Text-to-Timely lets your employees text the Timely number in plain English to request time off. The request lands in your manager Requests inbox as pending. You approve or deny in the dashboard like any other request.
No app to install, no portal to remember — just text the number you got the shift alerts from.
What employees can text
Today, time-off requests only. The parser is conservative — it only acts on messages that clearly request time away from work, so casual back-and-forth ("thanks!") doesn't trigger anything.
Examples that work:
- "Off May 1-10"
- "Need Friday off"
- "PTO May 5"
- "I need to take next Wednesday off for a doctor's appointment"
- "Vacation week of May 25"
Examples that don't (yet):
- "Can I swap with Mike on Sat?" — shift swap, on the roadmap.
- "When's my Saturday shift?" — schedule queries, on the roadmap.
- "I'm sick today" — sick day reporting, on the roadmap.
For anything outside time off today, the system stays silent. Employees default to texting their manager directly.
What employees see
After they text a recognizable request, they get a confirmation:
You: Off May 1-10
Timely: Got it — requesting May 1–10 off (10 days).
Your manager will review and let you know.
If something's off, they get a specific reply:
| Their text | What we send back |
|---|---|
| Date in the past | "Those dates look like they're in the past. Reply with future dates (e.g. 'Off May 1-10') or HELP for examples." |
| Range over 30 days | "That's a 45-day request, longer than we auto-file by text. Please talk to your manager directly." |
| Overlaps an existing pending/approved request | "You already have a request that overlaps those dates." |
| Phone not in any org's roster | "We don't recognize this number. Please contact your manager so they can add you to Timely." |
| HELP | The list of commands and what they do |
What managers see
The request lands in your Requests inbox (sidebar nav, with the pending count badge) as a normal time-off row, just with a phone icon in the source column to mark it as SMS-originated. Click to expand → approve or deny.
When you take action, the employee gets an automatic SMS + email reply confirming the outcome.
Date parsing
The parser handles natural-language dates conservatively. It's anchored to today's date in the location's timezone, so:
- "Tomorrow" → next calendar day at the location
- "Next Friday" → the upcoming Friday (not the one this week if today is already Wednesday-or-later)
- "May 1" with no year → the next future May 1
- "May 1-10" → range from May 1 through May 10
- "5/1" → May 1 (US format)
If the parser can't lock onto concrete dates ("sometime next week", "a few days in May"), it returns nothing and stays silent — employees retry with more specific dates.
Phone identification
The system identifies the sender by phone number matched against your roster. So:
- An employee on the roster with no Timely login can still use Text-to-Timely.
- The phone number must match exactly (we normalize to E.164 internally; +1 prefix is added automatically for US numbers).
- If two of your employees share a phone (rare), the request is associated with the first match — file a support ticket if this is your case.
Privacy & audit
Every inbound message is logged to your org's communications history (the existing log at /admin/communications — only visible to platform staff and your owner). The logs include: the raw message, the parsed intent, the resulting time-off period (if one was created), and the outbound reply. Useful for "what did Sarah text in?" support questions.
Cost
There's no per-request charge to your Timely subscription. SMS volume is tracked under your plan's monthly allowance — see Plans & limits for the cap that applies to your tier.
What's coming
- Shift swap — "Can someone cover Saturday 4pm?" broadcasts to eligible employees, first YES wins.
- Availability changes — "Can't do Tuesdays anymore" updates persistent availability.
- Sick day — "Out today" auto-removes from current shift, notifies manager.
These are sequenced behind the time-off use case — once we see how managers use the inbox in practice we'll prioritize what to add next.