Blackout Periods

Overview

Blackout periods let you restrict or block leave requests during critical business dates. You can target specific policies, teams, or the entire company. Exception requests allow employees to ask for leave during a blackout with additional approval. This feature is available on all plans.

Creating a blackout period

1. Go to Settings > Leave > Blackout Periods.
2. Click New Blackout Period.
3. Enter a name (e.g., "Year-End Close", "Product Launch Week").
4. Set the start date and end date.
5. Choose the restriction level:
   • Soft block. employees see a warning but can still submit requests. Requests are flagged for the approver.
   • Hard block. employees cannot submit leave requests for the blocked dates.
6. Save the blackout period.

Targeting policies and teams

By default, a blackout period applies company-wide. You can narrow the scope:

By leave policy

Select one or more leave policies. Only employees assigned to those policies are affected. This is useful when different regions have different critical periods.

By team

Select one or more teams. Only members of those teams are blocked. For example, block the finance team during month-end close without affecting engineering.

Combined targeting

When both policy and team filters are set, the blackout applies to employees who match both criteria. they must be on one of the selected policies and in one of the selected teams.

Exception requests

When a hard block is in place, employees can still submit an exception request:

1. The employee navigates to the blocked dates and clicks Request Exception.
2. They provide a reason for needing leave during the blackout.
3. The request goes to their manager and, optionally, a secondary approver (configurable under Settings > Leave > Blackout Periods > Exception Approvers).
4. If approved, the employee can then submit a normal leave request for those dates.

Exception requests appear in the manager's approval queue with a distinct "blackout exception" label.

Company closures

Company closures are a special type of blackout period where the business is shut down and employees are not expected to work. Common examples include public holiday weeks or annual shutdown periods.

Creating a closure

1. Go to Settings > Leave > Company Closures.
2. Click New Closure and set the dates.
3. Choose whether to deduct from leave balance:
   • Yes. the closure days are deducted from each employee's leave balance automatically.
   • No. the closure is treated as additional paid time off at no cost to the employee's balance.
4. Select which leave type to deduct from (e.g., annual leave, company holiday).
5. Save the closure.

When balance deduction is enabled, TimeLeaf creates automatic leave entries for all affected employees on the closure dates. These entries appear on the team calendar and in leave reports.

Viewing active blackout periods

The Team Calendar shows blackout periods as shaded regions. Hovering over the shaded area displays the blackout name, dates, and scope. Managers can also view all active and upcoming blackout periods under Settings > Leave > Blackout Periods.