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A leave block list lets you freeze leave on specific dates — the days nobody (or almost nobody) may take off. The classic example is a year-end financial close, a stocktake week, a peak trading period, or a system go-live, where the business simply cannot afford people being away. Once a date is on a block list, any leave application that touches it is refused at submission time, with a message naming the block list and the reason. This page covers creating a block list, scoping it to a department or leave type, letting certain roles bypass it, and how the block is enforced when someone applies for leave. You’ll find this at: /settings/erp/people/leave — open the Block Lists tab.
Block lists belong to a business (or can be made tenant-wide). A block list left without a business applies across all your businesses; one tied to a business only blocks that business’s leave. Check the business switcher before you create one.
📷 Screenshot: the Block Lists tab with the list of block lists and the “Add Block List” button — to be added.

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What a block list is made of

A block list has three parts:
  1. The list itself — a name and an optional reason, plus its scope (which business, and optionally which department and which leave type it applies to).
  2. Blocked dates — one or more specific calendar dates, each with its own optional reason.
  3. Allow roles — the roles, if any, that are permitted to take leave despite the block.

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Creating a block list

On the Block Lists tab, choose Add Block List.
📷 Screenshot: the Add Block List form — name, reason, the blocked-dates table, and the allow-roles input — to be added.
The form refuses to save without a name and at least one date.

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Scoping a block list

Beyond the business it belongs to, a block list can be narrowed:
  • By department (org unit). Left unset, the block applies to everyone; set it, and only that department’s staff are blocked.
  • By leave type. Left unset, the block applies to all kinds of leave; set it, and only that leave type is blocked (so you could, for example, freeze Annual Leave at year-end while still allowing Sick Leave).
⚠️ Current state: the department and leave-type scoping are supported by the system, but the Add Block List form does not currently expose fields for them — block lists created through the screen apply to the whole business and to all leave types. To use the narrower scoping today you’d need the API. (Flagged for the team.)

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Letting certain roles bypass a block

Sometimes the rule needs an exception — perhaps senior managers or board members may still take leave during the freeze. Add their roles to the Allow Roles list and people holding those roles will not be blocked. There is also an all-or-nothing override on the list: when Apply block list to all is turned on, even the allow-roles cannot bypass it — the block is absolute. (This is on by default behaviour when no allow-roles are set; with allow-roles set, those roles bypass unless “apply to all” is on.) Role matching is case-insensitive and tolerant of the internal role-name suffix Hitaji uses, so you can enter roles by their plain names.

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How the block is enforced

A block list does nothing on its own — it bites when someone applies for leave. As a leave request is created, Hitaji checks the requested date range against every active block list that applies to the employee’s business (and department/leave type, where scoped). If any blocked date falls inside the requested range — and the applicant doesn’t hold a bypassing role — the request is refused with a message of the form:
Leave blocked by “Year-end freeze 2026” on 29 Dec, 30 Dec, 31 Dec — Financial close.
The check is by calendar day, so the time of day is irrelevant.

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Removing a block list

Deleting a block list deactivates it (a soft delete) — it stops being enforced but the record is retained. There is no edit-in-place; to change blocked dates, deactivate the old list and create a fresh one.

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Permissions

The hr-leave:config permission is the same one that governs leave types, allocations, and holiday lists — the leave-configuration role.