Frequently asked questions about Scheduling & Leave
Can I take leave from my overtime balance?
Yes. In addition to your regular leave hours, you can also request leave from your accrued overtime balance.
Who approves a leave request?
The practice manager approves or rejects requests. They automatically receive a Smart Alert for this.
What is the difference between leave and sick leave?
You request leave in advance, for example for a day off. You register sick leave when you're ill, usually the same day.
What is Magic Planner?
Magic Planner is the name our brochure uses for quickly creating a staff schedule. In the application you will find this under Create new schedule. You record fixed working hours, workstation and repetition once; when creating a schedule you then use Load from fixed schedule and Repeat, so recurring shifts do not have to be entered again every week. Make sure your workstations and positions are set up first — see the Blueprints step in Setting up your practice.
Can I receive my schedule by email?
Yes. Via Send as email you send your current schedule to your own mailbox.
Can I also see colleagues' schedules?
Yes. Via Team schedule you see the schedule of your whole team, and via Per Location the schedule per location.
How do I fill the week's schedule?
Go to Schedule → Team schedule, set the range to Weekly and click Highlight Missing: everything not yet staffed is marked in red. Click an empty slot, choose the position under Select position and assign someone with Confirm assignment. The full walkthrough is at Scheduling.
Why can't I schedule a new employee?
Usually because no fixed working week has been recorded for that person yet — the assignment list then shows No fixed schedule. That working week belongs to the employee's contract and is set through the personnel file, not through the schedule. See Scheduling.
Why is there suddenly an overtime request nobody submitted?
Because the planned schedule differs from that employee's fixed working week. DentallManager then creates a request for the difference itself, even if it is only a quarter of an hour.
That comparison runs during the night from Sunday to Monday, for all employees at once. On Monday morning the request is waiting and you are notified about it; in the schedule itself you can see the difference earlier. The app compares against the fixed working week from the personnel file, under the terms of employment — so that field has to be filled in correctly.
You'll find the requests under Time Tracker → Approvals → Overtime; open a line to see which day it concerns. If the difference is structural, it is the fixed working week in the contract that needs updating.
What happens to the time registration when I approve a request?
For leave, the hours are written off automatically and the balance adjusts straight away; the employee is automatically removed from the schedule. The app takes the hours from the statutory leave hours first, then from the non-statutory hours, and only then from the overtime balance. An approved overtime request works the other way around: those hours are added to the overtime balance. The full explanation is at Leave, absence and overtime.
I have no leave hours left — can I still request leave?
Your balance is not a single pot. Once your statutory hours are used up, the app takes the hours from your non-statutory hours, and after that from your overtime balance — that order is fixed. Taking leave from your overtime balance is therefore possible even when your regular leave hours are gone.
When reviewing your request, the practice manager sees how many hours you have left and decides on that basis. What the app does when every balance is at zero is not recorded in this documentation; discuss it with your practice manager or contact the helpdesk.
How does DentallManager handle pregnancy leave?
DentallManager treats pregnancy leave as an absence: just as with a holiday or a sick leave report, the employee is automatically removed from the recurring schedule, so you immediately see where cover has to be arranged.
How you enter such leave is something we cannot describe in full. We read the Reason list of an employee's request dialog from the application itself on 1 September 2026: it holds no separate pregnancy-leave reason — see Which reasons can you choose?. That does not mean the app cannot handle it; it means the route to record it is not in that dialog and we have not seen it. Contact the helpdesk to ask how it is recorded for your practice.
How do I enter parental leave?
As an ordinary leave request, under its own reason. Go to Time Tracker → Leaves, click New request and pick the reason value Ouderschapsverlof (onbetaald) (Parental leave (unpaid)) — the app writes its reason values in Dutch even in the English interface, and the italic text is a translation, not a second option. As the name says, this leave is unpaid. The full steps are at Requesting parental leave.
How do I enter leave that is paid and not deducted from my leave balance?
Through the Reason of the request. Three values in the list say so in their own name: Begrafenis 1e lijns (betaald verlof, niet in mindering op verlofsaldo) (Funeral, immediate family — paid leave, not deducted from the leave balance), Begrafenis (2e lijns) (betaald verlof) (Funeral, extended family — paid leave) and Bijzonder verlof (niet in mindering op verlofsaldo) (Special leave — not deducted from the leave balance). Such an absence does take the employee out of the schedule, but does not write the hours off the balance; in the history that row is marked light grey. The full explanation is at Leave that is not deducted from your leave balance.
How do I plan a single different shift without changing the fixed schedule?
Use Add Shift or Add Time Slot in the day view. The recurring pattern stays untouched.
Can I cancel or delete a request after submitting it?
As long as the request still has the status Requested, you can delete it yourself: click the delete icon on that row and confirm the warning that this cannot be reverted. The request is then permanently gone. Your balance does not change — a request with the status Requested has not been written off your leave balance yet.
Once the request is Accepted, an employee no longer has a delete or cancel action; contact your practice manager instead. A request can also get the status Cancelled. The full explanation is at Deleting a submitted request.
What is the difference between leave and vacation?
Vacation is a form of leave. Requesting vacation therefore works the same as requesting leave: via Quick Actions. Your balances automatically account for statutory and non-statutory leave hours.
Can't figure it out? Contact the free helpdesk at info@dentallmanager.nl.