Who it’s for: Administrators and users with the relevant permissions
Platform: Sense HR
Available on: All plans
Before you begin
Make sure you’re:
☑️ Logged in
☑️ Assigned the relevant permissions to manage Calendar & Planner settings
Overview
Event Manager is where you create and manage the events that people can book or record in calendars and planners.
From Event Manager, you can:
Create Working and Time-off events
Configure who can book an event and how it can be booked
Apply different rules to different people or groups
Configure entitlement for Time-off events
Manage the system Sickness event and its sickness reasons
Edit event details such as the name, icon, and colour where supported
Search for and manage existing events
Navigation path
From the Sense HR dashboard, go to:
Settings > Calendar & Planner > Event manager
The Manage events page lists the events currently configured for your organisation.
Event Manager list showing Working, Time-off, and Sickness events.
Understand the Manage events page
The Manage events page shows:
Event icon — the icon and colour used to represent the event in calendars.
Event name — the name assigned to the event.
Event category — Working, Time-off, or, for the system Sickness event, Sickness.
Rules — the number of configuration rules currently applied to the event.
The list of events is sorted by Event name by default.
You can also sort the list by Event category or number of Rules.
Use Search to find a specific event.
Click an event to open and configure it.
Event categories
When you create an event, you assign it to one of two Event categories:
Working — for events that represent working time or activities, such as meetings and training.
Time off — for leave and other time away from work, such as Holiday, Maternity, or Paternity.
The Event category determines which configuration options are available for the event and cannot be changed after the event is created.
🖊️ Note: Sickness appears as an Event category on the Manage events page, but you cannot select it when creating an event. Sense HR supplies one standalone system Sickness event, which you configure rather than create.
Working events
When you create a Working event, select Working as its Event category.
Use Working events for activities such as:
Meetings
Training
Conferences
Working events do not use entitlement.
Their rules can control:
who the event applies to
booking constraints
whether approval is required
whether the event can be booked outside the employee’s working hours
Time-off events
Use time-off events for leave and other time away from work.
Time-off events can be configured with or without entitlement.
Without entitlement, their rules can control the same core booking behaviour as working events.
When Entitlement is enabled for a rule, the Entitlement section provides settings for:
Default FTE allowance
Allow partial bookings
Minimum booking unit
Additional configuration sections also become available for:
Accrual
Carryover
Length of service
Balance & overbooking
👉 See Calendar & Planner: Configure entitlement settings for Time-off events with Event manager for full guidance.
Understand how event rules work
Each Working or Time-off event is created with a default rule assigned to Everyone.
A rule determines who it applies to and how the event is configured for those people.
For example, the Holiday event could have:
an Everyone rule containing your standard Holiday settings; and
an additional rule for a particular group that needs different booking, approval, or entitlement settings.
This allows the same event to behave differently for different people without creating duplicate events.
Understand who a rule applies to
The Scope of each rule determines who it applies to.
A person can be covered by only one rule for each event, but can be covered by rules for any number of different events.
Being excluded from one rule does not necessarily mean the person cannot book the event. Another rule for the same event may still apply to them.
If no rule for the event applies to a person, the event is not applicable to them. This means:
they cannot select and book the event; and
someone managing them cannot book the event on their behalf.
Example: If someone is excluded from an Everyone rule but included in another rule for the same event, the event is still applicable to them. The rule that includes them determines how the event is configured for that person.
🖊️ Note: Event rules determine whether an event is available for a person to book. This is separate from whether a user can see other people’s booked events in Calendar & Planner, which is controlled through Access roles.
Understand the Everyone Smart filter
Everyone is a dynamic Smart filter rather than a fixed list.
It includes everyone in the system who has not been deleted, including active employees and people who have been marked as leavers but have not yet reached their removal date.
New starters are included automatically.
Understand how profile changes can affect rules
Because Smart filters are dynamic, the rule that applies to someone can change when their profile information changes.
For example, a change to their Job title, Location or another field used by a Smart filter could mean that they stop matching one rule and begin matching another.
Profile changes can also cause someone to begin matching more than one rule for the same event, creating a rule conflict.
⚠️ Important note: Because Smart filters are dynamic, changes to someone’s profile details can cause them to match more than one rule for the same event. Until the overlap is resolved, the rule that Sense HR applies may not be the rule you expect.
Use View filter results to check rule membership and update the Scope so that each person is covered by only one rule for the event.
Understand when rule changes take effect
Changes to a rule’s configuration apply to bookings made after the change.
Existing booked events retain the configuration that applied when they were made.
⚠️ Important: If an existing booked event is later edited, the rule configuration in force at the time of the edit is applied to it. This can affect settings such as approval or entitlement.
