Time off and documents

What to do first

If you are a member, open People › Time off and look at Your leave. If a number is not what you expected, tap that kind of leave and read how it was reached.

If you are the owner or an HR admin, open Organisation › People & HR before your team starts asking: Before your team starts lists what to set up, and Leave & holidays holds the rules. Rople starts every workspace with rules that follow the Labour Act and what most businesses here do. Check them, and change what your business does differently.

If you manage people, look for To decide at the top of People › Time off. It appears only when something is waiting on you.

Request time off

Press Request time off on People › Time off, or use the Create menu. If you are off sick today, choose Sick leave in the sheet: it becomes Off sick, with today filled in, and Send tells your approver.

The sheet asks for:

• Kind of time off: annual leave, sick leave, and the others your workspace offers.
• The first and last day. As you choose them, Rople counts the working days and shows what comes off your balance: "11 days left → 8 after this", and "Back on Thu 21 Nov". Weekends, your days off and public holidays are not counted, and the sheet says which dates it skipped.
• Who's covering for you. This is your reliever while you are away. Cover is told, not asked. Some workspaces require it.
• A note for your approver, if you want one.

Send request sends it to your approver. You hear in Rople as soon as it is decided.

The sheet stops you, with the reason under the field, when:

• the kind of leave is not yet open to you (annual leave can be taken after confirmation, for example);
• the days are more than you have, where your workspace does not allow going below zero. Part of a request can run past the paid balance; the sheet then says how many days would be unpaid;
• the notice is too short. HR can still record it;
• you already have time off on some of those dates;
• the request covers more than a year, or holds no working days.

A request that starts in the past is allowed, with a warning that it is recorded for days already gone.

If it is sick leave

When the leave is long enough to need a sick note, the sheet has a place to add a photo or file, and says plainly above the button who will read it. You can add it now or later; the sheet and your request give the date it is due. You do not need to give a diagnosis, and the note field tells you not to. See Sick leave and your privacy.

Your balance, and why it is that number

Your leave on People › Time off lists every kind of leave you can take. One that has a balance shows the days left, which already takes off what is booked; the others say how much you get each time, or that it is by agreement. A balance rounds down to the nearest half day, so it never promises more than there is. The exact figure is in the ledger.

Tapping a kind of leave opens its ledger: one sentence for each movement, newest at the bottom, with a running total.

• "Earned for March": leave that builds up each month you work.
• "Added at the start of the year": leave granted in one go.
• "Carried over from 2025 (expires 31 Mar)", and "Carried-over days expired" when the date passes.
• "Taken: 18–20 Nov", and "Given back" if a request is cancelled or recalled.
• "Adjusted by HR" with HR's reason, which you can read.

Nobody types over a balance. When HR corrects one, it is a new line in the ledger with a reason, and both the mistake and the correction stay visible. You are told when it happens.

Following, changing and withdrawing a request

Each request has a pill that says where it is:

Open a request to see Where it is: when it was sent, who has decided, and who is next.

Until it is decided, Withdraw takes it back. Change dates withdraws it and opens a new request with the dates you choose. After it is approved, Cancel time off is available before it starts. The days go back to your balance, and your approver and cover are told.

A request is never approved because nobody answered. If it waits too long, it is reminded and then offered to the next person up (see below).

Approving, declining and delegating

What is waiting on you

To decide lists every request waiting on you, oldest first. The same requests appear in your Inbox, My work and Your day. A notice and a row both open the same panel, so there is one place to decide. Where a row is held for someone else, it says "for Ngozi".

A request about health leave reads "time off" in these places, and names no reason.

Deciding

The request panel shows the person, the dates, the days counted, the balance before and after, any cover, the note, and where the request has been.

• Approve is one press, with no dialog, and the person is told at once. The button says what it will do: Approve & send to HR when HR is the next step, Approve when you are the last.
• Decline opens a reason field in the panel. A reason is required, because the person reads it. A few starting phrases are offered, and you edit them.
• If someone else decided first, the panel says so and there is nothing for you to do.
• You cannot decide your own request, or one you recorded for someone else.

If the request reached you for a reason other than "you are their manager", a line at the top says why, in one sentence from the record: "Ngozi is away, so this came to you. You're deciding for Ngozi; both your names go on the record."

The route

By default a request goes to the person's manager, then to HR where your rules say so (maternity, paternity, unpaid, study, very long requests, and sick leave beyond its paid days). A manager can decide alone up to a limit you set. If a person has no manager in Rople, the request goes straight to the next step, and the panel says why.

Nothing is approved by silence. Your workspace sets how long a request waits before the approver is reminded, and how long before it is also offered to the next person up. Whoever decides first decides, and the other is told.

