Connecting an OOO Data Source in Span

Out-of-office (OOO) tracking lets Span understand when team members are unavailable, ensuring that productivity metrics reflect actual working time rather than vacation or absence periods. This document explains how to connect an OOO data source, how OOO days are determined, and how this data flows through Span's reports and metrics.

Overview

Span requires a single configured OOO data source per organization. When connected, Span automatically computes OOO person-days for each team member and uses that data to normalize metrics across reports.

You can source OOO data from one of two options:

Note: Only one OOO source can be active at a time. Choose the source that best reflects your team's actual availability.

Option 1: Calendar Integration

How It Works

Span connects to your calendar provider (e.g., Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook) and scans for events where the attendee is marked as Out of Office / unavailable.

For each such event, Span:

1. Converts the event window to the employee's local timezone

2. Calculates how many hours of the event overlap with business hours (8am–6pm)

3. Applies a weekday filter — weekends are never counted

4. Marks the day as OOO if the event covers more than 4 hours of business hours

Examples:

Edge cases: Events starting after 6pm are shifted to the following day; events ending before 8am are attributed to the previous day.

Setup

1. Go to Settings → Integrations

2. Connect your calendar provider (Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook)

3. Navigate to Settings → Calendar Configuration to confirm Calendar is selected as your OOO source

Option 2: HRIS Integration (via Kombo)

How It Works

Span integrates with your HRIS via Kombo, a third-party integration layer that normalizes absence and time-off records from a wide range of HR systems into a common schema. Span syncs these records daily.

Supported HRIS platforms include:

• Workday

• BambooHR

• HiBob

• Rippling

• ADP Workforce Now

• Dayforce

• Okta (HRIS)

Don't see your system? Contact your Span representative — Kombo supports many additional platforms.

Configuring Which Absence Types Count as OOO

Not all absence types in your HRIS may represent true time away from work. During setup, you can configure how Span filters absence records:

Setup

1. Go to Settings → Integrations

2. Connect your HRIS via the Kombo connector; select Absences as a data type to sync during the connection flow

3. Navigate to Settings → Calendar Configuration to select HRIS as your OOO source and configure absence type filtering

How OOO Data Is Attributed

Once your OOO source is connected, Span computes a daily OOO record per person. A person is marked OOO on a given day when:

• It is a weekday (Monday–Friday)

• Their OOO coverage exceeds the 4-hour business hours threshold (Calendar), or an approved absence record exists in HRIS

These OOO person-days are tracked at the individual level and rolled up to team and organization-level capacity views.

Reports and Metrics Impacted

OOO data plays two roles across Span:

1. Normalization — OOO days are excluded from metric denominators so that productivity metrics reflect only actual working days

2. Capacity visibility — OOO person-days are surfaced directly as a metric for planning and analysis

Productivity Metrics (Normalized by Active Non-OOO Days)

The following metrics explicitly exclude OOO days from both their activity counts and their normalization denominators:

Where to find these: Insights → Productivity (Code, AI, and Focus Time sections)

OOO-Specific Metrics

These metrics directly measure time-off patterns and availability:

Where to find these: Insights → Productivity → Focus Time and the Time & Capacity Analytics dashboard

Cost Capitalization / Allocation

OOO time is excluded from cost capitalization (CapEx/OpEx) calculations because it represents non-productive capacity. You can configure how Span handles OOO time that cannot be redistributed to other work:

You can also configure the redistribution period (Day, Week, Month, or Quarter). Week-level redistribution is generally recommended as it covers most OOO scenarios without over-redistributing across unrelated work.

Where to configure this: Settings → Calendar Configuration → OOO Exclusion Method

Choosing the Right Setup

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use both Calendar and HRIS at the same time? No. Span uses a single OOO source per organization. Choose the source that most accurately reflects actual availability.

What happens if no OOO source is connected? Metrics that normalize by active days will treat every weekday as a working day. This can inflate per-week productivity metrics for team members who take time off.

Does OOO tracking affect Active Contributors counts? The standard Active Contributors metric uses a 30-day rolling window and is not affected by individual OOO days — temporary absences don't drop someone from the active contributor count. The Daily Active Contributors metric (used as a normalization denominator) does exclude OOO days.

Is OOO data visible at the individual level? Yes. OOO days are viewable per person in the Focus Time and Time & Capacity Analytics views, in addition to team-level and org-level roll-ups.

Will OOO Data be applied retroactively once an OOO source is configured? Yes, OOO data is applied retroactively — both Calendar and HRIS integrations will process historical data from your source system when first connected, not just data from the setup date onwards. This means your existing productivity metrics will be retroactively normalized once the source is configured.

However, how far back the data goes depends on your source system, not on Span:

• Calendar integration — Span will pull all historical OOO-marked calendar events that your calendar provider retains. Google Calendar and Outlook generally retain event history as long as the events exist in the calendar.

• HRIS integration — Span will sync all historical absence records available in your HRIS. Most HR systems retain years of absence history, so this is typically very complete.