Instructor Time Off
Instructor Time Off lets an instructor tell the school they'll be away -- a sick day, a vacation, a personal day -- so the office can approve it and the calendar reflects it automatically. Once a request is approved, families can no longer self-book or reschedule into that window, and the calendar shows the instructor as unavailable for it.
:::info There is no Time Off page
Instructors don't file requests on a page of their own -- there is no /time-off page. Requests are filed from the calendar's event form, described below. Turning the feature on happens on Settings > Features; reviewing requests and the rest of these options live on Settings > Time Off.
:::
Turning It On
Go to Settings > Features (in the Organization group) and turn on Time off -- see Features. This is the feature's master switch, off by default for existing schools (recently created schools may find it already on) -- while it's off, instructors have no way to request time off, and the routes that file, decide, or cancel a request are unreachable even by URL.
Turning it on adds a Time Off entry to the sidebar (Organization group, between Student Portal and Instruments) -- that page carries the rest of these settings, plus the Requests to review table.
:::info Settings > Time Off stays reachable with the feature off Turning Time off off on the Features page removes its sidebar entry, but the Settings > Time Off page itself still opens if you go straight to it -- from a notification or a direct link -- showing a banner instead of the settings below ("Time off is turned off, so instructors have no way to request it. Turn it on under Features," with a link back to Features), plus the Requests to review table if any requests already exist. This is so a school that switches the feature off mid-season, or a notification link into an old request, doesn't land on a dead page. :::
Every control on the Time Off page autosaves -- there's no separate save button. Its heading reads "Time off," with the sub-copy "Let instructors request time away from the calendar (click a slot, pick Time off). Approved time off shows on the calendar and stops families booking those hours." The Approval, Limits, and Effect on Booking sections below only appear once the feature is turned on.
Approval
- Require approval -- on by default. When on, a request waits for someone to approve or decline it before it affects the calendar. Turn it off if the person requesting time off is also the person who'd approve it -- see Auto-Approve Mode below.
- Who can approve (shown only while Require approval is on) -- Owners and admins (default) or Owners only. These are the people notified of new requests, and the only ones who can decide them.
Limits
- Minimum notice -- how many days ahead of the start date a request must be filed. Default 0, meaning an instructor can request time off for any upcoming date, including today.
- Longest request -- the most days a single request can cover. Default 0, meaning no limit. A school that sets a cap requires longer absences to be split into multiple requests.
- Require a reason -- off by default. When on, an instructor who picks the reason Other must also write a short note; the other three reasons never require one.
Effect on Booking
- Block family self-booking -- on by default. While on, families can't self-book or reschedule (portal) into an instructor's approved time off. Turn it off and the time off still shows on your calendar, but families can still book those hours.
- When staff schedule into time off -- what happens when someone at the school tries to book a lesson during an instructor's approved time off:
- Warn, allow anyway (default) -- the usual double-booking confirmation appears, naming the time off, and staff can proceed.
- Block it -- staff can't save the event; they have to choose a different time.
- Say nothing -- no warning, no block.
Requests to Review
Below the settings, a Requests to review table lists every time-off request for your school, regardless of who approves. Filter chips at the top -- All / Pending / Approved / Denied -- narrow the list, and a pill reading "N awaiting a decision" shows the pending count.
Each row shows the instructor, the requested window, a status badge (Pending / Approved / Denied / Cancelled), the reason and any note, and -- for pending or approved rows -- how many lessons are already booked in that window ("N lessons are booked in this window"). Once a request has been decided, the row also shows who decided it and their note ("Approved by X · note").
Row actions depend on who's looking and the request's status:
- Approve / Decline -- shown to approvers on pending rows, except their own request (see self-approval is blocked below).
- Cancel -- shown on your own pending or approved requests, and on any pending or approved request for approvers. Cancelling an approved request hands the instructor's time back to the calendar immediately.
Before any requests exist, the table reads "No time-off requests yet. Instructors file them from the calendar." The table stays visible -- and any existing rows stay listed -- even if you later turn Time off back off on the Features page, so you don't lose track of what was already decided.
Filing a Time-Off Request
There is no separate page for this -- a request is filed from the same event form used to book a lesson.
Click an empty slot on the calendar (or the Schedule button) to open the event form. A fifth type chip, Time off, appears after Lesson / Class / Program / Event -- but only when the feature is turned on, and only for someone who either teaches at the school or can approve requests. If you don't see the chip, ask an owner or admin to check Settings > Features.
Choosing Time off switches the form to:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Who is away | Only shown to approvers, who can file on behalf of any instructor (for example, when the office fields a call-in-sick) -- shown even at a school with just one instructor. Defaults to yourself if you teach there; otherwise it starts empty and you have to choose someone before you can submit ("Choose an instructor."). Everyone else can only file for themselves, so this field doesn't appear for them. Picking anyone but yourself books the time off immediately -- see When an Approver Books for Someone Else below. |
| First/last day | Two date pickers. Time off is always filed for whole days -- there's no time-of-day picker or "All day" option; a single day is filed as the same first and last day. |
| Reason | A dropdown: Vacation, Sick, Personal, or Other. |
| Note | Placeholder reads "Add a note (optional)," or "Add a note (required)" when your school requires a reason and you picked Other. |
As you adjust the dates, the form checks the schedule and shows "Checking the schedule…," then either "N lessons are already booked in this window" (listing the first five) or "No lessons are booked in this window." This is informational only -- it never blocks the request. Whoever approves the request sees the same count.
A Your time off list below the form shows your own pending and approved requests, each with a Cancel link.
