Record, approve and cancel leave requests

Leave requests come from two places: employees submit their own from self-service, and HR records leave on an employee's behalf from this screen. Either way the request starts as Pending and takes effect only when it is approved. Approval deducts the balance and marks the days as on leave in the attendance register.

Before you start

• Set up the leave types your company uses, with their days per year.

• Set the company weekend days in HR Settings. Leave is counted in working days, so the weekend matters.

Record leave for an employee

1. Open People › Time & Attendance › Leave Management and select Apply for leave.

2. Choose the Employee and the Leave type.

3. Set From and To, and enter the Reason.

4. Attach a file under Attachment if needed. Some leave types, such as sick leave, require a supporting document.

5. Save. The request appears in the list as Pending.

The system refuses the request when the employee has no balance for that type, when the balance does not cover the days, when the dates overlap another pending or approved request, or when the dates are before the employee joined.

How the days are counted

The Days column counts working days only. The company weekend days and public holidays inside the range are not charged. A Thursday-to-Sunday request with a Friday and Saturday weekend costs two days. A one-day request always costs at least one day.

Approve or reject

1. Find the request. Filter by leave type, status, employee or department.

2. Open the row's actions and select Approve, or select Reject and enter the Rejection reason.

When an approval workflow is set up for leave, the row shows the current step, for example Step 1 of 2, and who it is waiting for. Only the approver of the current step can approve it. Open Approval workflow to see the steps so far. A user with the override right can close the remaining steps with Final approve (override) and a Reason, which is kept in the approval history.

Approval is refused when:

• the balance no longer covers the request, because other leave was approved since it was filed;

• the employee already has attendance punches on any of the days. Clear those punches first;

• you are approving your own request.

What happens after approval

• The days are deducted from the employee's balance for the year in which the leave starts.

• Each day inside the employee's shift working days is written to the attendance register as On leave.

• If the leave type is unpaid, every approved day is deducted on the payslip at the basic salary divided by the working-days divisor.

Edit, cancel or delete

• Edit is available while the request is Pending.

• Cancel is available while it is Pending or Approved. Cancelling an approved request gives the days back to the balance and re-grades the attendance days.

• Delete removes a pending request, and appears only on your own requests.

Common questions

Where do balances come from? Each employee gets a balance per leave type for each year, equal to the type's days per year. In the year an employee joins, the balance is prorated by the months left in that year. The cards at the top show your own balances.

Can a request be in the past? Yes. Sick leave is often recorded after the fact. Employees cannot submit leave from self-service for dates inside a payroll period that has already been processed.