off 2 weeks at a time
• Notice Period - How much notice do your staff have to give when booking leave i.e. If they book holiday, they have to give 2 weeks notice*
• Max. Notice Period - Set how far in advance staff are allowed to book leave i.e. they cannot book leave more than 6 weeks in advance.
• Cancel Period - This allows you to prevent staff from cancelling leave if the request falls within the set number of days i.e. Staff cannot cancel leave occurring within 14 days of "todays" date - By Default, the Cancel period is set to 0, meaning that staff cannot cancel leave in the past - in order to do so, staff will need to contact either their Line Manager or Administrator.*

*If these values are set to a minus i.e. -14 Days, staff will be able to book or cancel leave upto 14 days in the past.

OPTIONS

Select if Notes must be entered on request, approval, both, never (disables notes) or leave as Optional, though there is no way to enforce what content is supplied with Notes.

If you use Minimum / Maximum Group Staffing levels or Restriction type Rules, then check the boxes if this leave type is to be included each kind of Rule.

For example Annual Leave would be included, but a leave type such as Meeting would probably not be.

GROUPS

From here you can choose which Groups have access to this particular type of leave as well as what the Group is able to do with the leave type. At the bottom of the screen you can Add the Groups that should have access to the leave type, and what permissions they can have.

Permissions

• Requested by
  • Anyone in Group - Users within this Group will be able to request this leave type
  • Anyone in Group, plus users approver - As above, but Approvers will be able to request leave on behalf of users that they approver for, even if the Approvers are not in this Group
  • Users Approver Only - Approvers will be able to request leave on behalf of users that they approver for, even if the Approvers are not in this Group
  • Leave / Overtime Admin only - Any user with the "Leave Admin" user role permission will be able to request this leave type on behalf of users within this Group, even if they are not in this Group*
• Seen by
  • Anyone in Group - Users within this Group will be able to see this leave type for anyone that they can see already.
  • User only - Users will only see their own leave with this type of leave via My Leave as well as any other views within the system
• Notes visible to
  • None - Users will only see their own Notes with this type of leave via My Leave
  • Anyone in Group - Users will still see their own Notes via My Leave - any user with access to Reports, Pending Leave or Leave Admin will see notes for any staff that they can See.

Sometimes companies have particular policies whereby they only want certain Groups to SEE types of leave but not request them, the Grouping function within WhosOffice will allow you to create specific Groups that carry certain Leave Type permissions, these can be setup in addition to a staff member's normal Group (Department).

*Users with the leave admin user role permission, will be able to enter leave on behalf of staff under all Requested By options - except where this is set to NONE

HISTORY (LOG)

Allows you to keep track of any changes made to the leave type, along with who made the change and when it was changed. You can refer to this page when enquiries are made about the Leave Type.

Very much an Optional part of the system, Leave policies is way to let the system help you manage leave tasks such as Carryover, Accruals etc. 

CREATE A LEAVE POLICY

• From the Leave menu, select Leave policies, then Create new Leave policy.
• In the space provided enter a Name and then Select the type*
• Below this, provide the Allowance Pot that will be affected.
• Choose the Unit (days or hours) 
• Select the Year to which this policy will affect (Only allowance policies can affect Next Year, all other policy types can only affect This Year)
• **Choose when the policy is to be run**
• Click Save

*WHAT POLICY TYPE DO I NEED*

The policy type allows you to dictate what sort of policy you need, whether it's renewing allowances at the beginning of each year, managing monthly Accruals or processing end of year Carryover balances.

• Accrual - This allows you to specify an amount of allowance to be given to specific staff members' Remaining Balances up to a maximum amount, based on Rules established within the policy.
• Allowance - This allows you to establish the Opening and Remaining Balances to specific staff members. This is commonly used for Allowance renewals each leave year.
• Carryover - This allows you to manage the carryover of leave entitlement from the previous leave year, into the current year (Carryovers should always take place at the beginning of the new leave year), up to a maximum amount of carryover - you can also set an expiry date for Carryover to be used in the new year (this is optional)
• Carryover, with update on any leave - As above - but also automatically adjusts a users leave entitlement if they have booked leave ahead of the carryover applying, for example - If a user has booked 5 days leave, and carries 10 days over - following the update, the 5 days will deduct from their Carryover instead of their Remaining Balance.

**WHEN WILL THE POLICY RUN**  

With different policy types there are commonly associated run dates, for example Carryover can only be run once a Holiday Year and is usually run on the first day of your new holiday year, whereas Accruals can happen on a monthly basis. The different run when options can be found below;

• Yearly, on Staff Anniversary, Forecast to New Year - This option allows the Policy to run on the Staff Anniversary, but the rules will run based on the start of their new holiday year
• Yearly, on specified month, Forecast to New Year* - This will run the policy Yearly on the 1st Day of a specific month, but the rules will run based on the start of their new holiday year
• Yearly, on Staff Anniversary - This option marks the policy to run on each staff members anniversary (Employment Start Date)
• Monthly - This policy will run on a monthly basis, this is commonly associated with Accrual policies, but can also be used for Allowance policies
  • Select Day - This is where you will choose what day of the month the monthly policy will run i.e. you might need accruals to be supplied on 1st of each month
• Yearly, on Specified Month - This will run the policy Yearly on the 1st Day of a specific month
  • Select Month - Select which month you would like the Yearly on Specified Month to run.
• Manually* - This will allow you to run the policy manually, so that you are in control over when the policy runs.

Yearly policies that are run Forecasted to the New Year and/or based on a Staff Anniversary require an accurate Employment Start Date as these are driven by a users' length of service.

Carryover policies can only be run Manually or Yearly, on Specified Month

* this is quite useful for Allowance policies where you can setup Next Years allowances earlier than the start of the new year i.e. You might open bookings for "Next Year" in September (if your Holiday year was Jan-Dec)

Once Saved, the other Rules and Users tab will become available.

RULES

Within each policy type there are Rules that need to be setup to ensure that your staff are receiving the correct amount of allowance, the one common part of these Rules across each policy type is that you have to supply a Min. Service Length (in months).

• Minimum Service Length (Months):  is the length of time a person will need to have been employed before they can benefit from the policy. 

For example, a person may need to have had a minimum service length of 6 months before being allowed any Carry over.

Then you will need to specify certain Rules depending on the policy type you have selected;

• For policy type CARRYOVER:
  • Max Days to Carryover:  is the maximum amount of allowance they can carryover for this policy. For example you may only allow 5 carry over days
  • Expire X Days after Year Starts:  is the number of Days in which the user is allowed to use those Days, before they expire.
• For policy type ACCRUAL:
  • Days / Hours to Accrue on Policy Run:  is the value of the allowance to be accrued each time the policy runs  e.g. 1.5 Days for each month 
  • Max Days / Hours to Accrue:  is the Maximum amount allowed before the accrual process stops. e.g. 25  thereafter the accrual process will not add any more days
• For policy type ALLOWANCE:
  • Allowance:  is the value of the allowance to be added each time the policy runs  e.g. 1.5 Days for each month 

USERS

Select the users to which this policy will apply, you can either add Users individually or by Group.

Users must have the same Allowance Pot and Allowance Unit as the policy otherwise they will not be able to be added onto it, they can also only be applied to 1 of each policy type of a certain Allowance Pot (see above).

MANUAL

This tab will only become available if you set the Policy up to be run Manually (see above*).

HISTORY (LOG)

Allows you to track any changes made to the Policy i.e. Change of Minimum Service Length, The max carryover may have changed.

There is a Leave Policy - Historical Transaction report available giving you the opportunity to see how the policy has run and what's been applied to each person, for more information see the Reports knowledge base article.

Within the system you are able to setup Minimum / Maximum Group Levels that help to manage leave more effectively and allow you to keep on top of staff demand within a specific Group. In addition you can also stop entrie Groups from being able to be off when 1 person within another group is already off on any given day by setting up a Restriction rule.

RULES - GROUPS

Firstly, to create a Rule you will need to do the following;

• From the Settings menu, select Rules, then Create new Rule.
• Select the Rule type, Group or Staff
• Then choose which Group/Staff you would like to add a Rule for
• Now select a function (as seen below)
  • Restriction - This function allows you to stop the selected Group from being able to book leave when anyone within another Group is already off (or you can stop the selected Group from being able to book leave when a specific staff member is already off).
  • Min. Group Level - This function allows you to state the minimum required number of staff you need at work on any given day, within the selected group.
  • Max Group Level - This function allows you to set the maximum number of staff that can book leave within the selected group on any given day.
• Then select who to apply this Rule against, either a Group or Staff member* If this is a Staff to Staff rule, you can also choose to reverse the Rule so that both staff members cannot be off together (otherwise it will default to the first selected staff member cannot be off when the second selected staff member is off).
• Then choose whether you would like the Rule to Ignore Dates**
• If you have selected NO to "Ignore Dates", then choose whether to Ignore Times***
• You also have the option to choose specific days of the week this Rule will come into effect, for example the business might close on Saturday and Sunday therefore you don't need to include those days of the week.
• Click Save.

*You will only be able to choose who to apply a Rule against if you have selected the Rule Type as Group or Staff Member and have chosen the function Restriction (Groups only).

Staff rule types can only be Restriction rules, you cannot set Min/Max rules for Staff to Staff rules or Staff to Group rules.

Via the Leave Types (See Leave Types article) you can choose which leave types take each type of Rule into consideration, for example you might only want Holiday to take Rules into consideration, but not Sickness or Meetings.

**IGNORE DATES

The Ignore Dates option allows you to choose whether the Rule focuses on the working days of each staff member within the Group.

Example based on 5 Staff in a Group, Minimum Rule set to 3 to be at work on any given day.

For example if 4 staff members work Monday to Friday and 1 staff member works Monday to Wednesday, the system can take into account that on a Thursday and Friday, only 4 people are actually at work, thus only 1 person can book leave (whereas on a Monday to Wednesday there are 5 staff, so up to 2 people can book leave).

***IGNORE TIMES

The Ignore Times option will only become available if you have chosen to Ignore Dates (see above). If you choose to Ignore Dates you can then specify whether the system will look at specific working times on each working day. If Ignore Times is set to YES the system will ignore Working Times and will only focus on when people actually work (see above).

Example based on 5 Staff in a Group, Minimum Rule set to 3 to be at work on any given day.

For example, if Ignore Times is set to NO: If 4 staff members work 0900 - 1730 and 1 staff member works 0900 - 1200, the system can take into account that from 1200 - 1730, only 4 people are actually at work, thus only 1 person can book leave that includes these times (whereas from 0900 - 1200 there are 5 staff so up to 2 people could book the morning off).

SPECIFIC DATES

This tab allows you to be even more specific with when to apply these Rules. You can choose a Start Date and an End Date or multiple date ranges throughout the year, in the event that these Rules happened periodically. You can also choose to repeat these date ranges yearly so that you don't have to keep setting the same Rules up every year.

HISTORY (LOG)

This History (Log) will display any adjustments made to the Rule.

DELETE

Allows you to delete the Rule.

Bulk Allowances not only allows you to manage / create Allowances for an individual staff member on an individual basis but it also allows you to manage allowances for a whole Group, thus saving you time when you are setting your staff up for the new year.

• From the Leave Menu, Click Bulk Allowances

You can then start to manage or create some Allowances for your staff members.

• Using the Adjust For drop-down box to specify who you would like to manage either a Group or Staff Member.
• Next select the Group or Staff Member that you require
• Using the Allowance Pot drop-down choose which Allowance Pot you would like to manage.
• Then choose the Allowance Year to manage (Year Start) and click Load Records.

Your Staff Member(s) will then be presented on screen with details as to whether they have allowances already setup for the specified fields or not*. 

*Any staff member(s) who already had allowances before you started running this Bulk Allowances option will NOT be included in the Create Allowances process, even though they are visible on screen, the only time ALL staff members on screen are affected is if you choose to Increase Allowance by X.

On the right hand side of your screen you can now Manage the staff member(s) presented on screen by either Creating Allowances or Increasing the Allowance By X number of Days / Hours.

Click the Select Function** drop-down and select Create Allowances

• Specify what the Allowance Unit will be either Days or Hours
• Allowance Value is the amount of Allowance to be attributed, if a user within the group is entitled to a different amount, you will need to manage them separately to the whole group via Settings > Users.
• Upon clicking Submit the staff member(s) who didn't have Allowances setup before will now be given the specified amount of Allowance. 

**If you choose Increase Allowance by X when using the Select Function drop-down, you will be asked to specify how much allowance will be added onto the staff member(s) and it will only increase the Remaining Balance not the Opening. Either in Days or Hours.

FORWARD PLANNING LEAVE

Forward Planning allows you to let your staff members request leave in the system when their working time as not yet been planned as well as being able to specify how much allowance will be deducted for any Forward Planned leave. For example, if you have only planned a warehouse team's Rota or Shifts for the next 2 Months and they want to request leave 3 months in advance.

To set a staff member to be able to request leave in advance of working time being planned.

• From the Settings menu click Users
• Using the Search filters on the left, find and click on the required Users Name
• On the left click Leave Approvers
• At the bottom of the page use the Allow Forward Requests drop-down and select "Yes"
• Then set the Time to Deduct per day

Any Forward Planned leave that is in the system, will automatically update once work has been created over the top of that leave. This will allow the system to deduct (if allowance needs to be deducted) the correct amount of allowance instead of the Forward Planned allowance.

