DocumentationOnboarding and probation
Probation and confirmation
How probation starts on the first day, how HR confirms, extends or ends it, and how the confirmation letter is created and shared.
Documentation (17)
Probation is its own record in DayOneFlow, not a date in a calendar. It holds the deadline HR and the manager work towards, and it ends with exactly one recorded outcome: confirmed or ended — with any number of extensions before that.
Before the first day
The planned probation end date lives on the new-hire record and can be edited until the first day (shortcuts fill in 3, 6 or 12 months). It moves with a start-date change if you choose to. Leave it empty when there is no probation period.
When it starts
- On the start date, in your organization’s time zone, the new hire moves to Onboarding and, if they have a probation period, their probation record starts from the planned dates.
- After the first week (7 days), new hires with a probation period move to Probation.
- From then on the dates are read-only: only a probation decision can change them. The original end date never changes; the current end date can only move later.
The Probation tab
HR, admins and the new hire’s manager see the Probation tab: when probation started, the original and current end dates with the days left, the number of extensions, “Outcome due” once the end date is reached, the final review, and the history of Decisions, newest first.
Who records the outcome
HR and admins. The new hire’s own manager can too when an admin turns on Managers may record the probation outcome of their own new hires in Settings. An outcome can be recorded from the first day.
Record the outcome
Under Record the outcome, choose the Outcome. Only that outcome’s fields are shown:
| Outcome | You enter | Button | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirm | Notes (optional) | Confirm employment | The new hire is Confirmed and the journey is complete: open tasks and check-ins are closed, completed ones stay. The confirmation letter is created. The portal stays open. |
| Extend | New end date, reason for the extension, improvement expectations, optional next review | Extend probation | The current end date moves and the status does not change. Tasks tied to the probation end move with it, and a next review adds a check-in for the manager. |
| End | Outcome note, optional reference and final day | End employment | The record is closed as Ended: the journey is cancelled and the portal link closes. |
- An extension’s new end date must be after the current one, in the future and within two years of the start date. If the final review was already submitted, a new final review is added for the new date.
- Confirm and End are final. Decisions are never edited or deleted; the history keeps every extension.
- Submitting twice records one decision. If someone else decided while your form was open, yours is refused instead of acting on old information.
- Notes and reasons are visible to HR and the manager, never in reports or the audit trail.
- New hires without a probation period can be confirmed or ended directly, but not extended.
DayOneFlow does not handle offboarding
Who is told
- HR and the manager get an in-app notification (except whoever recorded the decision).
- The employee is emailed a confirmation or an extension at their personal email. An extension names the new end date, never the reason.
- An ending sends no automatic email: tell the person directly.
The confirmation letter
- Confirming freezes the organization’s letter template and every value in it at that moment; later changes to the template, the employee or the organization never change it.
- The PDF is created from that frozen copy. HR and admins download it from the Probation tab. The employee can download it in their portal only if an admin ticks Show the confirmation letter to the employee in their portal.
- A value that was not set prints as a placeholder such as
[Manager not set], and the letter cannot be regenerated — check the record before you confirm.
The letter’s wording is set by an admin in Organization settings.
Reminders
HR and the manager are reminded in the app and by email when probation ends within 14 days, and in the app when the end date has passed without an outcome. An extension re-arms the reminders for the new date; an outcome stops them.