Brownout rules within the auto-approve service tell CommunityWFM how many hours, how many agents, or what percentage of agents to approve automatically, then it will start denying any additional requests. A brownout rule based on number of hours is only available within a calendar partition.
Auto-approval with brownout rules is first-come, first-served only (not based on seniority or other ranking profile).

• You can have different rules for each day of the week and different rules per Activity.
• You can have different rules for different date ranges.
• You can apply a rule to selected supervisor groups.

Think of these as 'slots per day' not time of day. Application of the rule is not dependent on the time of day that agents are scheduled.
If using calendar partitions: CommunityWFM 5.x can evaluate partial day requests when calculating the number of people who can take time off. E.g., If Greg requests 4.0 hours and there is a brownout rule that only 8 hours are allowed, another agent can take 4.0 hours off without triggering the brownout rule. Note: The rule does not consider time of day, so both agents can be approved for the same 4-hour block.

Create a brownout rule for a number / percentage of agents

Plan > Auto-approve service > Rules > Enterprise Model | Supervisor tree

1. If EM: Click on a Site, Folder, Activity, or the call center. If Supervisor: select the supervisor from the dropdown menu.
2. Select Agent Brownout Date Rule from the dropdown menu.
3. Click Apply selected rule to create the new rule.
4. Edit or add your custom denial message.
5. Enter the date range for this rule. This allows creating seasonal brownout rules.
6. Set the number or percentage of agents who are approved for any given day.
7. Click Save.

Pro-tip: Be sure to add a number in the Limit approved requests to... column or change the Based on this value... dropdown to Do not evaluate requests on this day of the week. Otherwise, CommunityWFM will deny all requests for that day.

Create a brownout rule for number of hours in a calendar partition

Plan > All things time off > PTO Calendars > Calendar partitions

1. In the PTO Calendar Overview menu select Rules, Events, & Available PTO.
2. In the PTO Rule Overview menu select Time Off Rules.
3. Select Apply new time off rules to this calendar.
4. Select Agent Brownout Date Rule.
5. When applying the brownout parameters, there is an additional option: Limit to a fixed number of approved hours of time off.

Enable the brownout rule

Plan > All things time off > Time off settings > Time off rule settings
Click the edit (pencil) icon in the brownout date rule row then select Yes, enforce this time off rule... and Yes, include this rule...
Note: Waitlisting is only available in calendar partitions.

To learn more about the auto-approve service, view the webinar: All About Auto-approve