Blackout Dates

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The purpose of a blackout date is to restrict employees from using a certain pay type on a certain date.

For example, you may wish to restrict the use of PTO on a company holiday to prevent Holiday + PTO records on the same date. Employees can view blackout dates via the Daily Procedures > Schedules > Time Off Calendar.

If Holidays are also set to display on the Time Off Calendar, you may get conflicting views as seen below.  Reach out to TimeStar Support for assistance.

Navigating to the Blackout Dates Page

  1. In the Main Navigation menu, open the Company Setup folder.
  2. Open the Requests Setup subfolder.
  3. Click on the Blackout Dates page.
If you do not have access to Blackout Dates in Company Setup, please contact TimeStar Support.

Adding a Blackout Date

To Add a Blackout Date, please complete the following steps:

If not yet on the Blackout Dates page, follow the steps in the “Navigating to the Blackout Dates Page” section.

1. If this is your first time entering a blackout date or none exist due to deletion, the page will default to the ADD NEW form. If you’ve entered blackout dates previously, you will need to click the ADD button to open the ADD NEW form.

2. Enter the Blackout Date – the date of the blackout

3. Enter the Reason for Blackout – a description of why the blackout is being added (e.g. Mandatory Work Day, Christmas Holiday [DATE], etc.)

4. Move the Pay Types to the left that you would like to restrict the employees from requesting on that date

5. Select who the Blackout Date should apply to using Org Levels

      • In the below example, because of a IRS Audit Deadline, Leave Without Pay, Paid Time Off, Personal Leave, and Vacation hours will not be available for requests to employees with Accounting as their default Department on 9/9/2022

6. Click Save

**Like holidays, blackout dates will need to be generated or edited each year as they are tied to a specific calendar date/year.**

Editing an Existing Blackout Date

To Edit a Blackout Date, please complete the following steps:

If not yet on the Blackout Dates page, follow the steps in the “Navigating to the Blackout Dates Page” section.

1. Select the blackout date you wish to edit from the Select Date drop-down menu

2. Make any necessary changes:

  • A. Blackout Date – the date of the blackout.
  • B. Reason for Blackout – a description of why the blackout is being added (e.g. Mandatory Work Day, Christmas Holiday [DATE], etc.).
  • C. Pay Type Assignments – the pay types you wish to restrict on that date.
  • D. Organization Levels – the home organization levels you wish to restrict from using those selected pay types.

3. Click SAVE

After clicking save, the name in the Select Date field will update to a combination of the Blackout Date and Reason for Blackout.

Deleting a Blackout Date

To Edit a Blackout Date, please complete the following steps:

If not yet on the Blackout Dates page, follow the steps in the “Navigating to the Blackout Dates Page” section.

1. Select the blackout date you wish to edit from the Select Date drop-down menu

2. Click Delete

3. A confirmation box will appear, asking if you’re certain you want to permanently delete this blackout date. If so, click the OK button.

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