Time Off

A time off room handles the whole PTO loop: somebody submits a request, it lands in an approval queue (or approves itself, if the room is set that way), and the result shows up in a who's-off view and a team capacity chart. No forms, no email chains, no spreadsheet named final_v7 — and the answer to "is Dana around this week?" stops being a DM.

Create a time off room

Click + in your space's sidebar and choose Time Off. Set visibility as you create it — everyone in the space, or certain people.

This room has no membership of its own. Who can approve is decided by the space: an admin or the owner of the space is an approver here.

Configure the room

The room's settings, open to space admins, are four:

• Annual allowance — the number of days each person gets. The default is 25.
• Ask for a type — whether the request form asks what kind of leave it is. The four types are vacation, sick, personal and other.
• Track the allowance — whether approved days count down against the allowance, or the room is only a record of who is off.
• Auto-approve — whether requests are approved the moment they are submitted.

Auto-approve is one setting for the whole room, not a per-type choice. If your policy needs sick days to go through instantly and vacations to wait for a manager, the way to get that today is two rooms — one auto-approving, one not — rather than one room with two behaviours.

Request time off

Choose the dates, pick a type if the room asks for one, and submit. You see the outcome without chasing anyone: decisions arrive through Openbook's notifications, under the Approvals & decisions category, since the room lives in the workspace you already watch rather than a separate HR portal with its own login.

When a request is submitted, every approver in the space is notified.

Approve requests

Pending requests line up in one queue. Approvers review and decide from a single place — Monday morning, clear the week's requests in one sitting instead of excavating an inbox for them. The requester is notified of the decision.

Company holidays

Space admins can add company holidays to the room: a date and a name. They appear alongside time off, so a capacity chart in a week with a public holiday in it reads correctly rather than looking like a team that took a random Tuesday off.

See who's off and what's left

Two views turn approved time off into planning input:

• Who's off — who is out, and when, at a glance. Check it before scheduling the client workshop.
• Team capacity — how much of the team is actually available over a stretch. Keep it open during sprint or project planning, so commitments are made against real capacity rather than assumed headcount.

Subscribe from your calendar

The room publishes an iCalendar feed, so approved time off appears in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar without anyone copying dates across.

1. In the room, create a calendar token and name it for whoever will hold it.
2. Copy the feed URL and add it as a subscribed calendar in your calendar app.

The token is the credential — the feed needs no sign-in, which is exactly what makes a calendar app able to read it. Mint one token per consumer, and delete a token to cut off exactly that consumer, immediately, while the others keep working. The room shows when each token was last used.

Tips

• Set the allowance to match your written policy before anyone requests anything, so the countdown is right from the first request.
• Add the company holidays for the year in one sitting. They are the difference between a capacity chart you trust and one you mentally correct.
• Make the capacity view a standing input to sprint planning. August looks very different from March.
• Approvers: clear the queue on a fixed weekly rhythm so requesters can predict when they will hear back.
• Subscribe the team calendar to the feed, not just your own. One shared calendar answers "who is off" for everyone.

FAQ

Can we auto-approve some kinds of leave and not others? Not within one room — auto-approve applies to the whole room. Two rooms with different settings is the way to get two behaviours.

Who can approve? Anyone who is an admin or the owner of the space the room is in. There is no separate approver list.

How do people know their request was approved? Through Openbook's notifications; there is nothing to chase.

Can I see time off in my normal calendar? Yes — create a calendar token in the room and subscribe to the feed from your calendar app.

Do we still need a separate PTO tool? For requesting, approving and seeing time off, no. It is one of Openbook's 21 room types, included on the Free plan.