Recommended initial setup

A brand new workspace already works with sensible defaults: 20 vacation days a year, Saturday and Sunday non-working, approval by the administrator. This list puts in order the decisions worth taking before you invite people, so that everyone finds the platform ready. It all happens in Control Panel › Settings: how that section works is explained in Settings overview.

1. Company name and logo

In Settings › Brand enter the Company Name: it appears on the sign-in page and in every email. If you are on the Pro plan (or on trial), upload the logo for the header and the one for the sign-in page, or use text instead. See Brand: company name and logos.

2. Timezone and date format

In Settings › Timezone set the Company timezone, which governs when scheduled emails go out, and the Date format (European, American or ISO). See Timezone and date format.

3. Countries and public holidays

If everyone works in a single country, check that it is listed in Settings › Countries and import this year's public holidays from Settings › Official Holidays › Manage Holidays › Import from Google. With more than one country, add them all (Pro plan) and import the public holidays for each. In the same section you decide whether Saturday and Sunday are working days. See Countries and Public holidays, weekends and closures.

4. Leave types and allowances

In Settings › Leave Types set the yearly days for Vacation and Personal day, and decide whether Sick Leave and Smart Working are unlimited. If some locations or departments have different allowances, use the country and department overrides. See Leave types and allowances.

5. Departments and managers

From the Departments tab of the panel create the departments, and give each one a city, a country and, if you want the heads to approve on their own, a Manager. People are assigned to a department when you invite them, or from the Employees tab. See Departments and managers.

6. How requests get approved

In Settings › Approval choose between Automatic approval, Admin only and Admin and department manager; decide who approves requests from administrators and managers; set the minimum notice and the maximum run of consecutive days, if you need them. See Request approval.

7. Who sees whose holidays

In Settings › Visibility decide whether employees see everyone's approved holidays in the calendar, only their own department's, or only their own. See Holiday visibility.

8. Self-registration or invitation only

In Settings › System decide whether people can register themselves from the sign-in page, and with which email domains. See System: registration and domains.

9. Email and notifications

With the platform provider, emails go out from noreply@leavepilot.app with nothing to configure. On the Business plan you can send them from your own domain. In Settings › Notifications you can turn on birthday greetings and the periodic summary of the team's holidays. See Email Provider and Email notifications.

10. Invite people

From the Employees tab press Invite Employee: name, email, role, department, language and vacation days. The person receives a temporary password and changes it on first sign-in. See Employee management.

11. Accept the legal documents

If you did not do it on your first sign-in, the Acceptance of the legal documents notice stays at the top of the panel with the Review and accept button. See Legal documents.