When your team wants to pick up, give away or swap a shift, take time off or change their availability, the request lands in one queue for you to approve.
On the web | In the app | |
|---|---|---|
Where | Scheduling → Approvals (the page is called Approval Inbox) | Schedule → Approvals |
Shift pool | Yes | Yes |
Shift claims | Yes | Yes |
Shift trades | Yes | Yes |
Time off | Yes | Yes |
Availability | Yes | Yes |
Count of what's waiting | No | A red number on Approvals and on the Schedule tab |
You see requests for the locations you're assigned to; each card names its location. Admins who aren't assigned to particular locations see all of them.
Shift pool
Every open shift and every shift someone has put up for grabs, with how many people have claimed it. Nothing to approve here — it's so you can see what still needs covering.
- Recall (web) or Take it back (app) returns a dropped shift to the person who dropped it and cancels any claims on it. That person gets Your shift is back.
- Only shifts that haven't started are listed — nobody can claim one after that, so an open shift nobody took leaves the pool when it starts (it stays on the schedule).
Shift claims
Someone wants to pick up a shift: Unassigned shift → Emma North, or Owen South's shift → Olivia South. A Cover request tag means they said Yes, I can when you asked for cover with Find cover in the app — see Finding cover for a shift. Click Approve to give them the shift, or Decline. (Older versions of the app show Open shift instead of Cover request — update the Mays app.)
Approving assigns the shift, declines anyone else who claimed it, and tells the claimant, the others and the person whose shift it was. If someone withdraws their claim (or changes a cover Yes, I can to No) before you decide, the card leaves Shift claims and you get Shift claim withdrawn; their Shift claim submitted or Cover offer notification disappears if you hadn't read it yet. See Open shifts and dropping a shift.
Shift trades
A hand-off or swap between two coworkers, for example Olivia South → Emma North with a Hand-off or Swap tag. A swap shows what each person gives up and takes back.
- Until the coworker accepts, the card shows Waiting on … and can't be approved yet.
- Once they accept — Coworker accepted — click Approve to move the shift(s), or Decline.
See Handing off and swapping shifts.
Overlap warnings
If approving would put someone on two overlapping shifts, the card says so in amber — who, and the shift they already have, such as Emma North already works Sat, Oct 10 · 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM — followed by You can still approve this. Mays never blocks the approval; you decide. If several people asked for the same shift, the card tells you approving one cancels the others.
Time off and availability
The list continues with Time off — who, the category, the dates, their reason and an AI suggestion, with Approve and Decline — and Availability.
- On the web, each time-off card also shows when it was asked for and how many hours of that category the person already has approved this year. Details opens the whole request. An availability card shows the dates (or Repeats every week) and has Approve and Decline; click Review first to compare the hours they asked for with the ones in effect now, and add a decision note. Open Time Off and Open Availability take you to the full lists, including requests already decided. If more than 100 are waiting, the link says how many the inbox shows.
- In the app, tap an availability request to review and decide it.
A manager's own time-off or availability request shows here too, with Waiting for another manager (in the app, Waiting for another manager — this is your own request): managers can't approve their own requests. On the web neither card has buttons; in the app time off has no buttons, and opening your own availability request shows Waiting for another manager instead of Approve and Decline. Another manager of your location or an admin decides it. An admin's own request has the usual Approve and Decline — and so does a manager's when an admin has turned on Managers can approve their own requests under Scheduling → Settings → Approvals (see Scheduling settings).
You can also decide them from their own pages, Scheduling → Time Off and Scheduling → Availability on the web — see Requesting and approving time off and Reviewing staff availability.
What the count includes
The red number in the app counts time off and availability waiting for you (for a manager, not their own requests, unless managers may approve their own), shift claims, and trades the coworker has already accepted. Trades still waiting for the coworker and the shift pool aren't counted. The web has no count — open Approvals to check.
Settings
Admins find approval settings under Scheduling → Settings → Approvals:
- Require manager approval for availability changes (on by default) — turn it off and availability takes effect as soon as it's sent.
- Shift claims, hand-offs, swaps and time off always wait for a manager, whatever the other two boxes say.
Good to know
- Who can approve: managers for their locations, and admins — anyone whose role can build the schedule (Build & manage native schedule), custom roles included. In the app, the Approvals row shows for exactly those people, and they're the ones who get the notifications below.
- There's no decline reason for claims and trades, and no confirmation — a click decides.
- If a card doesn't go away after you click Approve on the web, reload the page. The shift may have started or changed hands in the meantime, and the web doesn't say so yet.
- Notifications tell you about new requests: Shift claim submitted, Cover offer, Shift trade to approve (once the coworker has accepted), New time-off request, New availability request — and Shift claim withdrawn when someone takes a claim back. Tapping one opens Approvals in the app.