ELMO Version 6

Electronic Leave Management Organizer.

User’s Guide

United States Bankruptcy Court

Northern District of New York
 U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

ELMO User’s Guide

U.S. Bankruptcy Court

James T. Foley U.S. Courthouse
445 Broadway, Suite 330
Albany, NY 12207
(518) 257-1661
WELCOME .................................................................................................................................................. 1
WHO IS THIS MANUAL FOR?........................................................................................................................ 1
HOW DO I RUN ELMO? .............................................................................................................................. 1
LOGIN SCREEN ......................................................................................................................................... 2
HOW DO I LOGIN TO ELMO? ...................................................................................................................... 2
USER INTERFACE..................................................................................................................................... 4
HOW DO I EXIT ELMO?.............................................................................................................................. 4
MENU BAR .................................................................................................................................................. 5
MESSAGE BAR ........................................................................................................................................... 6
CHANGING YOUR OPTIONS .................................................................................................................. 7
CHOOSING A NEW START-UP SCREEN ........................................................................................................ 7
HAVING ELMO EMAIL YOU WHEN YOUR LEAVE IS APPROVED. .................................................................. 7
Option is grayed out ............................................................................................................................. 7
CHANGING YOUR ELMO PASSWORD ......................................................................................................... 7
WHAT IS A VALID PASSWORD? ................................................................................................................... 8
CUSTOMIZE SUMMARY SCREEN ................................................................................................................. 8
HOW DO I SAVE MY CHANGES?................................................................................................................... 8
BALANCE SUMMARY SCREEN ............................................................................................................. 9
PLUS SIGN – EXTENDED LEAVE INFORMATION........................................................................................... 9
REQUESTING LEAVE............................................................................................................................. 11
ONLY ONE SCREEN? IS IT REALLY THAT SIMPLE? .................................................................................... 11
STEP 1: CHOOSE TYPE OF LEAVE ............................................................................................................ 11
STEP 2: ADJUST LEAVE TIMES AND DATES ................................................................................................ 12
STEP 3: ENTER ANY REMARKS .................................................................................................................. 12
STEP 4: SUBMIT THE LEAVE...................................................................................................................... 13
What will I see if the leave is valid?.................................................................................................... 13
What if something was wrong with the leave request? ....................................................................... 13
HOW SMART IS ELMO?............................................................................................................................ 14
VIEWING LEAVE..................................................................................................................................... 15
HOW DO I VIEW MY PAST LEAVE REQUESTS? ............................................................................................ 15
HOW DO I VIEW A LEAVE SLIP? ................................................................................................................. 15
LEAVE SLIP SAMPLE:................................................................................................................................ 16
MY LEAVE SLIPS DON’T HAVE SIGNATURES?............................................................................. 16
DELETING A LEAVE REQUEST ................................................................................................................... 17
SORTING MY LEAVE REQUESTS ................................................................................................................. 17
FUTURE LEAVE BALANCES ................................................................................................................ 18
TIME SHEET ............................................................................................................................................. 19
CERTIFYING YOUR TIME SHEET ................................................................................................................. 20
UN-CERTIFYING YOUR TIME SHEET .......................................................................................................... 20
PERSONAL DATA EDITOR ................................................................................................................... 21
LEAVE HISTORY REPORT ................................................................................................................... 22
VIEWING A LEAVE HISTORY REPORT ......................................................................................................... 22
LEAVE CALENDAR................................................................................................................................. 23
VIEWING THE LEAVE CALENDAR .............................................................................................................. 23
QUICK NAVIGATION ................................................................................................................................. 24
CUSTOM VIEWS AND OPTIONS ................................................................................................................. 24
Managing Views ................................................................................................................................. 25
PRINTING A LEAVE CALENDAR ................................................................................................................. 25
DELEGATING........................................................................................................................................... 27
LEAVE REQUESTS TO BE REVIEWED.............................................................................................. 28
IF YOU AGREE WITH THE LEAVE SUBMITTED ............................................................................................. 28
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE LEAVE SUBMITTED .............................................................................. 28
ELMO USER GUIDE

Welcome

W
elcome to ELMO.
ELMO is an automated leave management system
that was created to facilitate an easy, fast, and fun
way to request leave without the use of a paper
leave slip. The leave request is sent electronically to the
supervisor for approval. ELMO also adds many time saving
functions such as:

• Easy Interface – One easy screen to request leave.

• Useful pre-designed reports.
• Review submitted leave slips with ease.
• Forecast projected leave balances for anytime in the future.
• Ability to print any leave request if needed.
• Use/Lose reminders.
• Powerful Leave calendar with many options.
• Most of all, it’s fun to use.