Forward Planning can be set to apply to any new staff members that you add into the account by Default.You can set this up by,

• From the Settings menu click Company
• On the left hand side click Defaults
• At the bottom of the page use the Allow Forward Requests drop-down and select "Yes"
• Then set the Time to Deduct per day

However you can of course simply adjust the settings by going into an individual Users record.

Not everyone on WhosOffice can be set as an Approver, in the first instance to become an Approver they first need to be under a USER ROLE that has the Pending Leave Permission. An Administrator will be able to intially setup who has the "Approver" User Role. Once this has been done they can allocate Approvers to specific Users from within the Users profile (See Below) and also choose what each Approver can do.

Each person can have upto 2 Approvers and (via the Leave Type settings) you can decide what level of Approval a Leave Type requires i.e. No Approval, Single or Multiple Approval or even a Chain Approval (A specific order of approval - first then second approver).

ASSIGNING AN APPROVER TO STAFF

To allocate an approver to a staff member you can,

• From the Settings Menu, Click Users
• Select the users Name, the search filters along the top of your page may help you locate the user quicker
• Click the Leave Approvers tab on the left
• Select who Approver 1 will be, and Approver 2 (if required)
• Choose the CAN* permission the approver has

*The CAN permissions allow you to give the Approver additional options when managing this persons leave and absence.

• Approve and Decline Only - Standard Permissions only allowing the approver to Approve and Decline leave
• Approve, Decline and Add - Allows the Approver to Add Leave on behalf of this staff member as well as Approve and Decline leave
• Approve, Decline, Add, Edit and Cancel - Allows the Approver to Add, Edit and Cancel Leave on behalf of this staff member as well as Approve and Decline leave.

Please note that the Add permission does not allow the Approver to override any system restrictions whilst booking leave i.e. Approval processes or Past leave bookings, the approver will need access to Leave Management (for Approvers) or the Leave Admin permission if they need to override these settings, these permissions can be assigned on their User Role (see Permissions Knowledge Base Artcile for more), likewise with the Edit and Cancel extra permissions.

You can also include people to be notified, for example somebody in HR. In the Notifiers field on the Leave Approvers page, You can add as many email addresses as you need, separated by a semi colon ( ; )

GIVING STAFF ALLOWANCES

In order to setup allowances for a staff member you can,

• From the Settings Menu, Click Users
• Select the users Name
• Click the Leave Allowances Tab on the left
• Choose which Allowance Pot and Unit (Days or Hours) the allowances are in
• Select what allowance year
• Then enter what the allowances are, of course if you are at the beginning of your Holiday Year you might expect to enter 20 in both the Opening and Remaining Balances, for example, this then allows you to update their leave record and have allowances deduct correctly.

The staff member will then be able to request leave using any leave types that are available to them, dependant on the Groups they are in and the allowances that they have been allocated (you can check the Groups they are in by going to Groups on the left hand side whilst viewing a users profile).

When staff members submit leave on WhosOffice, the request is sent off to the assigned Approver(s). Depending on how the leave type is setup, will dictate what level of approval is needed (see Leave Types).

There are two ways to get to a pending leave request in the system, Clicking on the pending request from the Dashboard under "Tasks / Notifications"  or Going into the Pending Leave area.

Please see below on how to approve leave;

• Dashboard Tasks / Notifications
  • From the Dashboard under the heading Tasks / Notifications
  • Find and click on the required pending leave request
  • You then have the option to view a team calendar for this staff member (allowing you to view any potential clashes)
  • Then on the left click Process and choose the required Outcome using the "Outcome" drop-down and click Process.
    
    
• Pending leave area
  • From the leave menu click Pending Leave
  • Using the search filters on the left, find the required pending request.
  • Then in line with that request on the right click View
  • You then have the option to view a team calendar for this staff member (allowing you to view any potential clashes)
  • On the left click Process and choose the required Outcome using the "Outcome" drop-down and click Process

An Email* and Push Notification** will then be sent out to both the Staff Member and Approver on the decision given for that request

*If the leave type is set to require further approval than just one approver, you will be notified on the email that it has been sent for further approval.

**Push notifications inform the user on their device via the WhosOffice application (iOS and Android) of any leave requests / approvals that they have made or require their approval . Notifications options are set by the individual via their device. 

SETTING APPROVERS IN BULK

The Bulk Set Approvers tool can help setup a whole Groups approver(s) in one go, as an alternative to going into each users profile individually, but you can of course still go into an individual staff members record and adjust their Approvers separately if required. To do this;

From the leave menu click Bulk Set Approvers

• On the left you can then choose who to adjust Approvers for, either Group or Staff.
• Then choose a particular Group* or a Staff Member
• Followed by selecting the function as either Leave or Overtime
• Click Load Records

After clicking Load Records, you will see a preview of the information you have just selected. In line with each staff member you will also be able to see anyone who already has an Approver(s) setup on their account.

Then on the right hand side of the page, you have the option to set an Approver to each of the staff members selected.

• First, Select which Approver you would like each staff member to have.
• Then select which Permissions the approvers will be granted
• You can then specify whether this approver will be Approver 1 or Approver 2
• Finally, you can choose to override any already setup Approvers (by selecting either a specific Approver to overwrite or All staff) or only to those who do not yet have an Approver.

Then click Submit.

*Please note that you will only be able to select Approvers who can actually SEE this group within WhosOffice.

APPROVER PERMISSIONS

The Permissions dictate what the Approver can do with each member of staffs leave. There are various options, as seen below;

• Approve and Decline Only - Allows the approver to only Approve and Decline the staff members Leave or Overtime
• Approve, Decline and Add - Allows the approver to Approve, Decline and Add Leave or Overtime
• Approve, Decline, Add, Edit and Cancel - Allows total control over the staff members leave/overtime requests with the options to Approve, Decline, Add, Edit and Cancel Leave or Overtime.

To assign Approvers individually, please see the Setting up an Approvers and Allowances article.

Need to request some leave? Follow these simple steps;

• Ensure you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Leave" then "Request Leave"
• Then press Request Leave, there are 3/4 Steps to completing this process:
  • If you are approving for someone else, select the "User" drop-down and select the user you wish to request for.
  • Select the Leave Type you would like to book by pressing the drop-down.
  • Enter the Start Date of the request
  • Select the required Duration of the leave:
    
    • All Day - Useful for just booking the odd day off
    • Single Shift: e.g. Saturday 9th May 1800 - Sunday 10th May 0600 - This makes booking a shift off even easier for Night Shift workers instead of using the All Day option*
    • Part of a Day - only available when the start date is a working day, this splits your working day in 2 parts i.e. AM or PM
    • Greater than one Day - Useful for booking a week off or just a couple of days
    • Greater than one Day, Between times - Useful for booking a week off but starting during the day i.e. You might leave work on 10th at 1230 and the last day of your leave might end on 15th at 1800
    • Specified Times - Useful for booking specific time slots (in 15 minute increments), perhaps for Meetings, Doctors etc.

• Click "Check Request"

Then review the information you have provided, you may also want to provide a Note for the leave request. Finally press "Submit Request".

The leave request will then be sent to your approver for approval (if required) and will deduct allowance based on the leave type settings (if applicable).

*This option will only appear for users who have selected the Start Date that falls on the start of their Night Shift.

DASHBOARD QUICK ACCESS

When logged in on the App Dashboard, a quick access button for "Request leave" is also available, this will take you straight to the request screen from the dashboard.

When staff members submit leave on WhosOffice, the request is sent off to the assigned Approver(s). Depending on how the leave type is setup, will dictate what level of approval is needed (see Leave Types).

To approve a leave request via the Mobile Application you can do the following:

• Ensure that you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Leave" then "Pending Leave"
• From here you can either view pending leave request for "My Staff" or "All Staff"
• Press on the pending request you wish to process on the list

This will expand the details of the request including any notes by the staff or other approvers which can be expanded if needed.

• If notes are required with the approval process this will be displayed with the notes section, otherwise they are optional
• Now scroll down to the bottom and press either "Approve request" or "Decline request"
• You will be shown a confirmation asking if you wish to process the leave, simply press "Approve"/"Decline" to complete the process or "Cancel" to go back.

An Email* and Push Notification** will then be sent out to both the Staff Member and Approver on the decision given for that request

*If the leave type is set to require further approval than just one approver, you will be notified on the email that it has been sent for further approval.

**Push notifications enable the user to receive notifications from their mobile application (if downloaded and logged into) but only if the application is not open on the users device, Push Notifications cannot be controlled within WhosOffice and are controlled by the user on their device settings and app permissions.

After dismissing the on-screen confirmation, you will be taken back to the Leave Pending Your Approval screen where you can action further requests where necessary.

DASHBOARD QUICK ACCESS

If you currently have pending leave requests for any of your assigned staff, there will also be a quick access "Pending leave requests" button on your dashboard.

Sometimes during the course of your leave year, you might need to book off a single day for the entire company, or for a particular Group (department) this could be for things like Christmas Shutdown periods, Christmas Eve half days or even for Company Events. Using the bulk book leave tool, you can easily and quickly book off the right date(s) for the right members of staff.

Tip: As this tool only allows you to select one group at a time, you may want to consider creating an additional group to cover the staff that the leave affects.

BULK BOOK LEAVE

From the Leave menu, click Bulk Book Leave. Then proceed to use the options available, as per the below example;

• For - Group
• Group - Select the required Group
• Leave Type - Choose what type of leave you would like to use.
• Start Date - Select the date you would like to book, or start from
• Duration - You can choose one of a number of duration options here
  • All Day - Useful for just booking a single day off
  • Specified Times - Useful for booking specific time slots (in 15 minute increments), perhaps for Meetings
    • Specified Start Time - Select a time for the leave to start on the selected date
    • Specified End Time - Select a time for the leave to end on the selected date
  • Greater than one day - Useful for booking a week off or a couple of days
    • End Date - Choose what date you would like the leave to end
  • Greater than one day, between times - Useful for booking a week off but where the leave starts during the day i.e. You might want staff to leave work on 10th at 1230 and the last day might be 15th at 1800
    • End Date - Choose what date you would like the leave to end
    • Specified Start Time - Select a time for the leave to start on the selected start date
    • Specified End Time - Select a time for the leave to end on the selected end date

Upon clicking Prepare, you will see a preview of any member of staff within the selected Group, as well as an indication of whether or not the leave requests are going to be able to be submitted, or if they can't, the system will present a warning explaining why they can't.

There is also a useful KEY shown on the right hand side to illustrate what the D, W and A columns represent;

• D - Total duration requested (this includes any non-working days)
• W - Total amount of working time affected by this leave request
• A - Total amount of allowance deducted, if the leave type is setup to deduct allowances.

You will then be able to provide any Notes for the leave request where appropriate and then submit the request into the system.

BULK LEAVE ADMIN

When booking leave in bulk, for multiple staff members at once, it enables you to quickly and efficiently process the booking within the system. But, if you booked the wrong date, or the date of the event changes you can also quickly undo the booking you've just made. By clicking on Bulk Leave Admin (in the top right hand corner of the page).

From here, there are search filters on the left hand side of the page, this allows you to quickly locate the booking that's just been processed - don't forget to hit search after adjusting these filters.

Then, in line with the relevant booking, click View (under the Options column). On the resulting page, you can view the details of the request itself as well as view the number of staff that the booking affected. On the left hand side of the page, you can click on Cancel Leave to remove the leave requests from each user's profile.

As working from home has become more of a normality within businesses around the world, WhosOffice offers different ways of being able to record this in a clear and transparent way. One of these methods is via multiple leave requests being booked into the system to represent that someone is outside of their usual work pattern.

But, recurring leave entries could also be used for other leave events, whereby regular meetings within WhosOffice might get booked.

The Recurring Leave booking tool, found within the Bulk Book Leave tool, allows you (as the Administrator) to easily book these scheduled occurences without needing to book them one by one.

TIP: You may consider creating a new leave type specifically for working from home, to clearly show on the various views within WhosOffice that someone is Working From Home.

BOOKING A RECURRING LEAVE EVENT

From the leave menu, click Bulk Book Leave. Now following the options below, you can select the following;

• For - Staff Member
• Staff Member - Select the required User
• Leave Type - Select the appropriate type of leave
• Start Date - Select when you would like this occurence to begin from
• Duration
  • All Day - Useful for just booking the odd day off
  • Specified Times - Useful for booking specific time slots (in 15 minute increments), perhaps for regular meetings etc.
• Repeat Every* - Select how frequent you would like the occurence to repeat
• For** - Choose how long you would like this occurence to repeat for
• Days to include - From here you can select which days of the week the leave occurence affects, using CTRL and click for multiple

*You are only able to select the leave to repeat between 1 and 12 weeks

**The length of time options you are able to run the occurence for, is determined by the Repeat Every value you select, for example;

Choosing to repeat every 1 week allows you to book upto 4 weeks at once, whereas selecting repeat every 12 weeks allows you to book in upto 48 weeks in a single booking.

Then click Prepare.

After clicking prepare, you will be able to review the details that you have chosen to book as well as being presented with any error messages that might indicate the inability to book leave for certain dates i.e. the staff member might already have leave booked on a particular date.

You will also see a KEY on the right hand side of the screen explaining what the columns D, W and A indicate;

• D - Total duration of the leave booked (including non-working days)
• W - Total amount of working time included in the booking
• A - Total amount of allowance deducted for the booking (upon submission)

Once you are happy with the booking details, you can enter any Notes (where applicable) and then click Submit.

