Within Natural HR, there is the option to set up a 'time off blackout period'. Enabling this feature will prohibit any authorised time off from being booked within a specified date range. 

When enabling time off blackout periods, there is the option to allow HR and / or managers to overwrite this and submit time off requests on behalf of their employee to ignore the blackout period and add this time off manually.  

Please note: This will only work with Authorised time off, any time off types which have been set to unauthorised will not be subject to the time off blackout periods. 

To enable this feature, you will need to go to:

Administration -> Company -> Settings -> Timeoff settings (global)"

Under 'General Settings', you will need to adjust the setting for 'Timeoff blackouts' to suit your preferences. 

Once submitted, you will need to go to:

Administration -> HR -> Timeoff management -> Time off blackouts

To add a new time off blackout click Add. On this page you can give the new blackout a suitable name  and configure the date range you'd like the blackout to span across, you can also limit the blackout by site and department. Lastly there is a comments box for any general notes regarding this blackout period. Once you're happy with the blackout settings click Submit.

Once the blackout is submitted you should see a green success banner like so:

If an employee attempts to book an authorised time off type during the blackout period they'll see this error message and will be unable to submit the request: