Locked dates

A locked date is a date range that Deckchair excludes from the duration of any leave request that overlaps it, the same way public holidays are excluded when a member has “public holidays off” enabled. The practical use is a custom company closure that isn’t in the synced public holiday list — a between-Christmas-and-New-Year shutdown, a founders’ day, a local civic day. Manage under Settings → Locked dates.

When to use locked dates

Use a lock when:

Your organisation’s synced public holiday list doesn’t include a day everyone is off (e.g. a company-specific shutdown, a regional day the sync doesn’t cover).
You want the wallchart to show “the office is closed” on specific days so plans that overlap are visibly fine.
You want members booking over the range not to burn balance on days they wouldn’t have worked anyway.

Not a fit when:

You want to prevent bookings during a date range (launch week, year-end freeze). Locked dates don’t enforce this — they just stop those days from deducting. Use the max absent limit on a department or reject at approval time.

Creating a locked date

Go to Settings → Locked dates.
Click Add lock.
Fill in:
- Scope — the whole organization, a specific department, or a single member. Only the matching members have the range excluded from their leave.
- Start and end date — inclusive range.
- Reason (optional but recommended) — free text shown next to the warning on the request form and in the wallchart tooltip.
Save.

Multiple overlapping locks are fine. A member’s leave duration is reduced by every locked day that applies to them, and each applicable lock is named in the warning on the request form.

Who can create locks

Admins can create locks at any scope — organization, department, or individual.
Managers can create locks for departments they manage.
Employees can’t create locks.

What members see

When a member submits a request that overlaps a locked range, the create form shows a yellow warning listing the affected ranges and their reasons. The request still submits and approves normally; the locked days are already excluded from the day count shown on the form (same treatment as public holidays and non-working days from the work schedule).

Example: a member books Dec 23 – Jan 3 when there’s an org-wide lock for Dec 27 – Dec 31. The form warns them about the overlap and shows a shorter total (the five locked days are not counted).

Locked dates on the wallchart

Locked dates render as a distinctive pattern on the wallchart. Clicking a locked cell opens a detail card with the lock’s scope and reason. The cell’s title tooltip also includes the reason, so hovering gives a quick read without opening anything.

Editing and removing locks

Go to Settings → Locked dates, click the lock, and edit or delete. Deleting a lock:

Immediately stops affecting new submissions.
Doesn’t retroactively update any previously submitted requests — a request that was saved with a shorter duration because of the lock will keep that duration. If you need to recompute, cancel and resubmit.

Creating a lock after requests have already been submitted for those dates is similarly one-way: existing approved requests keep their original duration. The lock only affects requests submitted after it was created.

Locked dates vs max absent vs public holidays

Three different tools that look similar on first read:

Locked dates — “these days don’t count against leave balance for anyone in scope.” Use for custom company closures that aren’t in the synced holiday list.
Max absent on a department — “at most N people off at once.” Blocks submissions that would push the department over the limit. Use for ongoing coverage rules.
Public holidays — synced from the organisation’s country code. Excluded from duration for members with “public holidays off” enabled. Use by setting the country code; the list is read-only.

If you want a soft “please don’t book over this period” prompt with no enforcement, locked dates are the closest fit — members still can, but the warning names the lock by reason so the intent is communicated.