Your 15-person startup manages time off via Slack DMs ("Can I take next Friday?"), email ("Need PTO next week"), and calendar invites. You need to track who's taking time off when, but requests get lost in Slack threads or buried in email. Three employees request the same week off, but you don't realize until two days before when someone asks "who's covering support?"

Pain point: Time off requests scattered across Slack, email, and calendar make it impossible to see team availability at a glance. You approve requests individually without seeing conflicts until it's too late—entire team takes same week off, leaving no coverage.

Your retail chain has 50+ employees per store requesting time off for holidays, vacations, and personal days. Store managers receive paper time-off forms that get lost, mixed up between stores, or submitted after scheduling deadlines. Five employees request Black Friday off, but manager doesn't realize until the schedule is posted—store is understaffed on busiest day of year.

Pain point: Multiple employees requesting the same days (holidays, weekends) creates scheduling conflicts that managers don't discover until schedules are posted. Paper forms get lost or submitted late, forcing managers to redo schedules at the last minute.

Your hospital system has 1,000+ nurses across 10 facilities requesting time off for vacations, sick leave, and personal days. Nurse managers need 2-4 weeks advance notice to ensure patient care coverage—minimum staffing ratios (1 nurse per 4 patients) must be maintained. Last-minute requests create staffing gaps that force managers to call in agency nurses at $100/hour (3x normal rate) or cancel patient procedures.

Pain point: Last-minute time off requests (submitted <2 weeks before) create staffing gaps that cost $5,000+ per incident in agency nurse fees. Without advance planning, managers can't maintain minimum staffing ratios, forcing procedure cancellations and patient care delays.

Your consulting firm has 200 consultants working on 50+ client projects. Consultants request PTO, but project managers don't know until consultants are already out—client deliverables get delayed, project timelines slip, and clients complain. You need visibility into consultant availability to plan resource allocation and avoid scheduling consultants on projects when they're on vacation.

Pain point: Unplanned consultant absences disrupt client projects—consultant scheduled for client presentation takes unplanned PTO, forcing project delays and client complaints. Project managers can't plan resource allocation without visibility into consultant availability.

Integrate with payroll or HRIS system to display remaining PTO balance and warn when requested days exceed available balance.

Automatically block calendar when time off is approved to prevent scheduling conflicts and meetings during leave.

Set up approval workflow to route requests to manager, then HR for final approval, with status tracking at each stage.

Show different fields based on leave type (doctor's note for sick leave, coverage plan for vacation) using conditional logic.

Create workflow to sync approved time off to shared team calendar for visibility into upcoming absences.

Push approved time off to payroll system to automatically deduct PTO balances and track leave accruals.

Alert Manager on Time Off Request

When employee submits time off request, immediately email manager with summary: "John requested 5 days off (Dec 20-27), Vacation/PTO, coverage arranged with Sarah." Manager can approve or request changes within hours instead of days.

Block Calendar When Approved

Once manager approves time off, automatically block employee calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook) for requested dates. Prevents scheduling conflicts—no meetings or deadlines scheduled during approved leave.

Notify Coverage Person with Handoff Details

When time off is approved and coveragePerson is specified, automatically email coverage person with handoff notes: "You're covering John's clients Dec 20-27. Handoff notes: [coverageNotes]." Coverage person knows exactly what to handle.

Deduct PTO Balance Automatically

When time off is approved, automatically deduct requested days (totalDays) from PTO balance in payroll system (ADP, Paychex) or HRIS (Workday, BambooHR). PTO balance updates immediately—no manual entry required.