Company Settings In Depth

In this article, we will discuss the options available on the company settings page. These settings are either default values that you can change on other pages, e.g. Should team leaders be the 1st level approver for members of their team or organisation wide settings like enabling Outlook Integration. We will now examine each option and its associated settings to allow you to configure company settings correctly.

Company Details

This section allows you to enter the basic details about your company.

Your Company Name

This field allows you to enter a unique company name for your organisation. The system will display it in various places on the website and it can differ from the billing details.

Head Office Location

This setting allows you to select a location from a drop-down list of previously defined locations. This is the primary location for your organisation. It is useful for organisations with multiple sites at different locations and defines where the head office is located. It is not a required field. You do not have to select a location, but we recommend it. Also, if you have not defined a location on the system, then it will create a ‘Global’ location automatically. But you can only select a specific location, rather than the ‘Global’ location here.

Administrators Should Record Their Own Leave Using

This setting allows you to select between two available options, either ‘their administrator account’ or ‘a separate employee account’. Normally, administrators use their own accounts to record leave. But, some companies prefer a shared administrator account where the administrators that share the account record their leave separately on their own employee accounts. When you select a separate employee account, the administrator can log in to the system, but the account is not visible as a user on the system and does not count towards the company’s maximum number of users.

Default Company Time Zone

This setting allows you to select the primary time zone under which your company operates from a drop-down list. The selected time zone can affect the ‘Who’s on leave?’ list, calendars and allowances for accrued leave types, but only by the time difference between your actual time zone and the time zone selected here.

Main Contact Email Address

This field should contain the email address of the first registered administrator, the person who registered the company account, and is the main contact email for the organisation. Under some circumstances, we will seek authorisation from this user for account and setup changes.

Preferred Culture

This setting allows you to select the preferred culture for the company from a drop-down list. We use this information when displaying local formats, such as dates and currencies on LeaveWizard. However, your browser’s culture setting can also affect these formats.

Configure Your Own Preferred Culture

If you click on the ‘Go to My Settings’ link, it will take you to your own ‘My Settings’ page, where you can configure your own personal preferred culture settings.

Use Your Own Logo In LeaveWizard

You can click on the ‘Email us the image (max height: 44px; width: 180px)’ link to send us an email with your logo artwork and we will personalise your LeaveWizard account. Your logo will then appear on the left-hand side of your main menu header. We support most popular file formats, including those that support transparency, such as PNG (Portable Network Graphics). The artwork should not exceed 44 by 180 pixels. If you send a larger image, we will resize it so that no dimension exceeds those limits. We have found that logos with transparent backgrounds are visually the most effective.

Leave Year And Types

This section allows you to configure the dates of your leave year as well as how the system displays it and setup the basic Holiday leave type.

Our Company Leave Year Starts On

This field allows you to enter the day and month of the start of your company’s leave year. You can also click the calendar icon to open a calendar pop-up to enter the date. This option sets the default company leave year. The day and month from which each new leave year starts and the user’s allowances are reset. LeaveWizard also allows you to set up different leave years for each employee to cater for any exceptions if your company uses different leave years, for example, because of location.

Our Company Records Holiday In

This setting allows you to select if you record holiday leave in days, hours or both from a drop-down box. The system will automatically create an appropriate holiday leave type, depending on the setting. If you choose both, it will create two holiday leave types, one for days and one for hours.

Main Holiday Allowance Inclusive Of Public Holidays?

This setting allows you to select if the holiday allowance is inclusive of public holidays or not. You can select yes or no from the drop-down menu.

Normally, the system does not include public holidays in the allowance and therefore does not deduct them from the user’s allowance. But, some companies prefer to include public holidays in the holiday allowance and then the system will deduct public holidays from the user’s allowance.

If you change this setting to ‘Yes’ it will change ‘Include in the allowance of’ to ‘Holiday’ for the Public Holiday leave type and to ‘None’ if you set it to ‘No’. For more information, see the Public Holidays articles.

Preferred Leave Year Date Format (2015 Or 2014-15)

Depending on when your leave year starts or just for personal preference, you can select if the system shows leave years as a single year, i.e. 2015 or as a range of years, i.e. 2014 – 2015 on the system. If your leave year starts on 1st January and therefore matches the calendar year, then a single year is the best option. If, however, your leave year starts mid year, then it will span two calendar years and is probably best represented by a range. This setting allows you to select either ‘Single’ or ‘Range’ from a drop-down menu.

Configure The Leave Types Used In Your Company

You can click the ‘Go to manage leave types’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Restrictions

This section allows you to configure company wide restrictions that are imposed on users.

Users Can Only See Their Leave Or Members Of Their Work Group / Custom Groups

This setting allows you to control the visibility of user’s leave between users. Normally, you would set this to ‘Yes’ in which case the system will restrict a user to only seeing the leave of members of their own workgroup. However, if your company wants all users to see other users leave, then you can select ‘No’ to allow this. You can also setup custom groups or leave visibility groups to allow users to see leave for users in different workgroups when you have the restriction in place.

Users Can Only See Their Own Leave Or Leave For Those They Directly Approve

This setting allows you to control the visibility of user’s leave between users still further. Some companies prefer to restrict visibility of leave as much as possible. If you select this option, then the system will restrict a user from seeing anyone’s leave except their own and those for whom they approve leave.

Set The Number Of Employees That Can Be Off At The Same Time For The Entire Organisation?

This setting allows you to set the maximum number of staff on leave for the entire organisation. If you select ‘Yes’ then it will display another field asking ‘How many?’. This setting can be useful for smaller organisations.

Larger companies may consider using the same type of restriction but per workgroup, which you can set on the Organisation and Employees page. However, the recommended way to restrict the number of people who can be on leave at the same time is to use leave restriction groups, which allows for greater flexibility and transparency.

The Following Event Types Can Be Recorded In The Past

This allows you to select the event types from a list of all event types available to your company. Ticking the box next to the listed event type will allow retrospective requests to be made for that event type, which the system would otherwise prohibit.

Want To Create A New Event Type?

You can click the ‘Go to event type configuration’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Setup Any Restricted Leave Periods For Your Company

You can click the ‘Go to manage restricted periods’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Restriction Periods’ page.

Approvals

This section allows you to configure company wide approval settings.

Should Team Leaders Be The 1st Level Approver For Members Of Their Team?

This setting lets you set if the team leader should be the 1st level approver for members of their team for all leave types. On the approver setup page there is a ‘Team Leaders are first level approvers’ tick-box, which you can select for each leave type. This will override the individual settings for all leave types.

Should Requests By Admins Require Approval?

This setting lets you choose, when an administrator makes a request on behalf of a user, if the system should automatically approve it or if it still requires approval by the designated approver.

An Administrator Should Be Sent An Approval Request If An Approver Is On Leave For The Following Events:

This allows you to select the event types from a list of all event types available to your company. If you tick the box next to an event type, the system will send the administrators an approval request if either first level approver is on leave for that event type.

Want To Create A New Event Type?

You can click the ‘Go to event type configuration’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Overtime / TOIL

This section allows you to enable and configure company wide settings for overtime and TOIL (Time Off In Lieu).

Do You Want To Record Overtime Or TOIL For Your Employees?

This setting lets you enable or disable overtime and TOIL functionality for the company. Once you enable it, users can make overtime requests and, optionally, they can convert them to TOIL requests. In order to allow TOIL requests rather than overtime requests, an administrator must tick the ‘Enable Time Off in Lieu’ setting for the event type being requested. See Event types in depth for more information. Also see ‘The following event types are enabled for TOIL:’ setting below, which displays the current settings for all event types. An administrator can also use that to set ‘Enable Time Off in Lieu’ for each event type.

Who Should Receive Overtime Requests For Approval?

This setting lets you choose if the system should send overtime and TOIL requests to ‘Administrators’ or ‘Team Leaders And Approvers’ for approval. For overtime requests, if you select ‘Team Leaders And Approvers’ and you have not configured a team leader, then the requests will go to administrators, anyway. For TOIL requests, if you select ‘Team Leaders And Approvers’ and you have not configured a team leader or you have not configured an approver for the leave type, then the request will go to administrators, anyway.