Who is this manual for?

This manual will show you how to get around the ELMO menu
system. It will show you how to request leave, show you how to
view your leave requests and also help you plan your future leave.

How do I run ELMO?

On your desktop there should be an icon that looks like this:
Just click (or double click) on the icon and the ELMO login
Screen will pop up.

I DON’T HAVE AN ELMO ICON!

Simply call your systems department and they will
install the ELMO software on your computer.

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Login Screen

How do I login to ELMO?

Type in your login name and password given to you by your
personnel specialist and click the Login Button.

I DON’T REMEMBER MY LOGIN OR

PASSWORD!
Simply call your personnel specialist and they will be
able to issue you a new password or tell you your login name.

Error: Database error connecting to ELMO. Call Systems.

ELMO can’t find the server so call your systems department and
let them know.

Error: Invalid Login or Password.

The login name you entered or the password you entered did not
match the login ID or password on file. Please check the login
ID and make sure you typed it in correctly. Retype your
password.

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If that didn’t work, make sure you have your CAPS LOCK off.
Passwords and login IDs are case sensitive.

If you still can’t get in call your personnel specialist and they will
be able to help.

Error: You have exceeded the maximum login attempts.

You get three tries to enter a correct login ID and password.

After your third try ELMO shuts down and you must restart the
ELMO program to try again.

Did you ELMO remembers the last successful login ID. Usually all you
know??? will have to do is start typing the password once the login screen
comes up.

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 ELMO USER GUIDE

User Interface

1. Current User Bar

2. Menu Bar (See Section IV)

3. Interface screen. This changes depending on which

function in ELMO you are actually working on.

4. Message Bar (See section V)

How do I exit ELMO?

To Exit, click the little X in the upper corner of the
screen:

The ELMO program can be resized to many different sizes.

Did you
Resize by holding your cursor over the bottom right corner of the
know?
program and then click and hold the Left Mouse Button and drag.
ELMO will even remember the size each time you login.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Menu Bar

This menu bar is at the top of every screen in ELMO. It is a

quick way of getting around ELMO. From any screen in ELMO
you can get to any other by just using this menu bar.

At most screens, there is no OK button or Accept button to end

a transaction. You don’t need one. If you are in the middle of
entering a leave request and want to skip over to the calendar just
click on the calendar button.

Some of the menu buttons have sub menus attached to them.

For example:

If you want to exit a sub menu without choosing any of it’s

options just click anywhere else and the menu will close.

Menus with a little triangle after the words mean there is another
sub menu pertaining to it. There is an example of this in the
menu above.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Message Bar

You’ll find this at the bottom of every screen in ELMO. It will

tell you if you will have use or lose, it will tell you if you have
leave that is going to expire soon and it gives you informational
messages from ELMO, like when your leave request was
successfully sent, etc.

If you have more than one message, it will show you the total
number of messages in the bottom right corner. Every 5 seconds
the message showing will change to the next message in a
different color. Once they have all been shown it will repeat.

Most of the time the button in the bottom right corner

of the screen will say, “No Alerts”. But other times (as
seen in the full bar picture above it will show the
number of current alerts. You can click on this button to bring
up an information box that will show all alerts at one time.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Changing your Options

Choosing a New Start-Up Screen

The first screen you see in the interface section is up to you!
Right after you log in you can have ELMO bring you directly to
the Balance Summary screen, the Calendar, or right to the Request
Leave screen.

Just click on Choose Start-Up Screen and you’ll see your

choices. Click on the one you want and that’s all there is. The
next time you log into ELMO you’ll be at your new Home.

Having ELMO email you when your leave is approved.

When this is set to yes ELMO will email you and let you know as
soon as your manager approves (or deletes) your leave slip.
Option is grayed out
If this is grayed out, contact your Personnel Administrator. She
may need to add your email address to the system.

Changing your ELMO Password

Clicking on Change
ELMO password brings
you to this screen:

Type in your current

password (the one you
just used to get into
ELMO) and then type
your new password in the

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ELMO USER GUIDE

next two boxes. ELMO will not show the letters you type but
instead will show an *. This is a security feature so someone
behind you will not be able to read your passwords on the screen.

What is a valid Password?

ELMO requires you to make your password at least 5 characters
long. The password can be letters or numbers. Generally
speaking a password should be made up of a combination of
letters and numbers. It shouldn’t be your name or spouse’s name.
It should be something near impossible to just guess. For
example: fried88chicken or mission0192impossible.

Customize Summary Screen

ELMO allows you to show on your balance summary screen only
the leave types you want to see.