Delegating while you are away

Press ⋯ › Your approvals while you're away on People › Time off, choose who decides for you and for which dates, and press Send approvals to Ade. Ade is told. While it is active, a strip at the top of your page says so, with End now. Ade's decisions are recorded with both names.

A delegate never decides a request about themselves, and a delegation does not chain from one person to another. HR can set or end a delegation for someone who left without doing it, from that person's Time off tab.

The owner's own time off

Nobody approves their own request, and the owner is no exception. The owner's request goes to an HR admin, or to another executive (level 4). Where nobody else can decide it, it is recorded rather than approved, and the trail on the request says so.

Team time off

My team › Time off is for managers. It shows the next two weeks of the people who report to you, and everyone below them, and what is waiting on you. A manager sees the kind of leave for their own line. For anyone else the screen shows Away.

What HR does

HR means an HR admin. In a workspace with no HR admin, the owner does these things.

People › Time off › Everyone opens with Needs HR, a short list of what HR has to do, each row with one action:

• a request waiting at the HR step;
• a request that starts within two working days and is still waiting on someone;
• a request whose start date has passed with no decision;
• a sick note overdue.

Requests lists every request in the workspace, newest first. Filter it by state, kind of leave, dates or name; a row opens the request. Balances shows one row for each person, with a column for each kind of leave and the days left in each. A row opens that person's leave, the list they read themselves; each kind opens how its number was reached, and Adjust balance is there. On a phone, each person is a card: "Annual 11 · Sick 9 · Study 5". Evidence lists the sick notes still outstanding, soonest due first, and the ones that have come in. A sick note that is overdue also appears under Needs HR.

Sick notes that are late

When a sick note is overdue, Decide opens three choices, each with what it does:

• Accept without a sick note. The days stay paid. The person is told.
• Ask again, with a new date. The person is asked again and reminded.
• Treat the days as unpaid. The days are recorded as unpaid, for the pay run to read later. The person is told, and a note to them is required.

Nothing happens on its own on the due date. This decision is the only way the days change.

Opening a sick note

On a request, View sick note opens the file. Above the button it says "Opening it is recorded." Every opening is logged, and HR can see the log under Documents.

Adjusting a balance

In the ledger, Adjust balance adds or removes days with a reason. The person reads the reason, and sees a preview of exactly what they will be told before you save. A mistake is corrected with a second adjustment, not by editing the first. HR cannot adjust their own balance.

Recalling someone from leave

On an approved request that is under way, a line manager or HR can choose ⋯ › Recall from leave. Choose the day they should be back and say why. The preview tells you how many days go back to the balance and that the person is told now. A recall is a recall, not a cancellation, and the request shows Recalled on the date.

Cancelling for someone

Before it starts, HR can cancel an approved request from ⋯ › Cancel time off. The person is told.

Recording time off for someone

HR can record time off for anyone, using the same sheet with Time off for a name. A manager can do the same for a report who has no sign-in. Say why you are recording it, so the trail explains it. The person who recorded a request cannot approve it, and the trail reads "Recorded by Funmi Adeyemi (HR) for Ade Musa". If the person is handing in a sick note at the desk, the recorder can add it for them.

Leave rules and the legal minimums

Organisation › People & HR › Leave & holidays is where the owner or an HR admin sets which leave your team can take, how much, what proof it needs, who approves and when a waiting request is chased. A manager can read the rules. Rules & automation links here rather than repeating them.

Rople starts with these, which you can change:

Up to five unused annual days carry into the next year and expire on 31 March.

What cannot go below the law

Where the Labour Act sets a minimum, Rople shows it where you type the number, and will not save a figure below it:

• Annual leave: at least 6 working days of paid leave a year (s.18). Twelve for staff under 16.
• Sick leave: at least 12 paid, certified days a year.
• Maternity leave: at least 12 weeks, with at least 50% pay after 6 months (s.54).
• Public holidays are never counted as leave and cannot be edited.

You can always be more generous than the law, and you can require proof from the first day. Rople does not give legal advice; the minimums are there so a typing slip cannot take your policy below the law.

A change applies from the date you choose. Requests already made keep the count they were made with.

Public holidays

Rople adds Nigeria's public holidays when the Federal Government declares them, often two or three days ahead. Islamic holidays show as Expected until they are declared. A public holiday never counts as a day of leave.

If a holiday is declared inside leave that has already been approved, Rople recounts the request, gives the day back to the balance, and tells the person and HR.

Your own days off, such as an office closed for an end-of-year party, are added in People & HR › Leave & holidays › Public holidays. Press Add a day off. A workspace closure is a non-working day in every request count.

Who sees what

Time off is personal and sick leave is private. The rules are the same on every screen.

