ARTICLE: Leave Types Configuration

ARTICLE: Leave Types Configuration

Go To:  System Configuration > Leave Types

The Leave Type configuration is one of the most important structural settings in Reach. Here, Leave Types are created, cloned and all settings are managed. Also, you can control whether you wish to make individual Leave Types available in your system to your student and parent population or not, dependent on requirements.

Click on Add Leave Type, Clone Leave Type or click on a line item to update a Leave Type to get started.



Once you have selected your action; Create, Clone, or Update, the Leave Type Details page will appear.
Full settings functionality is available for all Leave Type actions.

There are eight components for Leave Type configuration, as navigated by the tabs:
  1. General Settings
  2. Actors
  3. Restrictions & Visibility
  4. Cut Offs
  5. Transport Types
  6. Quotas
  7. Additional Notifications
  8. Alerts 


1.  General Settings

These are the four (4) main sections within the General Tab page; General, Security, Meals and Signatures.


General

  1. Label - Is the name given to your Leave Type
  2. Note Required - Determines whether notes are compulsory with the leave request or not.  If set to be compulsory, the student will not be able to submit the leave request without a note being provided
  3. Active - Determines whether this leave type is turned on as an active leave type to be selected by the intended audience or if it's turned off and saved for later until needed to be active again - this is great for leave types that are specific to breaks during the school year to be hidden when not available
  4. SISO Location - Is the Leave Type currently active or dormant?  Leave Types can be hidden when not in use
  5. Override Terms and Conditions - If specified, leave of this type will use the attached Terms and Conditions document instead of the the default Terms and Conditions document that is saved within System Configurations > Leave General
  6. Display Sticky Note on SISO - You have the ability to customise a specific message that will be displayed for any student when they are actively signing out for a leave event of this leave type
  7. Medical Appointment - If set to Yes, leaves of this type will also be seen in the Student's medical calendar
    1. Further details regarding this configuration ARTICLE: Medical Appointment Leave Type Configuration
  8. Show Recurring Leave - If set to to Yes, leaves of this type will allow for choosing to set the leave request to reoccur a defined number of times
    1. Further details regarding this configuration ARTICLE: Recurring Leave Events
  9. Show No Host Necessary Leave - If Global setting in System Configurations > Leave General is set to not show "No Host Necessary" as a host option in the leave requests, this setting allows for enabling "No Host Necessary" for just this specific leave type.
  10. Leave Type Description - Display help text Leave Types to the right of the Leave Type dropdown when creating a Leave Request (keep this field blank to display no descriptions)

Security

  1. Require a Staff PIN when SISO'ing to a Leave of this Type? - a Staff Member will be required to enter their individual Staff PIN to authorise the student SISOing to a particular leave
  2. Require a Staff PIN when SISO'ing from a Leave of this Type? - a Staff Member will be required to enter their individual Staff PIN to authorise the student SISOing from a particular leave
  3. Honour Groups Managed when SISO'ing to a Leave of this Type? - a Staff Member who matches the Groups Managed Settings for an individual student will be required to enter their individual Staff PIN to authorise the student SISOing to a particular leave
  4. Honour Groups Managed when when SISO'ing from a Leave of this Type? - a Staff Member who matches the Groups Managed Settings for an individual student will be required to enter their individual Staff PIN to authorise the student SISOing from a particular leave

Signatures

  1. Require a Signature when SISO'ing to a Leave of this Type? - The system will display a signature box for collecting a signature of the person and selection of identifying who they are
  2. Require a Signature when SISO'ing from a Leave of this Type? - The system will display a signature box for collecting a signature of the person and selection of identifying who they are

Meals

  1. Packed Meal Available - Determines whether the Packed Meal request flag appears in the leave request form for the student to select
  1. Late Meal Available - Determines whether the Late Meal request flag appears in the leave request form for the student to select


Blackbaud Mark

  1. Blackbaud Mark - Blackbaud Attendance is not enabled by default for schools that sync with Blackbaud, but if the is a desire for the Blackbaud Attendance sync to be enabled, please contact support@reach.cloud to make that request and we can enable the configurations for the school's portal.  The sync is not bi-directional with Blackbaud, but rather will sync from Reach into Blackbaud the attendance mark for a student who has an approved leave request and is signed out in Reach.
  2. For each leave type required, select the leave type and in the General tab within the Leave Type Settings and in the section titled 'Blackbaud Mark' designate which of the Present and Absent Blackbaud Marks are to be used for that particular Leave Type.  Be sure to save the changes within the specific Leave Type's configuration page, as well as within the System Config Leave Type page that displays all of the system's leave types.
  3. When the student is signed out to a leave, the attendance mark configured for Excuse Type Selection (taken from the school's Blackbaud attendance types) will be used to write an absence for the dates/times approved in the leave. If the student returns early, then the present mark will be used for the remainder of the time with their class attendance.




2.  Actors & Permission Workflow

Leave Type settings can be set to affect Leave Request permissions, therefore, the Roles of those involved must be set in the workflow. You have the flexibility to include any number of people into each Leave Type, what order they participate and how will they be notified of the leave details.

The participants in the leave permission workflow are called Actors because they are required to act upon the leave request that is being generated by this Leave Type setting. Actor participation is set by the User Roles in Reach.

An important first step is to ensue that the Roles of any participants that you want to include in your leave permission workflow already exist in Reach.  If you have a particular, unique leave type that requires a customised permission workflow then you may need to create a new user role in Reach to accommodate the permission workflow that you are attempting to build.

Here is the Actors tab layout of a new Leave Type with no settings;



Now, here is a sample workflow for two Levels of permissions.

Example; A student created a Leave Request for an Overnight Leave, this has trigger the approval requirements of two Actors to play their parts, the Parent to Approve the Leave and the (Pre-Approved) Host, to which the student will be staying with, to accept and Approve their part.




For each Actor (Role) that you want to include in the permission workflow you need to set the following criteria;

The Levels Workflow controls the Notifications process order

  1. The Actors workflow that you create will influence the notifications and approval procedure
  2. Only Roles in the workflow will be notified about a leave request, as per the set order
    1. Eg; The Host is only notified after the Parent has approved or declined their notification
  3. Importantly, a Leave Request will immediately appear on the Manage Leave screen when created and is viewable at all stages of approval, by all those with permitted access (Parents & Staff)
Level
In what sequence will this Actor be required to participate in the leave permission. Level 1 is first, followed by Level 2.  You can have an unlimited number of levels. You can also set multiple different roles to the same level (eg: Parents and Hosts are different roles so need to be added separately however they can both be set to the same level).
Use the ' Insert After' and 'Move Up/Down' buttons to arrange your order as required.

Role
What is the User Role in Reach for the Actor that you want to include.

Escalation
What is required for this to escalate to the next level?  Any one of the Role Types (eg: parent) to take action or do you require action from all of the actors?

Ignore Contact Flags
Contact Flags will override your Year/Grade and House/Dorm settings for who gets notified for any particular student.  You can turn the contact flags off for this Leave Type is you wish.

Communication Methods
How do you want this Actor to be notified for each of the major checkpoints for the leave workflow. Authorisation means the Request for Authorisation when the leave request is submitted. Final Approval status is achieved only after the final Actor has Approved the leave request. Declined status can occur at any stage in the permissions workflow by any Actor.

3.  Set Leave Restrictions

You can set Restrictions per Leave Type to any collection of students by configuring each field as required. Visibility can also be set for Students and Parents separately, affecting the Leave Type to appear or not via their individual login.

Note that your selections are mutually inclusive, meaning, that if you select Year 9 and Dorm X then only students that are Year 9 and Dorm X will be able to apply.

Click the drop-down selector for each field to manage your required selection for each Leave Type.
- Year/Grade - House/Dorm - Groups - Contact Flags



4. Set Cut-Off Times for Leave

You can set Cut-Off times for your Leave Type that help you to manage when students can apply for the leave.



Once you select the required Cut-Off type, the screen will expand to reveal the available controls, functionality differs slightly from each Cut Off type.