Just click on Customize Summary Screen and you’ll see this:

How do I save my changes?

Leave types with a checkmark show up on your balance summary
page and the others do not. Once you make any changes just go
to any other screen or exit the program and ELMO saves your
changes automatically.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Balance Summary Screen

This screen shows your leave balances for the types of leave that
you requested to be on your balance summary screen.

To change the types of leave shown on this screen see: Section

VI: changing your options.

Plus Sign – Extended Leave information

Some leave types may have a plus sign in front of it. Clicking on
this plus sign will drop down more information about that leave
type. For instance, if you have any future transactions, or if you
have been advanced leave.

Beginning Balance
This is the beginning balance as of the start of the current leave
year or it was your balance when you started using ELMO.

Accrued
The amount of leave you have accrued since the beginning of the
current leave year. This total only reflects leave given to you up to
the last closed leave period. The date shown in the Current User
Bar - Leave balances as of shows you up to which date the
leave balances are reflected.

Used

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ELMO USER GUIDE

The amount of leave you used since the beginning of the leave
year. This amount also only shows leave that was taken up to the
leave balances as of date.

Balance
This is your current leave balance as of the date in Leave
balances as of:

Future (if shown)

This is the amount of leave that you have requested that is in a
period that hasn’t been closed by your personnel specialist yet.
For example: If ELMO currently shows you Leave balances as
of: 5/6/2001 and you have a leave request for 8/8/2001, ELMO
will show these hours here because technically they are not in
your current leave balances.

Advanced (if shown)

This is the amount of leave that has been advanced to you. It will
show the total advanced and the total you have paid back and the
remaining hours to be paid back.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Requesting Leave

Only one screen? Is it really that simple?

Yes, everything you need to request leave is right here. ELMO
customizes the questions based on what kind of leave you are
requesting. After filling out this easy form all you need to do is
press the button and your leave will be
submitted to your supervisor.

Step 1: Choose Type of Leave

To start, just click on the little down arrow on the box that shows
the leave type. This will show you
all the different kinds of leave you
are able to request.

There are also Donate, FFLA, and FMLA checkboxes that will
show up depending if the current leave types support them.

Example of Donating Leave Screen.

Just enter the name of the person
you are donating to and the amount
you want to give. Some courts also
require extra paperwork to be filled

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ELMO USER GUIDE

out so please contact your personnel specialist for your court’s

procedure for donating leave.

If you do select FFLA or FMLA,

additional questions might show
on your screen. Fill these out too.
For example, requesting FMLA
leave you also have to fill out the
reason for the FMLA request and
the relationship of the individual
you are taking the leave for.

Step 2: Adjust leave times and dates

Fill in the start date/time and end date/time.

Click on the little down arrows

to drop down a calendar to
pick from on the date
questions and a list of valid
times on the time questions.

The Total Hours Leave will

reflect the number of hours
that you would have to request if you were to request this leave.

ELMO knows your leave schedule and will only show you the
times that are valid to your day. For example if on Mondays you
work 7:00 am – 10:00 am, ELMO will only show you the hours
between 7 and 10. Also, if you were to select Monday to Friday
ELMO would only take into account your hours of 7-10 on
Monday when calculating the full week. If you typically have
every Wednesday off, ELMO knows this too and will not count
these days. Nor will it count Holidays that fall within the dates
you specify.

Step 3: Enter any remarks

Enter any remarks you want on the leave slip in the Remarks
section.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Step 4: Submit the leave

Press the button to have ELMO check to see
if you have enough hours or if there were any errors.

After clicking the button you will get one of

two screens.

What will I see if the leave is valid?

This screen means you have enough hours to take the leave you
requested. It also is
asking you to agree to the
leave statement.

You can still cancel the

leave request at this point
by clicking on the Cancel
button. You will get a
confirmation box that
says, “Are you sure you want to cancel this leave request?” After
that you will be brought back to the request leave screen.

After clicking on Yes, I agree to the above statement the

leave request will be sent electronically to your supervisor for
approval. If you have Email Notification turned on in your
options you will get an email shortly after your manager approves
your request.

What if something was wrong with the leave request?

This screen shows that
there was a problem with
the leave request.
Whatever the problem
was, ELMO will tell you
in RED at the top of the
screen. A number of
things could be wrong.

• You did not have enough leave. ELMO will tell you
exactly how much leave you did have to take at the start
of your leave.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

• You already had leave requested for the same time

period. Just click the OK button and fix the leave and
resubmit.
• You had future leave that made it so you couldn’t
take leave now. If you get this error it’s because
ELMO allowed you to take leave for some future date
but if it allowed you to take the leave you’re requesting
now you wouldn’t have enough leave hours to take that
future leave. Either change your leave or delete the
future leave.