TIP: Before completing this booking you might consider disabling the users email notifications, as well as their approvers notifications, as the system will send out emails notifying all relevant parties that the leave has been booked (this does not stop PNS - Push Notifications being sent out to their iOS and Android applications, if they are logged in to those)

In order to cancel this booking, the dates will need to be cancelled individually - one date at a time - via the Leave Admin / My Leave areas.

Work patterns are a great way to setup repeating shift patterns or rotas. Patterns are made up of Pattern codes and you can create as many as you require, with each containing up to a possible 250 shifts/days, but that doesn't mean they have to, you can just create 2 week rotas or weekly rotas if this is more appropriate for your company.

CREATE A WORK PATTERN

• From the Work menu, select Work patterns, then Create new Work pattern.
• In the required field provide a Name.
• Select the day/shift  from your pattern codes
• Create each day, including the non working days, until the work pattern repeats.

Once you have completed a work pattern, you have the ability to "drag and drop" the entries to different days within the pattern with ease, instead of having to remove entries from the pattern and start again.

It is important to take into consideration what day you would like your pattern to start on, for example, if you work on a Monday then we would suggest entering day 1 as a working day.

EXAMPLE OF A SIMPLE WORK PATTERN E.G. MONDAY TO FRIDAY

The following sample pattern assumes you have setup D (Days) as a pattern code, the timings of each shift / day can be specified in Pattern Codes. You can use the Non Working Day entry to set when you do not work within the Work Pattern.

1. D 0900 - 1700 (Days)
2. D 0900 - 1700 (Days)
3. D 0900 - 1700 (Days)
4. D 0900 - 1700 (Days)
5. D 0900 - 1700 (Days)
6. Non Working Day
7. Non Working Day

Once you have created your patterns, they can then be used in the Work Planner.

EXAMPLE OF A MORE COMPLEX ROTA - 4 DAYS ON 4 DAYS OFF 4 NIGHTS ON 4 NIGHTS OFF

The following sample pattern assumes you have setup the code LD (Long Days) and N (Nights) as pattern codes, the timings of each shift / day can be specified in Pattern Codes. You can use the Non Working Day entry to set when you do not work within the Work Pattern.

1. LD 0600 - 1800 (Long Days)
2. LD 0600 - 1800 (Long Days)
3. LD 0600 - 1800 (Long Days)
4. LD 0600 - 1800 (Long Days)
5. Non Working Day
6. Non Working Day
7. Non Working Day
8. Non Working Day
9. N 1800 - 0600 (Nights)
10. N 1800 - 0600 (Nights)
11. N 1800 - 0600 (Nights)
12. N 1800 - 0600 (Nights)
13. Non Working Day
14. Non Working Day
15. Non Working Day
16. Non Working Day

Important - Make sure that when you apply the pattern to a staff member you select the correct date to start it from, i.e. if the first day of your week is a Monday always start the pattern on a Monday - with more complex shifts like the example above, the date you choose to start it from might be different for each user to ensure an even spread of shifts.

CREATE PATTERN CODES

• From the Work menu, select Pattern Codes, then Create new Pattern code.
• Enter a name for pattern code.
• Provide a letter/number identification e.g. N for Nights (2 digits max.)
• Below this, provide the Start Time and the End Time
• Enter a value for the Paid Time - (e.g. Someone who actually works 8 hours, might only get paid for 7.5 and not the 1/2 hour for lunch)

Once you have created your Pattern Codes, you can create your Work Patterns to be used in the WORK PLANNER

OR

They can be used directly in the WORK PLANNER .

*After creating the Pattern Code, the Leave allowance value will be displayed. This requires both a value for Days and Hours bookings and will be pre-populated with the value set in the Paid Time, but can of course be changed if needed. This will dictate how much allowance gets deducted from a staff members leave entitlement should the day be booked off.

The Hours Leave Types value will also dictate a staff members Half Day calculations, for example - 0900 - 1700 is an 8 Hour Day, if you enter 8 Hours in the Hours Leave Types value the Part of a Day duration will be split into 2 parts of 0900 - 1300 and 1300 to 1700.

Within WhosOffice there are numerous views that offer a transparent overview of what's going on across the business. Whether you're looking to find out when people are working, on leave or even when the next company event (public holidays) are happening.

Below you'll find a breakdown of what views are available, and what information they can present.

WORK AND LEAVE TEAM VIEW

With the Work and Leave Team View you will get a comprehensive overview of everything that WhosOffice allows you to track. From here you can view Working Time, Leave requests, Public Holidays as well as any Overtime that's been worked across the company.

Using the two date fields you can either specify an up to 3 month at a time period to look at, or be very specific and choose to view over a week at a time. You can also filter the page by Group(s) and even choose to view any combination of;

• Work
• Leave
• Events (Public Holidays)
• Overtime

This is by far the best view to look at on WhosOffice.

WORK AND LEAVE DAILY VIEW

The Work and Leave Daily view, offers all of the above information and transparency, but on a day by day basis. Allowing you to quickly scan across multiple groups, who is in the office on a particular day of the week/month.

WORK TEAM VIEW

Sometimes you just want to focus on who's at work. The Work Team View is perfect for doing just that. This view can also be shown for an upto 3 month at a time glance into what's going on, or even on a more specific view of a period of time. You can also choose to show the actual times that are being worked, as opposed to viewing the Codes that represent a working day, giving you more insight into what's going on.

WORK CALENDAR VIEW

With Calendar View you can see all users, or selected groups of users' working time for a Month at a time.

WORK DAILY VIEW

With Daily View you can see all users, or selected groups of users for Day, showing the individual times. 

Please note that on any of the Work specific views, if leave has been booked, working time will be hidden from view where appropriate.

STAFF MEMBER YEARLY VIEW (WORK)

With Yearly View  you can see an individual staff member Work calendar for the whole year

LEAVE TEAM VIEW

Like the Work Team View, the Leave Team View allows you to focus solely on who's on leave and when. This is quite a common view when you're trying to investigate the impact of annual leave on a particular Group, or even across the wider business. This page can even be filtered to showing just who's booked leave, rather than seeing everyone on the same page (though being able to see everyone does have it's benefits, if you needed to arrange cover!)

The Work Planner is a really flexible tool to help plan and enter your Staff Shifts and Rotas - with the flexibility to swap shifts and enter regular patterns of work.

You can easily see the numbers of staff members per Day and also the total hours they would work if they were to complete the schedule.

Having access to the Work Planner is based on your User Role, an Administrator (or someone with access to User Roles) can assign the Work Planner to your Role to allow you to use this tool.

USING THE WORK PLANNER

• From the Work menu, select Work Planner

You need to have entered some Staff members and be looking at a Group which have staff members in them.

To set individual work schedules / rotas / working times

Find the User and click in the Date cell for when their working time/shift/rota will START

• From the Select Option menu  choose Set Pattern
• Select the relevant pattern (that you have already created)
• Choose a Specific End Date or No End Date
• Click Confirm.

For the staff member you want to plan,  just Left Click in the relevant Date cell  - You will then have an option to enter either Single Day entries or set a Work Pattern for the staff member up to a specific point in time or indefinitely. 

Right Click on the relevant Date cell and you will see a quick option to add a Single Day entry for a specific date.

SHOW TOTALS

Within the "Show Totals" drop-down box there are 3 additional pieces of information that you can choose to view whilst you are planning shifts / rotas, or even just making ad hoc adjustments. These include; 

• Shift Count / Hours - This will display the total number of Hours and Shifts that have been planned for each staff member within the currently selected Group (on the right hand side), it will also break down what shifts have been allocated and how many people have been assigned to each different type of shift during the selected month (along the bottom of your page).
• Competencies / Skills - Within the system you can attach Competencies and Skill levels to certain individuals i.e. Level 3 Engineer, Senior Ward Nurse, these can then be viewed on the Work Planner which can help you quickly see at a glance whether you have the right people working at the right times
• Manning Levels - In a similar view to the Shift Count / Hours option, Manning Levels show you how many people have been allocated to each different type of shift on each day of the selected month, but you can also set a total number of required staff to be working on each day of the month, then the system will display a "traffic light" system to ensure that you are on top of demand.
  • Green - You have met your staffing demand needs for this day
  • Amber / Orange - You are over your staffing demand needs for this day
  • Red - You are below your staffing demand needs for this day

These manning levels take into consideration Leave, Overtime and Events.

Manning Levels then enable you to use other tools available within the system, such as Open Shifts, you can read more on Open Shifts by viewing the appropriate knowledge base article.

VIEW EXTRAS

You can also show any Leave or Overtime that your staff members have already requested, along with any Events (Bank Holidays) that might be occurring within the selected month. These are represented by a coloured corner on each cell;

• Top right will show Leave
• Top left shows any Events i.e. Bank Holidays
• Bottom right will display any Overtime

By clicking on any particular cell, that is showing a coloured corner, you will see a breakdown of all occurrences on that particular day.

Examples:

PRINT / EXPORT OPTIONS

There are 3 ways you can extract the data you have entered on the Work Planner.

Print Plan - This option will print whatever is being displayed on screen at the time i.e. If you have chosen to show the Shift / Count Hours option this will print along with all shifts / staff that are currently being displayed.
Publish Work Plan (PDF) - This option will present you with a link where you can download a PDF version of the Work Planner. It will display the Staff Members and their Shift Times on any planned working day, it will pick up on the colour scheme of each Pattern Code that has been applied to the user. 
Export Data - From here you can export whatever is being displayed on screen at the time to either .XLSX or .CSV allowing you to potentially make adjustments to the format or display where necessary.

Work Distribution allows you to send either an individual Staff Member or a whole Group their planned work schedules from 1 Month upto 6 Months. This allows staff to be able to print it off so that they can plan ahead if they want to take leave.

From the Work menu select Work - Distribution

• Using the Distribute To drop-down box select either Group or Staff Member
• Then depending on your choice select the Group or Staff Member to send their Work to.
  • If you have selected to send it to a Staff Member, you will be able to choose to send either a Schedule view (in a calendar format) or a Detail view which lists any Working Days only within the given time frame, this view will also show any work attribute labels that have been assigned to the users working days from the Work Planner.
• Select the Month you wish to start from
• Then the number of Months (up to 6 months) you want to send and click Prepare Distribution

Clicking Prepare Distribution will present information on the selections made above i.e. the selected Staff Member(s)* and Email Addresses, if you cannot see any particular user in this list you may want to check that they are in this Group and have their Email Status set to either HTML or Text, this can be checked through their User profile.

*In line with each staff member you can Untick the Send? option to stop this staff member from receiving a work schedule as part of this distribution (they might be on holiday during this period).

Then on the right hand side of the screen you will be able to choose the Format of the Schedule, these can be explained below;

• Individual (Planner) - This sends each selected staff member their own schedule in a calendar format for the specified period
• Individual (Breakdown) - This sends each selected staff member their own schedule in a list view, detailing only their planned working days and will also display any work attribute labels that have been assigned to the users working days.
• Team View (Shows all staff on planner) - This sends each selected staff member their Groups work schedule in a calendar format for the specified period, this helps them to see when they are planned to work and when their colleagues are planned to work.

You also have the option to customise the message that is sent along with the Schedule before you send it, perhaps with instructions on who to contact if any changes are required.

It is important to note that this tool can be run as many times as necessary, in the event that there are numerous updates made to the schedule it is a good way of communicating those changes to your staff.

WORK ATTRIBUTES

Work Attributes allow you to  create and enter particular working descriptions / instructions for your staff members on any given working day as a Name / Label type attribute. Attributes can consist of things such as - Conference at London Excel or Health and Safety training course.

These Work Attributes can also represent Competencies / Skill Levels that can be assigned to staff to help managers plan their work load and also are crucial for Task Planning when using the add-on module Task Planner, see the separate Competencies / Skills article for more.

To create some Attributes as a Name / Label you can.

• From the Work Menu click Work Attributes
• Click Create New Attribute
• Select the Type as Name / Label
• Enter the Name and click Save

• From the Work Menu click Work Planner
• Use the Group drop-down box to select your required staff members
• Click on a required Date Cell where a staff member has working time
  • Left Click on a Date Cell - use the Select Option drop-down and choose Set / Alter Attribute to apply or change an existing Attribute relevant to this working time. 
  • Right Click on a Date Cell - click the drop-down box to select or adjust an Attribute relevant to this working time

Attributes are then visible when hovering over an applicable working day on the Work Views and Work & Leave - Team Views, they can also be seen on the schedules distributed using the Work Distribution tool.

A Competency or Skill Level can be created in the system to represent particular qualifications or skills that each of your staff members have, for example Level 4 Engineer, French Speaker etc. Importantly these are then visible on the Work Planner to help you monitor how many of the right people you have at work at the right time, on any given day.

• From the Work Menu click Work - Attributes
• Then click Create New Attribute
• Use the Type option and select Competency, Skill Level and enter the Name.
• Click Save.

Here you will be able to setup your different Competencies and then assign them to particular staff members by clicking the Staff Members tab on the left. A Staff Member can either have one or many Competencies.

You can also assign different competencies to staff members by going into their individual record, by doing the following...

• From the Settings menu click Users
• Then find the relevant staff member and click on their Name.
• Then on the left click Skills & Competencies

Using the Add Skill / Competency drop-down box you can allocate the required competencies.