Sick leave and your privacy

• Colleagues see Away. Your manager sees "Sick leave" and whether the sick note has arrived, never what is in it.
• Only you and HR open the file. Where there is no HR admin, the owner does, and the screen says so before you upload.
• Every time a sick note is opened it is recorded, and you can see who opened it.
• There is no diagnosis field. Do not put medical details in the note to your approver.
• The file is deleted 12 months after the leave ends.
• The rows and notices that other people receive about your request say "time off", never "sick".

The owner chooses who else may open sick notes in People & HR › Documents. By default only HR does. The owner can add themselves, and that choice is logged.

The documents vault

Each person has private documents: contract, offer letter, identity papers and sick notes. They are in one place and seen only by who should see them.

Open a person in Organisation › People & HR › People, then Documents. HR and the owner can add and manage them. The person reads their own in Account › Work, and adds their own identity documents there.

Documents sit in three groups, and each group says who sees it:

Add a document asks what it is, and the group follows from that: you do not pick who sees it. Choose the file (a PDF or a photo), and add the dates that apply: signed on, from, expires.

• Contracts keep their versions. Uploading a new one adds a version; the earlier ones stay. A contract cannot be removed.
• Identity papers are replaced. A new passport replaces the old one, and the old copy is deleted.
• Expiry. A document with an expiry date shows Expiring soon from 30 days before and Expired after it.

Opening anything in the Identity or Health groups is recorded. ⋯ › See who opened it shows the log: name, time and what they did. Only HR and the owner can open the log, and a manager never can.

⋯ › Remove deletes the file. That the document was removed, by whom and why, is kept.

What is kept, and for how long

• A sick note is deleted 12 months after the leave it supported ends.
• A person cannot delete their sign-in account while an employer still holds HR documents about them. They ask that employer's HR team, or leave the workspace first.
• Deleting a workspace deletes its vault first. Closing your workspace takes your HR files with it.
• Nothing in the vault is used by Rople AI, search or the Knowledge Base, and no document appears in a notice or an email.

Letters about conduct (a query, a warning or an outcome) are in their own group, seen by the person, HR and the owner, and never by the manager. Only HR and the owner add them, in Add a document; a warning stays live for 6 to 12 months unless you choose a date between 3 and 24. The person reads their own and cannot remove them. Replying to a query from the screen comes with the conduct record, later.

Staff without a sign-in

Some people in your business need leave and, later, pay, but not Rople: a driver, a cleaner, a site worker. They are on your People list as people without a sign-in. They are free and not counted as users.

The owner or an HR admin adds them in Organisation › People & HR, with Add a person and then Add someone who won't sign in (Pro and Custom): a name, and optionally a phone number, job title, department, team and manager. No email is asked for. If their email is ever needed, it arrives with an invitation to a seat. HR records their time off, and a manager can for a report with no sign-in. They appear in every team view like anyone else, and their leave counts in the Schedule and in Workload & capacity. When there is no manager with a sign-in above them, their requests go straight to HR.

Their own page, to request time off and see their balance from a link on their phone, comes later. Until then they cannot ask for time off themselves, and their balance is read by HR.

What each plan includes

On Free and Starter, the page says that approvals, balances and leave rules come with Pro.

Not there yet

• The pay run. Unpaid days are recorded and wait for it.
• WhatsApp notices and approvals. Decisions arrive in Rople.
• The page for staff without a sign-in.
• Moving sick days to annual leave with the person's agreement.
• Half days. Leave is in whole days.
• Team limits and blackout dates in the request sheet and the manager's view. The manager's team grid shows who is away each day, and the requests still waiting, without a limit line.
• The conduct record, and a person's reply to a conduct letter.

How it connects

• The people, managers and levels are in Organisation › People & HR › People. See Admin.
• Approved time off shows as away in the Schedule and in Workload & capacity. See Manager Cockpit.
• What each person is paid is in People and pay.
• What is waiting on you arrives in My work and the Inbox.
• Who approves and when it escalates are rules in Workspace settings.

Common questions

Can my manager see that I am sick? Your manager sees "Sick leave" on the request and whether your sick note has arrived. They cannot open the file, and they see no note you wrote on it. Everyone else sees only that you are away.

Why did my request go to HR? Because your workspace's rules send that kind of leave, or a request that long, to HR as well. The request's "Where it is" says what happens after your manager.

My manager is away. Who decides? Whoever they delegated to. If they set nothing, the request is offered to the next person up, and the panel tells them why it came to them.

Can an approver decide for themselves? No. Nobody approves their own request.

Why does my balance say 11 and the ledger say 11.25? The card rounds down to the half day so it never promises more than there is.

Can HR change my balance? HR can add or remove days with a reason, and you are told and can read it. Nobody can change it without leaving a line.

Does a public holiday inside my leave use a day? No. It is not counted, and if it is declared after your leave was approved, the day goes back.

Can I lower annual leave below six days? No. Rople holds the legal minimum.