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Requests and Notifications

WFM includes a request system where employees can ask for time off, shift changes, or other schedule modifications. The system also sends email notifications for various events.

Request types

Requests allow employees to ask for changes to their schedule. Managers approve or reject requests, and approved requests are automatically applied to the schedule.

Default request types

WFM comes with common request types:

  • Time off - Vacation, personal day
  • Sick leave - Illness
  • Shift change - Request a different shift
  • Home office - Work from home
  • Preferred shift - The employee picks a specific shift template they would like on a given date. See Shift preferences.

Create custom request types

  1. Go to Settings > Configuration > Request Types.
  2. Click + Add Request Type.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name - Request type name (e.g., "Praca z domu", "Urlop wypoczynkowy")
    • Type - Category: Available, Home Office, Time off, or Shift change
    • Description - Description of the request type
    • Abbreviation - Short code for display (e.g., "PZD")
    • Color / Background - The type's colors. Background is the color that identifies this request type in the schedule plan (see Request colors and states); Color is the text color used with it.
    • Active - Whether this request type is available
    • Must Be Approved - Whether requests require manager approval. Not available for the Available category - those requests never need approval.
  4. Click Save.

Note

The Type category cannot be changed after the request type is created.

Request types list columns

Column Description
Request Name Name of the request type
Request Type Category (Available, Home Office, Time off, Shift change)
Description Description text
Active Whether the type is available

Submit a request

As an employee

  1. Open your schedule or the Dashboard.
  2. Click + Add Request button.
  3. Select the request type.
  4. Choose the date(s) and how much of the day the request covers: All Day, Half Day (time-off types), or Specific hours with an exact time range.
  5. Add a description if needed.
  6. Submit.

The request is sent to your manager for approval.

Note

The available request types may be limited by your contract - see Allowed absence types. Types your contract does not allow are not offered.

As a manager (on behalf of an employee)

  1. Go to People > Requests.
  2. Click + Add Request (or from the Dashboard).
  3. Fill in:
    • User - Select the employee
    • Request Type - Select the type
    • Half Day - Enable for half-day requests
    • All Day - Enable for full-day requests
    • From Date / To Date - Date range
    • Description - Optional notes
  4. Click Save.

Approve or reject requests

Managers receive notifications when employees submit requests.

How to process requests

  1. Go to People > Requests or open the schedule view.
  2. Use the Filters to find pending requests.
  3. Review the details.
  4. Click Approve or Reject.

Pending requests can also be approved or rejected directly in the schedule: in the plan's Day view, right-click the request and pick Approve or Reject. See Working with Schedules.

What happens after approval

  • The request is marked as approved.
  • The schedule is updated automatically (e.g., the day is marked as vacation).
  • The employee receives a notification.

Approving a leave that collides with shifts

When you approve a time-off request that overlaps one or more of the employee's scheduled shifts, WFM asks how to resolve the conflict and offers up to two actions:

  • Cancel shifts β€” releases the colliding shifts and moves them to unassigned.
  • Shorten / split shifts β€” trims each shift around the leave: it shortens the shift when the leave covers its start or end, or splits it (keeping one shift with an unpaid gap) when the leave falls in the middle. The part of the shift outside the leave is kept.

If the leave covers a shift for its full length, that shift can only be released β€” there is nothing left to keep. In that case only Cancel shifts is offered.

Note

Shorten / split shifts appears only when at least one colliding shift is partially overlapped. When a request collides with several shifts and only some are fully covered, choosing Shorten / split shifts removes the fully-covered ones and trims the rest.

What happens after rejection

  • The request is marked as rejected.
  • The schedule is not changed.
  • The employee receives a notification with the reason (if provided).

Request colors and states in the schedule

Every request in the schedule plan is displayed in the Background color of its request type, so planners, team leaders, and agents can tell request types apart at a glance. The border of the request block always uses the type's color; the fill shows the request's state:

State Appearance
Waiting for approval White fill with a colored border
Approved Fill tinted in the type's color, with a colored border
Rejected Grey fill with the name struck through

An approved request therefore looks like the shift cells in the plan (colored border and a light tint of the same color), while a pending request stands out as an empty outlined block.

Available requests

Requests in the Available category (including shift preferences) have no approval step - they are accepted automatically when submitted. In the schedule they follow the solver instead:

  • A shift preference is shown as approved (tinted) only after Smart Schedule has actually assigned the preferred shift.
  • A preference the solver has not (yet) honoured keeps the white pending look.
  • A general availability request (no specific shift selected) always keeps the pending look - there is nothing for the solver to confirm.

Email notifications

WFM sends email notifications for various events. Each notification type has its own template with support for multiple languages (Czech, English, Slovak).

Notification types

Event Recipient Description
New time-off request Manager + workplace admins Employee submitted a time-off request
New shift change request Manager + workplace admins Employee requested a shift change
New home office request Manager + workplace admins Employee requested to work from home
Request approved Employee Manager approved the request
Request rejected Employee Manager rejected the request
Schedule published All employees with shifts New schedule is available
New shift trade offer Target employee Someone wants to swap shifts
Shift trade accepted Both employees The swap was confirmed
Shift trade rejected Both employees The swap was declined
Tomorrow's shift reminder Employee Reminder about shift the next day
Tomorrow's schedule summary Workplace admins Daily summary of tomorrow's schedule
Shift conflicts with vacation Workplace admins A scheduled shift conflicts with an employee's vacation
Hours below contract minimum Employee Scheduled hours are below the contracted minimum

Configure notifications

Set up the base URL

The base URL is used for links in emails (approve, reject, view request). Without it, links won't work.

  1. Go to Settings > Configuration > System.
  2. Set the Base URL (e.g., https://your-company.daktela.com/wfm/app).
  3. Save.

Set up employee supervisors

Notifications about new requests are sent to every supervisor assigned to the employee. An employee can have more than one supervisor β€” each of them receives a copy of the notification. If no supervisor is set, only workplace administrators receive the notification.

  1. Open the employee detail.
  2. In the Superiors field, select one or more supervisors from the list.
  3. Save.

Note

Recipients are deduplicated, so a supervisor who is also a workplace administrator does not get the same email twice.

Edit email templates

Templates control the subject and body of notification emails.

  1. Go to Settings > Configuration > Emails.
  2. Click on a template to edit.
  3. Fill in Subject and Body.
  4. Use variables in double curly braces. For example:
    • {{info}} - HTML table with request details
    • {{linkApprove}} / {{linkReject}} - Clickable approve/reject links
    • {{shifts}} - HTML table of employee's shifts
  5. For each language (cs, en, sk), expand the accordion and fill in the translation.
  6. Save.

Note

The system selects the template language based on the user's language setting. If no translation exists, it falls back to English, then to the default template.