👉 See Calendar & Planner: Create and configure Working and Time-off events with Event manager for full guidance on creating events, configuring rules, and controlling booking behaviour.
Sickness
Sickness works differently from Working and Time-off events.
Sense HR includes a standalone Sickness event. You cannot create additional Sickness events, and the system Sickness event cannot be renamed or deleted.
Sickness rules contain only two configuration sections:
Scope
Absence reasons
They do not include Booking, Approval, Entitlement or Outside working hours configuration.
Click Sickness on the Manage events page to open its configuration.
Click the arrow at the start of the Sickness row to expand the event and see its sickness reasons.
Individual sickness reasons can be configured for:
Fit note required
Return to Work (RTW) and the Return to work form used
Paid or unpaid status
Inclusion in the absence scheme
👉 See Calendar & Planner: Configure Sickness and sickness reasons for full guidance.
Best practice
✔ Use clear event names
Choose names employees and managers will immediately understand when booking events, viewing the Planner or Calendar, or using Calendar filters.
✔ Choose the Event category carefully
Working is currently selected by default in the Create event window, and the Event category cannot be changed after the event is created.
Make sure you select Time-off before creating an event that needs Time-off configuration such as entitlement.
✔ Use additional rules where the event is fundamentally the same
If different people need different booking, approval or entitlement settings for the same event, use additional rules rather than creating duplicate events.
✔ Choose recognisable icons and colours
A distinctive icon and colour can make an event easier to identify in calendars and planners.
✔ Review rules as organisational data changes
An event may have more than one rule, so check which people each rule applies to before changing its configuration.
Smart filters are dynamic. Changes to employee information can change which rule applies to someone and may cause previously valid rule Scopes to overlap.
Review rules when relevant employee data, organisational structures or policies change.
✔ Keep the event list manageable
Avoid creating duplicate or unnecessary events. A clear event list is easier for administrators to maintain and makes it easier for employees and managers to select the correct event.
Use Search and sorting on the Manage events page to help review your existing events.
✔ Be cautious when changing events already in use
Existing bookings and system records may depend on an event or its configuration.
Rule configuration changes do not retrospectively update existing bookings, but editing an existing booking applies the rule configuration in force at the time of the edit.
FAQs
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Q: Why can’t I delete or rename the Sickness event in Event manager?
A: You can’t delete or rename the Sickness event in Event manager because it is a system event used by other Sense HR processes.
You can configure its rules, change its icon and colour, and manage its sickness reasons.
Q: Can I copy an event in Event manager?
A: No. You can’t copy an event in Event manager. To create a different event, click Create and configure the new event and its rules.
If the same event needs different configurations for different people, add another rule to the existing event instead.
Q: Does the Everyone Smart filter in an Event manager rule include leavers?
A: Yes. The Everyone Smart filter used in an Event manager rule includes everyone in the system who has not been deleted, including people who have been marked as leavers but have not yet reached their removal date.
Everyone is dynamic rather than a fixed list, so new starters are included automatically.
Q: Does excluding someone from an Event manager rule stop them booking the event?
A: Not necessarily. Excluding someone from an Event manager rule means that particular rule does not apply to them. Another rule for the same event may still apply.
If no rules for the event apply to the person, the event is not applicable to them. They cannot book it, and someone managing them cannot book it on their behalf.
This does not determine whether they can see another person’s booked event in Calendar & Planner. That visibility is controlled through Access roles.
Q: Why is the wrong event rule applying to someone after their details changed?
A: The wrong event rule may apply after someone’s profile details change if the change causes them to match more than one rule for the same event.
For example, someone might previously have matched one rule based on their Job title, but a change to their Location could cause them to match a second rule as well.
Each person should be covered by only one rule for an event. If they match more than one, this can cause inconsistencies in which booking rules are applied until the conflict is resolved.
Check each rule for the event and use View filter results to identify the overlap. Update Assign to or Exclude people so that only the intended rule applies to the person.
Q: Why am I getting a rule conflict for rules that were working before?
A: A rule conflict can appear even if the rules were valid when you originally configured them. This can happen because Smart filters are dynamic and changes to someone’s profile details can cause them to start matching more than one rule for the same event.
Use View filter results for each rule to identify the overlap, then update Assign to or Exclude people so that each person is covered by only one rule for the event.
Q: How do I give someone access to Event manager?
A: To give someone access to Event manager, configure their Access role permission.
Go to:
Settings > Access roles > [Advanced or Standard access role] > Permissions > Features > Settings
Turn Calendar & Planner - Event manager ON.
To remove access, turn the permission OFF.
🖊️ Note: On Team plans, Event manager is available to administrators only. Access Roles Management is not available, so Event manager access cannot be assigned to other users through Access roles.