Using the reports tab you can also view a report of the competencies that have been setup and applied to each member of staff, making sure that everyone has been allocated to the correct skill. For more information see the Reports knowledge base article.

Competencies / Skills are also a pivotal tool when using the Add-on module Task Planner, as you create Tasks and set out requirements between specific time slots with a specific requirement based on skill level i.e. you might require 3 Senior Ward Nurses between 0900 and 1400 to do Rounds on a certain Ward, see the Task Planner articles for more information.

The Open Shifts tool allows you to send a Group, a list of available shifts within a chosen month, these available shifts are taken from the Manning Levels that you have setup on the Work Planner and can take into consideration Leave, Events (Bank Holidays) and Overtime. It then allows your staff to opt to work on these days either by their manager adjusting the work planner or by the staff member requesting Overtime.

• From the Work menu select Open Shifts
• Using the Select Group drop-down box select which Group you would like to send available Shifts to
• Then choose which Month (within the next 12 months) you would like to view the Open shifts in

You then have 3 options;

• Include Overtime?
• Include Leave?
• Include Events?

Here you will be able to tell the system to take these options into consideration and exclude/include people have booked Leave, Overtime or if there are any Events within the chosen Timeframe.

Clicking Check Shifts will present information on the selections made above and show you any days that you require additional staff, based on your Manning Levels

In line with each date you will be able to check or uncheck any day that you do not want to send out, for example an Open Shift might fall on a Saturday but this Group does not work on a Saturday, also you will see how many staff you Require on each date along with how many staff you actually have working (possibly taking into consideration the Leave, Overtime and Events) and therefore how many shifts you have Available.

On the right hand side you will be able to customise the message you are about to send out to your staff.

Clicking Distribute will generate an Email to each person within the chosen Group.

For more information on how to setup Manning Levels please see the related Knowledge Base article.

Manning Levels in WhosOffice allow you to plan your working time based on demand. You can either setup Manning Levels on days you require a specific number of people to be at work or setup a Min. Group Level Rule which allows you to state that on any given day you need at least 5 people, for example, to be at work within a chosen Group.

To setup Manning Levels on a single day you can;

• From the Work menu click, Work Planner
• Then use the Show Totals option and click Manning Levels
• At the bottom of the Work Planner you will see 2 rows appear, Required Staff and Totals.
• In the Required Staff row you will be able to set the required number of staff you need to have at work on any given day

The Totals row will indicate whether you have met the required number with a traffic light effect that is explained below;

• Red - This will indicate that you are below the required number
• Orange - Will indicate that you are over the required number
• Green - Will indicate that you have met that required number

Manning Levels also allow you to use the Open Shifts tool, this will notify your staff that there is a requirement for work on any given day. For more information on Open Shifts please see the related Knowledge Base article.

For information on how to setup Min. Group Levels that affect Manning Levels, see the Min Group Level Rule article.

When using the Task Planner to allocate and manage tasks within certain groups, you will be presented with a colour theme of warnings that are displayed in order to help you spot any issues and fix them before they cause an impact on your staffing demand.

These colours, and what they represent when looking at your Tasks can be seen below;

• Red - This task is under allocated with staff.
• Amber - This task requires your attention, this could be due to over allocation of staff or a staff member might have booked leave over this period
• Green - This task has met the required allocation of staff and no longer requires your attention.

This traffic light system is also shown on the Tasks panel on the left hand side of the Task Planner so that you can quickly see what Tasks require your attention the most. They are even displayed on the days of the month bar at the top of the Task Planner, this lets you quickly see what days of the month require your attention the most and by clicking on that day you can quickly resolve the issues presented.

This traffic light system is also used throughout the wider system when warnings and restrictions are put in place on things like requesting leave, submitting overtime and when using Manning Levels on the Work Planner.

The WhosOffice mobile calendar is a great way to see who's at work, on leave or even when there is a public holiday across your team for an individual day at a time.

ACCESSING THE CALENDAR

To access the Calendar

• Ensure you are logged into WhosOffice
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Work" then "Calendar View"

CUSTOM FILTER MENU

In this view, you have multiple customisation options at your fingertips which will allow you to narrow your view down to exactly what you want to see (within the confines of your WhosOffice account permissions).

• Start by selecting the icon in the top right hand corner of the page.
• From here you can use the Group Select tool to decide which Groups are shown. Simply tap on the Groups you wish to view so the toggle is switched on.
• Using the switch tool you can easily toggle the view of Work, Leave, Overtime and Events (dependent on your WhosOffice account permissions).
• Finally you have the option to select how your information is Ordered.

Once you have made the adjustments, just select 'Apply' at the bottom of the screen. This will then reload the information to your preferences.

USER TOOL TIPS

Want to quickly see a Staff members full name or Default group? Pressing on a name in the Calendar view will expand them to show more details.

LANDSCAPE CALENDAR VIEW

WhosOffice Calendar also supports a Landscape view allowing you to view more days at once for your staff. Simply rotate your device to switch between landscape and portrait.

DAY VIEW

By selecting a day for a given staff member you can see a more detailed view of that day for the selected staff member.

The Task Planner add on module within WhosOffice allows you to go deeper into your everyday working requirement. It takes into account the key elements of WhosOffice including Work, Leave and Events (Bank Holidays).

To use the Task Planner you will need to setup Competencies / Skills that are assigned to certain individuals within your company, these can represent a particular Job Role i.e. Lab Technician, or just a particular skill i.e. Wind Turbine Service Level 2.

Setting and Applying Competencies / Skills

• From the Work Menu, select Work Attributes, then Create New Attribute
• Then change the Type to Competency, Skill Level
• Next, enter the name of this particular attribute
• Click Save.

Now, on the left hand side of the page click on Staff Members.

From here you will be able to assign particular Users who have this attribute or skill level.

Creating your Tasks

• From the Work Menu, select Task Planner.

On this page you have 2 options in the top left corner, these are;

• Date – Selecting which Date to assign Tasks to
• Group – Choosing which Group to assign Tasks for

After selecting your Date* and Group you can use the field on the left hand side marked ***NEW***, by clicking on this field you will be able to create your first Task by using the option that appears on the right hand side.

This Task could represent what certain individuals within this Group have to do on this day, or even where they are supposed to be. You can continue to add more Tasks onto the planner now, or set out your requirement per Task first.

On the Task Planner there is a Timeline for that day represented by the Hours of the day at the top of your screen, you will also see the days of the current month you are in. If you have already created Tasks for this month, for this Group, you might see some colours (Red, Green or Amber), you can find out more information about what these mean in our “Task Planner – The Traffic Light System” article.

Building your requirement

In the timeline bar in line with your Task click on the empty field. On the right hand side of your screen you will see fields appear that allow you to set out your requirement, starting with the Timings.

For example, if you had a Task for staff to work in the Pharmacy between 0800 and 1300 you would do the following under the Timings selections;

Start – 0800
End – 1300

By clicking Add you will now be able to assign your Skillset Requirement, this allows you to state how many of the right sort of people you need to be able to complete this Task.

Using the Skillset drop-down option you can select which Skillset is relevant to this Task (you can add more than one Skillset to a Task), along with how many people with this Skillset you need, by using the Required drop-down. Click Add once you have made your selections.

You can continue to add multiple skillset requirements to each Task where necessary

After adding in your skillset requirement, you will see a list of staff members present below, you will only see staff members who have the required skillsets, keeping the information entirely relevant.

In line with each of the staff members names, you will be able to assign them their specific Skillset for this Task.

This area will also inform you if any member of staff is unavailable for any particular reason, these potential reasons can be seen below, as seen on the requirement builder under their appropriate columns;

• Work (W) - The staff member may not be working, or might not be working the right hours for this Task
• Leave (L) – The staff member may have leave booked during this particular requirement**
• Tasks – The staff member may already be assigned to another Task in the system during this requirement***

Copying Tasks to save you time

Once you have built your requirement for the day you have selected, you can then either move onto the next day and outline your requirement, but if you work roughly the same sort of tasks each day, you might want to use the Copy Day function.

This allows you to copy the current day you are on to another, or multiple, dates within your calendar.

• First you would select the date you would like the data to start from
• Then choose how many days you would like to repeat for, if you want to complete a month at a time, select 31.
• Next you can change any of the days of the week to No, this will exclude these days from being assigned Tasks i.e. if you only work Monday to Friday.
• Then you can click Copy.

*Task planning can only be processed one day at a time, however there is a really useful Copy Day function that allows you to copy a “Template” day to multiple days of the month.

**Remember, leave does not necessarily mean that they are unavailable for work, they could just have a meeting scheduled in on that day

***Staff members can be assigned to multiple tasks on the same day, as they may job share or work with another department to complete their duties.

In this brief guide, we'll coveroff everything needed to setup a new Work Pattern from scratch and how to apply this to an existing user. This is both helpful for new starters, to anyone changing their working hours going forward.

We'll be using an example of "John Smith" moving onto a 33.5 hour working week.

You can skip any part of this you've already done, or refer to our individual guides on Work Patterns, Pattern Codes or the Work Planner separately if needed.

STEP 1 - CREATE A NEW PATTERN CODE

• From the Work Menu click Pattern Codes
• Then click on Create New Pattern Code
• Complete the fields shown on screen as shown in the example below:
  • Code - JS1 (this could represent the employee initials)
  • Name - John Smith 0900 - 1500
  • Start Time - use the time picker to select 0900
  • End Time - use the time picker to select 1500
  • Duration - will be set automatically upon saving
  • Paid Time - use the time picker to set this to 5 hours 30 minutes (this should take into consideration any "unpaid breaks")
  • Colour - Choose  colour for the code to be represented by on the calendars
• Then click Save

You will then need to repeat the above process until all other work variations are covered.

STEP 2 - CREATE A WORK PATTERN

• From the Work Menu click Work Patterns
• Then click Create New Work Pattern
• Then complete the steps as follows:
  • Name - John Smith (from Sept. '25)
  • Then use the select day shift option to select the relevant pattern codes that will apply to the new work schedule. The first code you select will represent "Monday" so be sure to map out the full Monday - Sunday week, including any non-working days.
• You should end up with something like:
  • Day 1 - JS1 - John Smith 0900 - 1500 (5.5)
  • Day 2 - JS2 - John Smith 0900 - 1800
  • Day 3 - JS3 - John Smith 0900 - 1500 (5) 
  • Day 4 - JS2 - John Smith 0900 - 1800
  • Day 5 - JS4 - John Smith 0900 - 1700
  • Day 6 - Non Working Day
  • Day 7 - Non Working Day

STEP 3 - APPLY THE NEW PATTERN VIA THE WORK PLANNER

• From the Work Menu click Work Planner
• Then, use the Group option and select the relevant Group
• Following this, use the View Month option and choose the required start month for the pattern
• Then click Show Planner
• In line with the staff members Name, click on the date you want the new pattern to apply from*
• Use the drop-down available on screen and select Set Pattern
• Then choose the new pattern you've just created
• Leave the end date as "No End Date", unless you want to stop the new pattern at a specific point in the future
• Then click Confirm

*This will need to be a Monday, based on how you've set the pattern up

Once the new working pattern has been applied to John Smith, any already booked leave in the future will be automatically updated and recalculated to ensure the correct allowance deductions take place - this will take place approx. 1 hour after the pattern is entered into the system on their schedule.

You can also, at any time, make ad-hoc adjustments to a staff members work schedule using the Right Click option. This will allow you to remove individual working days from their schedule, or insert individual working days - allowing for a more specific adjustment to their schedule that doesn't apply to many other weeks/months going forward.

Create Overtime Types that you can make available to your staff members. Overtime can be used to reimburse a staff member with Lieu Time or as a record for payment purposes. For each type, you can customise the preferences to best suit your companies requirements i.e. Which Allowance Pot it attributes to (if any), what the Overtime Rate is i.e. 1.5 Days (time and a half) and who has access to the Overtime Type etc.

CREATE OVERTIME TYPES

• From the Overtime Menu, select Overtime Types
• Click Create New Overtime Type
• Enter the Code and Name
• Choose what type of Reimbursement to have, Allowance, Paid, Allowance, by Lookup or Paid, by Lookup*
• Enter the Overtime Rate e.g 1.5 (time and a half) only applicable for standard Allowance and Paid reimbursements
• Choose which Unit the overtime will be available in, Days or Hours.**
• Select which Allowance Pot if any the Overtime is attributed to (if Allowance or Allowance, by Lookup reimbursement is selected).
• Click Save and you will have access to the other tabs.

*Reimbursement types;

• Allowance - Allows the user to receive Lieu time back for Overtime worked x (times) the rate specified, the calculation will be - Hours worked x Rate specified on the overtime type i.e. 4 Hours x Rate of 1 = 4 Hours lieu time.
• Paid - Allows the user to receive Paid time back for Overtime worked x (times) the rate specified, the calculation will be - Hours worked x Rate specified on the overtime type i.e. 4 Hours x Rate of 1 = 4 Hours paid time.
• Allowance, by Lookup - Allows the user to receive Lieu time back for specific hours of Overtime worked, hours of overtime and allowance values to be given back are specified in the RATES tab.
• Paid, by Lookup - Allows the user to receive Paid time back for specific hours of Overtime worked, hours of overtime and paid time values to be given back are specified in the RATES tab.

