Set the Outlook automatic reply from an approved Jira absence

The problem

People forget to switch on their automatic reply, set it for the wrong days, or leave it running after they are back. Customers and colleagues write into silence, and the calendar shows the person as free.

Step by step

1. Connect. An administrator enters the Entra ID app registration (tenant id, client id, client secret) and a sender mailbox in Mail & calendar, and runs the connection test.
2. Link. Each person links their mailbox once on their absence page, with a code sent to it — or, if the administrator allows it, with the address Atlassian holds for them.
3. Approve. When their request is approved, the app schedules the automatic reply for exactly the absence — half days included — and adds an entry shown as out of office to their calendar.
4. Text. The reply uses the person’s own text, the administrator’s default, or a built-in text in their language, with the return date and, if allowed, the substitute’s name.
5. Cancel. If the absence is cancelled, the app switches the automatic reply off and removes the calendar entry it wrote.

What to watch out for

Microsoft keeps one automatic-reply setting per mailbox: cancelling switches off whatever reply is set at that moment. The absence type and reason are never part of the reply. Who receives it outside the company — nobody, known contacts or everyone — is a setting. Restrict the app registration to the relevant mailboxes with an application access policy.