Leave requests

A leave request is time off an employee has asked for, or that you've recorded for them. Your job is to review it and approve or reject it — approving posts it to the Workforce ledger and locks the dates from that point; a later change is a new entry, never an edit. Open Leave requests from the sidebar, under Today.

📷 Screenshot: The Leave requests list, with the status filter chips.

The Leave requests list

Filter chips across the top — All, Pending, Approved, Rejected — each with a count. Search with the keyword box. Click a row to open the review panel.

Creating a request on someone's behalf

Click New request to open the panel:

1. Choose the Employee and the Leave category.
2. Choose the first and last day.
3. For most categories, choose All day or a set time period, and add a note for the approver.

What happens next depends on the category:

• Ordinary leave — shows the employee's current balance. The exact hours charged are confirmed once you send it.
• TOIL — spent first; anything beyond the TOIL book is charged to the holiday balance. A live TOIL book check shows the hours in the book and, where the panel can work out the hours this request needs, the hours left after it — with a shortfall note when the book falls short. TOIL is earned elsewhere, through overtime approval; this panel only spends it.
• Rolled-up holiday — still requested and approved so the rota stays right, but no extra pay is due when it's taken — holiday pay is already paid with every payslip.
• Sickness, within the self-certification window — recorded straight away with no case, paid at the Company rate or the SSP rate. See Sickness.
• Sickness, past the self-certification window or a case-managed category (family leave types) — these are started as a statutory case instead of a leave request.

📷 Screenshot: The New request panel, with the balance-check block.

Reviewing a request

Click a request to open the review panel. Depending on the category and status, you'll see:

• Facts — days selected, working days, hours, and any note.
• Dates — with Change while it's still pending, which asks for a reason; nothing is on the ledger yet, so dates can still move.
• Charge control — the hours or days charged, adjustable before you approve; Reset returns it to the employee's own figure.
• Breakdown — days selected, working days, scheduled shift length, hours charged, and the day-by-day detail.
• Balance effect — before, deducted, and after, with a note if it takes the balance below zero or if other pending requests already hold some of it. For a TOIL request, this becomes TOIL book effect, reading the book instead of the holiday balance, with a shortfall note when the book falls short — approving still goes ahead either way, and TOIL figures are always expiry-adjusted, since unused TOIL past the policy's window expires automatically.
• Pay — a one-line summary of how this leave is paid.
• Sick rate — for sickness within the self-certification window, a choice of Company rate or SSP rate.
• Cover check — an expandable look at who else is off on the same days, and whether any day looks tight.
• Advisory — shown when the request would take the balance below zero; see below.
• Activity — every event on this request, most recent first.

Approving and rejecting

In the panel footer:

• Approve grants the leave and posts it to the Workforce ledger.
• Reject asks for a reason, which the employee sees in their app. Nothing posts to the ledger, and no balance moves.

Once a request is approved or rejected, its actions are replaced with Close.

Approving over the balance

Booking beyond the earned balance is never blocked. If a request goes past what's free to commit, Approve becomes Approve anyway, which opens a reason step showing how far ahead of accrual the request runs. Pick a quick reason or write your own — it's required — then Approve and stamp reason. The request is approved either way; your reason travels with it to payroll and is stamped to the ledger.

📷 Screenshot: The Approve anyway reason step, with the advisory bar.