How do I limit the number of employees who can be off at the same time?

Use the Restrict leave overlap policy to control how many employees from a team or group can be away at the same time.

You can set either a maximum number of employees who may be absent or a minimum number who must remain available.

Set up a leave overlap restriction

Go to:

Settings → Employee policies → Restrict leave overlap

Create a new restriction group and give it a clear name, such as Customer Support or Warehouse Team.

Choose one of the following rules:

• At most X employees absent — for example, no more than two employees can be away at once.
• At least X employees present — for example, at least five employees must remain available.

Then choose what happens when the limit is reached:

• Block the booking — the leave is refused. Administrators, and managers the group allows, can go past it; see below.
• Allow the booking and record a warning — the person booking is asked to confirm, and if they go ahead the leave is added with a warning recorded for the approver.

Choose who the restriction applies to

The group can include:

• the whole company;
• selected employees;
• departments;
• locations;
• employee tags.

You can also exclude individual employees where required.

Can I restrict the rule to certain dates or leave types?

Yes. You can optionally set a Restricted period so the rule only applies between specific dates.

You can also use Limit to leave types if the restriction should apply only to particular types of leave, such as annual leave.

Leave these options blank if the restriction should apply at all times and to all leave types.

When finished, select Save changes.

Do pending leave requests count?

Yes. Leave that is still awaiting approval counts towards the limit.

This means further requests can be blocked even before existing requests have been approved when the policy is set to Block the booking.

Can administrators or managers go past the limit?

Administrators can always go past a group set to Block the booking, for anyone’s leave including their own. Managers can too when the group’s Managers can go past the limit setting is on — for employees whose leave they manage, but not for their own unless they are also an administrator.

Before the leave is added, the booking form asks them to confirm, and a warning is recorded on the leave, so the exception stays on record.

For a complete explanation of restricted periods, warning mode, employee groups and other options, see Restrict leave overlap.