# Use Case: On-Call Rota Next to Time Off, With Reminders

Source: [https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/working-with-virto-calendar/use-case-on-call-rota-and-time-off/](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/working-with-virto-calendar/use-case-on-call-rota-and-time-off/)
Product: Virto Calendar App
Updated: 2026-10-23


This use case shows how to keep an on-call rota in a SharePoint list, see it next to the team's time-off requests in one calendar, and let reminders tell the engineer, the team and the rota coordinator what they need to know. It continues the [vacation approval use case](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/working-with-virto-calendar/use-case-approve-reject-vacation-requests/index.md): the time-off list and its **Approval Status** are the same.

[Open the interactive demo](https://app.storylane.io/demo/tfxgzlw1zkij)

**Interactive demo walkthrough**
1. On call, on one calendar — The rota list and the time-off list side by side, and reminders that tell the engineer, the team and the coordinator.
2. Two SharePoint lists on one calendar: the rota, coloured by role, and the time-off requests, coloured by status. Marco Rossi is on vacation in his own primary week.
3. A click on a shift opens its card: the week, the role and the service, straight from the row in the rota list.
4. The week of 21 December: Daniel Weber is primary and on vacation, and Christmas Day comes from a public-holiday feed. Anna Keller, the backup, carries the week.
5. On call in 3 days writes to the engineer named in each rota row: three days before the Start, at 09:00, primary and backup each get an email of their own.
6. On call next week: the same kind of reminder posts the rota row to the team's channel in Teams through a Workflows link. Nobody forwards anything.
7. Time off approved fires only when a request's Approval Status turns to Approved, so the rota coordinator hears about leave at once.
8. Put the rota and the time off on one calendar — Virto Calendar App and Virto Alerts & Reminder App run in your Microsoft 365 tenant; the rota and the leave stay in SharePoint lists.

## What you need

- **Virto Calendar App** and **Virto Alerts & Reminder App** in your Microsoft 365 tenant.
- An **On-call rota** list: one item per person and week, with the columns **On-call engineer** (a person), **Start**, **End**, **Role** (for example Primary or Backup) and **Service**.
- A **Time off requests** list with content approval switched on, as described in the [vacation approval use case](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/working-with-virto-calendar/use-case-approve-reject-vacation-requests/index.md).
- Optionally, the iCal address of a public-holiday calendar for your country.

## Step 1. Put both lists on one calendar

1. Open the calendar settings by clicking the calendar name.
2. Add the **On-call rota** list as a SharePoint data source, mapping **Start** and **End** to the event dates. See [Adding a New Data Source](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/data-sources/sharepoint-list-as-a-data-source/adding-a-new-data-source/index.md).
3. Add the **Time off requests** list the same way.
4. Add the public-holiday feed as an [internet calendar](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/calendar-overlay-pro/data-sources/internet-calendars-icalendar-feed-google-calendar/index.md).

Each list keeps its own permissions; the calendar only draws them together.

## Step 2. Colour the rota by role and the leave by status

1. Edit the **On-call rota** data source, open the **Color code** tab, select the **Role** field and give Primary and Backup their own colours.
2. Edit the **Time off requests** data source, open the **Color code** tab, select **Approval Status** and colour Approved, Pending and Rejected.

A week in which the primary engineer is also on leave now stands out in Month, Year Quarter and Flat Year views, and holidays from the feed sit on the same days.

## Step 3. Remind the engineer before the shift

Create a reminder on the **On-call rota** list ([how to create a reminder](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/alerts-and-reminders-by-virto/configuration-and-usage/creating-a-reminder/index.md)):

- **Recipients**: the **On-call engineer** column, so each person in the rota gets their own email and next quarter's rota needs no new rule.
- **Options**: **Send on date depending on a field value**, field **Start**, **Before** 3 days, **Send separate e-mail for each item** ticked, and the hour to send at.

A new reminder does not send on the day it is created, so set it up at least a day before the first shift it should catch.

## Step 4. Tell the team channel who is on call next week

Create a second reminder on the same list with the same timing, and paste a Microsoft Teams Workflows link into **MS Teams Workflow URL** in **Recipients**. The link is created in Teams with the **Send webhook alerts to a channel** workflow; see [How to send alerts from SharePoint to Microsoft Teams](https://docs.virtosoftware.com/docs/alerts-and-reminders-by-virto/configuration-and-usage/how-to-send-alerts-from-sharepoint-to-microsoft-teams/index.md).

## Step 5. Tell the coordinator when leave is approved

Create an alert on the **Time off requests** list with the change type **Existing items are modified** and two conditions in **Options**: **Approval Status** has been changed, and **Approval Status** equals Approved. Send it immediately to the rota coordinator. Managers approve or reject the request on the calendar itself, and the request's colour changes with its status.

## What the apps do not do

The calendar and the reminders keep the rota visible and remembered. Paging an engineer when an incident fires, escalation chains, and building or balancing the rotation belong to an incident or shift-scheduling tool: the coordinator fills the rota list.