AttendFirst holidays - Indian gazetted holiday setup

A holiday in AttendFirst is a non-working date: employees who don’t check in are not marked Absent, and the date appears on the shared leave calendar for everyone the holiday applies to. AttendFirst ships with a per-year Indian gazetted holiday list of about 20 dates, including Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti, Diwali, Holi, and Eid. Import the whole list with one click under Setup → Holidays.

What the list shows

Each row shows the date, the holiday name, whether it is Mandatory or Optional, and its scope as a coloured badge:

• Company wide (grey badge): applies to every employee in every location.
• Location name (blue badge): applies only to employees assigned to that location.

Two filters sit above the list:

• Year: numeric input, defaults to the current year.
• Scope picker: defaults to Company wide. Pick a specific location to see Company wide holidays plus the location-scoped ones together.

Adding a holiday

Click Add Holiday in the top right. Fields:

• Date: the calendar date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• Name: shown on the calendar (for example, “Republic Day”).
• Optional: turn on if this is a floating holiday employees can choose to take.
• Applies to: scope picker. Pick Company wide to apply to everyone, or pick a location to apply only there. Default is Company wide.

Save, and the date appears immediately on the calendar for the matching employees.

If you click Add Holiday from inside a location’s detail page (under /admin/settings/locations/[id]?tab=holidays), the scope is locked to that location. This prevents accidental org-wide changes from a per-location screen.

Bulk-importing Indian holidays

AttendFirst maintains a per-year list of Indian gazetted holidays: about 20 dates including Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti, and the major festivals. Floating dates like Diwali, Holi, and Eid are updated annually.

To import:

1. Click Load Template in the top right.
2. Pick a year.
3. Review the list and uncheck any your company doesn’t observe.
4. Click Import.

Imported holidays are created as Company wide, so they apply to every employee in every location. Re-running the import is safe - existing dates are skipped, never duplicated.

Optional holidays

Mark a holiday Optional to let employees choose whether to take it off. On optional holidays:

• Employees can still check in and work normally. Status will be Present as usual.
• Employees can also request the day as leave, which routes to their manager for approval.
• The calendar shows the date with a dashed border to signal it is optional.

Common optional holidays in India: Ambedkar Jayanti, regional festivals like Pongal outside Tamil Nadu, Good Friday.

Multi-location holidays

Regional festivals are the main reason to scope a holiday. If your Hyderabad office observes Ugadi but your Bangalore office doesn’t:

1. Open Add Holiday.
2. In the Applies to picker, choose Hyderabad Office instead of Company wide.
3. Save.

Employees at the Hyderabad location see Ugadi as a holiday on their calendar; the Bangalore team sees a normal working day for that date.

You can also add the same holiday straight from the location’s detail page (Setup → Locations → click a location → Holidays tab → Add Holiday). The scope is locked to that branch on this path, which prevents accidental Company wide changes.

For the full list of how locations affect holidays, see Multi-location attendance.

What employees see

The Holidays page under My Activity shows a read-only year view for the logged-in employee. They see:

• Every Company wide holiday for the selected year.
• Plus holidays scoped to their assigned location.

Admins publish; employees read.

How holidays affect attendance

On a holiday:

• No check-in required. Employees are not marked Absent.
• If an employee does check in (optional holiday, or the company works that day), attendance is recorded with status Present.
• The day shows on the Attendance status reference as Holiday.

Editing and deleting

Click the three-dot menu on any row. Editing opens the form with current values; you cannot change the scope of an existing holiday (delete and re-add to move scope). Deleting a past holiday does not retroactively change past attendance status - records stay as they were.

Frequently asked questions

Why do the Diwali and Holi dates change every year?

Because they follow the lunar calendar. AttendFirst updates the floating-holiday dates in the template each December for the next calendar year. Use Load Template annually to refresh.

Can I have different holidays per location?

Yes. Use the Applies to picker on the Add Holiday form, or add the holiday from inside the location’s detail page. Location-scoped holidays only appear for employees at that location.

Do holidays count against leave balance?

No. Holidays are non-working days and don’t subtract from anyone’s leave quota. Only approved leave requests do.

What if a holiday falls on a weekend?

AttendFirst does not auto-shift the holiday to Monday. If you want a compensatory off, add a separate holiday entry on the Monday with a name like “Republic Day observed”.

Can I delete a Company wide holiday for just one location?

No. Company wide holidays apply everywhere by design. To exclude one location, delete the Company wide entry and add per-location holiday entries for every other location instead. Or mark it Optional so employees at the location that doesn’t observe it can still apply for leave.

Related docs

• Locations. Set up the branches that location-scoped holidays apply to.
• Working hours and shifts. Which days are working days to begin with.
• Leave requests. How optional holidays convert to leave applications.
• Attendance status reference. All status codes including Holiday.