Alternatively, you can select the ‘Overtime Approvers Configuration’ option and an extra tab will appear on the ‘Approvers’ page to allow approvers to be assigned to each user individually, similarly to approver selection for leave requests.

Do You Want To Record The Pay Rate Associated With The Overtime?

This setting lets you choose if you want users to set a pay rate when they make an overtime request. If you select yes to record the pay rate, then it will display a ‘Pay Rate’ drop-down box (Single time, Time and a half, etc.) when a user makes an overtime request.

Can Employees Record Overtime In Days?

This setting lets you enable or disable overtime requests in days. When making an overtime request, the duration represents days. If you enable both hours and days, then it will display a drop-down box ‘Record in’ to allow the user to choose either days or hours.

Can Employees Record Overtime In Hours?

This setting lets you enable or disable overtime requests in hours. When making an overtime request, the duration represents hours and minutes. If you enable both hours and days, then it will display a drop-down box ‘Record in’ to allow the user to choose either days or hours.

The Following Event Types Are Enabled For TOIL:

This allows you to select the event types from a list of event types available to your company. Ticking the box next to the listed event type will enable TOIL for that event type. Making changes here will override the settings in the ‘Enable Time Off in Lieu’ tick boxes in each of individual ‘Leave Type Details’ pages.

Want To Create A New Event Type To Record TOIL?

You can click the ‘Go to event type configuration’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Notifications

This section allows you to configure company wide notification settings.

Can Employees Change Their Email Notification Options?

This setting lets you choose if users can change their email notification options or not. When you set it to ‘No’, all users will receive emails from LeaveWizard when someone approves or rejects their requests or if someone makes a request on their behalf, etc. If you set it to ‘Yes’, users can choose if they want to receive these notifications or not. In their My settings, preferences section, they can choose and if they want these emails and if they would also like emails sent when they request leave and overtime.

Do You Want Approval Reminders To Be Sent To Line Managers?

This setting lets you choose if you would like approvers to be sent approval reminders or not. When you set it to ‘Yes’, and if the approver has email notifications on, then the system will send daily reminder emails when they have pending approval requests. This will help ensure approving of pending requests in a timely manner.

An Administrator Should Be Notified When The Following Event Types Are Approved, Modified Or Cancelled:

This allows you to select the event types from a list of all event types available to your company. Ticking the box next to the listed event type means the system will notify administrators when someone approves, modifies, or cancels a request of that type.

Do You Want To Send A Monthly Allowance Report To Each Employee?

This setting lets you choose if you would like to send a monthly allowance report to each employee. When you set it to ‘Yes’, the section will expand to allow you to select which event types you want included in the report. If you include an event type, then the system will reflect it in the ‘Include in the allowance report’ setting of the ‘Other Options’ section for the Event type and vice versa. When enabled, on the 1st of each month, the system will email all users detailing their allowance balances.

Send Weekly Leave Reports To Approvers And Administrators?

This setting lets you choose if you would like to send a weekly leave report to approvers and administrators. When you set it to ‘Yes’, the system will email a list of leave and absence events due during the next week to both. For approvers, this will include the events of users in their team. For Administrators this will include all events in the organisation.

Send Administrators A Daily List Of Outstanding Leave Requests?

This setting lets you choose if you would like to send a daily list of leave request that are pending approval, which have been open for longer than the specified number of days, to administrators. When you set it to ‘Yes’, it will display an additional field ‘Include leave requests older than’ with a drop-down box allowing the number of days to be specified.

Outlook Integration

This section allows you to enable or disable iCal (Outlook and Google Calendar) integration for the company.

Do You Want To Share All Leave With Your Employees Via Outlook Or Google Calendar?

This setting lets you choose if you want to enable or disable iCal integration for the company. When you set it to ‘Yes’, it will allow users to synchronise and display all of their visible leave with an external internet calendar, such as Outlook or Google calendar.

Go Here To Configure Your External Calendar Options

You can click the ‘Go here to configure your external calendar options’ link, which will take you to the ‘Preferences’ section of the ‘My Settings’ page where you can subscribe and configure your own personal internet calendar.

Bradford Factor

This section allows you to configure Bradford Factor calculations for your company.

