Submit and approve time-off requests

Keep the schedule board in Dynamics 365 Field Service up to date by logging time-off requests.

For example, one of your field technicians is taking a vacation. It's important to log the time-off request so that a dispatcher can see it on the schedule board when scheduling a work order.

When a resource has an approved time-off request, the scheduling assistant doesn't recommend that resource for a job during that period. The time slots for that resource are grayed out on the schedule board to provide a visual notification to the dispatchers that the resource isn't available.

If a bookable resource is set to require time-off approval, an approval request is sent to that user's manager before the time-off request shows in the scheduling tools.

Set up a time-off approval

If a resource must have their time-off requests approved before their time shows as unavailable on the schedule board, perform the following steps.

1. In Resource Scheduling, select Resources.
2. Open a bookable resource and select the Field Service tab.
3. Set the Time-Off Approval Required:
   • Yes: Indicates the time-off must be approved first.
   • No: Indicates the time-off takes effect immediately. No is the default value.

Submit a time-off request

1. In Field Service, under Scheduling select Time Off Requests.
2. Select New and use the tooltips to help fill in your information. Then select Save & Close.

Approve a time-off request

If the related resource requires approval, a Field Service-Administrator or Field Service-Dispatcher must approve the request. If you use custom column security profiles, set up column-level security permissions and give users Update permissions for the msdyn_ApprovedBy column in the msdyn_TimeOffRequest table. Disabling the msdyn_ApprovedBy column-level security in the msdyn_TimeOffRequest table doesn't allow users to approve time-off requests.

1. In Field Service, under Scheduling select Time Off Requests.
2. In the Active Time Off Requests view, select a request.
3. Select Approve. When the approval is completed, select OK.

Approved time-off requests change to the status of Inactive. Inactive records can be found in the Inactive Time Off Requests view. Additionally, time-off requests show in the resource's calendar along with their normal working hours.

View time-off on the schedule board

Once the time-off request is created or approved, depending on whether the resource requires approval or not, the resource's time-off time range shows as unavailable on the schedule board.

These time-off hours are displayed and treated the same as nonworking hours.

Edit or delete a time-off request

Time-off requests can only be edited or deleted from the resource's calendar. Once submitted, you can't edit a time-off from the Field Service mobile app while it's running in offline mode. Deleting a time-off request record doesn't delete the time-off from the schedule board or resource's calendar.

1. In Resource Scheduling, select Resources.
2. Select the bookable resource and select Show Work Hours.
3. Select the time-off.
4. Select Edit or Delete to edit the time-off or delete it. Then select Save & Close.