Employee and team management

Manage people, roles and reporting lines in one place.

Keep employee records, departments, locations, policies and manager relationships clear as your team grows, changes or becomes more complex.

Start free trial Book a demo

30-day free trial · No credit card required · UK-hosted · UK support

  • Employee roles
  • Scoped permissions
  • Policy visibility

Team structure

The people setup behind every leave rule.

Approvals, locations, policies, visibility and reports only work well when employee records and responsibilities are clear.

Employee records

Keep departments, locations, managers and policies connected to each employee — plus the tags and custom details that do not fit any of them.

System roles

Approvals follow the department by default, or a named direct manager where the reporting line differs.

Management roles

Let chosen employees view, edit, create or delete employee records inside a defined scope — without any approval rights.

Setup support

Get personal help adding employees, historic leave and policies for a smoother transition.

System roles

Use the right role for each responsibility.

Different people need different levels of access. TimeOff separates who approves leave from who maintains records, so neither has to be handed out as full admin rights.

By default an employee's leave goes to their department's manager, alongside any secondary supervisors that department has. Name a direct manager on someone's record and their requests go to that person instead — which is how you handle anyone whose reporting line doesn't follow the department chart.

  • Department managers approve for their department by default, with secondary supervisors alongside them.
  • A direct manager takes over for one employee, for anyone whose reporting line is an exception.
  • Admins can act across the whole account.

Departments carry their manager and secondary supervisors; a direct manager and the admin flag sit on the employee's own record; employee management roles are set up alongside the other policies.

Roles in the account

  • Department manager Approves for the department
  • Secondary supervisor Approves alongside the manager
  • Direct manager Approves for one named employee
  • Admin Full setup and account-wide access

Flexible roles

Give the right access without forcing one manager structure.

Employee management roles

Delegate employee management without opening everything.

You can give chosen employees permission to view, edit, create or delete employee records, over named employees, whole departments or whole locations.

  • View and edit employee information for the people who keep team records up to date.
  • Create or delete employees where trusted people handle onboarding — which covers sending their invites too.
  • Scope by named employees, whole departments or whole locations so the role reaches only the records it should.
  • Record access only — the role never grants approval over anyone's leave. Approvals keep following the manager relationships.

The scope covers existing records. Someone who can create employees is trusted to add new ones anywhere, and those people join the group they manage.

Employee management roles

Access can be limited to exactly the employees this person is responsible for.

  • Can view employee information Yes
  • Can edit employee information Yes
  • Can create or delete employees Optional
  • Scope London · Warehouse

Scoped access

Useful for local HR, office managers or team administrators.

Departments, locations and rules

Connect people to the policies that apply to them.

The Employees screen shows departments, locations and assigned policies together, so you can quickly understand why an employee sees certain leave types or follows certain rules.

  • Leave policies by department or location for local rules and team-specific setup.
  • A department is more than an approval route — it groups people who share an allowance, a manager, and the same bank holiday and accrual settings, and everyone belongs to exactly one.
  • Keep enough of a group at work — set a limit of at most so many away, or at least so many present, over any group you define.
  • Assigned policies visible on the Employees screen so admins can trace what applies to each employee.
Employees screen showing assigned employee policies in TimeOff

Traceable setup

See assigned policies directly in the employee list.

Beyond the org chart

Not every group is a department.

Some things about a person do not fit the reporting structure — who is a contractor, who is first-aid trained, which cost centre they belong to. TimeOff records those separately, so the department chart can stay a department chart.

Tags

Label employees with the cross-cutting groups your company actually thinks in — contractors, first-aiders, remote staff. Someone can carry as many as they need.

  • Use a tag as the audience for a policy, so a rule can follow a group that has no department.
  • Filter and group the team view by tag to see who is around from any group you care about.
  • Control how widely each tag is shown, so a sensitive label can exist without being on display.

Custom fields

Record the details your employee records need and TimeOff does not ship with — a cost centre, a payroll reference, a badge number. They sit on the employee's record alongside everything else.

  • Define a field once and it appears on every employee record, in the order you choose.
  • Add a hint under a field so whoever fills it in knows what you expect.
  • Pull a field into your reports as an optional extra column when you need it there.

Sophia Martins

Ireland · Customer Service

Tags
  • Contractor
  • First aider
  • Cost centre CC-1042
  • Payroll ref P-88213

Employee relationships

See who manages this employee — and who they manage.

An admin can open any employee's record and see everyone who can manage that person's leave, and everyone whose leave they can manage — each one labelled with the reason it applies, including any review stage the company has set up. It earns its keep in companies with several managers, secondary supervisors and exceptions to the department chart.