Does Your Company Use The Bradford Factor?

This setting lets you choose if you want to enable or disable Bradford Factor calculations for your company. When you set it to ‘Yes’, the system will calculate and display the Bradford factor for users. For example, on the Organisation And Employees page and a Bradford Factor report option will become available in the reports section.

Start Date For Bradford Factor:

This setting lets you specify a start date for the Bradford Factor calculations, which rolls over every 52 weeks (know as the set period). By default, the start date is the date that you registered the company with LeaveWizard.

When you set ‘Does your company use the Bradford Factor?’ to ‘Yes’, it will display additional fields to configure the Bradford Factor calculations, as follows:

The Following Event Types Are Included In The Bradford Factor Calculation:

This allows you to select the event types from a list of all event types, suitable for Bradford Factor calculation, that are available to your company. Ticking the box next to the listed event type will enable calculations for that event type.

Want To Create A New Event Type? Go To Event Type Configuration

You can click the ‘Go to event type configuration’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Sickness Categories

This section allows you to configure Sickness Categories for your company.

Does Your Company Use Sickness Categories?

This setting lets you choose if you want to enable or disable Sickness Categories for your company. When you set it to ‘Yes’, it will enable sickness categories and display additional fields, as follows:

Sickness Categories

This drop-down box allows you to view the sickness categories available on the system.

The Following Absence Types Are Allowed To Use Sickness Categories:

This allows you to select the absence types from a list of all absence types that are available to your company. Ticking the box next to the listed absence type will mean that it will be mandatory to select a ‘Sickness Category’ when recording an absence of that type.

Want To Create A New Event Type? – Go To Event Type Configuration

You can click the ‘Go to event type configuration’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Event Types and Allowances’ page.

Room Booking

This section allows you to configure the Room Booking function for your company.

Enable Room Booking

This setting lets you choose if you want to enable or disable the Room Booking function for your company. When you set it to ‘Yes’, it will enable Room Booking and a menu item will be available under the Tools section of the main menu.

Who Can Book Rooms?

This setting lets you select which LeaveWizard role level, Administrator, Line Manager or Employee, is required to use and manage the Room Booking function. Everyone with the selected level or above can use the function. For example, if you select ‘Line Manager’ then only line managers and administrators can access the Room Booking function.

When you set ‘Enable Room Booking’ to ‘Yes’, it will display additional links to configure Room Booking as follows:

Need To Add / Remove Rooms?

You can click the ‘Go to manage rooms’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Manage Rooms’ page.

Need To Configure Who Can Request / Edit Room Bookings?

You can click the ‘Go to room booking groups’ link here, which will take you to the ‘Room Booking Groups’ page. From there, you can create user groups which allow the users in the list to create and manage room bookings besides those allowed by the role restriction ‘Who can book rooms?’ above. e.g. you can allow only administrators to book rooms but additionally allow a group of other users by adding them to a group.

Company Lists

This section has links to complete company lists and is useful when looking for items that you have deactivated and not displayed elsewhere.

All Calendars

Click the All Calendars link to go to the ‘Calendars’ page, which has a list of all the calendars that exist, including deactivated ones.

All Employees

Click the All Employees link to go to the ‘Employees’ page, which has a list of all the Employees that exist, including deactivated and hidden ones.

All Event Types

Click the All Event Types link to go to the ‘Event Types’ page, which has a list of all the Event Types that exist, including deactivated ones.

All Locations

Click the All Locations link to go to the ‘Locations’ page, which has a list of all the Locations that exist, including deactivated ones.

All Rooms

Click the All Rooms link to go to the ‘Rooms’ page, which has a list of all the Rooms that exist.

All Workgroups

Click the All Workgroups link to go to the ‘Workgroups’ page, which has a list of all the Workgroups that exist, including deactivated ones.

Authentication

This section allows you to configure a SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) identity provider (IdP)  such as Okta to provide authentication to allow Single Sign On (SSO) for LeaveWizard. See our Authentication And Provisioning introductory article.

API Access

This section allows you to manage the registration of client IDs and Secrets (passwords) to allow access to our public Application Programming Interface (API). See The LeaveWizard API article for more detailed information.