Approve or deny requests

Requests that require your approval appear in your To-Do Box. Once you have approved or denied a request, it is removed from your To-Do Box. All requests that you have received are archived in your All Box.

For more information about approving requests, see About automatic changes to requests.

Exception requests

The Approve Exception Request dialog box enables you to approve or deny an agent’s exception request.

Approve or deny an exception request

Double-click the request to open it.
If approving the request, select the appropriate schedule exception from the drop-down list. This is what appears in the schedule. Click Read Comment to view any comments that are attached to the exception request. You can also type a comment, if desired.

NOTE The Read Comment icon is red if there is at least one comment attached to the request.
Click Approve or Deny.

NOTE For entire-day requests, an exception is placed on the schedule over any paid activities in shifts that start on that day (regardless of whether the exception is paid or not paid) . Any unpaid activities in those shifts are replaced with a Not Available activity in the schedule. If the agent does not have a shift on that day, then the exception is not added to the agent’s schedule.
For partial-day requests, an exception is placed on the schedule for the requested time period over any existing paid activities during that time period (regardless of whether the exception is paid or not paid) . Any overlapping unpaid activities in those shifts are replaced with a Not Available activity in the schedule. For example, if an exception partly covers an unpaid lunch, the part that is not overlapping remains a lunch. The part that overlaps with the exception is replaced with Not Available. If the agent does not have any existing paid activities during that time period, then the exception is not added to the agent’s schedule.
Exception requests are handled this way to ensure that the paid time for the day remains the same before and after the exception is applied.

The following table describes the fields in the Approve Exception Request dialog box.

Field	Description
From	The name of the agent requesting the exception.
Request	The type of request.
Received Date	The time and date you received the request.
Type	The type of exception, as chosen by the agent.
Schedule Date	The date of the exception.
Duration	The duration of the exception.
Schedule Exception	Select the exception description that will appear in the schedule if the exception is approved.

Time off requests

The Approve Time Off Request dialog box enables you to approve, partially approve, or deny an agent’s time off request. You can also acknowledge an agent’s withdrawal of a previously approved time off request.

NOTE If a time off request overlaps a previously approved time off request, the request cannot be approved.

Approve, partially approve, or deny a time off request

Double-click the request to open it.
Select the appropriate service queue from the drop-down list.
Click the First, Second, and Third tabs to view the agent’s ranked time off requests. You can approve the requested time off on only one of these tabs. That tab must be selected when you approve or partially approve the request.
If desired, click Hours to view a summary of the agent’s total, used, approved, pending, and remaining time off hours. Click Read Comment to view any comments that are attached to the request. Click Write Comment to add a comment.
By default, every day in a request is selected in the Approve column. If you want to deny some portion of a multi-day request, clear the check box next to the days to be denied.
Select the appropriate schedule exception from the drop-down list. This is what appears in the schedule.
Click Approve Selected to approve or partially approve the request, or click Deny to deny the request.

Acknowledge an agent’s withdrawal of an approved time off request

Double-click the request with a status of Withdrawal Request.
Click Acknowledge Withdrawal.

NOTE If you do not acknowledge the withdrawal request, the agent will still have the approved time off and will not be on the schedule for that time. When you acknowledge the withdrawal, the agent’s vacation balance is updated (but service queue time off allotments are not) and the agent is put back in the schedule but with no activities assigned to him or her. You must either run an ad-hoc schedule or manually add activities to the agent’s schedule on the Agent Schedules page.

BEST PRACTICE Use Schedule History and Restore to view what the agent’s schedule was before the time off request was approved (see Undo a schedule change). You can use this as a reference to manually add activities to the agent’s schedule, or restore the schedule if appropriate from a previous version.

The following table describes the fields in the Approve Time Off Request dialog box.

