"Vacation in Bitrix24 (Alaio)" is actually three different tasks that get mixed up all the time: setting an employee's "on vacation" status, keeping a company-wide absence chart, and getting the leave request itself approved. The first two are closed by stock tools in minutes; the third takes a business process — and that is where HR and managers save the most time. Let's walk through all three levels in order.
How to set the "on vacation" status
The status on the avatar — "on vacation", with dates — comes from the absence chart: Calendar → Absence chart → add an absence of the "vacation" type with its dates. The record can be added by the employee, their manager, or HR — that is governed by permissions on the absence calendar. While the absence is active, the status shows in chats, in the profile, and on mentions: colleagues see "on vacation until the 28th" before they type their question. There is no separate "set vacation status" button outside the chart — if the status hasn't appeared, the record isn't in the chart or the dates haven't started yet.
A vacation chart for the whole company
The same Absence chart in company mode is a table of employees by month: vacations, business trips, sick days, each type in its own color. A manager sees the overlaps ("both engineers out in August") before signing the requests. There is exactly one hygiene rule: the chart works only if every absence lands in it — and that is guaranteed by the process, not by discipline: an approved request creates the record itself, and an unapproved vacation simply isn't in the chart. That is how the chart turns from a "table kept on trust" into a source of truth.
Leave request: approval as a business process
Workflows in Activity Stream include a stock "Leave request" template — take it as the base and rework the route. The typical process: the employee fills in the form (dates, vacation type, substitute) → the manager approves → HR records it and enters it into the chart → the employee gets a confirmation. Two robots make the route universal. Get employee manager determines the approver from the department structure — one template works for the whole company, with no hardwired names; how to keep the structure in shape is covered in the article on company structure. Check if a field is filled stops a request without dates or a substitute from reaching approval — the manager doesn't burn an iteration on "starting from which date, exactly?". The approval mechanics are the same for documents and requests — a detailed breakdown of routes is in the article on document approval.
Route conditions: when a second approver is needed
Rules like "a vacation longer than 14 days also goes to the director", "an unscheduled vacation — only through HR", "high season — with restrictions" are assembled from conditions. The Compound condition robot checks several facts in one step: the duration is above the threshold AND the type is "regular", or the start date falls into a blocked window. Date arithmetic for the route — calculating the duration, checking the start date — is covered in the article on dates in business processes.
Handing over work during the vacation
An approved vacation is a reason not just for one record in the chart but for handing over current work. The process does it on its own: the departing employee's tasks and deals are reassigned to the substitute named in the request — how to build such a handover, including linked records, is broken down in the article on changing the responsible person. On the eve of the return, the process moves everything back or creates a "take back your work" task. A softer alternative: don't reassign, add the substitute as an observer on the key tasks instead — the scenarios are in the article on observers.
Notifications around a vacation
Three notifications are worth sending from the process: to the manager — "a request is waiting for your decision", to the department — "Anna is on vacation from the 14th, Mark covers for her", to the employee — a confirmation with the dates. There is no stock "I'm on vacation" auto-reply in Bitrix24 — the partial substitute is exactly that team notification plus the status on the avatar. How to assemble clear messages with data from the form is covered in the article on notifications from business processes.
Frequently asked questions
Who can enter absences for others? Anyone with permissions on the absence chart — usually HR and managers. Is a vacation visible in the meeting scheduler? Yes, the absence is highlighted when picking participants. Can a vacation be approved in a smart process instead of Workflows in Activity Stream? Yes — a smart process gives you Kanban stages and robots on every stage; a comparison of the approaches is in the Smart Process Automation guide. Does Bitrix24 track the remaining vacation days? Not out of the box — keep the balance in a profile field or a list and check it with a condition in the process.
In summary
The status and the chart are closed by the stock Absence chart; the real automation lives in the approval: a route over the live structure, form checks before the approver, conditions for long and unscheduled vacations, automatic work handover. The Get employee manager, Check if a field is filled, and Compound condition robots are in the Roboteka catalog, free to install from Bitrix24 Market. If the scenario you need isn't there, describe the task and we'll build the robot.