Documentation – OutSync: Leave, Vacation & Out of Office Tracker

Overview

OutSync manages employee leave requests and approvals inside Jira and Confluence, with optional Google Calendar sync.

OutSync is delivered as two separate Forge apps:

• OutSync for Jira
• OutSync for Confluence

Each app works independently within its product, with its own team configuration, approvers, and accrual policy — installing both isn’t required, but there’s nothing extra to configure if you do.

---

Install the app

Install the relevant OutSync app(s) from the Atlassian Marketplace and approve the requested permissions during installation:

• Install OutSync for Jira to manage leave for Jira projects, with a “who’s out” panel on the board.
• Install OutSync for Confluence to manage leave for Confluence spaces, with a Team Availability tab.
• Install both if your organization uses both products — each keeps its own separate configuration.

---

Admin: configure a team

Step 1: Pick a team to configure

Open OutSync’s admin settings (Jira: Apps → OutSync under Jira admin settings; Confluence: General settings → OutSync) and pick a team on the Team settings tab — a Jira project or a Confluence space. Every section on this tab applies to whichever team is selected here.

Step 2: Set approvers for the team (optional)

On the Approvers tab, add one or more people as this team’s approvers, then Save team override. Leave it empty to fall back to the org-wide default set below it — and if neither is configured, OutSync automatically falls back to the Jira project lead or the Confluence space’s admins, so there’s always a working approval path.

Step 3: Exclude public holidays from balance deductions (optional)

On the Holidays tab, pick a public holiday region (currently United States, United Kingdom, or Germany). Once set, public holidays that fall inside an approved leave request’s date range are automatically excluded from the balance it deducts.

Step 4: Set the org-wide accrual policy

On the Org settings tab, set how many days per year employees accrue, whether half-day increments are allowed, and how many unused days carry over into the next year (up to a cap you choose). This applies to every team unless a specific team is given its own override.

---

Employee: request time off

Step 1: Submit a request

From OutSync’s general access screen, pick your team, a leave type, a date range, and submit. Your current balance and any pending requests are shown right above the form.

Step 2: Wait for approval

The request routes automatically to your team’s configured approver(s). You can edit or cancel it from the same screen while it’s still pending.

---

Approver: review the queue

My approval queue (any employee who approves for at least one team)

Switch to the My approval queue tab and pick which team(s) you approve for — it spans every team you’re an approver for, not just one, with filters for team, date range, and employee.

This team’s approval queue (admin)

An admin can also review and decide a specific team’s queue directly from the Approval queue tab in Team settings — useful as a break-glass path independent of who’s configured as that team’s approver.

---

See who’s out

Jira: board panel

Open More board actions → Team availability on any Jira board to see who’s out, with a preset for Today, Next 2 weeks, or Next month.

Confluence: Team availability tab

The same view is available as a Team availability tab on OutSync’s Confluence general access screen.

---

Google Calendar sync (optional)

Step 1: Connect a Google account

From Org settings, an admin clicks Connect Google Calendar and completes Google’s consent screen. This is a one-time, organization-level connection — not something every employee does individually.

Step 2: Let it create team calendars automatically

The first time a leave request for a team is approved after connecting, OutSync creates a shared Google Calendar for that team and adds the approved leave to it. Nothing further to configure.

Step 3: Share the calendar so employees can subscribe

The calendar lives under the connected organization account, not each employee’s own — an admin needs to share it once (Google Calendar → Settings and sharing → “Shared with” → add people or groups, or share it domain-wide from the Google Admin console if your organization uses Google Workspace). Once shared, employees see a Subscribe to the team calendar link right on OutSync’s general access screen.

If the connection needs attention

If Google stops accepting the saved credentials (access revoked from the Google side, or expired from inactivity), OutSync detects it automatically: leave approvals keep working exactly as before — the connection is optional and nothing blocks on it — but the admin settings screen shows a clear warning, and every employee sees a banner too, so it doesn’t go unnoticed.

---

Architecture highlights

• Fully built on Atlassian Forge
• Backend dependencies: @forge/api, @forge/kvs, @forge/resolver
• Frontend dependencies: @forge/react, @forge/bridge
• Google Calendar sync is the only integration outside Atlassian’s infrastructure — entirely optional, off by default, and never blocks the core approval workflow if it’s not connected or stops working
• Covered by an automated test suite across the approval workflow, accrual math, holiday exclusion, and board/space visibility