Departments settings

The Departments section in absentify lets you organize users into groups, assign managers for absence approvals, and configure department-specific settings such as maximum absences and the allowance default new users receive.

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Overview of departments

The Departments page provides a list of all departments in your organization. For each department, you can view:

• Department: The department’s name.
• Manager: Approvers for leave requests from the department’s members. An eye-off icon after a name marks an invisible manager.
• Maximum absent: The maximum number of users allowed to be absent simultaneously in the department.
• Group Synchronization: Indicates synchronization status with Microsoft services.

Use Search departments or managers… to find a department by name or by manager name. Select a row to open it.

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Adding a new department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments and select + Add new department.
2. Fill in the department details:

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General information

• Name: Enter the name of the department.
• Manager: Add one or more department managers. Managers act as default approvers for leave requests submitted by employees in the department.
  • Invisible manager (Essentials plan and above): Select the eye icon next to a manager to mark them as invisible. An invisible manager retains full approval and management rights but is hidden from department members. They do not appear in the department’s member lists, calendar, or team views, and their own absences stay hidden from the department. Admins, co-managers of the same department, and the invisible manager themselves can still see the entry. When an invisible manager approves a request, their name is still shown as the approver.

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Approval process

• Select the approval flow for leave requests:
  • Linear – All must agree: Requests are sent sequentially, requiring approval from all managers.
  • Linear – One must agree: Requests are sent sequentially and approved when one manager accepts.
  • Parallel – All must agree: All managers are notified simultaneously, and all must approve the request.
  • Parallel – One must agree: All managers are notified simultaneously, and approval from any one of them suffices.

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Maximum absent

• Define the limit for simultaneous absences in the department:
  • No limit: No restrictions on the number of users who can be absent at the same time.
  • Custom value: Specify the maximum number of absent users.
  Admins can override the defined maximum absence limit when creating requests—both for individual users and group requests. This provides flexibility in exceptional cases where the department’s configured limit must be exceeded.

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Absence visibility

• Who can see the absences of this department’s members?: Choose how far the absences of this department’s members are shared.
  • All department members (default): Absences follow the workspace-wide privacy settings.
  • Only managers and approvers: The absences of this department’s members are hidden from their colleagues, so within this department regular colleagues only see their own. Department managers, assigned approvers, and admins keep the full view. Accepted representatives still see the request they are assigned to.

The setting controls who may see this department, not what its members may see elsewhere. Someone in a restricted department still sees the absences of every colleague they were allowed to see before. We do not recommend Only managers and approvers for day-to-day use, and it is worth using only when a department must not show absences at all. The point of absentify is that the team can see who is available, so use leave type privacy instead. The absence privacy guide shows you how to configure it. Restricted members still appear on the team overview, with a lock and without their absences. Their annual calendar is not available to regular members. The workspace toggle Other departments does not override this. If someone also belongs to an unrestricted department, colleagues who can see that department can still see their absences.

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Allowance rules for new employees

• For every allowance type, pick the allowance rule that users joining this department should receive. The rule defines how much they earn, in which cycle, and what happens to unused allowance.
• The current organisation default is preselected, either a rule or Manage manually. There is no separate “Organisation default” item any more. Leave the preselection in place to follow the organisation default, including future changes to it. Picking a different rule or Manage manually pins that choice for this department. With Manage manually, new members get no automatic credit and you enter their amounts in the year table.
• If your workspace has not created any allowance rules yet, this section still shows the previous number fields for the current and next fiscal year. Next to them you choose Keep current amount or Manage manually.

3. Select Save to create the department.

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Editing a department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments.
2. Select the department’s row, or the pencil icon next to it.
3. Update the department’s settings, such as adding/removing managers, adjusting the approval process, or changing the allowance rules for new employees.
4. Select Save to apply changes.

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Deleting a department

1. Navigate to Settings > Departments.
2. Select the trash icon next to the department you want to delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

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Managing users within departments

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Adding or moving users to a department

1. Go to Settings > Users.
2. Select the pencil icon next to the user you want to update.
3. In the Department dropdown, select the desired department(s).
4. Select Save to assign the user to the selected department(s).

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Privacy settings: department visibility

By default, employees can only see absences from their own department. To enable visibility of absences across all departments:

1. Navigate to Settings > General > Privacy.
2. Enable the toggle for Other departments.

If leave type privacy is not enough and one team must hide absences entirely, set that department’s Absence visibility to Only managers and approvers. The absence privacy guide walks you through both setups.

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Best practices for department management

• Assign multiple managers: Ensure approval coverage by assigning more than one manager to a department. You can mark individual managers as invisible for HR or leadership oversight without exposing them to the team.
• Configure maximum absent limits: Avoid disruptions by setting appropriate absence limits for each department.
• Standardize allowance defaults: Select the right rule or Manage manually per allowance type so everyone joining a department starts on the same policy. Leave the organisation’s current default selected where the company-wide default should apply.