Time Off Blackout Dates Using a Recipe

Need to ensure your team has adequate coverage during peak seasons or critical project deadlines? GoCo's integration tools allow you to build a solution for time off blackout dates. This means you can create an integration recipe to designate specific days when time off isn't allowed, either company-wide or for individual policies, helping you maintain optimal staffing levels.

Follow this guide to get started:

1. Click on "Marketplace" from the left side navigation.
2. Search for the "GoCo" app and click on it.
   
   
3. Look for the template labeled "Time Off Blackout Dates" and click "Use this recipe”.
   
   
4. Click on “Use this recipe”.
   
5. Choose the folder where the recipe will be saved. An “engineering_managed” folder already exists, but it is possible to select any other existing folder or create a new one specifically for this recipe. 
   
6. Once the folder is selected, click “Copy”.
   
   
7. Click on “or edit your recipe before testing” below the “Test recipe” button. 
   
8. Go to the bottom of the page and Click on “Custom properties that can be used in this recipe”.
   
   
   
9. On the right side panel it will have two lists, the first is the Blackout dates. Click on “Add Item” to add a date.
   
   
   1. If the “Add item” isn’t being shown and the list looks like the image below
      
      
   2. Click on the three dots on the top right of the window and select the option” Fixed list”.
      
      
   3. To add more dates click on the “+ Add item” at the bottom of the frame.
      
      
10. The second list defines which Time Off Policies the blackout will be applied to. If the blackout applies to all Time Off Policies, this list doesn’t need to be filled. It only needs to be filled when the blackout date should be applied to a specific policy, and the name of that Time Off Policy should be inserted as an item.
    
    
11. After the dates and Time Off Policies are defined, click on the “Save” button on top right of the page and in Exit.
12. To finish the setup click on “Start recipe”.
    
    
13. To edit the recipe to add more Blackout Dates or change the Time Off Policies applied, it is necessary to click on “Stop recipe”, once the recipe is stopped, click on Edit and proceed through step 7.
    
    
    

Done! The Time Off Blackout Dates are set, and any requests that fall within them will be automatically denied. 🎉