WAIT A MINUTE! I’M SURE I HAVE

ENOUGH LEAVE. WHY IS ELMO TELLING
ME I DON’T?
Simply call your personnel specialist and let them know
your problem and they will help you work it out.

How smart is ELMO?

Not only does ELMO know your schedule and takes that and
holidays into account when you request leave it also knows how
much leave you will have at a future date. Even if you go to a
new leave earning level. For example, even if your leave balances
currently show only 10 hours ELMO knows that you will have
earned another 10 hours for 2 months from now and let you
request up to 20 hours on that date. If in one month you went
from earning 4 hours a pay period to 6 hours, ELMO would allow
you to take for example the full 22 hours at that later date.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Viewing Leave

How do I view my past leave requests?

In the menu bar click on View then
on Leave Requests.

You will then see a screen similar to this:

This screen shows all your past and future leave requests.

Leave shaded in yellow is leave that is already reflected in your

leave balances. This will change as your personnel specialist
closes leave periods.

You can also change the drop down Include leave from past #
days. This will let you customize the amount of leave requests on
this screen.

How do I view a leave slip?

To view the leave slip either double click
on a leave request or right click the leave
request and click on View Leave.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

When the leave slip viewer opens you’ll see this menu at the top
of the screen:

Print Zoom Exit

Page navigation Show whole page

Leave Slip Sample:

MY LEAVE SLIPS DON’T HAVE SIGNATURES?

Some courts don’t use signatures in ELMO. If your court
doesn’t use signatures you might see the signatures
replaced with the typed equivalent.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Deleting a leave request

To delete a leave request just right click on the leave request and
select Delete Leave from the pop up menu.

You can’t delete leave that has already been approved. If you
need to delete the leave you need to call your supervisor and ask
them to delete it or un-approve it.

Sorting my leave requests

To sort the list differently, double-click on one of the headings,
such as Type of Leave or Start Date. This will sort your leave
in a new way.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Future Leave Balances

In the menu bar click on View then

on Future Leave Balances.

You will then see this screen:

Click on
the little
down
arrow on
the white
date box
and
change the date to any date in the future to see your balances.

You also have three other options to consider when checking

your future balances:

1. No future leave requests. – This gives you what

your leave balance would be on a certain date
without taking into account the leave you have
requested from the last closed pay period to the date
you selected.
2. Include requests up to date. – This will calculate
your balance on that date including all the leave
requests you have submitted from the last closed
period to the date you chose.
3. Include all future requests. – This gives you your
balance on the date you chose but includes all leave
requests even if their date is after the date you chose.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Time Sheet
In the menu bar click on View then
on Time Sheet. This option may
not be available if your HR
department has not activated the
Time and Attendance Module for
ELMO.

You will then see this screen:

Based on options set by your Personnel Specialist this screen will

work in one of two ways. If you are using the ELMOTIME
Module then the times in each box will be filled in by that. You
will be getting actual times your computer is turned on and off.
You won’t be able to edit these values. If you need these values
changed check with the person your court as specified as the
Time and Attendance Editor.

When NOT using the ELMOTIME Module, these times will be

filled in using your scheduled time for the day. You may or may
not be able to edit these values based on the options set by your
Personnel Specialist.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

If you are able to edit these times then please use the format 2:00
pm or 8:00 am, etc.

Holidays are automatically added to your time sheet and leave you
request with ELMO is automatically entered here as well. So if
you requested leave from, for example, 1-5pm, you would only
see your times from 8-1pm. You will not be able to edit the
Leave Taken boxes.

Certifying your time sheet

Each day, or anytime in the two week period you can access this
time sheet and certify each day by placing a checkmark in the
Certify box preceding each days time.

Once you certify each day the Certify Time Sheet Button will
become enabled. When you click this you will be certifying that
your time worked is correct and ELMO will then electronically
send this report to your manager.

Un-Certifying your time sheet

If you discover an error
after certifying, you will
have to contact your
manager to Un-Certify
the time sheet. After
they un-certify it you
will them be able to fix
the time sheet and
recertify.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Personal Data Editor

In the menu bar click on View then
on Edit Personal Data.

You will see a screen like this:

This screen can change depending if your Personnel Specialist

allows editing and what information your particular court tracks.
In the example above the fields that are white are fields that I can
edit and keep up to date. Fields that are grayed out are there for
your information and to view but you cannot edit them. If they
are incorrect please see your personnel specialist.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Leave History Report

The leave history

report lists your
earned and used
leave for a period
of time that you
choose. It will
show each leave
request and any
leave that you
earned.

