Leave requests on a Gantt chart

Applies to version: 2020.1.x and above; author: Józef Cyran

One of the built-in WEBCON BPS functionalities is the ability to create a vacation process. This process can be generated by using the absence process wizard – you can also present the vacation requests on the Gantt chart.

More information about creating the process and typed data sources can be found in the following articles:

• Absence process types of data sources
• Leave of Absence (webcon.com)

Fig. 1. The vacation schedule

The data needed to create the vacation process is loaded from the typed data source. But when the history of absences is not defined, the data will be loaded from the vacation process.

It presents the submitted vacation requests – you can decide that the requests from the selected workflow step will be loaded to the chart, e.g. from the step where the requests approved by the supervisor are stored.

The requests are presented in the form of the colored tiles, the color depends on the type of absence. The color assigned to the vacation type is defined in the typed data for the vacation type. After moving the mouse over the tile, the following information will be displayed:

Name Surname start date – end date (vacation type)

Fig. 2. The vacation schedule – tile signature

After pressing the tile, the system will transfer us to the selected vacation request.

The vacation schedule can be created from the WEBCON BPS Designer Studio or WEBCON BPS Portal level. Go to the “Presentation” -> “Reports” tab in the vacation process.

Fig. 3. WEBCON BPS Designer Studio – creating the new vacation schedule

Next, click the “New vacations schedule” button and go to their configuration.

Fig. 4. The configuration of the vacation schedule

The configuration of the vacation schedule is significantly different from the classic process instance report, BPS gives the ability of configuring, among others:

• Business entity – you can limit people in the schedule relative to the company
• Visible columns – these columns display the information on how many days of vacation a given person has to use. You can also decide what kind of information will be visible on the schedule.
• Vacation types – you can limit the presented requests according to the absence type. For example you can present only vacation requests on demand in the schedule.
• Period – the ability of defining the time range on the chart.
• Levels of auto-expand – the schedule presents data taking into account the company structure, defining this property gives us the opportunity to automatically expand the structure under a given employee.
• Simplified presentation (present/absent) – the vacation requests presented in the schedule have different colors defined in the data source related to the vacation type. But after selecting this option, all requests will have a black color in the schedule thus simplifying the schedule, showing only if someone is present or not.

Fig. 5. The presentation of the absences

• Employees – the ability to select people who will be displayed in the schedule. You can define people in several ways:

a) Me -> only the current employee will be included in the schedule. The option can be used during creating the view, which will be presented on the employee’s dashboard.

Fig. 6. The vacation schedule for the current employee

b) Me and my team -> the schedule will include the current employee and their team. The option can be used during creating the view which will be presented on the supervisor’s (team leader) dashboard.

c) Me and my subordinates -> the schedule will include the current employee and their subordinates. The option can be used during creating the view which will be presented on the manager’s dashboard.

d) Me, my team, and subordinates -> the schedule will include the current employee, their team and subordinates. The option can be used during creating the view which will be presented on the manager’s dashboard.

e) Selected people -> the schedule will include the selected employee. The option can be used during creating the view intended for the specific group of users not defined in the company’s structure.

f) Selected people and subordinates -> the schedule will include the selected employee and their subordinates. The option can be used during creating the view which will be presented on the HR department dashboard.

1. You can select the manager of the selected department to be able to have the department presented in the schedule.
2. Selecting this option also gives the ability to present all employees in the company. All you need to do is to select the person who is the highest in the company structure.

For greater readability, it is worth applying filters, then you can compare quickly selected employees. To do this, click the icon indicated below and select the employees we are interested in from the window that pops up:

Fig. 7. The vacation schedule.

After selecting, click the “Apply” option.

Fig. 8 Filtering the employees

On the following screen, you see two employees – Johnny Deep and Jenifer Aniston.

Fig. 9. Filtering the employees

In this way, we can present the conclusions in the vacation schedule, narrow the list of people, and display the vacation types. As you can see, this business process automation with WEBCON BPS saves your company man-hours and simplifies processing your leave requests.