How to Set a Blackout Period (Block Time)

A Blackout Period is a period of time when employees aren’t allowed to book any leave. This Automation is useful for companies that have high-volume periods and want to implement a blackout period to ensure they have sufficient staff.

|| The Blackout Period can be set by an Approver or Admin. Please note that an Admin must purchase the add-on first before an Approver can set their Blackout Period.

Let’s begin!

1. Go to the Vacation Tracker Dashboard - app.vacationtracker.io/signin

2. On the left-hand side click on Add-ons

3. Select Blackout Period

4. In case you haven’t subscribed to the Blackout Period automation yet, go to Discover more add-ons and select Blackout Period there

• Choose a name for your Blackout Period

• Choose “Yes” to apply the Blackout Period to all Users within the company, choose “No” if you’d like to set the blackout period for a particular Location, Department or Label. For more information on how to assign a blackout period for different locations, departments, and/or labels, please see the following link:

• Select the Leave Types you would like the Blackout Period to be set for.

• Select the start and end date for the Blackout Period.

• Choose if you’d like for the Blackout period to recur annually.

Please note, at the bottom of the page, you will have a summary of how many Users the Blackout Period will affect and a summary of the policy you created.

• You can use our default template to set an Auto-Reject response or add your own message. The User will receive this automatic response when they try to request a leave during the Blackout Period you set.

5. Click on Create

You can create as many Blackout Periods needed for different dates.

You can revisit any Blackout Period automations you’ve previously created by going to Add-ons and clicking on Blackout Period.

|| Blackout Period is different from Holidays. Holidays are automatically non-working days, whereas a blackout period is a block of time Users aren’t allowed to request as leave.

| For more information and details on other Automations we offer, please see the following guide: Guide: What Automations does Vacation Tracker offer?