Who it’s for: Sense HR Administrators and users with permission to manage Event Manager
Platform: Sense HR
Available on: Team / Professional / Elite / Enterprise
Before you begin
☑️ Make sure you understand the Event you want to configure and which groups of people need different settings.
☑️ Make sure you have the Administrator Access Role, or an Access Role with permission to manage Features > Settings > Calendar & Planner – Event manager.
☑️ On Team plans, Event Manager is available only to users with the Administrator Access Role.
For an introduction to Event Manager and the different Event categories, see:
About Event Manager rules
An Event is an option that can be booked or recorded in Sense HR, such as Holiday, Training or Sickness.
A rule determines how an Event works for a particular group of people.
Rules let different groups use the same Event with different settings.
A rule defines who the Event applies to and how it works for them.
This article explains how to plan and structure rules. Individual configuration settings are covered in the linked booking, access and entitlement articles.
📖 Example: Your organisation uses one Holiday Event. Holiday normally requires approval, but the Senior Leadership team can book Holiday without approval.
Rather than creating separate Holiday Events, you can create:
Standard employees — approval required
Senior Leadership — no approval
Both groups still use the same Holiday Event, but the rule that applies to each employee determines how Holiday works for them.
Understand what can differ between rules
Different rules for the same Event can give different people or groups different booking, access or entitlement arrangements.
Depending on the Event category and configuration, different rules can have different:
booking access — who can book, edit or delete booked Events;
booking behaviour — partial-day options and booking constraints;
approval requirements;
booking outside working hours, where available;
entitlement arrangements for Time-off Events, including allowance, first-year entitlement, Carryover, Length of service and booking over entitlement; and
Sickness reason settings for the system Sickness Event.
For instructions and explanations of the individual settings, see:
Understand the default rule
When you create a Working or Time-off Event, Sense HR automatically creates its first rule.
The default rule is assigned to the Everyone Smart filter.
This makes the Event applicable to everyone included by that Smart filter unless you change the rule’s Scope.
If different groups need different settings, you can change the default rule’s Scope and add further rules.
🖊️ Note: New rules are restricted to administrators by default, so you can configure the rule before making it available to its intended users.
For instructions on creating Events and adding rules, see:
Plan your rules before configuring them
Before adding rules, identify what genuinely needs to differ between groups.
Start with the Event itself.
Ask:
Is this fundamentally the same Event for everyone?
Which people should the Event apply to?
Do any groups need different booking permissions or restrictions?
Do some groups require approval while others don’t?
For Time-off Events, do entitlement arrangements differ?
Are there groups the Event shouldn’t apply to at all?
If the Event is fundamentally the same but its configuration differs, use multiple rules for the same Event rather than creating duplicate Events.
📖 Example: Amelia and Kofi both book Working from home. Amelia works in Customer Support, where bookings require approval. Kofi works in Development, where bookings are confirmed immediately.
They don’t need separate Working from home Events. Create one Working from home Event with separate rules for the Department Smart filter groups Customer Support and Development.
💡 Tip: Give rules names that explain their audience or purpose, such as Standard employees, Directors – no approval, or Contractors – no entitlement. Clear names make complex Event configurations easier to maintain.
Understand Scope
Each rule has a Scope that determines who the rule applies to.
Use:
Assign to — select the people or Smart filters the rule should apply to.
Exclude people — remove people who would otherwise match the rule but shouldn’t be covered by that particular rule.
Use View filter results to check which people currently match the Scope.
🖊️ Note: A person should be covered by only one rule for the same Event.
They can be covered by rules for any number of different Events. For example, Kofi can have an applicable Holiday rule, Training rule and Working from home rule.
Understand the Everyone Smart filter
Everyone is a dynamic Smart filter rather than a fixed list of employees.
It includes everyone in Sense HR who hasn’t been deleted, including:
active employees;
new starters, who are included automatically; and
people marked as leavers who haven’t yet reached their removal date.
Everyone is dynamic, so new employees are included automatically unless they match the rule’s Exclude people criteria.
💡 Tip: For Events that should be widely available, consider keeping an Everyone rule as your catch-all. Exclude groups that need different settings and give them separate rules.
This helps ensure new employees and people who don’t match your other Smart filters still have an applicable rule. Without a catch-all rule, changes such as adding a new Department or Contract type can leave people unable to book the Event.
Use Assign to and Exclude people to separate groups
A common pattern is to keep an Everyone rule for the majority of employees and exclude a smaller group that needs different settings.
You can then create another rule for the excluded group.
📖 Example: Your organisation allows most employees to carry over up to 5 days of unused Holiday, but the Logistics team has a contractual arrangement allowing up to 10 days.
You could:
Keep Everyone assigned to the standard Holiday rule.
Exclude the Logistics department from that rule.
Create a Logistics rule.
Assign the Logistics department to it.
Configure the higher Maximum carryover for the Logistics rule.
Each employee is then covered by one Holiday rule with the appropriate Carryover settings.
Understand rule assignments and exclusions
Excluding someone removes them from that rule, but doesn’t necessarily make the Event unavailable to them.
Another rule for the Event may still apply.
This distinction is important when you want to make an Event unavailable: check all rules for that Event, not just one.
📖 Example: An organisation uses Contract type Smart filters to apply different Holiday rules to Permanent, Fixed-term and Casual employees.
Amelia has a Permanent contract, so the Permanent employees Holiday rule applies to her.
If Amelia doesn’t match any of the Contract types used by the Holiday rules — or she’s specifically excluded from the rule she would otherwise match — no Holiday rule applies to her. Holiday therefore isn’t applicable to Amelia and can’t be booked by her or on her behalf.
💡 Tip: When you use Smart filters to divide people between rules, make sure your rules collectively cover everyone who should have access to the Event, without overlapping. View filter results can help you check who is included in each rule.
Understand rule conflicts
Each person should be covered by only one rule for the same Event.
A conflict occurs when the Scope of two or more rules for the same Event includes the same person.
If you create an overlap while configuring a rule, Sense HR displays a rule conflict and prevents the conflicting rule from being saved.
📖 Example: An organisation has separate Training rules for employees with Job title: Supervisor and employees with Location: London.
Tian’s Job title is Supervisor and her Location is London, so she matches both rules. The two Smart filters therefore overlap for Tian.
Decide which rule should apply to people who belong to both groups, then update Assign to or Exclude people to remove the overlap. For example, if London Supervisors should use the Supervisors rule, exclude employees with Job title: Supervisor from the London employees rule.
Use View filter results to check who each rule currently includes and identify unexpected overlaps.
💡 Tip: Rules based on different profile fields can overlap even when each Smart filter looks correct on its own. Where practical, use the same type of Smart filter across the rules for a single Event — for example, separate rules based on Contract type. This creates clearer groups and helps minimise unexpected conflicts.
If you need to combine different criteria, such as Location, Department and Job title, consider where those groups could overlap and use View filter results to check the resulting rule membership.
Understand dynamic rule membership
Smart filters are dynamic, so the people covered by a rule can change when profile information changes.
For example, if a rule uses Location: London, someone can start or stop matching that rule when their Location is updated.
This can also create a rule conflict if the profile change causes them to match another rule for the same Event.
📖 Example: Mateo is covered by a Training rule for employees with Contract type: Fixed-term.
Mateo later becomes a permanent employee and his Contract type is updated in Sense HR. Because the Smart filters are dynamic, he stops matching the Fixed-term rule and starts matching the rule for Contract type: Permanent automatically.
No administrator needs to move Mateo manually between the two rules.
💡 Tip: Use View filter results when reviewing rules rather than assuming the people covered by a Smart filter haven’t changed.
Understand Event applicability
An Event is applicable to someone only when at least one rule for the Event applies to them.
If no rule applies:
the employee can’t book the Event for themselves; and
another user can’t book that Event for the employee.
This gives you a way to make an Event available only to selected groups.
📖 Example: Your organisation has a Study Leave Event that applies only to employees enrolled on an approved programme.
If the Study Leave rules apply only to those employees, Study Leave isn’t an applicable Event for anyone outside those rules. They can’t book it for themselves, and an authorised user can’t book it on their behalf.
When someone books Study Leave for another employee, only employees covered by an applicable Study Leave rule can be selected for the booking.
Understand Event Manager rules and Access Roles
Event Manager rules and Access Roles control different parts of what a user can do.
An Access Role determines whether the logged-in user can access the relevant employee and Planner actions.
The Event Manager rule determines what can be done with that Event for the employee it applies to.
Event Manager doesn’t grant access to an employee’s Planner by itself.
📖 Example: Susan is Fred’s manager and wants to book Holiday for him.
Susan’s Access Role must give her access to Fred and permission to add Events to his Planner. The Holiday rule that applies to Fred must also allow the Event to be booked by another authorised user.
If both allow the action, Susan can make the booking.
For information about configuring Self-booking, booking by others, Edit/Delete access and administrator-only Events, see:
For information about Access Roles, see:
Understand how rule changes affect existing bookings
Rule changes don’t automatically update existing bookings.
However, if an existing booking is later edited, the current applicable rule is used for the edit. The edit is therefore checked against any rule settings that have changed since the original booking.
📖 Example: Amelia books Holiday while Allow to book over entitlement is ON, taking her balance below zero.
The rule is later changed so overbooking is no longer allowed. Her existing booking isn’t changed automatically.
If Amelia later edits the booking, the current rule is applied. If her recorded entitlement is insufficient, she may need to change the booking before it can be saved, or discard her changes and leave the original booking unchanged.
⚠️ Important: Consider existing bookings before changing a rule or giving users permission to edit booked Events. A booking that was valid when originally made may no longer meet the current rule when it is edited.
For instructions on individual rule settings, see:
Best practice
✔ Plan groups before creating rules
Identify which groups genuinely need different settings and what those differences are before configuring multiple rules.
✔ Use one Event where the Event itself is the same
Use additional rules for different policies or groups instead of creating duplicate Events unnecessarily.
✔ Keep rule Scopes mutually exclusive
Each person should have one applicable rule for an Event. Use View filter results to check membership.
✔ Design dynamic Smart filters carefully
Consider how future changes to Location, Department, Contract type or Job title could change rule membership.
✔ Use meaningful rule names
Names that identify the audience or purpose make configurations easier to understand later.
✔ Review rules when policies or organisational data change
Smart filters and organisational structures change over time. Recheck rules when the information they depend on changes.
FAQs
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Click for answers to frequently asked questions
Q: What is an Event Manager rule in Sense HR?
A: An Event Manager rule determines which people an Event applies to and how that Event is configured for them.
The same Event can have different rules for different groups, allowing settings such as booking behaviour, approval or entitlement to differ without creating duplicate Events.
Q: Why would I create more than one rule for an Event in Event Manager?
A: Create more than one Event Manager rule when the same Event needs different settings for different groups.
For example, the same Holiday Event could require approval for most employees but not for Senior Leadership, or use different entitlement arrangements for different groups.
Q: Can the same person be included in more than one rule for an Event in Event Manager?
A: No. A person should be covered by only one rule for the same Event in Event Manager.
If rule Scopes overlap, Sense HR reports a rule conflict. Use View filter results and update Assign to or Exclude people so that only the intended rule applies.
Q: Why did I get a rule conflict when my Event Manager rules worked before?
A: An Event Manager rule conflict can appear later because Smart filters are dynamic. A change to an employee’s profile information, such as their Location or Job title, can cause them to start matching another rule for the same Event.
Use View filter results to identify the overlap and update the rule Scopes.
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 doesn’t apply to them. Another rule for the same Event may still apply.
If no rule for the Event applies to them, the Event isn’t applicable to that person and can’t be booked by them or on their behalf.
Q: Why can someone access an employee’s Planner but not book a particular Event for them?
A: Access to an employee’s Planner doesn’t automatically allow every Event to be booked for them.
The logged-in user’s Access Role must allow the relevant Planner action, and the Event Manager rule that applies to the employee must allow that Event to be booked by others. Both must permit the action.
For information about Event booking access, see:
Q: Why isn’t an Event available to book for a particular employee in Sense HR?
A: An Event may not be available to book for a particular employee because no Event Manager rule for that Event applies to them.
Open the Event in Event Manager and use View filter results to check which people each rule currently covers.
If no rule applies to the employee, the Event isn’t applicable to them. They can’t book it themselves, another user can’t book it on their behalf, and they aren’t available under Assign to when another user books that Event.
Q: If I change an Event Manager rule, does it change Events that have already been booked?
A: No. Changing an Event Manager rule doesn’t automatically update existing booked Events.
However, if an existing booking is later edited, the current applicable rule is used for the edit. Settings such as access, booking restrictions, approval, booking outside working hours or booking over entitlement may therefore differ from when the Event was originally booked.
Q: Do I need to manually move employees between Event Manager rules when their profile information changes?
A: Not where the rules use Smart filters. Smart filters are dynamic, so an employee can automatically stop matching one rule and start matching another when relevant profile information changes.
For example, updating an employee’s Contract type can change which Contract type-based rule applies to them.
Check that the change hasn’t caused the employee to match more than one rule for the same Event.
Q: Should I create another Event or another rule in Event Manager?
A: Create another rule where the Event itself is the same but different groups need different settings.
For example, if two groups both book Holiday but need different approval or entitlement arrangements, use separate rules for the same Holiday Event.
Create a separate Event where the activity or type of time off itself is genuinely different.