**Paid overtime is only available in Hours, however Allowance overtime types can either be in Days or Hours.

APPROVALS

You can set here if the Overtime type requires Approval, or multiple approval;

• No Approval required - When overtime is submitted it will automatically approve
• Single, First Approver Only - Overtime will require approval from your first approver only and will not required further approval
• Single, Any Approver - Overtime can be approved by either your First or Second Approver (if you have a second approver) and will be approved after the first approval.
• Both Approvers - Overtime will require approval from both your first and second approver, in any order, if one Approver declines the request it will be declined immediately and will not require further approval - if you only have one approver, the request will be finalised after the approver has taken action.
• Chain, First Approver then Second Approver - Overtime will require approval from both your first and second approvers but the first approver must take action first, before it goes to your second approver. If your first Approver declines the request it will be declined immediately and will not require further approval - if you only have one approver, the request will be finalised after the approver has taken action.

You can also choose who will receive certain emails and notifications from the system during the submit overtime / approval process. You can also choose whether the overtime type can be Auto Approved when your Approvers / Administrators submit overtime on a persons behalf or to Never allow the requests to be auto approved.

RESTRICTIONS

Restrictions allows you to set a limit on the number of Overtime Requests or Amount of Lieu / Paid time that can be submitted or accrued within a Week, Month or Year.

OPTIONS

Select if Notes must be entered on request, approval, both, never (disables notes) or leave as Optional, though there is no way to enforce what content is supplied with Notes.

RATES

The Rates tab will only be available if you have selected the Reimbursement to be Paid, by Lookup or Allowance, by Lookup. This tab allows you to specify the Work Rate that can be submitted with this type of Overtime and what the staff members will get back as a Reimbursement Rate should the overtime request be approved. 

For example if your company typically worked 10 hour days, you might offer something like the below;

Work Rate                      Reimbursement Rate

2.5 Hours                        0.25 Days
5 Hours                           0.50 Days
7.5 Hours                        0.75 Days
10 Hours                         1 Day

The Work Rate is how many hours the staff members are able to work when using this Overtime Type, once set the staff members will not be able to be more specific than the options provided. The Reimbursement Rate is what they are given back should the request be approved.

This will be only in Days or Hours depending on the Unit you selected on the Details tab.

GROUPS

From here you can choose which Groups have access to this particular type of overtime as well as what the Group is able to do with the overtime type. At the bottom of the screen you can Add the Groups that should have access to the overtime type, and what permissions they can have.

Permissions

• Requested by
  • Anyone in Group - Users within this Group will be able to request this overtime type
  • Anyone in Group, plus users approver - As above, but Approvers will be able to request overtime on behalf of users that they approver for, even if the Approvers are not in this Group
  • Users Approver Only - Approvers will be able to request overtime on behalf of users that they approver for, even if the Approvers are not in this Group
  • Leave / Overtime Admin only - Any user with the "Overtime Admin" user role permission will be able to request this overtime type on behalf of users within this Group, even if they are not in this Group*
• Seen by
  • Anyone in Group - Users within this Group will be able to see this overtime type for anyone that they can see already.
  • User only - Users will only see their own overtime with this type of overtime via My Overtime as well as any other views within the system
• Notes visible to
  • None - Users will only see their own Notes with this type of overtime via My Overtime
  • Anyone in Group - Users will still see their own Notes via My Overtime - any user with access to Reports, Pending Overtime or Overtime Admin will see notes for any staff that they can See.

Sometimes companies have particular policies whereby they only want certain Groups to SEE types of overtime but not request them, the Grouping function within WhosOffice will allow you to create specific Groups that carry certain Overtime Type permissions, these can be setup in addition to a staff member's normal Group (Department).

*Users with the overtime admin user role permission, will be able to enter overtime on behalf of staff under all Requested By options - except where this is set to NONE

HISTORY (LOG)

Allows you to keep track of any changes made to the Overtime Type, along with who made the change and when it was changed. You can refer to this page when enquiries are made about the Overtime Type.

On WhosOffice staff members can submit Overtime if they have worked on their days off or if they worked more than their normal working hours.

If you are an Administrator, or have been given the necessary permissions, you may be able to Add overtime for other staff members.  

To Submit Overtime;

• From the Overtime menu click Submit Overtime, there are 4 steps to follow to allow you to submit Overtime;
  • Select the User (skip this if you are requesting overtime for yourself)
  • Select the required Overtime Type from the Overtime Type drop-down
  • Choose the specific Date
  • Enter the Start Time
  • Then the desired Duration*

• Finally you have the oppurtunity to enter any Notes that you may want to add to the request for your Approver.
• Click Submit Overtime.

*Some Overtimes types can be setup with fixed Duration options, these will be predefined by your system Administrators within your company.

If your company uses the Approval process it will run according to the settings on the Overtime type (either single approver or multiple approval, including "chain" approval), any allowance or paid time reimbursements will be confirmed back to you once the request is approved (where applicable).

When you submit a overtime request, an email is automatically generated and sent to you and your approver (depending on the overtime type settings), it will also generate a Push Notification onto their Mobile Application for WhosOffice (as long as they have downloaded the app and logged in on their device)**

**Push notifications inform the user on their device via the WhosOffice application (iOS and Android) of any overtime requests / approvals that they have made or require their approval .Push Notification options are set by the individual via their device. 

When staff members submit overtime on WhosOffice, the request is sent off to the assigned Approver(s). Depending on how the overtime type is setup, will dictate what level of approval is needed (see Overtime Types).

There are two ways to get to a pending overtime request in the system, Clicking on the pending request from the Dashboard under "Tasks / Notifications"  or Going into the Pending Overtime area. Please see below on how to approve overtime;

DASHBOARD TASKS / NOTIFICATIONS

• From the Dashboard under the heading Tasks / Notifications
• Find and click on the required pending overtime request
• Then on the left click Process and choose the required Outcome using the "Outcome" drop-down 
• Depending on the type of Reimbursement* you might be able to adjust the amount of Paid or Lieu time to give back to the staff member (if any)
• Finally click Process.

PENDING OVERTIME AREA

• From the leave menu click Pending Overtime
• Using the search filters on the left, find the required pending request.
• Then in line with that request on the right click View
• On the left click Process and choose the required Outcome using the "Outcome" drop-down
• Depending on the type of Reimbursement* you might be able to adjust the amount of Paid or Lieu time to give back to the staff member (if any)
• Finally click Process

An Email** and Push Notification*** will then be sent out to both the Staff Member and Approver on the decision given for that request

*Within the Overtime Types you can setup either a specific Rate of Paid/Lieu time to be granted or a Lookup Rate at which Paid / Lieu is given back, you cannot adjust the amount of Paid/Lieu that is given back if the overtime type has a Paid, by Lookup or Allowance, by Lookup rate.

**If the overtime type is set to require further approval than just one approver, you will be notified on the email that it has been sent for further approval.

***Push notifications inform the user on their device via the WhosOffice application (iOS and Android) of any overtime requests / approvals that they have made or require their approval . Notifications options are set by the individual via their device. 

When staff members submit overtime on WhosOffice, the request is sent off to the assigned Approver(s). Depending on how the overtime type is setup, will dictate what level of approval is needed, if any (see Overtime Types).

To approve an overtime request via the Moblie app you can do the following:

• Ensure that you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Overtime" then "Pending Overtime"
• From here you can either view pending overtime request for "My Staff" or "All Staff"
• Press on the pending request you wish to process on the list

This will expand the details of the request including any notes by the staff or other approvers which can be further expanded if needed.

• If notes are required with the approval process this will be displayed with the notes section, otherwise they are optional
• You may have the opportunity to adjust the amount of Lieu / Paid time that will be granted to the Staff Member*, this can be done by pressing on the lieu time (indicated by an edit icon)
• Now scroll down to the bottom and press either "Approve request" or "Decline request"
• You will be shown a confirmation asking to confirm your decision, simply press "Approve" or "Decline" to complete the process or "Cancel" to go back.

By Approving/Declining your decision you are submitting this choice and the staff will be notified via Email.

After dismissing the on-screen confirmation, you will be taken back to the Overtime Pending Your Approval screen where you can action further requests where necessary.

*Within the Overtime Types you can setup either a specific Rate of Paid/Lieu time to be granted or a Lookup Rate at which Paid / Lieu is given back, you cannot adjust the amount of Paid/Lieu that is given back if the overtime type has a Paid, by Lookup or Allowance, by Lookup rate.

DASHBOARD QUICK ACCESS

If you currently have pending overtime requests for any of your assigned staff, there will also be a quick access "Pending overtime requests" button on your dashboard.

Need to request some overtime? Follow these simple steps:

• Ensure you are logged into your WhosOffice account
• Access the navigation using the top left button (or swipe right to open)
• From the navigation select "Overtime" then "Submit Overtime"
• In this view there are 4/5 steps to completing this process:
  • If you are submitting on behalf of someone else, select the "User" drop-down and select the user you wish to request for
  • Select the required "Overtime Type"
  • Select the "Start Date" for the overtime submission
  • Select the "Start time"
  • Followed by selecting the "Duration" (in Hours and Minutes)*
• At this stage you can also supply any notes to accomodate this request
• Once you have checked and are happy with the details, click on "Submit Overtime"

The system will confirm when the request has been submitted and will be sent, by email, to your approver for approval (if required) and will reimburse you with Allowance or Paid Time based on the overtime type settings (where applicable).

*Some Overtimes types can be setup with fixed Duration options, these will be predefined by your system Administrators within your company.

DASHBOARD QUICK ACCESS

When logged in on the App Dashboard, a quick access button for "Submit overtime" is also available, this will take you straight to the submission screen from the dashboard.

Events are calendar entries that are related to your staff. These can consist of such things as Public Holidays, Company Stock taking days or just Informational Events for your company.

Events will show in the Work & Leave - Team / Daily Views as well as an Events - Calendar View. They are primarily used to represent Public Holidays which can be setup to not deduct allowance from leave requests or maybe to setup Restricted Days to ensure that staff do not book days off when they are required to be at work (e.g. Stock Taking Day).

Events can be applied to either a Group(s) or a Region(s), but not a mix of both.

Generally you create specific Events individually, which is great if there is a unique / specific Public Holiday within a certain country (Region), or if you are creating a company day. However, you can also Import Country and Region specific Public Holidays.

CREATE AN EVENT INDIVIDUALLY

• From the Events menu, select Events, then Create new Event on the right hand side.
• In the spaces provided enter a Code and Name for the Event i.e. ST and Stock Take
• Below this, enter the Start Date and Duration
• Select the Event Type*, which is either; 
  • Free Day (National holidays etc)
  • Restricted Day 
  • Information only
• Then select the Action.
• After clicking Save, you can then go to either the Groups or Regions tabs on the left to apply this Event to one or multiple Group or Region.

The "ACTION" will define what the system will do should a leave request be submitted across one of these Events. There are 3 types of Action:

• None =  no action will be taken, commonly associated with "Information only" type events
• Stop Allowance deductions - The system will not deduct any allowance where a leave request includes this date. (usually associated with the type "Free Day, Bank Holiday")
• Stop all leave requests - The system will not allow a leave request for a period including this date (usually associated as a Restricted day)

*Event Types will show up differently on the various views where they appear. The Free Day, Bank Holiday type will show instead of any Work that has been planned on the Work & Leave - Team View. However, Restricted Days and Information Only events will show as well as any Work. Leave will also be shown as well as the Event regardless of the type.

IMPORTING PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

• From the Events menu, select Events, then Create new Event on the right hand side.
• On the left click Import
• Select the Country where you would like to import public holidays from i.e. United Kingdom (if your country does not appear in this list you will need to add your Public Holidays individually).
• Some countries will have different public holidays for different areas of the country, therefore you may see a Select Region drop-down appear, select which Region you would like to import from i.e. England (within the United Kingdom)
• Now select which Year you would like to import for.
• Import To - Selected Region(s) or Selected Group(s)
• Then tick all required Region(s) or Group(s)
• Finally select the Action (as per the above descriptions)
• Then click Import Dates.

Any Events that get added/removed with the Action = Stop Allowance Deductions, will automatically update any leave requests affected by the Event and refund/deduct any balance where appropriate, approx. 1 hour after the Event is applied. You do not need to manually amend any leave requests.

This process is a lot quicker than entering Public Holidays individually, but you will be required to manually add public holidays if they do not appear in our list.

HR Personnel Records allows you to maintain and update your employee's key information that can help ensure the effectiveness of the company workforce. You even build up their HR profile even further by supplying Training Records, Benefits that the company might offer employees i.e. Life Insurance, Pension schemes and even general documents such as Employee Handbooks.

There are various permissions surrounding who can see what information as well as who can update and maintain Personnel Records, these can all be customised centrally within WhosOffice.

CREATING A PERSONNEL RECORD

• From the HR Menu click Personnel Records
• Then, using the search filters on the left, locate the required member of staff.

Each Personnel Record is broken down into 5 Sub Sections, each of which will be explained in more detail below.

PERSONAL

Within the Personal tab you can enter relevant information for this particular employee, this can range from details of their Employment, to personal information like their ethnic background and nationality.

PROFILE PICTURE

Sometimes, if you are a medium to large company, you might not see each employee every single day. So putting a face to a name helps not only identify the individual, but also makes for a more social platform that everyone enjoys using (although this is not mandatory). The file size is restricted to 30KB and must be either a JPEG/JPG or PNG file type.