  • Who approves this employee, with the reason beside each name.
  • Who this employee approves for, without opening anyone else's record.
  • Helpful for complex structures with departments, direct managers and secondary supervisors.
Leave managed by list in TimeOff, with the reason beside each name
Manages leave for list in TimeOff, with the reason beside each name

Personal setup help

Make the move to TimeOff smoother.

TimeOff is supported by real people. We can help with setup tasks so customers do not have to work everything out alone.

  • Add employees and structure teams, departments and locations.
  • Add historic leave so records are ready from the start.
  • Set up policies for a smoother, easier transition.

Setup support

A practical onboarding checklist for moving employee records and leave history into TimeOff.

  • Import employees Help available
  • Historic leave Can be added
  • Policy setup Guided

Human support

Personal help instead of leaving you with a generic setup checklist.

Management summary

A clear people structure behind the leave process.

Employee records, roles, scoped permissions, policy visibility and the relationships view make TimeOff easier to manage as the team grows — including the tags and custom details your org chart cannot express. All of it is included on every account, at one published price per person, per month — no tiers, no add-ons, nothing to unlock.

Roles

Approvals follow the department, or a direct manager where the line differs.

Scoped access

Delegate employee records by location, department or named employees — with no approval rights attached.

Policies

Trace assigned policies from the Employees screen.

Support

Get help adding employees, historic leave and policies.

Employee policies overview

Common questions

People and permissions questions we are asked most.

Who approves an employee's leave by default?
Their department's manager, alongside any secondary supervisors that department has. Every employee belongs to exactly one department, so that is the route unless you change it. Name a direct manager on someone's record and their requests go to that person instead — the department manager and the secondary supervisors stop approving for them. That is the point of the field: it is for people whose reporting line does not follow the department chart. If you want the department's manager to handle someone, leave it blank.
Can I let someone manage employee records without letting them approve leave?
Yes, and that is exactly what an employee management role is for. It grants a chosen combination of viewing, editing, creating and deleting employee records over a chosen group of people, and it grants no approval rights over anyone's leave at all. Approving, declining, cancelling and revoking keep following the manager relationships. It is the safe way to give local HR or an office manager what they need without making them an admin.
How narrowly can a management role be scoped?
To named employees, to whole departments, or to whole locations — whichever describes the group. One thing to know: the scope governs whose existing records the role can reach. Creating an employee is deliberately not bound by it, so somebody who can create employees can add a new one in any department or location, and that person then joins the group they manage. Give the create permission to people you would trust with it.
Where are all these roles actually set?
In three places, which is worth knowing before you go looking. A department carries its manager and its secondary supervisors, under Settings. An employee's direct manager and their admin flag sit on their own record. Employee management roles are set up alongside the other policies. There is no single Roles screen.
Can I see everyone who can approve for one person?
Yes. An admin can open any employee's record and see everyone who can manage that person's leave, and everyone whose leave that employee can manage, each labelled with the reason it applies — manager of a department, direct manager, secondary supervisor, and any review stage the company has set up. It is an admin view rather than something every manager sees, which is what makes it useful for auditing the whole structure from one place.
What if our teams do not match our departments?
Use tags. A department is one per employee and hierarchical; a tag is neither, so someone can carry as many as they need — contractor, first-aider, remote, night shift. A tag can be the audience for a policy, so a rule can follow a group that has no department of its own, and the team view can be filtered and grouped by tag. How widely each tag is shown is set on the tag itself, so a sensitive label can exist without being on display.
Can we record details TimeOff does not ship with?
Yes, using custom fields. An administrator defines a field once and it appears on every employee record in the order you choose, with an optional hint under it so whoever fills it in knows what you expect — a cost centre, a payroll reference, a badge number. Values are entered on the employee's record alongside the rest of their details, and a field can be pulled into your reports as an optional extra column.

A product that keeps up with how you work.

A 5-star Google review from a company that has watched the product change in response to what they asked for.

“We ve had a really great experience working with this company. The support team is highly responsive, helpful, and genuinely listens to customer feedback. What stands out the most is their commitment to continuously improving the product, they actively work on new features and enhancements that align with customer needs. Overall, a very reliable company with excellent product and customer support. Highly recommended!”
Marija Misic Google review · 5 stars

Keep your people setup clear as the team changes.

Manage employees, roles, reporting lines and assigned policies in one place, with personal support when you need help getting started.

Start free trial Book a demo

30-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime