WhosOff.com

New features - Dashboard and Approvers

2012-02-01T09:14:00.001Z

At WhosOff we continue to use customer feedback to improve the WhosOff service and the last few weeks have seen some further updates to the system to give users even more visibility and functionality on Staff leave and absence.

On the Dashboard

In the 'Who's Off Today' area we have added the option to select any day and quickly see who's off on that day.

There is also a new tab here which list those people for whom it is a 'Non' working day.

Approvers

You can now set approvers to be able to Add/Edit leave for their own staff. Adminsitrators can set Approvers to be able to Add leave in the future ( but not the past) or Add/Edit/Delete leave in the past and future. (The default setting is not being able to add leave for anyone)

New WhosOff API - get access to your data

2011-11-29T12:59:00.002Z

Today sees the launch of our beta API (Application Programming Interface)

What's it for and what can it do ?

If your are a developer/programmer you'll know all about API's and how to use them to integrate with your existing systems.

The current beta release of the API only has 'Read' functions, although we expect to add additional 'write' functions in future.

This beta release of the API has functions to retrieve data:

Who's Off by date range, by Department, by Leave type

Staff Details

Department List

Leave Type List

If you are interested in having access to the API , just let us know at support@whosoff.com

Be a WhosOff.com Agent

2011-09-20T07:48:00.003Z

We are aware many of our existing users refer new companies to us, and for this we are very grateful.

So much so, that we have set up an 'Agents' area where you can, if you wish, register yourself as an 'Agent' so that we can reward you for sending new clients to us.

For full details, please email as at support@whosoff.com

Integrating Whosoff.com into your iPhone

2011-05-24T06:14:00.004Z

If you want to see who's off in your company - follow these easy instructions to get your company WhosOff.com calendar into your iPhone.

1. Login to WhosOff.com

2. Click Tools

3. In Tools View > Under available feeds > RIGHT click on the feed link > Click properties

4. In the properties popup window take a note of the ‘Address(URL)’ or keep the window open . The URL should be ‘https://staff.whosoff.com/feeds/?u=’ plus a long number

On the iPhone – We strongly recommend that the device uses the WiFi facility when setting up the calendar subscription service.

5. Touch Settings

6. In the Setting view > Touch ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars’

7. In the Mail, Contacts, Calendars view > Touch ‘Add Account ...’

8. In the Add Account > Touch ‘Other’

9. In the Other View > Touch ‘Add Subscribed Calendar’

10.A new view will appear requesting Server .. enter the Address URL from the WhosOff (https://staff.whosoff.com/feeds/?u= + the long number)

11.Touch Verify and the device will check that the link is valid . If it is successful the subscription view will appear.

12.At the point you may change the description to something more meaningful ie WhosOff Calendar – To do this touch the Description row and you will then be able to edit.

13.Touch ‘SAVE’ and the calendar has been added to the device.

Check your calendar subscription has been successfully uploaded. On the iPhone touch Calendar. When the Calendar has loaded , touch ‘Calendars’ in the top left hand corner and a new row should appear ‘Subscribed’ and a new calendar name. Ensure the row is ticked and touch done. The calendar will now show your companies staff leave.

Note: The calendar feeds are only available if your super user allows access to your companies calendar feeds.

WhosOff for iPhone and Android Released

2011-05-04T07:07:00.007Z

Connecting to your WhosOff account is now possible 24/7.

We are pleased to announce that our mobile apps for iPhone and Android are available to download from the App Store and Android Market

Both Apps are Free to download and make managing your staff leave and out-of-office times on the move very simple and easy.

Looks like BlackBerry app is not far behind !

Whosoff for iPhone and Android

2011-04-19T16:23:00.002Z

Mobile team are currently testing iPhone and Android apps.
It's going to make requesting leave/vacation so easy!

Statistics and Auto Report Scheduling

2011-04-14T08:44:00.001Z

Some great new features in WhosOff (currently in BETA) to help you manage your staff leave effectively:

On the 'My Staff' link you can see an overview of the your staff members' leave balances. You can also see some useful statistic analysis including a breakdown by leave type and the number of occurences by leave type.

Click on 'Report Scheduling' and you can schedule WhosOff to automatically send you reports for yesterday,today, this week or this month

Over 1 Million leave requests processed

2011-04-12T08:27:00.005Z

Wednesday 6th April 2011 saw the WhosOff leave request counter pass through 1,000,000
Watch the live statistics on the home page

Switch off Overtime Area

2011-04-12T08:24:00.000Z

Switch off Overtime Area

If you manage your staff overtime outside of WhosOff, you now have the ability to switch off this area from your account. Simply follow these instructions to do this:

•Login to your WhosOff account
•Click on "Adminsitration", "Company Details"
•Under the heading WhosOff Setup, you can now specify whether the Overtime area/tools are available to the users on your account.
•Don't forget to save any changes you make

Staff leave in Hours

2010-11-03T09:58:00.000Z

Keeping to our ethos of reacting to our customers requirements , we enhanced the system to incorporate staff whose holiday/vacation is taken in hours into the ever growing WhosOff.com system enabling staff and administors alike to have more control over the time taken from work .

Whether staff book an hour or a day , the WhosOff.com system will apply the time taken from the annual leave allowance .

Staff administrators can choose between staff who work in hours or those who work days , giving greater flexibility within the WhosOff system.

Whilst developing the hours feature to the system, we had suggestions from present users requesting minor changes to help them use their WhosOff.com system.

The development and support team working together, applied some of the changes to the hours update , the changes include....

•Calendar Feeds: Will now include the leave as a category so you can assign category colouring in Outlook (for those who wish to integrate with Outlook)
•Leave Requests: On the pending requests screen, the system will show you when the leave request has been submitted allowing the super user to prioritise leave requests. Column sorting has also been introduced into this screen.
•Staff Leave: On the administration staff leave screen , the system will show you when a leave request was approved and by who.
So , if you are looking to manage your staff in hours , WhosOff.com is ready and waiting . With the ability to add up to 20 leave types , set bank holidays by department for those companies who have overseas departments .

Managing staff leave in hours has never been easier.

Thank you to those companies who have suggested ,supported and assisted us in preparing the leave planner to incorporate vacation , staff holiday in hours , which is now clear to see in a visual wall planner type display via the web.

Now book in Hours...as well as a few more changes

2010-10-12T21:05:00.003Z

Coming Very Soon...
For some time now, the team at WhosOff have been asked about the availability of managing time in hours instead of days (and half days), we can now say that it is coming, and fast.

We are in the final stages of testing this new feature to WhosOff, and over the next couple of weeks users will notice some subtle, and some major changes to the WhosOff system. For those team members who are assigned allowances in hours you will soon be able to set balances in hours, set the hours a staff member works per day, and even let them book the odd hour off.

This does not change the way in which leave requests are processed, you still have the opportunity to specify whether leave needs to be approved or not, and you can still accept

Historical Data: A small point to note is if you switch someone from being a "DAYS" person to an "HOURS" person, you will be asked to print off historical data for that staff member, this is because their record is wiped clean of any leave and allowances to date. A small price to pay for a big change.

Other changes on their way
We have been making some other minor changes (that will be published with the above updates), these include:

Calendar Feeds: Will now include the leave type as a category so you can assign category colouring in MS Outlook.
Leave Requests: On the pending leave requests screen, we will show you when a leave request has been put into the system, allowing you to work your way through requests in the order they were requested
Staff Leave: On the administration staff leave screen, we will show you when a leave request was approved and who by.

Tag your people

2010-08-16T14:05:00.006Z

WhosOff have now introduced 'Grouping Tags'. This function is available for 'super users' and to users with the 'cross department views' set to 'all staff' .

Approvers and Super users are also able to run reports based on tags aswell as the previous options available on the reporting screen.

Tags are great because although staff maybe in different departments it is sometimes very useful to be able to view a group of people across departments or even within a department. This makes managing and administering employee holiday and vacation even easier.

See full details here

p.s.
18,331 leave requests processed since the last blog

850,000 Leave Requests processed

2010-07-20T14:41:00.005Z

ok - we getting quite busy over here now - we've processed over 850K leave requests and delivered over 3.8M calendar feeds. Our new outlook/Google calendar integration is proving very popular.

WhosOff is still great value at less than $16 per month for upto 10 employees - thats a great saving in management time.Set up your own leave types and manage out of office meetings,visits, paternity,absence, vacation,holiday.

Maintenance

2010-02-21T00:00:00.003Z

The WhosOff service will be unavailable for approx. 4 hours from midnight GMT on 20th Feb 2010. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this essential maintenance.

Customer support - Our View

2010-01-15T11:28:00.007Z

However hard we try to make an online business tool easy to use, there will always be occassions when customers need help and support.

Even when WhosOff was a Free service, we always attached great importance to responding to customers requests for support, help and advice.

No matter how small the issue is, or who the customer is, we attempt to respond quickly. (Time differences allowing!)

Very often we even make a telephone call as 'bouncing' emails between each other can cause further frustration and is not always the best way to resolve a particular issue.

Making a personal contact with the customer establishes a rapport and gives an opportunity so show the human side of our business. They are very often surprised to get a call from one of our support team and this in turn enhances the positive feedback we get from our users.

If you are a user or thinking about using the WhosOff service and need a call, send us an email.

If you a supply a service, make that call to help your customer and reap the benefits!

WhosOff on the road

2009-12-18T10:55:00.002Z

WhosOff Lorry Hits the Road!
A new advertising campaign from WhosOff has hit the road on the 18th December 2009.
On it's maiden run the 40ft refrigerated lorry is on it's way to Belgium for christmas supplies to retailers.
Keep an eye out for the lorry around Europe over the next 12 months, if you spot it, take a photo and send it to us at info@whosoff.com

WhosOff adds calendar feeds

2009-09-27T09:54:00.003Z

You can now create a calendar feed from your WhosOff account and subscribe to that feed from other calendar programs such as MS Outlook and Google Calendar.

This is a great way to see whats going on in Whosoff without you having to log in each time.

You can create calendar feeds for individuals, departments or the whole company.

WhosOff - Ranked 6th - Top Dates and Calendar web applications

2009-03-02T10:08:00.003Z

With 9,258 votes so far WhosOff has grown to the #6 spot on CEO World Magazine poll for the Top Dates and Calendar Web Applications list. Cast your votes today at http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/2008/12/22/top-dates-calendar-web-applications-list/

The websites were evaluated by majority of votes based on ten main criteria:- Content- Authority- Navigation- Design- Accessibility- Innovation- Business sense and growth expectations- Degree of competition mix in their market- Team- Traffic type: blog, wiki, Services using tags, Mash up based on Google / Yahoo / Live.com maps, Feeds and social networking sites etc.

Premium Edition launched

2009-02-03T16:40:00.003Z

The Premium Edition has now been launched and take up is exceeding our expectations!

Enhanced features include: control over leave types, CSV/spreadsheet downloads, basic overtime reporting, leave reporting between date ranges, yearly carryover, ability to set working week at staff level (to cover part time workers), insert individual leave into your MS Outlook™

An easy branding option enables users to keep their corporate identity, including logos and colours throughout the Premium Edition

View the features here

WhosOff Service tops ¼ Million Holiday Requests

2008-10-08T17:04:00.002Z

WhosOff.com, the Free online staff holiday/vacation planner, recently 'processed' its 250,000th leave request.

Since its launch, less than 2 years ago, thousands of businesses and organisations have taken the opportunity to use WhosOff.com to manage their staff holiday/vacation and out of office times.

Based in the quiet city of Canterbury, England - a world away from Silicon Valley - WhosOff.com is attracting users from over 75 countries around the world – an impressive start for an online service aimed at business users.

WhosOff.com allows staff to request holiday/vacation whilst applying simple initial controls, for example, checking the number of days a staff member has remaining or staff clashes, and can pass the logged request on by email for final approval by an appointed approver.

Many companies have difficulty tracking staff holiday and WhosOff.com delivers an answer to this enduring problem for free.

In development from Whosoff.com is a paid-for ‘Premium’ service which is due to be launched in November 2008 . The premium version will provide users with added features and tools including integration with some desktop applications.