Here are the basics of each Type;
Every Week
- You can set a regular weekly cycle cut-off for your leave types to help you manage the submission and approvals process for any Leave Type. This Cut Off type prevents the coming week only and is designed to assist the rush of Weekend Leave requests.
Example; Set a weekly cut off for 'weekend leave' from a boarding facility, forcing students and parents to plan their weekend movements early and submit Leave Requests by Thursday, reducing the admin workload at the end of the work week.

Specific Date
- Leave Requests must be submitted by a particular closure date. These Cut-Offs are ideal for special events or holidays that require to be submitted by a specific date.
Example; Set a cut off date to force all Leave Requests to be completed by, to ensure all submissions are received well in advance of the planned excursion to the Bird Sanctuary. This may assist in collecting permission slips, or meal and medication planning.

Buffer
- The minimum time frame of hours between the request being submitted and the departure time for the request, Eg:  Leave must be submitted >48 hours from departure time
Example; Set a 'booking' cutoff for a particular area. The Library Study Hall has limited space, therefore requests must be made before 5:00pm, or 3 hours prior to the booking/Leave Type start time.

Blackout
- Select the period required to list this Leave Type as 'unavailable' when creating a Leave Request, setting a 'Blackout' time frame. This setting is the counter to the 'Every Week' cut off, as it shuts down for any submissions during the scheduled times.
Example; Senior students attending a sports academy at the stadium across town, slots are limited at the Thursday night sessions and must be booked with the academy no later than Tuesday afternoon, manage the Blackout period to force Leave Request submissions. Set the Blackout from Tuesday Lunch time till Wednesday morning.


Here are the common functions of each Type;
Enforcement
A SOFT Cut-Off will allow the leave to still be submitted if the cut-off time is passed.
A HARD Cut-Off will not allow the leave to be submitted if the cut-off time is passed.

Restrict by Submission Date or Leave Date
You can set the Cut-Off to apply to the Date of Submission or Leave Date.
This feature is to force Leave Requests to be organised in advance, to reduce people waiting until the last minute, therefore creating an undue admin workload.

Start Preventing & Allow Leave
Set the Data and Time to Close/Open the Leave Type availability

Message
Set your Custom Message that Students or Parents will see when submitting this leave request. The Message only shows when the Cut-Off is breached and it will display for Hard and Soft cut-offs

5.  Set your Leave Transport Types

You can determine the Transport Types that are available to be selected from, for each Leave Type via this setting.    
Using the drop-down menu for Leaving and Returning, select 'Show All' or any combination of Transport Types to display. Each Transport Type item that appears to be selected from, are created and managed by your school.
When selecting multiple items, a tick will appear to the right of each item and all items will list in the top of the menu.



6.  Set Quotas that apply to this Leave

Quotas are available for all leave events. It is possible for more than one Leave Type to count towards any particular quota that has been set.  

This setting allows you to determine if your Leave Type should count towards any Quota that has been set in your system. You will see all of your existing Quotas in this field and you can set your Leave Type to any one or more Quotas.

Quotas are set and their consequences determined in System Configuration >> Quotas. Your Leave Type configuration allows you to allocate a leave event to count towards any particular quota. You can have more than one leave event count towards the same quota.

In this example; The 'After School Leave' type is open and the current Quota options are available.



7.  Additional Notifications

You can determine who is to be notified for the Final Approval and/or Rejection of each Leave Type via this setting.  

Using the drop-down menus for Roles and Individuals, select the items required. The Roles and Individuals that appear, are created and managed by your school. Roles are created during the setup phase for school positions and the individuals are created when their Personal Profile is setup for them; all staff / students / parents / hosts.

When selecting multiple items, a tick will appear to the right of each item and all items will list in the top of the menu.




8. Alerts

Alert Profiles can be set for the Departure and Arrival separately for each Leave Type. The settings of each individual Alert Profile will dictate how that Alert will work with your Leave Type selection.

The Alert Profile types that appear, are created and managed by your school and an unlimited number of alert profiles can be created.
Go To: System Configurations >> Alert Profiles  See additional information about configuring Leave Alerts ARTICLE: Configuring Leave Alerts



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