> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.theroyalglow.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Staff Scheduling & Leave

> How the salon sees who is working when, and how staff request, withdraw, and get approval for time off — including same-day mark-offs and booking conflict handling.

# Staff Scheduling & Leave

Scheduling is how Royal Glow knows who is available to take appointments, and
when. The schedule grid shows every staff member's day at a glance — their
bookings, their buffers, and their time off. Leave management is the other half:
staff ask for time off, and a receptionist or manager approves or rejects it.
Together they keep the salon from double-booking a stylist who isn't there.

<Info>
  Only **approved** leave blocks a staff member's availability. A request that is
  still `pending` never removes anyone from the booking scheduler — so a request
  sitting in the queue can't accidentally lose the salon a booking.
</Info>

## What it is

Two connected tools in the admin portal:

* **The schedule** (`admin.theroyalglow.in/schedule`) — a grid of staff against time, viewable
  by day or by week, that shows who is booked, who is free, who is on a buffer
  between appointments, and who is on leave.
* **Leave management** (`admin.theroyalglow.in/leave`) — where staff submit time-off requests
  and where receptionists and managers review them. Staff also see their own
  schedule and leave history in their own view.

## How it works — the schedule grid

The schedule has two views:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Daily view">
    Staff down the side, time slots across the top (10:00 to 20:00, in 30-minute
    columns). Each cell shows one of four states: available, booked (with the
    customer's name), a 15-minute buffer between bookings, or on leave.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Weekly view">
    Staff down the side, days across the top, with a per-day booking count, working
    hours, and a capacity bar. The bar turns green below 50% utilisation, amber
    between 50–80%, and red above 80%, so a manager can spot an overloaded or quiet
    day instantly.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

A receptionist can click a booked slot to open the booking detail, or click an
available slot to start a walk-in booking pre-filled with that time and staff
member. The grid updates live as bookings come and go.

<Info>
  The grid updates in **real time** over Ably — when a slot is booked, released,
  or reassigned, the cell animates without a page refresh. See
  [Realtime](/docs/realtime) for the channels and events involved.
</Info>

## How it works — leave requests

Staff submit leave for themselves, and an approver decides:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Submit">
    A staff member opens their leave form, picks a leave type and a date or date
    range, and optionally adds a reason. If they have confirmed bookings on those
    dates, the form warns them upfront.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Notify">
    The request is created as `pending`, and a push notification plus email goes to
    all receptionists and the manager.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review">
    An approver opens `admin.theroyalglow.in/leave`, sees the request (and any booking conflicts
    flagged in red), and approves or rejects it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Decide">
    On approval, the dates block the staff member's availability and any conflicting
    bookings are flagged for reassignment. On rejection, a reason is required and
    the staff member is notified.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Leave states

The request follows a simple state machine.

| Status      | Availability impact                                              | Who sets it            |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| `pending`   | None — the request does not block any slot.                      | Staff (on submit)      |
| `approved`  | The dates block the staff member's availability.                 | Receptionist / Manager |
| `rejected`  | None. A rejection reason is stored and sent to the staff member. | Receptionist / Manager |
| `withdrawn` | None. The staff member cancelled the request before a decision.  | Staff                  |

**Leave types:** Sick, Casual, Personal, and Other.

Allowed transitions:

```
pending → approved     Receptionist/Manager approves
pending → rejected     Receptionist/Manager rejects (reason required)
pending → withdrawn    Staff cancels their own request before a decision
```

Once a request is `withdrawn` it can no longer be approved or rejected. Once a
request is `approved`, staff cannot withdraw it themselves — cancelling approved
leave is a manager-only action.

## How it works — same-day mark-off

When a staff member calls in sick or doesn't show up and there was no prior
request, a receptionist or manager records it directly from the schedule with
**Mark Off Today**. This is a direct admin action, so:

* The leave entry is created already `approved` — there is no `pending` step.
* The staff member's slots for the day are immediately blocked on the grid.
* Any confirmed bookings that day are flagged so they can be reassigned to
  another available staff member or cancelled.

## Booking conflicts

Approving leave (or marking someone off) can collide with bookings that are
already confirmed for that staff member. The system does not resolve this
silently — it surfaces the conflict and makes someone decide.

When a conflict is found, the approver gets a blocking alert listing each
affected booking. It appears as a modal right after approval, persists as a
banner on the schedule, and cannot be dismissed until every conflict is
resolved. There are two ways to resolve each one:

| Resolution   | What happens                                                                                                                         |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Reassign** | Pick another available staff member. The booking stays `confirmed`, and the customer gets a "your stylist has changed" notification. |
| **Cancel**   | The booking moves to `cancelled` with reason `staff_unavailable`. The customer gets a push and an email with a "Book Again" link.    |

<Warning>
  A salon-side cancellation here is treated as the salon's fault, not the
  customer's — it never counts as a no-show against the customer. See the
  [No-Show Policy](/docs/features/no-show-policy).
</Warning>

## What staff can and cannot see

The staff view (`admin.theroyalglow.in/me/schedule`) is deliberately limited to protect customer
privacy and other staff's information.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Staff can see">
    * Their own bookings for the day (customer name, service, time)
    * Their own leave history and each request's status
    * A button to request new leave
    * The option to withdraw a request that is still `pending`
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Staff cannot see">
    * Other staff members' schedules
    * Customer phone numbers or email addresses
    * Any booking financial details or prices
    * Other staff members' leave requests
    * Any approve / reject controls
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Who can do what

Scheduling and leave permissions follow the role hierarchy.

| Action                                                          | Min. role    |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| View all staff schedules (`admin.theroyalglow.in/schedule`)     | Manager      |
| Edit staff schedules                                            | Manager      |
| Approve / reject leave requests (`admin.theroyalglow.in/leave`) | Receptionist |
| Mark a staff member off for the day                             | Receptionist |
| Submit own leave request                                        | Staff        |
| View own leave history                                          | Staff        |

## Realtime schedule events

The schedule listens on the `admin:schedule` channel. These are the events that
move cells around live:

| Event              | Trigger                                        | UI effect                                            |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `slot.booked`      | A booking is confirmed and assigned to a slot  | The cell fills with the customer's name              |
| `slot.released`    | A booking is cancelled or rescheduled away     | The cell returns to available                        |
| `staff.marked_off` | Leave approved or a same-day mark-off          | The staff member's row switches to the leave state   |
| `leave.approved`   | A future leave request is approved             | Future dates in view are pre-marked                  |
| `slot.reassigned`  | A booking is moved to a different staff member | The old slot releases and the new one fills together |

## Related links

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Booking System" href="/docs/features/booking">
    How bookings fill the slots that appear on the schedule.
  </Card>

  <Card title="No-Show Policy" href="/docs/features/no-show-policy">
    Why a salon-side cancellation never counts against the customer.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Notifications & Email" href="/docs/features/notifications">
    The push and email messages sent on leave and reassignment.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Realtime" href="/docs/realtime">
    The Ably channels and events that update the schedule live.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Data Model" href="/docs/data-model">
    The staff\_schedule, staff\_time\_off, and holiday tables.
  </Card>
</Columns>


## Related topics

- [No-Show Policy](/content/docs/features/no-show-policy.md)
- [Admin & Staff Guide](/content/docs/product/admin-staff-guide.md)
- [Security](/content/docs/security.md)
- [Features](/content/docs/features/index.md)
- [Business Overview](/content/docs/product/business-overview.md)