WhosOff Facelift underway

2008-01-18T17:29:00.001Z

An new enhanced look and feel are being worked on at the WhosOff offices that will incorporate the new versions available to users of WhosOff. The new site will be ready and launched early February and will provide users with an insight to new features and services coming soon as well as providing a central discussion area for users to share their knowledge of WhosOff.

WhosOff in Development!

2008-01-18T17:15:00.000Z

WhosOff has entered a new major development chapter. From early January 2008 developers of WhosOff will be embarking on a new major release that will incorporate SOAP API technology as its base and will also see WhosOff located on a new hosting platform. The hosting of WhosOff will see loads balanced across its newly commissioned servers and will provide a faster and more robust service to WhosOff premium users.

In future months we will be investigating the demand and possibilities of releasing the API for developers to integrate their own tools into the staff holiday management.

If you would like to be notified when WhosOff Premium becomes available, post a reply on this topic.

Red Hot Site of the Day !

2007-11-20T09:00:00.000Z

Over the weekend WhosOff was the 'Red Hot Site of the Day' on Redorbit.com -

RedOrbit.com, based in Texas,USA has become the premier internet destination for space, science, health, and technology enthusiasts around the globe.

New Reviews

2007-09-19T07:42:00.000Z

A couple of reviews have been posted recently which I think really capture the essence of the Whosoff service.

Steve Anderson's 'Keep track of who's off'
and
John Reardon's 'Tracking Time off the easy way'

Thanks to both of them for taking the time to mention Whosoff on their blogs.

WhosOff currently manages the holiday and vacations of tens of thousands of users worldwide -across thousands of companies and organisations both large and small.

Happy Birthday !

2007-07-04T09:18:00.000Z

# Happy Birthday to us...#

On 1st July 2007 WhosOff celebrated its first year as the internet's first and only free to use Online staff holiday and vacation planner...

Back in July 2006 we really had no idea how popular a service like this could be and have been surprised at the take up, not only amongst SMEs but also departments of some 'very' large businesses around the world.

Our aim is to make WhosOff the first choice for business and other organisations to manage staff holiday and vacation.We aim to keep the site friendly, easy to use and give first class support.

After favourable reviews on sites such as Techcrunch.com, Webware.com, Killerstartups.com and recently downloadsquad.com we can see the word is spreading.We can now boast a considerable
and continously growing user base !

Thanks for all those who came on board and who support the site.

Who's blogging Whosoff ?

Being second is no longer 'second best'

2007-06-28T10:18:00.000Z

Hi my name is 2 - You've probably heard of me, but not so long ago I used to be just another single digit, the second best, just number two,
you would n't even have looked at me twice, am I right?

In the old days everybody just knew about number 1, wanted to be number one, the first, the one and only, the 'numero uno' and for me and the rest of the guys..well, we never got a look in...

How things have changed! - now its my turn - everybody's talking about me ! Number 2 ...ok...I've got 'point zero' tagging along but wow! its great !
Number 3 is soooo jealous - anyway I expect his turn will come.

But for now, its me in the spot-light 2.0 , I'm the belle of the ball 2.0, in fact anything 2.0 is the biggest, bestest thing...ever...

Just add me after any noun, yes any noun, and it'll be appearing all over the web 2.0 in a jumping-jack-flash 2.0 second... how about Pizza 2.0 ? or Drawing Pin 2.0 ? or even Teapot 2.0 ?...Sounds great doesn't it ?

Is it just a 2.0 buzzword or am I really going to be on top of the World 2.0 ?
How long will it last and is number 3 coming over hill 2.0 ?

Watch this space 2.0

A smart solution for one office problem - Free

2007-06-11T09:58:00.000Z

Business, particularly SMEs, are being inundated with promises from the likes of Google and Microsoft, of online delivered web applications.The current buzz words being 'Web 2.0' and 'Saas' (Software as a Service) and 'On demand'.

There are, of course, the many spreadsheet,word processing, personal calendar,Networking offerings but what real advantage do these online services have over our traditional desktop applications and how many business are really buying into this type of on-demand software?

I'm sure people running day to day businesses would n't mind getting a handle on what this whole 'Web 2.0' really means and how it can help their business in particular.One answer lies, for a lot of SMEs, in having one of their daily problems solved by one of these web 2.0 offerings.

www.WhosOff.com is an online workplace leave management service that makes organising time off easy. It is simple to use and solves an enduring office problem that every SME has.."who's off ?" And what's more the service is Free!

