Follow this guide to understand how Humanforce WFM determines the hours used when an employee requests leave, including the available leave hour sources, how access levels control what employees can use, and how the system default is applied.
Overview
When an employee requests leave, Humanforce WFM must determine which days and hours within the request period should be deducted from their leave balance.
This is controlled by the leave hour source used for the request.
If no hours are available from the selected source for the requested dates, the leave request cannot be submitted.
Leave hour sources available to employees
Humanforce WFM supports five leave hour sources. What an employee can use depends on their access level permissions.
Selected hours
Allows employees to manually enter custom start and end times for the leave request.
- Employees specify the Start Time and End Time
- Useful for partial-day or irregular leave
Requires access level permission:
Allow advanced leave requests to be made
Default hours
Uses the system-defined default hours for leave requests.
- Hours are taken from the default Leave Hours Source
- Employees do not manually select times
Requires access level permission:
Allow requests to be made using System Default hours (set in System Settings)
Profile hours
Uses the weekly hours defined in the employee’s award profile.
- Based on award profile default hours
- Can be overridden per employee via Profile Override
- Common for salaried or contracted employees
Requires access level permission:
Allow requests to be made using Employee profile hours
Roster hours
Uses hours from the employee’s published roster.
- Leave hours match rostered shifts within the request period
- Limited by how far into the future the roster exists
Requires access level permission:
Allow requests to be made using roster hours
Template hours
Uses hours from Master Roster Templates.
- Supports multi-week repeating patterns
- Template start date determines which week applies
- Employees must be assigned to template shifts
- Each location or department typically has its own template
Requires access level permission:
Allow requests to be made using roster template hours
Default leave hour source (system setting)
Humanforce WFM allows you to define a default leave hour source, which is automatically applied when:
- An employee selects a leave type button on the availability map, or
- The Default button is used when requesting leave
Available default options
- Use default hours from profile
- Use roster hours
- Use hours from master template
- Use roster then master template hours
- Use master template then roster hours
These options determine the priority order used to find hours for the leave request.
How access levels affect leave hour selection
What employees see and can select is entirely controlled by their access level:
- If a permission is disabled, the related hour source is hidden
- If no enabled source has hours available for the requested dates, the request cannot proceed
- Multiple sources can be enabled at once
Additional information
- Leave hour sources only control how hours are selected, not how balances accrue
- Leave projections and accrual behaviour are configured separately
- Roster and template-based sources depend on accurate roster and template setup
- For related configuration steps, see: