The rota and holiday requests, in the diary that takes the bookings

Everybody's week on one screen

One row per person, one column per day, and every cell says what is true for that date.

• Hours, and where

  Each cell shows the hours she works that day. With a second premises, it also names which one.

• The days that differ

  A day off, a bank holiday, a date changed for this week only, and alternating weeks are each marked, so the exception is visible without opening anything.

• Time off beside the hours

  Approved time off — away all day, or away between two times — sits next to her hours. A request still waiting for an answer is marked as asked for.

• Week by week

  Previous week, this week, next week. Today's column is picked out.

Change one day without touching the usual week

Press Change on a cell and choose one of three. Only that date moves.

Copy a week, two ways

When this week is right, copy it. You choose how each time, and nothing is written until you have seen what would change — the first press shows it, the second does it.

• Onto the next weeks, for those dates only

  This week's hours are copied onto the next one to twelve weeks as changes for those dates. Everybody's usual week stays as it is, so the copy can run out without undoing anything.

• As everybody's usual week, from now on

  This week becomes the normal week, every week. If somebody worked alternating weeks, you are told before it is replaced.

Time off is never copied. A bank holiday in this week is not copied as a closure, and a date already closed in a later week is never reopened. Days with a split shift, or at a different premises, are skipped and listed rather than guessed at.

When the floor is short

Under the grid, a cover row checks each day against your opening hours: covered, closed, nobody on between two times, or one of two on. With more than one premises, each gets its own row.

You set the fewest people you want on, per premises. It is a warning and only a warning — it never stops a client booking, because a short Tuesday is a decision for you, not for the software. A day with no opening hours set gets no warning; set them and it does.

Holiday, asked for and answered

The request and the answer happen in the same place as the diary, so an approved holiday is a holiday the booking page knows about.

1. 1

   She asks

   From her own login: whole days, or part of one day, with a reason if she wants to give one. A date in the past, or a second request over the same days, is refused.

2. 2

   You are told

   The owner and admins get a notification on the phone. The lock screen shows her first name and the dates, nothing more, and it respects your quiet hours.

3. 3

   You see what is booked in those days

   Before you can say yes, Slotora lists the appointments she already has in those dates, including the ones where she is the second pair of hands, and asks you to tick that you have seen them.

4. 4

   You approve or decline

   With a note if you like. She is told either way. While a request waits, it blocks nothing.

5. 5

   The diary follows

   An approved request becomes ordinary time off, exactly as if you had typed it in under working hours. From then on, nobody can book her in those dates.

Who sees what

On the phone

The rota and holiday requests are in the salon account in the browser now, on a computer or a tablet. In the Slotora app they arrive with the next app version: the week a day at a time, the cover line, the copy, asking for holiday and answering it, with the clashing appointments to tick.

What it does not do

So you can decide with the whole picture:

• It does not count holiday allowances or show how many days somebody has left.
• There are no shift swaps between colleagues.
• Changing the rota does not notify the team; a stylist sees her own row when she opens it.
• The grid shows hours, not wage cost — pay is worked out on the staff pay screen.
• A request is whole days or part of one day; there are no separate leave types such as sick leave.
• Bank holidays are not added by themselves: the rota shows the closures you have set.
• It is part of the salon account; the single-person account has no rota.