Availability management gives Admins a central place to review and manage Helper availability preferences, capacity and leave from the Helper profile.
From the new Availability tab, Admins can view current, upcoming and pending availability schedules, review request impacts, approve or decline changes, manage leave, and update capacity where they have the right permissions.
This article explains how Admins can manage availability requests, review roster conflicts, and understand how approved changes flow through to the roster.
Please note: From June 1, when Availability is enabled, the old regular hours of work workflow is replaced by the Availability tab on the Helper profile. Leave also moves into the Availability tab, alongside Capacity.
Before you continue
- Please ensure the Availability management feature is enabled for your organisation.
- Your Access roles include the required permissions for viewing Helpers, managing availability, managing leave requests and updating capacity where applicable.
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For Lookout Assist powered availability features (optional):
- Make sure Lookout Assist is enabled for your organisation
- The Availability Assistant agent is turned on within Lookout Assist settings
Review and action availability submitted by Helpers
Step 1: Ticket notification
When a Helper submits their availability (and it's not auto-approved), the system automatically creates a ticket - essentially a task - in your ticket inbox. This ticket is titled "Availability schedule request" and is categorised under "Availability Requests."
The ticket is assigned to the appropriate staff based on the ticket template configuration.
Please note: All staff members assigned to the ticket receive a notification that a new availability request is available for review. This appears in their notification feed and can also be sent via email (if enabled under Notification settings).
Step 2: Open ticket
You will find the ticket in your ticket queue. When you open it, you will see:
- Availability schedule request as the title
- The helper's proposed schedule with start date, days, times and notes (if added)
- The current status showing Pending and any Conflicts
- Buttons to View, Decline or Approve
Step 3: Admin review & action
When you click Decline or Approve, you will be taken to a detailed review screen that shows
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- Summary section showing:
- Impact (generated by Lookout Assist):
- How many availability changes the specific Helper has made in the past 12 months
- An urgency warning if the change takes effect within 48 hours and affects scheduled visits
- A continuity warning if this helper is the only worker assigned to any of the affected members
- Availability update details, including start date, end date, note & availability
- An optional note field where the admin can add a message for the Helper (e.g., "Looks good!")
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- A list of conflicting visits - showing the date, time, how long until the visit, and the member's name. Each visit has a "Find new helper" button or bulk select to cancel or vacate the visits
- Select Approve / Decline to save and action
Reminder: Any conflicts not actioned at this stage can be actioned at a later stage by navigating back to the Helper's Availability tab, clicking Availability preferences, then finding the schedule. Click on the ellipsis and select View.
Step 4: Helper notification
After the admin approves or declines, the helper receives a notification on their app:
- If approved: "Your availability preference has been approved" with detail: "Your availability preference starting [date] has been approved."
- If declined: "Your availability preference has been declined" with detail: "Your availability preference starting [date] has been declined."
Top tip: Any notes added by admin will be visible to the helper when they click on the notification in the app.
Step 5: Admin sees updated status
Back on the Helper's availability preferences page, the schedule moves from the "Pending requests" section into the main list, showing:
- The status (Approved, Declined, or Cancelled)
- Who actioned it and when (e.g., "Approved by Jane Smith on 15 Mar 2026")
- Any note left by the admin
Please note: Admins can also Approve or Decline availability directly from the Availability preferences tab rather than a ticket. The ticket will still need to be marked complete once updates are actioned.
Create or update availability on behalf of a Helper
When an admin creates or updates availability directly, the schedule is automatically approved - there's no pending/approval step. It takes effect immediately (or on the start date set). No ticket is created, and no approval workflow is triggered.
Step 1: Navigate to the Helper’s availability tab
- Navigate to the Helper profile whose availability you need to manage
- Click the Availability tab in the Helper's profile
- Click Add availability preferences button
Please note: The Availability tab contains three sections: Leave (for time-off management), Capacity (weekly hours) and Availability Preferences (for weekly schedule management).
Step 2: Complete schedule form
Fill in the schedule form, which has these fields:
- When should these availability preferences begin? A date picker for the start date
- When should these availability preferences end? An optional end date (leave blank for ongoing)
- Note - An optional text field (placeholder: Optional note) for context like "School holidays" or "Returning from leave"
Step 3: Configure the weekly time blocks in a table with columns:
- Day of week - a dropdown (Monday through Sunday)
- Start time - a time picker
- End time - a time picker. If left blank, this schedule change will remain ongoing.
- Delete button to remove a row
Each row represents one time block. You can have multiple blocks per day (e.g., morning and afternoon).
Step 4: Optionally adjust the schedule complexity:
- Add another time - adds a new time block row within the current week
- Add an alternate week - creates a rotating multi-week pattern (up to 4 weeks). When added, a "Week 2 availability" section appears with its own set of days and times
- Remove alternate week - removes the last alternate week
Step 5: Click Save
The schedule is immediately approved - no pending state, no ticket created. It takes effect from the start date.
Step 6: Review Roster
Once availability has been approved, the roster will be updated from the effective date
- Open the Helper's roster
- Navigate to the week when the new availability takes effect
- Review the available and unavailable periods
- Unavailable times appear greyed out
- Review and resolve any impacted visits as needed if not actioned previously
Editing an Existing Schedule
From the Availability preferences page, click the ellipsis (action menu) and select Edit.
This opens the same form pre-filled with the existing schedule details. After making changes, click Save and it's updated immediately.
Please note: Only approved schedules can be edited.
Changing the Expiry Date
For the currently active schedule, the admin can select Change expiry date from the ellipsis (action menu). This opens a simple screen with just one field:
- When should these availability preferences end? - a date picker
Click Save , and the active schedule will end on that date.
Deleting a Schedule
For upcoming (not yet active) approved schedules, the admin can select Delete from the ellipsis (action menu). A confirmation prompt asks: "Are you sure you want to delete this schedule?"
Viewing a Schedule's Details
From the ellipsis (action menu) select View on any schedule in the list to see a detailed read-only page showing:
- Summary panel with:
- Start date
- End date (or "Never" if ongoing)
- Note (or "None")
- Availability rules (which days and times, recurrence pattern)
- Lookout Assist-generated text summary (if Lookout Assist scheduling is enabled) showing what's changed compared to the previous schedule and the impact
- Action history - a timeline showing any approval/decline actions taken, with who did it, when, and any note they left (e.g., "Pending → Approved by Jane Smith on 15 Mar 2026")
- Visit conflicts - a list of any visits that fall outside the new availability windows, with the ability to find a new helper, vacate, or cancel those visits in bulk
Behind the scenes
When an Admin saves:
- The previous schedule's end date is adjusted so it doesn't overlap with the new one
- If the new schedule has an end date, the system ensures availability reverts correctly afterwards
- Any fully overlapped schedules are cleaned up
- Projected availability times are refreshed for scheduling purposes
For a more detailed overview of our new availability features, please refer to our availability management article.