EMPLOYMENT DETAILS

• Name - This information will be driven from their original WhosOffice account setup and cannot be changed through here.
• Previous Name - Allows you to enter any previous names that the employee was known by
• Job Title - Enter the employees job title
• Employment Type - Select the employment type relevant to this employee;
  • Full Time
  • Part Time
  • Agency
  • Freelance, Consultant, Contractor
  • Zero Hours
• Start Date - This information will be taken from their original WhosOffice account setup, but can be changed from here.
• End Date - The Employment End Date will determine if their employment has, or is coming, to an end.
• Department - Enter the Department that they belong to (the list of Departments is taken from any Group that has been setup within WhosOffice that you can SEE)
• Reports to - This could represent the employee's supervisor, team leader or general manager. This can be different to their Leave / Overtime Approver.

PERSONAL CONTACT INFORMATION

From here you can enter any contact information outside of their work email address as well as any telephone numbers that can be used to contact the employee. The personal email address has no effect on email notifications within the system and / or mobile application.

PERSONAL DETAILS

Within this section you can choose to enter information surrounding the employee's ethnic background, nationality, marital status and even their home address. None of this information is mandatory so does not have to be entered.

EMERGENCY CONTACTS

Within each staff member's personnel record, you will also have the ability to record and maintain any Emergency Contact information that could be used in the event of a workplace emergency. These details can also be made visible to the employee themselves, or to a wider group of people (in a read-only format) within the Permissions section of each User Role. The Details that can be recorded are as follows;

• Name of the contact
• Relationship to the staff member
• Next of Kin? (as a tick box)
• Mobile No.
• Home No.
• Work No.

BENEFITS & MEMBERSHIPS

Within the Benefits & Memberships section of the personnel records section you will be able to coordinate staff benefits offered within the company, such as cycle to work schemes, gym membership, pension contributions and life insurance plans. Documents can also be attributed to these entries to allow you to centralise information as well as making it visible to the staff member themselves for further clarity.

Information that can be entered can be found below;

• Reference - this could be a document number / certificate ID
• Name
• Doc* - any document uploaded will be presented here that would allow a HR administrator or the staff member themselves (if the permission has been granted) to download the document
• From - enter when the benefit is valid from
• To - enter when the benefit expires (this does not need to be completed, if it is continuous i.e. Pension contributions might end when employment is terminated)
• Reminder - if you have entered a TO date, you can choose for the system to send out a reminder before the benefit / membership comes to an end.
• Archived - if you choose to archive any information, this will show the date it was archived.

Benefits & Memberships can be made visible to the staff members themselves via their User Role permissions, they will not be able to edit any of this information, but will be able to see and download any documents that have been assigned to each entry.

TRAINING, LICENSES AND QUALIFICATIONS

Throughout the personnel record you are able to record key pieces of information about each member of staff, keeping a complete record of their skills and competencies through a digital training record allows you to find the right people to fill skill gaps.

The following information can be recorded;

• Name
• Level - this could highlight the level of training achieved
• Doc* - any document uploaded will be presented here that would allow a HR administrator or the staff member themselves (if the permission has been granted) to download the document
• Started - when did the training start
• Completed - enter the date the training was completed (if this record is being forecasted, you can leave this blank)
• Expires - When does the certification expire
• Reminder - if you have entered a expiry date, you can choose for the system to send out a reminder before the training / certification or licence comes to an end.
• Archived - if you choose to archive any information, this will show the date it was archived

Within the Benefits and Training tabs there are numerous "Status" filters that allow you to review information on a more specific basis i.e. if you just wanted to focus on information that is expiring soon, or pinpoint any expired details.

DOCUMENTS

Whilst documents can be applied to any Benefits or Training records that you supply within the personnel record, you might also want to upload other specific documents onto the staff members profile. These could include Employee Handbooks, Health and Safety policies or even CRB check certificates. Options also include the ability to mark when the document is valid from / to.

Only documents that have been added through this section can be Edited - Documents added via the Document Admin section of the HR menu will need to be edited via that section.

These documents can also be filtered into different categories that are setup by the HR administrator (see our HR Categories article for more information).

**Across the 3 areas (Benefits, Training and Documents), you can only upload a document after you have created the initial record. By clicking Edit in line with the record you have created, you will be able to upload the required document. Document types that are accepted by WhosOffice include - JPEG, JPG, PNG, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, PDF, XLS**

Cases within WhosOffice allow you to build step-by-step HR workflows for managing various aspects of HR information, from Onboarding new starters to supporting long term success of your staff members by scheduling quarterly reviews and yearly appraisals. Within each Case template you are able to distinguish tasks that colleagues, mentors and managers have to complete within a certain time period.

Automatic reminders and notifications can even be generated to ensure communication is kept to a high standard so that everyone knows what is expected of them, and when it needs to be completed by.

CREATE A CASE TEMPLATE

• From the HR menu, click Case Templates, then click Add New Template.

Within each Case Template, you are able to specify a number of different options, the example below will help you to identify how best to use this area.

• Name - New Starter Checklist
• Category* - Onboarding
• Days to Complete - 14 Days (this will dictate how long the Case Handler / Subject has to complete the case, from the date it starts)
• Follow-on case? - Select a case template from the available list to automatically be created after this case has been completed, based on the completion date - in this example you might want an Appraisal to commence 3 months after the New Starter Checklist has been completed.
• Time Before Start
  • Day(s)
  • Month(s)
  • Year(s)
  • From
    • When the last step date was completed - when the case is marked as complete, the follow on case will be generated based on the Time Before Start preference selected
    • The date the case was started - when the case is marked as complete, the follow on case will be generated based on the start date of the original case and based on the Time Before Start preference

*Categories allow you to filter information into more appropriate sections of the HR Module - see our Category Management article for more information

AUTOMATED NOTIFICATIONS

Each case offers you the ability to setup automatic Email and Push Notifications (PNS) to be sent out at certain points during the case's activity.

• Start Date - Send notifications as soon as the case is due to start.
• Step Completion - Send notifications after each step has been completed. The notification will be sent to the party responsible for the next step (only if different to the person that completed the step)
• Case Completion - Send notifications to the subject or case handler, depending on who completed the case i.e. if the Subject completed the case - a notification would go to the Case Handler.

Upon clicking Save, you will be able to go to the Steps tab on the left hand side.

Whilst the system does not send out automatic notifications when a case is either Due to commence within the next 7 Days, or Overdue, there is a visual representation on the HR dashboard or the Case Admin page. Reminders can also be sent out manually via Case Admin, as and when needed.

STEPS

Within the Steps section of Case Templates, you will be able to outline the responsibilities that each party has to undertake to complete the Case. There is no limit to the number of Steps you can create, in addition there is no minimum number of steps you have to have.

For example, some cases could represent a simple Change of Company Policy that includes 1 step where Subjects (the staff member the case is applied to) have to confirm acceptance of a new document, whereas New Starter Checklists might include a number of different steps.

Each Step offers a potentially different response type, which can be selected to ensure that the most appropriate action is taken.

RESPONSE TYPES

• Agree - Offers the Subject / Case Handler a "Yes" or "No" option to allow them to agree to the contents of the step.
• Confirm Only -  Allows the Subject / Case Handler to simply mark the step as Completed.
• Upload - Requires the Subject / Case Handler to upload a specific document outlined in the step details
• Text - Requires the Subject / Case Handler to enter text into the appropriate field in order to complete the text (there is no way to enforce the content of the text)

BASIC 1-STEP CASE TEMPLATE EXAMPLE - CHANGE OF COMPANY POLICY

• Title - Company Policy Update V1.2.3
• Notes / Question - Please acknowledge you have read the Business Managment System document which covers our company procedures. 
• Document Upload - Doc (Upload the relevant document) 
• Response Type - Agree
• Required By - Subject

ENHANCED (MULTI STEP) CASE TEMPLATE EXAMPLE - NEW STARTER INDUCTION PROCESS

Step 1.

• Title - Health and Safety Information
• Notes / Questions - Have you been made aware of the: Fire Drill, Assembly Point, First Aiders, First Aid Box, Fire Extinguishers
• Document Upload - Doc (upload relevant documents if necessary)
• Response Type - Confirm Only
• Required By - Subject

Step 2.

• Title - Acceptable Use of IT Procedure 
• Notes / Questions - Please read the attached document on the acceptable use of IT facilities and acknowledge your agreement
• Document Upload - Doc (upload relevant documents)
• Response Type - Agree
• Required By - Subject

Step 3.

• Title - Right to Work
• Notes / Question - Copy ID - Please upload a copy of your Drivers Licence and Passport
• Document Upload - Doc (upload relevant documents if necessary) 
• Response Type - Upload
• Required By - Subject (When the Subject goes to action this step, they will be presented with the option to upload a document)

Step 4.

......

You can continue to add additional steps if needed to fully build your HR workflows within these cases.

By creating different Categories in the HR Module you are able to clearly define what sort of information you are looking to record on the system, as well as being able to create Parent Categories which will allow for clear and co-ordinated storage of your company's important HR documents.

Categories even allow you to attribute specific Cases (HR Workflows / Procedures) to them, this will ensure that everyone knows where to find the most relevant information.

CREATE A CATEGORY

• From the HR menu, click Category Management, then click Create New Category
• Then enter the name of the new Category.
• You will then have the option to assign this new category to an existing Parent Category if you wanted to, if you leave it as "NONE" then this category will become a Parent Category.

Parent Categories allow you to filter sub-categories underneath, creating a network of information within the HR Module.

Within the HR module you can create and apply cases to staff members, these might represent their next appraisal, disciplinary procedure, end of probation period meeting etc. You can also create cases in bulk, this is more commonly used for things like company policy changes, so that you can quickly get a revised company policy sent out to all the relevant staff members at the same time.

CASE MANAGEMENT

Within the Case Admin section, of the HR menu, you are able to monitor and examine any existing cases, cases that are due to start soon or any that are overdue. This allows you to find out the current status of each case, as well as being able to send out reminders for any cases that appear to be taking longer than expected to be completed.

By clicking View in line with any case you can see the previous steps of the case, allowing you to monitor its progress so far. The main screen can also be exported into either a .CSV or .XLSX spreadsheet.

CREATE CASES

To create a new case, follow the steps below;

• From the HR menu, select Case Admin
• Click Create New Case
• Choose the Category and specific template within that category to use
• Select when you need the case to start
• Choose whether to create the case for an individual or in bulk, for a whole group and then select the relevant user/group.
• Decide whether the case will be visible to the subject of the case, if it's a more generic HR topic, such as updating company policy acceptances etc. you might not need them to view it, whereas more sensitive topics might require their visibility*
• Select the Case Handler** this can either be an individual person or a group. If you select a Group, only users in that group with the "Case Handler" user role permission will be able to take action on the case.
• Then click Create.

After creating a new case, and dependent on your case template settings, a notification will be sent out via Email and PNS (Push Notification) to the person responsible for the first step of the case. Cases can also be viewed and actioned via the dedicated (FREE to download) iOS and Android applications - however, cases cannot be created from the mobile apps.

*If there are steps in the case template that require a subject's intervention, then the subject will always be able to see the case - this cannot be changed

**Users must have the Case Handler user role permission active on their user role, if they are to be setup as Case Handlers.

Progressing HR cases through WhosOffice can be done by both the Subject (the staff member the case relates to) or by the Case Handler(s). These processes can either be completed through the Desktop application or via the dedicated iOS and Android mobile apps.

Below, you will find out how to perform these actions through the Desktop, for both the Subject and the Case Handler(s).

Don't forget, order to progress cases, Case Handlers need the Case Handler user role permission, which gives them access to the Pending Cases page, and all users will need the My Cases user role permission to progress their own cases as the Subject.

CASE HANDLER HR CASE PROGRESSION

Depending on how cases are setup, you might receive an email and push notification, to your mobile app if you've allowed permissions, stating that you are required to take action on a case.

From the HR menu click Pending Cases.

On the resulting page, you're able to use the search filters on the left hand side of the screen to locate the relevant case(s) you need to process.

Once you've found the appropriate case, you'll then be able to review the following;

• Name - The name of the case that's outstanding, due soon or currently active.
• Staff Member - Which person the case relates to
• Case Handler - Who is currently handling the case
• Start - When the case started / is due to start
• Required - When the case should be completed by
• %Complete - How far along the case completion is
• Waiting for - Who is currently required to complete a step on the case

You can then click View, in line with the case on the right hand side of the page. On the resulting screen, you'll be able to see the same information as above, but will also have direct access to the steps of the case (on the left hand side).

By clicking on Steps, you can review what's happened previously as well as what's due to be completed, therefore allowing you to take the appropriate course of action.

SUBJECT HR CASE PROGRESSION

As the Subject, you can progress any cases that require your intervention by doing the following;

From the HR menu click My Cases.

On the resulting page you'll be able to see the same information as mentioned above, as well as being able to filter through already completed cases, any that are due soon, overdue or any that are active.

By clicking View in line with a case that is currently waiting for your action, you will be able to complete the step accordingly. After completing the step, you will be able to then see if you are required to continue completing the next step, or if your case handler is required to.

At any time you can view the Case Timeline which will give you an overview of everything that has happened on the case so far and who has taken action on it, as well as what is due to be completed.

Don't forget, you can also quickly and seamlessly progress and complete cases via the iOS and Android mobile apps which are FREE to download.

