SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     Admin Training 0: What You Do as an Admin (Google Workspace)
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/admin-training-google-workspace-what-you-do-as-an-admin/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2026-10-23
UPDATED:   2026-10-23
READING:   3 min
SUMMARY:   Start here: what a Vacation Tracker Administrator manages, how Locations, Departments and roles fit together, and the order to set things up.
Admin Training 0: What You Do as an Admin (Google Workspace)
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Last updated on October 23, 2026

Admin Training 0: What You Do as an Admin (Google Workspace)

As an Administrator, you set up and run Vacation Tracker for your whole company. This training covers the essentials in ten short articles. Start here to see what you manage, how the pieces fit together, and the order to set things up.

What You Manage

  • Where people work: Locations, with their holidays, workweek and leave year.
  • What time off you offer: Leave Types and the Leave Policies that set the rules in each Location.
  • Who approves leave: Departments and their Approver(s).
  • Who is in Vacation Tracker: users, their roles and their balances.
  • Leave across the company: approving, editing and adding leave for anyone.
  • How the team stays informed: notifications and who can see what.
Left-hand menu in the Vacation Tracker dashboard for an Administrator

How the Pieces Fit Together

Diagram: a Leave Type becomes a Leave Policy in a Location; each User belongs to one Location and one Department; Approvers are assigned on the Department; the Role is set on the User

Remember two rules:

  • Leave rules come from the Location. Holidays, workweek, the leave year and each Leave Policy belong to a Location. Every user is in exactly one Location.
  • Approvals come from the Department. A leave request goes to the Approver(s) of the user's Department. Every user is in exactly one Department.

A user's Role decides what they can manage: User, Location Admin or Administrator. Approver is not a Role. It's an assignment on a Department, and any user can be one.

The Training Path

Each article covers one job. Follow them in order the first time.

  1. Connect Vacation Tracker to Google Workspace: sign up with Google.
  2. Set Up Locations, Holidays and Workweek: where people work and which days are off.
  3. Decide What Time Off People Get With Leave Types and Policies: what time off people get.
  4. Choose Who Approves Whose Leave With Departments: who approves whose leave.
  5. Add Users and Assign Their Location and Department: the right Location, Department and balance for everyone.
  6. Give Someone Admin or Location Admin Rights: share the work.
  7. Approve, Change or Add Leave for Anyone: your day-to-day job.
  8. Send Leave Summaries and Birthday Messages to Your Team: leave summaries and birthdays.
  9. Choose Which Roles Can See Each Feature: control access to features.

Go Further

Once the essentials are in place, these are worth a look:

Common Questions

Read articles 2 to 5 and check each area against its "Check It Worked" section. Start with Locations and Departments, because most problems trace back to a user being in the wrong one.

No. Each user has one Location and one Department. A user can still be an Approver for several Departments.

What's Next?

Admin Training 1: Connect Vacation Tracker to Google Workspace Admin Training 2: Set Up Locations, Holidays and Workweek (Google Workspace) Guide: Administrator vs Location Admin vs Approver vs User
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