Add an Office Closure

I need to add dates when our office is closed. How can I add mandatory days off for employees?

Purpose: This guide will show you how to add an office closure to your BambooHR account. It will explain the process of creating a company holiday, filling out date details, and determining whether there is pay associated with the closure. 

Table of Contents

Setting up an office closure is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Follow the directions below to set it and forget it.

Keep in mind, only Full Admins and custom access level users (with access granted to Holidays via Settings) will be able to create an office closure.

Add an Office Closure

To add an office closure to your BambooHR account, you will use the Holidays feature. To begin, navigate to Settings > Holidays > Add New Holiday.

Add Holiday Settings

Determine your office closure settings:

  1. Holiday Name: Determine the name you'd like your employees to see for this closure.
  2. Date: Choose your closure dates. If the office is closed for more than one day, click More than one day?
  3. This Holiday is for: Determine who the closure affects. Click Edit to filter by Department, Division, Employment Status, Job Title, or Location.
  4. Make This Holiday Private?: Check this box if you only want employees who are included in the "This Holiday is for..." selection. Otherwise, the closure will show on all employee's Who's Out widget.
  5. Holiday Pay: If your employees should be paid without working during this closure, check the box to determine the number of hours they should be paid for. Alternatively, you can determine a multiplied rate of pay for those who work during the closure (1x, 1.5x, etc.)
  6. Save: Don't forget to save your work!

What does this look like for employees?

Your employees will see the office closure in a few different places.

1. Upcoming Time Off: Employees assigned to the office closure will see the event under this heading on their Time Off tab when the company closure is within two months. Please note: the employee will only see this section if you have granted access to at least one time off category, which would make the Time Off tab visible to the employee.

2. Who's Out Widget: The employee will see the upcoming closure if it is within two days on the regular-size Who's Out widget (left). They will see the upcoming closure if it is within seven days on the expanded Who's Out widget. The regular widget will expand if the employee clicks anywhere within the widget. Be aware! The upcoming closure will not show under "The rest of [month]" or other upcoming months in the expanded widget.

If your office closure only affects a specific group of employees, the Who's Out widget will still show the office closure for all employees if you've left the "Make this Holiday Private?" box unchecked.

3. Who's Out Calendar: When the employee will see the upcoming closure on their Who's Out Calendar depends on the calendar view they have selected (Week, 2 Weeks, Month). They also must have the Holidays box checked by clicking the settings gear. This calendar is accessed by clicking the "Full Calendar" link on the Who's Out widget.

If your office closure only affects a specific group of employees, the Who's Out Calendar will still show the office closure for all employees if you've left the "Make this Holiday Private?" box unchecked.

4. Request Time Off: The employee will see the upcoming closure if they submit a time off request that spans over the selected date(s) of the closure. The hours will automatically be set to "0" since the closure was created in Holiday settings.