The submit button reads Send request when your school requires approval, or Add time off when it doesn't -- or when you're an approver who has picked someone other than yourself (see When an Approver Books for Someone Else below). On success you'll see "Time-off request sent for approval." or "Time off added to the calendar."
Rules Enforced When You Submit
Conductly checks a few things when a request comes in, and will reject it with one of these messages if it fails:
- Can't start in the past -- "Time off cannot start in the past."
- Minimum notice -- "This school asks for at least N days' notice. The earliest you can request is [date]."
- Longest request -- "This request covers N days. Requests can cover up to N days." Owners and admins -- who can change the cap -- also see "Change the limit in Settings > Time Off."
- Never more than a year -- a single request can't span more than 366 days.
- No overlapping requests for the same instructor -- "This overlaps a Pending request that starts [date]." (or Approved, depending on the existing request's status). A pending request reserves the time just like an approved one, so two people can't accidentally file overlapping requests for the same instructor.
- Nobody approves their own request -- "Someone else needs to decide your own time-off request." This applies even to an owner requesting their own time off; another approver has to decide it.
Pending requests never block anything on their own -- only an approved request affects booking or the calendar.
Auto-Approve Mode
When Require approval is off, a request an instructor files for themselves is approved the instant it's sent -- there's no pending state. The request is recorded with the requester themselves as the approver, and nobody is notified, since there's no decision for anyone to make. Filing for someone else works differently even in this mode -- see below.
When an Approver Books for Someone Else
If you can approve time-off requests and you file for a different instructor -- not yourself -- your filing is the decision. Conductly books the request straight to Approved and records you as the one who decided it, regardless of whether your school's Require approval setting is on or off. The submit button reflects this: it switches from Send request to Add time off as soon as you pick someone other than yourself.
Filing for yourself is different -- it still goes to Pending and needs someone else to decide it, even if you're an approver or the owner (see Nobody approves their own request above).
Because the instructor never asked for this, they don't get the Time-off Request Decided notification a real decision would trigger -- there's no decision to tell them about. Instead they get Time Off Booked For You, described under Notifications below.
Notifications
Three notifications cover this feature, all listed under Settings > Notifications > Scheduling & Calendar and on by default for both in-app and email (see Notification Preferences):
- Time-off Request Submitted -- goes to every approver when a new request comes in. It names the instructor, window, reason, note, and how many lessons are already booked, with one action, Review request, that opens Settings > Time Off filtered to Pending.
- Time-off Request Decided -- goes to whoever filed the request, not necessarily the instructor themselves (if an admin filed on a teacher's behalf, the admin is notified). It reads "Time off approved" or "Time off declined," names who decided and their note, and -- for an approval -- adds "Families can no longer book you during that time." It links back to the calendar.
- Time Off Booked For You -- goes to the instructor themselves when an approver books time off in their name instead of asking them to request it (see When an Approver Books for Someone Else above). It reads "Time off added to your calendar," names who booked it, includes any note, and adds "Families can no longer book you during that time." Its View calendar action opens the calendar directly -- there's nothing here for the instructor to approve.
:::info No Approve/Deny buttons in the notification The Time-off Request Submitted notification carries a single Review request link to Settings, not Approve/Deny buttons inside the notification itself. Decisions are always made from the Requests to review table. :::
What Approval Blocks
Once a request is approved, three things happen:
- Family self-booking and portal rescheduling are blocked, as long as Block family self-booking is on. Families can't select that instructor's approved time-off hours when booking online, and can't reschedule an existing lesson into them from the portal.
- Staff scheduling into it gets your school's chosen treatment -- the usual "Are you sure?" double-booking confirmation naming the instructor and window (Warn, allow anyway), a hard stop that requires picking a different time (Block it), or nothing at all (Say nothing) -- set under Effect on Booking above.
- The calendar shows the time off. In Day and Week view, a slate-grey striped band appears under the instructor, labeled "Time off" (or "Time off · 2pm – 5pm" for a partial day) -- this only shows while Show instructor availability is turned on in the calendar's Display menu. Month view never draws it. The By Instructor day board (Display > Quick Views) shows it too, as a labeled chip in an all-day strip above the timeline instead of a striped band -- but same as the band, only while that overlay is on; with it off, the strip shows school closures only. See Calendar Views and Quick Views: The Day Board. Any lesson already scheduled over the band or chip stays visible -- it's informational and never hides or cancels anything.
What It Doesn't Do
- It never cancels the lessons already inside the window. Approving a request doesn't touch the calendar's existing occurrences -- the approver sees how many lessons fall in the window and cancels them from the calendar as usual, which is what hands out make-up credits according to your school's cancellation policy.
- No balances, accrual, or payroll effect. There's no concept of days remaining, paid vs. unpaid time off, or any change to instructor pay.
- No recurring time off. A standing weekly pattern -- "off every Tuesday afternoon" -- isn't what this feature is for. That's the instructor's regular weekly Availability, set on their profile. See Instructors Overview.
- It's per-instructor, unlike Closed Dates, which close the whole school and skip lessons for everyone on that date.
- Denied and cancelled requests aren't deleted. They stay in the Requests to review table for your records.
Tips
Decide your approval policy before turning this on. Requiring approval makes sense for most schools; auto-approve mode is really only useful for a solo-instructor school where the same person requests and would otherwise approve their own time off.
Turn on "Show instructor availability" to see approved time off on the calendar. Whether it's the striped band in Day/Week view or the chip in the By Instructor day board's all-day strip, both only draw while that Display-menu overlay is on -- see Calendar Views and Quick Views: The Day Board.
"Block it" is a stronger setting than most schools need. The default, "Warn, allow anyway," still lets you book a make-up lesson during someone's sick day when that's genuinely the right call -- it just makes sure you see the conflict first.