Manager Guide

This guide covers the additional responsibilities and features available to managers in Z8.

Manager Overview

Managers review team requests, monitor coverage, and work inside the scoped settings and analytics available to them in their organization.

As a manager, your day-to-day access may include:

• Approve requests - Handle time-off, time corrections, shift requests, and travel expenses assigned to you when approvals are enabled for your organization
• Monitor team schedules - Ensure adequate coverage
• View team analytics - Track team performance and work patterns in the areas shared with managers
• Calendar overview - See team absences at a glance
• Support your team - Answer questions and provide guidance

Your Team

Viewing Your Direct Reports

To see employees who report to you:

1. Go to the team views available in your workspace, such as Approvals, Calendar, or manager-level analytics
2. Open the Approval Inbox to review pending requests from your direct reports
3. Use the manager settings pages your organization has enabled to confirm team membership and responsibilities

Primary vs Secondary Manager

You may be assigned as:

• Primary Manager - The main point of contact for an employee
• Secondary Manager - Additional approval authority

Both roles can approve requests, but the primary manager is the default contact for the employee.

Handling Approvals

Approval Inbox

All manager approvals now flow through the shared Approval Inbox.

Use the inbox to:

• review absence requests, time corrections, shift requests, and travel expenses in one place
• filter by request type when you only want to work a single queue
• approve or reject one request at a time from the detail panel
• bulk approve or bulk reject selected items when the same decision applies to multiple requests

If you open approvals from the Travel Expenses page, z8 redirects you to the inbox with the travel-expense filter already applied.

The queue and request types you see still depend on your assignments and your organization's configuration.

Absence Requests

When an employee requests time off:

1. Go to Approvals → Approval Inbox
2. Filter by Absence Requests when needed
3. Review the request details:
   • Dates requested
   • Type of absence
   • Employee's reason
   • Current vacation balance
4. Approve or Deny the request
5. If denying, provide a clear reason

Time Corrections

When a time change is routed to you for approval:

1. Go to Approvals → Approval Inbox
2. Filter by Time Corrections when needed
3. Review what was originally entered vs. the correction
4. Verify the correction is accurate
5. Approve or Deny as appropriate

Travel Expense Approvals

When an employee submits a travel expense claim:

1. Go to Approvals → Approval Inbox
2. Filter by Travel Expenses when needed
3. Review the claim details:
   • Destination
   • Trip dates
   • Approved amount and currency
   • Supporting notes
4. Approve or Reject the claim
5. If rejecting, provide a clear reason so the employee can correct and resubmit the claim

Bulk Actions

When several requests need the same decision:

1. Select the relevant rows in the Approval Inbox
2. Choose Approve Selected or Reject Selected
3. For bulk rejects, enter a rejection reason that applies to each selected request
4. Review the result message to see which requests succeeded and which need follow-up

Best Practices

• Respond promptly - Employees plan around approvals
• Use filters before bulk actions - Confirm you are acting on the right request type and scope
• Be consistent - Apply the same standards fairly
• Check coverage - Ensure team can handle absences
• Communicate - Discuss complex situations directly

Team Coverage

Before approving time-off requests, consider:

• Are other team members already off during that period?
• Are there important deadlines or meetings?
• Is there backup for critical responsibilities?

Team Calendar

Viewing Team Absences

The calendar helps you review employee availability based on the people and records available to your role:

1. Go to Calendar from the main navigation
2. Choose the employee or schedule records you want to review
3. Review absences and other calendar entries shown for that selection
4. Click an entry to see details

Planning Around Absences

Use the calendar to:

• Identify periods of low coverage
• Plan meetings when everyone is available
• Coordinate vacation schedules across the team

Team Analytics

Accessing Team Reports

If your role includes analytics access, you can review team reports such as:

1. Go to Analytics from the main navigation
2. Open the reports and employee data available to your role
3. Review reports including:
   • Work hours by team member
   • Overtime trends
   • Vacation usage
   • Attendance patterns

Exporting Data

Export team reports in various formats:

• CSV - For spreadsheet analysis
• Excel - With formatting preserved

Notifications

Manager Notifications

You'll receive notifications for:

• New absence requests from your team
• Time correction requests
• Upcoming team member absences
• Birthday reminders for your team

Configuring Notifications

Customize which notifications you receive:

1. Go to Settings → Notifications
2. Toggle manager-specific notifications
3. Choose delivery channels (email, push, in-app)

Need Help?

• User Guide - General employee features
• Admin Guide - For administrators with additional permissions
• Contact your organization's administrator for system configuration questions