The Availability feature allows Administrators, Managers and Employees to set availability for a specific day, week, month or year. 

In this article, we'll be explaining the feature in more detail and how Administrators, Managers and Employees can set availability either for themselves or other users.

First, you'll want to enable Availability, which you can do by going to Settings --> Scheduling.

1. You'll then want to check the box next to "Enable Availability."

2. If you want to allow Employees to either view or edit their own availability, you'll want to check the box next to "Allow Employees to access their own availability." 

Once this option is enabled, you can click the "Edit Employee Availability Permissions" button to set individual permissions. Permissions include: 

3. Lastly, you can set exactly which availability information employees are allowed to see. You can allow employees to see:

Managers can be setup with their own availability permissions, so they are able to add new or edit availability for employees they are assigned. To edit Manager availability permissions, you'll want to:

1. Visit the Manager's profile, which you can do by clicking Employees in the top navigation and then click View next to the Managers name.

2. Once in their profile, select Employees Assigned from the left hand menu. 

3. After you're taken to the Employees Assigned section, click Edit Assignment.
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4. Managers have three permission options which include:

You will need to repeat this process for each Manager account.

The process for adding, deleting or editing availability is the same process for Employees, Managers and Administrators. However, what Managers and Employees are able to do is determined by the account availability settings. If you haven't yet setup the availability feature, please reference the "Initial Availability Setup" section at the top of this article.

You'll want to start by clicking an open space next to the name of an Employee you'd like to add availability for.

1. You'll be presented with several options. If you're a Manager or Administrator, you will be able to choose a single Employee or multiple employees from the dropdown list. If you're an Employee, you will only see your name under the Employee section.

2. Check to ensure that your starting date is correct. This date will default to the open space clicked.

3. Click whether the availability you're entering is Unavailable or Preferred time.

4. You can then decide if the Unavailable or Preferred time is all day a specific timeframe.

5 & 6. If you'd like for the availability to repeat check the box next to "Repeat Every" and choose if you'd like the availability to repeat by:

7. If you're currently using Locations, Departments or Positions, these can be applied to the availability as well.

8. Lastly, you can add any necessary notes for users to view.

Editing availability can quickly be done by visiting the Availability page and clicking on the Unavailable for Preferred time you'd like to edit:
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Make the necessary adjustments to the availability and click the blue Save button once done. You will then be presented with three editing options which include:

Once you've made your selection, complete the action by again clicking the blue Save button. 

Just as with shifts, you can click and drag an availability event to a different user. When you do this, you will be asked whether you want to move:

Click the blue Save button to complete the action as shown below:
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Deleting availability is a simple process. You'll want to start by visiting the Availability page and clicking on the Unavailable or Preferred time you'd like to delete:
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Click the red Delete button:
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You will then be presented with three delete options which include:

After you've made your selection, confirm the action by clicking the red Delete button once more.

Now that availability, whether Unavailable or Preferred, has been created you can use this information when creating shifts.

1. First start by visiting the scheduling page. You'll see that Unavailable events are visible on the schedule now. Preferred Time events are visible when moused over.

2. If you click to create a shift, but the employee is Unavailable for that time, you can hover over the Unavailable link with your mouse and find out the specifics of the Unavailable event:
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3. If you click to create a shift, and the employee is available for that time, you can hover over the View Availability link with your mouse and find out the specifics of the Preferred Time event:
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4. If availability is not yet set for a user, you will see a message that states, "Availability preference not set."
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You can then use the availability information to craft shifts to meet your business and employee needs.

If you need information on creating shifts, you can learn more here: https://docs.buddypunch.com/en/articles/2663873-how-do-i-create-a-scheduled-shift

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