In WhosOffice there is an in depth Reports area, which allows you to view specific data that has been entered onto your account. You can either print out the reports in an easy to view format or export them to Excel Spreadsheet, allowing you to further customise the report yourself.

Within the system there are 4 areas of Reports available,

• General Staff Reports
• Leave Policy Reports
• Staff Yearly Reports
• Task - Summary (Yearly)

Each Report can be customised using filters to specify what information you would like to view on the Report, these can be viewed for a particular staff member, Group or Selected Groups, below is a brief description of what Reports can be found on WhosOffice.

General Staff Reports

When running General Staff Reports, you can do this for either a Group (or multiple Groups) or a specific individual, the following report types will be available to you.

• Summary Leave Report - This will show you summarised totals of the amount of leave that staff have requested / taken over a certain period of time
• Breakdown Leave Report - This report will detail each individual leave request (for the types of leave you choose) that staff have requested / taken within a certain period of time
• Bradford Factor Report - The Bradford Factor report can be used to examine the impact of absence using the Bradford Score, this should be used for guideline purposes only and all figures should be examined further.
• Cancelled / Declined Leave Report - This will detail any leave that has been cancelled by staff / approvers or declined by their Approver
• Summary Work Report - Allows you to view summarised totals of the work that has been planned / completed within a specific time period.
• Breakdown Work Report - Shows you a detailed view of work that staff have completed or work that has been planned within a specific period
• Summary Overtime Report - This will show you summarised totals of the amount of overtime that staff have requested / taken over a certain period of time
• Breakdown Overtime Report - This report will detail each overtime request, (for the types of overtime you choose), that staff have requested / taken within a certain period of time
• Allowance Summary Report - Shows you an overview of the amount of any allowance(s) that staff started their holiday year with, along with how much they have left, it can also show Carryover amounts (if applicable)
• Allowance Usage Report - Shows you how much Allowance staff have actually used, instead of including booked in advance leave, up to a certain date within their Holiday Year.
• Staff Directory Report - Allows you to find out information about a specific User / Group of Users, such as their email address, leave approvers, overtime approvers etc.
• Skills / Competencies Report - Shows you what Competencies / Skills have been assigned to users within the company (you must be using Competencies and Skills to view information on this page.

Leave Policy Report

Within the Leave Policy reports area, you can quickly find out when and what will happen the next time a leave policy runs. You can also see what happened the last time a policy ran (leave policies can be setup to automatically process Carryover or Monthly Allowance Accruals).

• Historical Transaction - Look back at what previously happened the last time a policy ran, including any historical information since the policy was created, or within a specific date range.
• Next Run Forecast - Look ahead to what is going to happen the next time a policy runs.

Staff Yearly Reports

Staff Yearly Reports allow you to, at a glance, check on specific staff members overall records including Work, Leave and Overtime. More specifically you can also access Allowance logs that show detailed breakdowns of events that are associated with a user's allowances.

• Summary - This presents a Yearly Summary for a specific staff member within the company, giving you a total amount of leave (broken down by leave type) taken / booked within the year as well as their allowances. It also shows you what Work has been planned for them and how much Overtime they have completed within this time frame.
• Leave Breakdown - This report shows you what leave the staff member has requested and taken within a specific year, it will detail the requests individually whilst also showing you any Notes that were submitted by the staff member and their Approver(s).
• Allowance Log -  This report will detail any transactions that affect a specific Allowance Pot for a single staff member at a time, this gives you further insight into why a staff members Opening / Remaining Balances are showing the current information.

Within the HR add on module you are able to enter specific Training, Qualifications & Licences - Company Benefits/Plans as well as other useful personnel information relating to employees within your company. By using the HR reports, you can quickly and easily monitor and examine what's going on across these different areas.

There are 3 report types that can be accessed using this area.

• Personnel Directory
• Training & Qualifications
• Benefits & Memberships

Each report can be customised using various filters available and can also be run to show either a single Staff Member at a time, a single Group or multiple Groups. Below is a brief idea of what you can expect when running each report.

PERSONNEL DIRECTORY

First, you'll need to select who you are running the report for, either a Staff Member, single Group or multiple Groups. Then select Personnel Directory under Report Type. You will then be able to select which details you would like to include on the report, this report will only show information that has been completed on the employees Personnel Record (via the HR menu).

DETAILS TO SHOW

• Staff Photo
• Job Title
• Employment Type
• Department
• Reports To
• Address
• Employment Start Date
• Employment End Date
• Telephone (Work)
• Telephone (Mobile)
• Date of Birth
• Sex
• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• National Identification No.
• Marital Status
• Registered Disabled

This report is available to be Printed, Exported to .CSV or Exported to .XLSX - however please note that the staff photo will not be displayed when exporting to either .CSV or .XLSX

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

With this report, we'll need to change the Report Type to Training & Qualifications. We can then choose what training occurrences we would like to view on the report, by using the Show option;

• Started between dates - Choose to view training/qualifications that has started between certain dates
• Completed between dates - View training/qualifications that has been completed between certain dates
• Expired between dates - Choose to view training / qualifications that have expired, between certain dates
• Archived between dates - View training/qualifications that have been archived between certain dates
• Reminder between dates - Choose to view training/qualifications where the reminder for the occurrence has been set to alert between certain dates

You can then choose your date option, this is either a preset year or you can also choose Custom Dates to be more specific with your selections.

BENEFITS & MEMBERSHIPS

Next, we'll change the Report Type to Benefits & Memberships. As with the above report type, we'll start by selecting what benefits we would like to view on the report, using the Show option;

• Started between dates - Choose to view what Benefits/Memberships have started between certain dates
• Ended between dates - Choose to view which Benefits/Memberships have ended between certain dates
• Reminder between dates - Choose to view Benefits/Memberships where the reminder has been set to alert between certain dates.
• Archived between dates - View Benefits/Memberships that have been archived between certain dates

You can then select the date option that you require, this can also be selected as Custom Dates to be more specific.

All of the above reports can be printed, exported to .CSV or exported to .XLSX.

Please note - If you have access to run HR reports, you will be able to report on any user that you can currently SEE within WhosOffice. There is no way to limit who you can SEE HR information for against who you can actually see in WhosOffice for Leave/Work purposes.

You can contact our support team by any of the following methods:

• Within your WhosOffice account
  • Click on the Help menu, then on System Help.
  • From the resulting page, complete the Enquiry form on the right hand side.

• By Email
  • Drop us an email to support [at] whosoffice [dot] com

• By Telephone
  • Call us on +44 (0)1227 812938

Please find below our recommended Onboarding process for WhosOffice, if you have any questions please feel free to give our support team a call on 01227 812938.

1. Establish your Company Groups

This is going to be the foundation of your organisation within WhosOffice. This can be accessed via Settings > Company Groups > Create New Group.

2. Import your Public Holidays

This can be done for This Year but also Next Year. This can be accessed via the Events Menu > Events > click Create New Event > then on the left click Import, it is important to set the action as "Stop Allowance Deductions" if Public Holidays do not normally get deducted from your staff leave entitlements.

3. Create Your Pattern Codes (Working Times)

These represent all of the different Working Times that your staff work. These are accessible via the Work Menu > Pattern Codes > Create New Pattern Code.

4. Using Pattern Codes, Create Work Patterns

These will dictate what days / hours a Staff Member is working each day of the week and whether their working week stays the same week in week out. Can be found via Work Menu > Work Patterns > Create New Work Pattern.

5. Setup any Automatic Carryover policies

These will allow your staff to have their Remaining leave entitlements (up to a Maximum amount) carried over into their New Year allocations. These can be found via the Leave Menu > Policies > Create New Leave Policy.

6. Add your staff members via Bulk Upload

This is the biggest step, within Settings > Users > Create New User > Import (on the left hand side), you can download the “Smart Sheet”, this then allows you to quickly import your staff onto the system whilst supplying some of their crucial information i.e. Work Pattern, Default Group, Login Credentials (Email and Password).

The spreadsheet is a “Smart Sheet” because if you have already entered information from steps 1, 3 and 4, then you will be able to quickly allocate this information to your Users after downloading the spreadsheet.

Complete the spreadsheet in your own time and Save It to your desktop. When ready go back to the Import screen (found via Settings > Users > Create New User) and Upload the document.

After you have imported your staff, we would always suggest that you go into Settings > Company Groups, from here you can go into each Group to make sure that everyone can SEE who they are supposed to within the system. This way, when you have rolled out the system, everyone will SEE exactly what you want them to.

7. Add your staff Leave Entitlements

This is going to let your staff book Leave within the system that would normally deduct from their leave entitlement i.e. Holiday. Either go into Settings > Users > click on a User’s name > on the left go to Leave Allowances to supply an individual with their entitlement, or go to Bulk Allowances via the Leave Menu to supply a whole Groups entitlement (of course individual adjustments after this process can also be completed).

8. Assign Approvers to your staff members

As part of the Import process you would have specified who will have Approver rights, now by going into Settings > Users > click on a User’s name > on the left go to Leave Approvers you can supply an individual staff members Approver, or go to Bulk Set Approver via the Leave Menu to supply a whole Groups Approver at once (of course individual adjustments after this process can also be completed).

9. Assign Leave Types to specific Groups

If you are planning on using the Leave area of WhosOffice you will need to setup what types of absence you are looking to record, these can be added via Leave Menu > Leave Types > Create New Leave Type, as part of the creation of a type of leave you are required to choose what Groups have access to it along with what they can do via a combination of See, Request and Notes permissions.

10. Roll out

You’ve got to this stage where you’re ready to roll out. Don’t worry too much about how, because there is a “New User” tool found via Settings > Company, that will let you send out a Welcome message to either a single Staff Member, single Group of staff or the whole company.

The Welcome Message contains their Username (Email Address) and a temporary Password where they will be forced (upon logging in for the first time) to set themselves a more memorable password. The most important on boarding step we can offer you is US. Do NOT struggle, we are here to help you. Whether it’s answering any of your questions or just helping you input data onto the account.

This article explains how to setup/configure your local server to integrate with WhosOffice in order for your Active Directory users to access their WhosOffice account without the need for separate login information.

You will require access to your local Web Server. If you do not have this access level, this integration will need to be carried out by a System Administrator or equivalent role within your organisation.

System requirements

You will be required to have the following on your server:

• Microsoft IIS (7+ recommended)
• ASP.NET v4 Framework
• Microsoft Active Directory

Downloading your custom integration file

1. Login you your Web Server
2. Create a new directory to contain your new website.
3. Within your WhosOffice account, go to Settings and click Company, then click on the Active Directory tab.
4. Download your custom integration file to the new directory you created in step 1
   
5. You may wish to save the filename as "default.aspx" for convenience later.

Configuring IIS

You may wish to include this integration within an existing local site within IIS, for the purpose of this document we are assuming a new local site will be created.

1. Login to your Web Server and launch IIS (Internet Information Services) 
2. From the Sites folder, right click, then select Add Web Site
   
3. Supply a name, Application pool (with ASP.NET v4), the physical path for the new site (which you created in the section above), as well as a port, then click on OK.
   
   
4. Within the site settings, double click on "Authentication".
5. Choose the following settings:
   
   • Anonymous Authentication: Disabled
   • ASP.NET Impersonation: Disabled
   • Forms Authentication: Disabled
   • Windows Authentication: Enabled
6. IIS settings are now complete, you may close IIS.

Completing your WhosOffice integration

1. Login to your WhosOffice account, then navigate to Settings and click Company.
2. Click on the Active Directory tab.
3. Complete the field labelled Intranet URL with the local address of your new website created in the step above. e.g. "http://localhost:823/autologin_whosoffice.com.aspx" (or "http://localhost:823/" if you followed step 5 in the first section of this document and your file is called default.aspx)
    
4. Click on Save details
5. Navigate to Settings and click Users
6. Click on your user record
7. Click on the Account settings tab and complete the field labelled AD Username before clicking on Save. This is the full Active Directory Domain\Username used to link your account to WhosOffice.
    

Testing the integration

1. Open a new Web Browser window and navigate to the new website you created on your local Web Server.
2. If successful you will be automatically logged into your WhosOffice account.
3. To complete the process for other users on your Active Directory/WhosOffice account, repeat Steps 5-7 in the section above.

If you have any problems, contact our support team at support [at] whosoffice [dot] com

Use these instructions to configure your Google Business Apps with WhosOffice for single sign on.

If you require any assistance with this setup please contact support@whosoffice.com

Pre-requisites

• You will need an administrator account to access the Google Admin Console
• You need to have an existing account with WhosOffice
• You will need an Administrator role on WhosOffice to complete these steps

1. Identify your sub-domain from WhosOffice

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the Settings menu, go to Company
3. Make a note of your sub-domain from this page, it will be in bold as shown below.

2. Configure your Google account

1. Login to your Google admin console
2. From the Home page, go to Apps, then click on SAML apps
   
3. Click on the + bottom right
4. Locate and click "WhosOffice" in the application list

3. Configure Google IdP Information

1. On the Google IdP information page, download the "IDP metadata" file to a location on your computer (remember this for later)
   
2. Click Next
3. On the Service Provider details page, provide the following information:

1. Edit the ACS URL by replacing {sub-domain} with your company's dedicated sub-domain provided by WhosOffice, see step 1 above.
2. Ensure the entity ID is whosoffice
3. Ensure the Name ID values are
   1. Basic Information
   2. Primary Email
4. Click on Next & Finish
   

4. Configure your WhosOffice account

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the Settings menu, go to Company
   
3. Click on the "Single Sign On" tab
   
4. Select "Google" from the provider drop down and click on "Activate Login Provider"
5. Using the form, browse to the IdP metadata file you downloaded in step 3, click on Upload
   
6. Click on Save Changes
   Note: If you would like to force users to Authenticate through Google (for online logins only), make sure "Force SAML" is selected as "Yes" then click on "Save Changes".