WhosOff.com is also a story of modest entrepreneurship - proving that you do not need to be in Silicon Valley or backed by millions in venture captial to get a project off the ground.

Techcrunch reviews WhosOff.com

2007-06-04T08:39:00.000Z

The start of another week and another review of Whosoff.com
has been posted. This time, Duncan Riley of Techcrunch.com -
one of the web's best known blogs on the topics of new internet
products and developments.

You can read the article here and also view the
comments left by others

Recent Reviews

2007-05-24T10:19:00.000Z

This week WhosOff.com has been appearing round the world on some significant blogs.

Read the review on webware.com - Rafe Needleman says..."I am a big fan of simple Web tools that make annoying tasks easier. One of the latest tools in that vein: WhosOff, a free Web service that helps you coordinate vacation and out-of-the-office times for people in your company"

Read the full review here

Thanks Rafe !

Also blogged recently

In Spain on GenBeta.com and wwwwhatsnew.com
In Japan on 100shikki.com
In USA on appscout.com , Itlnet.net , webware.com

BT Business Blog

2007-05-22T09:14:00.000Z

Thanks to Simon Dickson for his piece about our site that
appeared on the BT Business blog this morning,

Read the full article here:
http://blog.btbroadbandoffice.com/archive/doing-business-online/one-uk-firms-modest-approach-t.php

Google Adwords - Science or Black Art ?

2007-05-18T15:54:00.000Z

Since launching WhosOff.com in the summer of 2006, we have have been continuously studying the science of Google AdWords.We are drawing to the conclusion that it is not a science but a black art!

Like everybody else, I suspect, in the beginning, we just loaded up our AdWords with what we thought were useful words and phrases and expected the whole of the world to be knocking on our door for 2 or 3 pennies a shot.

But of course Google did not become an over night billion dollar business with this scenario - You have to hand it to them... no matter what your budget is - you can always be tempted to spend a little more.

So what have we discovered...so far..?

After nearly a year of statistics, trial and error,refining, and conversion tracking, we have discovered our best value phrases and words. We have chopped out a lot of under-performing or expensive words to be left with the cream of the crop.

The best performing words at the right price. In brief - Less is more. And...don't be seduced by the occasional expensive conversion!

Website improvements

2007-05-08T08:29:00.000Z

Some new features have recently been added to Whosoff.com :

The bulk update facility now lets users update the current year and
the following year in the same line.

In employee administration, the employee's approver is shown

Users can now view half-day absence

Notes are viewable on ALL types of requests (Holiday/absence/out of office)
and in the calandar views

Whosoff.com is free and easy to use. Click here to sign up today

Other Blogs

2007-03-19T08:46:00.000Z

Thanks to Joe Drumgoole , CEO of PutPlace.com in Ireland, for
taking the time to mention WhosOff on his blog.

It has also been picked up by Darrenbarefoot , a writer and technologist, living in Vancouver Canda.

Thanks guys

WhosOff.com

BBC Radio 2 Website of the Day

2007-02-18T08:23:00.000Z

Thank You to BBC2's Miles Mendoza for making
WhosOff.com one of his websites of the day.

Lets all keep listening to Steve Wright in the afternoon
next week (20th Feb 1645hrs) to see if we get a mention!

Thank you to all WhosOff.com users for helping to make
our website a success.

Welcome to the WhosOff blog

2007-02-08T10:24:00.000Z

If you are a WhosOff user, please feel free post any comments
you have about WhosOff.com.

What best describes WhosOff.com; Staff Leave Planner, Staff Holiday Planner, Planner or even Year Planner is WhosOff.com the right name?

Let us know what you like about WhosOff.com and what additional
features you would like to be considered for future upgrades.

Because WhosOff.com is a free service offering a broad fit to
many different types of business, many companies have found
ways to cover their own staff holiday planning issues, please
share these ideas with other users so they may make best use
of the system in its current format.

If you want to, tell the community about your business,
add a link to your site, or tell us all a little more about how
you use WhosOff.com to manage your HR issues that would
all help.

Many Thanks
Whosoff.com