Field	Description
From	The name of the agent requesting time off.
Request	The type of request.
Submitted Date	The time and date that agent submitted the request. This is the same time and date you received the request.
Service Queue	Select the appropriate service queue from the drop-down list. This service queue is used to determine the Forecast Gap.
First, Second, Third tabs	Tabs that display the first, second, and third choices for time off requested by the agent.
Type	The type of time off request.
Date	The date of the requested time off.
Day	The day of the week of the requested time off.
Start Time	The start time of the requested time off.
End Time	The end time of the requested time off.
Forecast Gap (FTEs)	The difference in FTEs between the number of scheduled agents and the number of forecasted agents in the current production forecast for the service queue selected. You can use this number as a guide for determining if there is enough coverage that day to grant the time off request. NOTE There is a value in this field only if a production forecast has been generated.
Allotment Gap (FTEs or hours)	The available time off allotments for the requested day, displayed in either FTEs (full time equivalents) or hours. The format that you see depends on whether the administrator has configured WFM to display FTEs or Hours (see Configure system-wide WFM settings).
Approve	By default, all check boxes are selected. Clear the check box next to any day of a multi-day request to deny time off for that day.
Schedule Exception	Select the exception description that will appear in the schedule if the exception is approved.

Approve trade or offer request

The Approve Trade Request dialog box allows you to analyze and then approve or deny a trade request or an offer request. The same dialog box is used for both trades and offers.

NOTE The existing breaks and lunch in each schedule involved in a partial day trade is replaced with in-service time to the agent’s main service queue. The schedule is compared to range-based, general work conditions that have been set up to determine whether a lunch or break is assigned. If a trade splits a schedule, each segment of the split schedule is compared individually to existing work conditions. It is important that agents submitting partial day schedule offers or trades are assigned to a work condition profile that contains a condition for any possible shift length they might have after the offer or trade is accepted. If no range-based work condition matches a traded schedule’s length, no break or lunch is assigned.
Any exceptions are reassigned to the receiving agent, and those exceptions are not moved to accommodate a break or lunch.
Projects are reassigned to the receiving agent even if that violates the minimum or maximum number of minutes an agent can spend on the project in a day. Project time might be split or truncated but not moved to accommodate a lunch or break.

Approve or deny a schedule trade or offer request

Double-click the request to open it.
Use the Agent Schedules section to analyze the two schedules to make sure they can be traded. Click Read Comment if any comments are attached to the trade or offer request.
Click Approve or Deny.

The following table describes the fields in the Approve Trade Request dialog box.

Field	Description
From	The name of the agent who requested the trade.
Request	The Trade high-level request type.
Type	The type of trade request.
Submitted Date	The time and date that agent submitted the request. This is the same time and date you received the request.
To	The name of the other agent involved in the trade.
From Date	The first scheduled date involved in the trade.
To Date	The second scheduled date involved in the trade. This field only appears when different days are involved in the trade request.
From Agent Schedule	The schedule for the agent requesting the trade. Use the scroll bar to view the agent’s entire schedule.
Name	The name of the agent.
Date	The date specified in the trade request.
To Agent Schedule	The schedule for the agent accepting the trade.
Availability	Indicates if the From agent’s schedule fits into the To agent’s schedule.
Service Queue	Indicates if the two agents support the same or different service queues.
Teams	Indicates if the two agents belong to the same or different teams.
Overlapping Shifts	Indicates if the two agents have overlapping shifts.
Time Zone	Indicates if the two agents are in the same or different time zone.
Skill Mapping	Indicates if the two agents belong to the same or different skill mapping.
Exception	Indicates if either agent’s schedule includes an exception.

Approve mentoring request

The Approve Mentoring Request dialog box allows you to analyze and then approve or deny a mentoring request.

Approve or deny a mentoring request

Double-click the request to open it.
Review the details of the mentoring request. Click Read Comments if any comments are attached to the mentoring request.
Click Approve or Deny.

If you approve the request, both agents’ schedules are updated immediately to show the mentoring session.

The following table describes the fields in the Approve Mentoring Request dialog box.

Field	Description
From	The name of the agent who requested the mentoring.
Exception Type	The exception type chosen by the agent making the request.
To	The name of the agent who accepted the mentoring request.
Mentoring Date	The date of the mentoring session.
Request	The type of request.
Start Time	The start time of the mentoring session.
Submitted Date	The time and date that agent submitted the request. This is the same time and date you received the request.
End Time	The end time of the mentoring session.
Schedule Exception	The exception that will appear in the agents’ schedules.
Both agents in service	Yes or No. Indicates if both the requesting and accepting agent are in service during the proposed mentoring time slot.