5. Enable WhosOffice SAML connector

1. Login to your Google admin console
2. From the Home page, go to Apps, then click on SAML apps
3. Select WhosOffice
4. At the top right of the grey box, click Edit Service
5. Ensure that your WhosOffice user account email addresses match those in your Google domain

6. Verify that SSO is working

1. Navigate to https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com
   Remember to replace {sub-domain} with your company's dedicated sub-domain from Step 1.
2. If you have chosen to "Force SAML" you will automatically be redirected to the Google sign-in page
3. If you have chosen NOT to "Force SAML" you will see the WhosOffice login screen with an option to login through Google.
   
4. After you have authenticated your login with Google you will be redirected to your WhosOffice account.

Use these instructions to configure your OneLogin account with WhosOffice for single sign on.

If you require any assistance with this setup please contact support@whosoffice.com

Pre-requisites

• You will need an administrator account to access the OneLogin administration area
• You need to have an existing account with WhosOffice
• You will need an Administrator role on WhosOffice to complete these steps

1. Identify your sub-domain from WhosOffice

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the Settings menu, go to Company
3. Make a note of your sub-domain from this page, it will be in bold as shown below.

2. Add WhosOffice to your OneLogin account

1. Login to your OneLogin account
2. Ensure you are in the Administration area
3. From the Applications menu, click on Applications
4. On the right-hand side, click on the Add App button
5. Search for and click on "whosoffice" in the application directory
6. Under the configuration area, leave the Display Name
7. You can upload a logo and icon (save the images below for convenience) to identify WhosOffice to your users
    
8. Click on the Save button, top right

3. Configure your WhosOffice connector

1. Once the connector has been added to your account, you will then need to complete the configuration
2. Click on the Configuration link on the left-hand side
3. You will need to supply the "System name" value, which is the sub-domain on your WhosOffice account, see Step 1.
   
4. Click Save

4. Download your metadata file

1. From the "More Actions" menu, click on "SAML Metadata"
   This will download the metadata file to your computer, which you will then need to upload to WhosOffice on the next step so make sure you know where this file is downloaded to.
   

5. Configure your WhosOffice account

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the settings menu, go to Company
   
3. Click on the "Single Sign On" tab
   
4. Select "OneLogin" from the provider drop down and click on "Activate Login Provider"
5. Using the form, browse to the SAML metadata file you downloaded in Step 4, click on Upload
   
6. Click on Save Changes
   Note: If you would like to force users to Authenticate through OneLogin (for online logins only), make sure "Force SAML" is selected as "Yes" then click on "Save Changes".

6. Enable WhosOffice SAML connector

For details on how to specify which users are able to use the WhosOffice connector from your OneLogin account, refer to the support section within OneLogin.

7. Verify that SSO is working

1. Ensure that you are logged out of your WhosOffice account
2. Navigate to https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com
   Remember to replace {sub-domain} with your company's dedicated sub-domain from Step 1.
3. If you have chosen to "Force SAML" you will be automatically redirected to the OneLogin sign-in page
4. If you have chosen NOT to "Force SAML" you will see the WhosOffice login screen with an option to login through OneLogin
   
5. After you have authenticated your login with OneLogin you will be redirected to your WhosOffice account

Use these instructions to configure your Okta account with WhosOffice for single sign on.

If you require any assistance with this setup please contact support@whosoffice.com

Pre-requisites

• You will need an administrator account to access the Okta administration area
• You need to have an existing account with WhosOffice
• You will need an Administrator role on WhosOffice to complete these steps

1. Identify your sub-domain from WhosOffice

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the Settings menu, go to Company
3. Make a note of your sub-domain from this page, it will be in bold as shown below.

2. Add WhosOffice to your Okta account

1. Login to your Okta account
2. Ensure you are in the Administration area
3. Click on the Applications menu option
4. Under the Applications title, click on the Add Application button
5. Search for and click on "WhosOffice" in the application directory
6. On the next page, click on the Add button under the WhosOffice logo
7. On the next screen, leave the App name as WhosOffice
8. You can upload a logo (save the image below for convenience) to identify WhosOffice to your users
   
9. Click on the Next button, bottom right

3. SAML Settings

1. Use the following SAML settings for your account:
   1. Single Sign On Url: https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com/int/okta/consume.aspx
   2. Ensure "Use this for Recipient URL and Destination URL" is ticked.
   3. Audience URI: https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com/
   4. Name ID format: EmailAddress
   5. Application Username: Email
      
2. Click on the Next button, bottom right

4. Download your metadata file

1. From the "Sign On" page, under the "SAML Signing Certificates" heading, locate your active Certificate, click on Actions, then right click on "View IdP metadata" link and click "Save link as", then save the file on your pc with a memorable name, such as "whosoffice.xml".
   This will download the metadata file to your computer, which you will then need to upload to WhosOffice on the next step so make sure you know where this file is downloaded to.
   

5. Configure your WhosOffice account

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the settings menu, go to Company
   
3. Click on the "Single Sign On" tab
   
4. Select "Okta" from the provider drop down and click on "Activate Login Provider"
5. Using the form, browse to the SAML metadata file you downloaded in Step 4, click on Upload
   
6. Click on Save Changes
   Note: If you would like to force users to Authenticate through Okta (for online logins only), make sure "Force SAML" is selected as "Yes" then click on "Save Changes".

6. Enable WhosOffice SAML connector

For details on how to specify which users are able to use the WhosOffice connector from your Okta account, refer to the support section within Okta.

7. Verify that SSO is working

1. Ensure that you are logged out of your WhosOffice account
2. Navigate to https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com
   Remember to replace {sub-domain} with your company's dedicated sub-domain from Step 1.
3. If you have chosen to "Force SAML" you will be automatically redirected to the Okta sign-in page
4. If you have chosen NOT to "Force SAML" you will see the WhosOffice login screen with an option to login through Okta
   
5. After you have authenticated your login with Okta you will be redirected to your WhosOffice account

Use these instructions to configure your Auth0 account with WhosOffice for single sign on.

If you require any assistance with this setup please contact support@whosoffice.com

Pre-requisites

• You need to have an existing account with an Administrator role on WhosOffice to complete these steps
• You need to set up a Connection, which is a source of users. Connections can be databases, social identity providers, or enterprise identity providers, and can be shared among different applications. You may set up more than one connection for use with SSO integrations.

1. Identify your sub-domain from WhosOffice

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the Settings menu, go to Company
3. Make a note of your sub-domain from this page, it will be in bold as shown below.

2. Add WhosOffice to your Auth0 account

1. Login to your Auth0 account
2. From the left hand menu, click on Marketplace
3. Search for and click on "whosoffice" in the marketplace directory
4. Top right of the page will be an orange button titled "+ ADD INTEGRATION", click this button
5. You may need to read and consent to the integration

3. Configure Auth0 SSO Integration

1. Enter a name for your SSO Integration, configure the following settings, and select Save.
2. Replace {sub-domain} with your sub-domain retrieved above in both the Audience and Callback URL fields. Ensure the Callback URL field ends with "/consume.aspx" so it would read "https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com/int/auth0/consume.aspx" where {sub-domain} is replaced with the value sought in Step 1 above.
3. Select Save
4. Select the Tutorial tab, then select Download next to "Identity Provider Metadata". This will download the metadata file to your computer.

4. Configure your WhosOffice account

1. Login to your WhosOffice account
2. From the settings menu, go to Company
   
3. Click on the "Single Sign On" tab
   
4. Select "Auth0" from the provider drop down and click on "Activate Login Provider"
5. Using the form, browse to the SAML metadata file you downloaded in Step 3, click on Upload
   
6. Click on Save Changes
   Note: If you would like to force users to Authenticate through Auth0 (for online logins only), make sure "Force SAML" is selected as "Yes" then click on "Save Changes".

5. Enable WhosOffice SAML connector

For details on how to specify which users are able to use the WhosOffice connector from your Auth0 account, refer to the support section within Auth0.

6. Verify that SSO is working

1. Ensure that you are logged out of your WhosOffice account
2. Navigate to https://{sub-domain}.my.whosoffice.com
   Remember to replace {sub-domain} with your company's dedicated sub-domain from Step 1.
3. If you have chosen to "Force SAML" you will be automatically redirected to the Auth0 sign-in page
4. If you have chosen NOT to "Force SAML" you will see the WhosOffice login screen with an option to login through Auth0
   
5. After you have authenticated your login with Auth0 you will be redirected to your WhosOffice account

If you have been given the ability to create your own calendar feed, you can set up a link from within your WhosOffice account and then subscribe to this in Outlook / Google calendars. This will show your company’s leave, work, events (public holidays) or a mixture of the three, within your Outlook / Google calendar, based on a number of selections that you can control.

CREATING A CALENDAR FEED

• After logging in to WhosOffice, click your name at the top right
• Click My details / settings 
• On the left, click Feed settings
• Under the General section, choose the following: 
  • Feed duration - how far in advance / in the past you want information to appear on the calendar 
  • Time zones - whether times appear relevant to your colleagues' location (if they are located in other timezones) 
  • Include work / leave / events - choose which types of information you want to see on the calendar 

Once you have selected the types of information you want to appear on the calendar, the Work / Leave / Events tabs will become available based on your selections and you can specify which group(s)' leave or work should appear

• If selecting the Work tab, choose whether your working schedule should appear and tick the checkboxes to choose which groups' working times should appear on the calendar 
• If selecting the Leave tab, choose whether your own leave will appear and tick the checkboxes to choose which groups' leave should appear, as well as which types of leave 
• If selecting the Events tab, select which category of events will appear (calendar feeds will only show events that apply to you) 

Remember to save before leaving each tab. Please note, you will only be able to view the work / leave of the groups that you are able to SEE when you log in to the WhosOffice platform. Similarly, you can only see the leave types on a calendar feed, that you are permitted to see in WhosOffice.

SUBSCRIBING TO A CALENDAR FEED

To subscribe to the feed you have created, go back to the General tab (remembering to save each tab you adjust) and scroll to the bottom. There will be a link next to 'How to access your feed', right-click this link to copy it and then go to your calendar platform to subscribe to it by adding a 'New Internet Calendar / from URL'.

ALLOWING USERS TO SETUP THEIR OWN CALENDAR FEED

If your staff members are unable to access the above section, you may need to adjust their User Role permissions to ensure that they have access to setup and subscribe to a feed.

• After logging in to WhosOff, click Settings
• From the Settings menu click User Roles
• On the resulting page you will see a list of your existing User Roles
• Click on the required User Role you would like to Edit
• On the page following, click on the Permissions tab on the left hand side
• From here, click on the General tab
• You can then adjust the Calendar Feed to Yes
• Then click Save General Permissions.

The above settings can only be altered by an Administrator, therefore if you cannot see the Calendar Feed setup options, you will need to get in touch with your administrator.

WhosOff gives you the option to enable a secure two factor authentication method, in order to enhance security on your account. This will require you to enter a One Time Password (OTP), after entering your username and password to log in to WhosOff. This OTP can be retrieved by email, or via a secure authenticator mobile app. Note that MFA / 2FA will only be required on the web portal, this does not affect the WhosOffice Android and iOS mobile apps.

ENABLE MULTI FACTOR AUTHENTICATION (MFA)

To enable MFA in your WhosOffice account;

• Login to your WhosOffice account
• Click on Your Name in the top right hand corner of the page
• Then click on My details / settings 
• On the left hand side of the resulting page click on Account settings
• Under Multi-factor Authentication, use the MFA option dropdown to select how you want to receive your OTP (Authenticator or Email) and click Save
• If you select Authenticator, after clicking Save a QR code will appear.

AUTHENTICATE BY AUTHENTICATOR APP

You may choose to receive your authentication code by a dedicated authenticator app. Google, Microsoft, and many other sources provide these apps, which can be downloaded to your mobile phone. Once you open your authenticator app, you can follow its process to add a new application - this will involve scanning the QR code generated by WhosOffice in your My Details / Settings area.

Please note that if you set up MFA by Authenticator, and then change this choice (either setting MFA to None, or changing to Email authentication), you will need to re-add WhosOffice to your authenticator app by scanning the QR code again, should you choose to change back to the Authenticator setting.

Once you have set up WhosOffice in your authenticator app, you will see it generate a One Time Password (OTP), which will change every 30 seconds.

Now that you have set up your authenticator, when you next log in to WhosOffice, you will be asked to submit your OTP. . After clicking Verify, you will be logged in to your account.

If you company uses Active Directory or a Single Sign On (SSO) provider, you will not be able to use MFA, as secure logins will be controlled by your company's technical team.

AUTHENTICATE BY EMAIL

You can also choose to receive your code by email instead, or if you have selected to log in via an Authenticator app you can always switch to receiving an email when you log in. If you choose to re-send your code by Email (when you have originally chosen Authenticator), then this will change your authentication method to Email, and you can switch it back when you next log in.