Blackout periods

Blackout periods (leave embargoes) stop new leave requests landing on dates you can’t afford to lose people — Christmas trading, stocktake, a product launch. They’re an organisation add-on; admins manage them at Settings → Blackout dates.

The ground rules

• Embargoes affect new requests only — existing bookings are never cancelled by adding one.
• Sickness is never embargoed.
• Staff cannot override a blocking embargo; managers and admins can, with a recorded reason.

Create an embargo

Fill in the form and click Add embargo:

• Name — e.g. “Christmas trading embargo”.
• Reason shown to staff — the explanation people see when their request is blocked.
• Scope — the whole organisation, one department, or one team.
• Start and End dates.
• Warn only (don’t block submission) — tick to flag rather than forbid.

Block vs warn

• Block (the default, red badge) — staff requests overlapping the window are stopped with “This request falls within a leave embargo and can’t be submitted.” Managers see the embargo too but can override with a reason.
• Warn (amber badge) — requests go through, but everyone’s told about the embargo and approvers see it flagged.

Managing embargoes

Each row shows its badge, name, reason, date range and scope, with Disable/Enable and Delete actions. An embargo that has already been used to override a booking can’t be deleted — disable it instead, which keeps the audit trail intact.

Embargo windows also appear on the wall chart as a dedicated Embargo row, so everyone can see protected dates before they even try to book.