# Mark preferred days

![Mark preferred days](/files/help/employee-availability-2.mp4 "Choose Preferred on the days you would most like to work.")

An employee marks preferred days on **Availability** in the employee portal. Preferred means those are the days you would like to work. Publishing a schedule does not create pay.

1. Open **Availability**. On Home, the schedule card also opens **Availability**. The page says to drag days, then choose Preferred, Available, or Can't work.
2. The calendar opens on the coming month. Use **Today**, **Previous month**, and **Next month** to change months.
3. Select one or more days that are still open. Past days are disabled.
4. The dialog is **Mark this day**, or **Mark these days** when you selected more than one. If **Shift you prefer** is shown, pick a shift or leave **Any shift**. The field says it is optional and used when you mark a day as preferred.
5. Choose **Preferred**.

Days save on their own. Choose **Submit** when a scheduler should treat the month as submitted.

## What you should see

The day shows as Preferred. The month chip moves to In progress. After **Submit**, the confirmation says Availability submitted and the chip says Submitted.

The dialog names the days, as one date or as a range with the number of days.

## If something looks wrong

Past days stay disabled, so the mark dialog does not open. A past month says This month has already passed. **Copy last month** and **Submit** stay unavailable.

A locked month says: This month is locked. Ask a scheduler to reopen it if you need to make a change. See [When a month is locked](/hrms/attendance/locked-month).

If the save does not go through, the message is Failed to save availability. On a day you already marked, the dialog can offer **Clear this day** or **Clear these days**.