Viewing a leave history report

To view the leave history report, in the menu bar click on View
then on Leave History Report.

From there set the from date and the to date and click the View
Report Button.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

Leave Calendar
Viewing the leave calendar
To view the leave calendar click on the Calendar button on the
menu bar.

You’ll notice that the Current User Bar disappears. This is so you
have more room to view the calendar. But as you notice, you’ll
always have access to the menu bar.

Each day
shows all
the leave
requests
taken and
any special
events for
that day.

The
current day
is high-
lighted in
yellow.

If there is
not
enough
room to show all the events for that day, ELMO will show a little
red triangle down in the bottom right corner of that day. Click
inside the day box and you’ll be able to scroll down and view the
rest of the events.

Entries on the calendar can be grayed out. This means the leave
request has been requested but it is still pending approval from
their manager.

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You can resize the ELMO interface by holding your mouse cursor
over the bottom right corner of the ELMO window and then
press and hold the left mouse button and drag. The calendar will
resize and you’ll be able to see more names and events.

Use the and buttons to go to the

previous month and next month, respectively.

Quick Navigation
You can click on the
MONTH at the top of
the screen to access this
menu:

From here you can

quickly go to today’s
date or another month.

Custom Views and Options

Right click on the
calendar to bring up the
Calendar Options
Popup menu.

Whenever you change

something in this menu
ELMO will remember them for future sessions.

Zoom Windows
When there is a checkbox in front of this option you will get an
extended day box that is bigger than the regular size day box
when moving around from day to day. It shows more
information if you have the ELMO window sized small. Just click
to turn this option on or off.

Font Size
Will change the font size for all text on the calendar screen. Pick
the one you like and ELMO will remember it.

Views

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This will let you choose which people to show on your calendar.
You can Show All Employees or Show only your leave or Show
only your department.

The Show only your department will show all people that have the
same supervisor as you in ELMO.

If you select Show all Employees but you can’t see all employees,
first check to make sure the Locations entry shows all locations
(See below). If that still doesn’t work, contact your Personnel
Specialist.

Managing Views

On this screen you will be able to create a view called anything

you want and select only the people you want to be on the
calendar. Under the Custom Views Column if you Right Click
you will see the popup menu above. Insert a New View. Name it
anything you want and then drag and drop employee names from
the right to the view of the left. When you are done, press the X
in the upper right to close the window. Now you will be able to
select that view and only see those people you placed there. You
can also right click on a view on this screen and delete it or
rename it.

Locations
If your court has multiple locations you’ll see this option.
Otherwise you may not see it. Click on the location you want to
see and ELMO shows only those employees at that location.

Printing a leave calendar

You have two options when printing the leave calendar.

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ELMO USER GUIDE

List view: Prints the

calendar using the same
filtering criteria that you
are currently using.

Calendar view: This view

prints a full-page calendar
with all the leave events and
holidays. It doesn’t matter
how many leave names are
showing on the calendar on
the screen, more will show
on the printed form. If you
have too many names for a
given day than will fit on
the calendar day box
ELMO will print an
overflow message in the
box and the names that
didn’t fit will print out on
page two.

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Delegating
A manager can delegate their leave approving authority to you in
their absence. If this is the case you will see an addition to your
ELMO menu bar.

Assume Button

The Assume Button

When you click on the Assume button it will popup a submenu
with the command become. Hold your mouse over the become
command and it will show you each manager that is delegating to
you. Just click on the manager you want to login to ELMO as.

Once you click on one, your ELMO will look just like you logged
in as that
manger,
except that it
will have a
message
stating that
You are
currently assuming as seen above.

When you want to get back to yourself just click on the arrow
button.

If you are not familiar with managerial functions in ELMO please

read the ELMO Manager’s guide.

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Leave Requests to be reviewed

If, when
logging into
ELMO you
may receive a
screen that
looks like this:

You may
never see this
though if your
court doesn’t
require review
of leave requests by you if submitted by your manager while you
were out.

If your court does have this option turned on anytime someone

enters leave for you, you will get this popup message that you are
required to respond to.

You can double click on each request to view the leave slip.

If you agree with the leave submitted

Place a checkmark the box in front of each leave request listed
and then close the box. Each leave request will be appended with
a note on it that you have reviewed the slip and the date reviewed.

If you do NOT agree with the leave submitted

Close the box. You will not be allowed into ELMO. Contact the
person who submitted the leave request for correction.

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