Staff schedules and time off for Canadian salons, in the booking calendar

A time-off request, from asking to the calendar

The request and the answer happen where the bookings are, so approved time off is time off the booking page already knows about.

1. 01

   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. 02

   You get a notification

   The owner and admins are told on the phone. The lock screen shows her first name and the dates and nothing more, and quiet hours are respected.

3. 03

   You see what is already booked

   Before you can approve, Slotora lists the appointments she has on those dates — including any where she is the second person on a visit — and asks you to tick that you have seen them.

4. 04

   You say yes or no

   With a note if you like, and she is told either way. While a request is waiting it blocks nothing.

5. 05

   The calendar closes for her

   Approved time off is written exactly as if you had typed it into her hours. From then on, nobody can book her on those dates. Nothing already booked is cancelled or moved; you move those yourself, knowingly.

Everybody's week on one screen

One row per person, one column per day, and each cell tells you what is true for that date.

Copying a good week, and spotting a thin one

When this week is right, copy it — either onto the next one to twelve weeks as changes for those dates, so it can run out without undoing anything, or as everybody's usual week from now on. The first press shows you what would change and the second does it. Time off is never copied, a statutory holiday closure is not copied as a closure, and days with a split shift or at a different location are skipped and listed rather than guessed at.

Under the grid, a cover row checks each day against your opening hours. You set the fewest people you want on, per location, and Slotora warns when a day falls short. It is only ever a warning: a short Tuesday is your decision, and it never stops a client booking.

Team members can also clock in and out, and closed shifts feed hourly pay on the month's pay statement. A shift left open is listed for you to close, not paid on a guess.

Provincial rules the schedule does not check

Scheduling rules come from your province's employment standards, and Slotora does not test a schedule against any of them. A few worth having in mind while you build the grid: in Ontario, an employee who regularly works more than three hours a day and is sent home after less than three is owed at least three hours' pay, with exceptions.[1] Ontario also requires 11 consecutive hours off each day and either 24 hours off each work week or 48 in every two.[2] In British Columbia, an employee who reports for work must be paid for at least two hours, or four if she was scheduled for more than eight,[3] and must have 32 hours in a row free each week and eight hours between shifts.[4]

Vacation entitlement is set by the province too — two weeks after a year in both Ontario and B.C., three after five years.[5][6] Slotora records the time off you approve; it does not count how much anybody has left.

Statutory holidays are offered from your postal code's province on the opening-hours page. The ones you tick close the salon in the calendar and show on the grid; the schedule does not add them by itself, so a salon that stays open on Civic Holiday in Ontario, which is not on the province's statutory list, simply leaves it alone.

Who can see and change the schedule

Owners and admins see everybody, change any day, copy weeks, set the minimum cover and answer requests. The front desk sees the whole week and the cover row but does not change the schedule. A stylist sees her own row, asks for her own time off and can withdraw a request that is still waiting.

Questions about schedules and time off

How others sell scheduling

Square sells Shifts separately in Canada: its Shifts page lists shift swapping, time-off requests and automatic timecards, and prices the Plus plan per team member per month, the owner included.[7] Square's Appointments pricing page puts staff scheduling in the Premium plan.[8] Phorest's Canadian rostering page describes tracking days off and clock-in and clock-out.[9] In Slotora the schedule and time off are part of the salon account.

Sources

Each province's own guide and competitors' own pages, read on the date shown. Quoted for context only.

1. Government of Ontario — ESA guide: minimum wage (three-hour rule) — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/minimum-wage · read 2026-11-10
2. Government of Ontario — ESA guide: hours of work — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/hours-work · read 2026-11-10
3. Government of British Columbia — minimum daily pay — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/wages/minimum-daily-pay · read 2026-11-10
4. Government of British Columbia — hours of work — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/hours · read 2026-11-10
5. Government of Ontario — ESA guide: vacation — https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/vacation · read 2026-11-10
6. Government of British Columbia — vacation — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/time-off/vacation · read 2026-11-10
7. Square — Shifts (Canada) — https://squareup.com/ca/en/staff/shifts · read 2026-11-10
8. Square — Appointments pricing (Canada) — https://squareup.com/ca/en/appointments/pricing · read 2026-11-10
9. Phorest — salon rostering software (Canada) — https://www.phorest.com/ca/features/salon-rostering-software/ · read 2026-11-10