Managing Holiday Requests

As a manager, you are able to review incoming holiday requests, approve or reject requests with a single click. Everything about time off sits in one Time off group in the sidebar. A time off manager finds every screen there: New time off request, their own time off, the requests, the planner, the utilisation view and the Time off dashboard. Anyone else sees the same group with only New time off request and their own time off. There are 2 views that will help you manage holidays. First of them is Leave Requests tab.

You do not need the Time off manager role for this: anyone resolved as a person's approver — explicitly assigned, their line manager, or their department manager — gets the same Accept and Reject buttons on that person's requests. See Time off approvers.

All requested holidays are listed in the Leave Requests tab. The tab opens on the Pending requests. The status filter offers Pending and Rejected, and removing the last status filter returns the tab to Pending.

This section provides essential information about each request, including:

Name: The name of the employee requesting the holiday.
Leave type: The type of the holiday request.
Description: A short explanation or additional details provided by the employee regarding the holiday request (can be empty if configured as optional).
From/To: The start and end dates of the requested holiday.
Duration: The total duration of the holiday request, specified in hours.
Status: The current status of the request (e.g., Pending (if no Approvals yet), or Approved 1/2, Approved 2/3 if multiple approvals are required).
Arrow button: When a user clicks the arrow button, a side drawer appears, providing detailed information about the selected leave. This view serves both as an informational panel and an action centre for approvers. The drawer includes:

Employee name and avatar
Leave period: clearly shows start and end dates with total requested hours or days
When it happened: under the dates, Submitted gives the date and time the request was made, and once it has been approved or rejected, Decided gives the date and time of the latest decision and by whom. Both use your organisation's date format. A pending request shows only Submitted. A request approved only after its first day carries the mark Approved after the leave began; a rejection never does. For a request in the history, Submitted appears only where the submission time is known.
Current leave balance and the balance after the leave is deducted
Leave type and description, if provided
Approval path: displays the list of approvers if more than 1 needed.

From the home page

The Time off requests card on the home page counts the pending requests you can act on — the same ones that show Accept and Reject for you — and lists the three that start soonest, with the employee, dates, duration and leave type. Your own requests are not in it. Selecting a row opens the same side drawer, where the decision is made; Review requests opens the Leave Requests tab.

When nothing is waiting, the card says No pending requests and links to the request history. If the list could not be loaded completely, it shows the requests it has and says the list is incomplete rather than giving a total. The card is shown to people with the Time off manager or Time off verifier role.

A Time off viewer sees the card too, read-only. It lists every pending request they can see, of every leave type, under Awaiting a decision, and its button reads View requests. A row opens the same drawer, without Accept and Reject. Someone who holds the viewer role together with the manager or verifier role keeps the approver's card.

Read-only access: the Time off viewer role

The Time off viewer role is for someone who needs to see everyone's time off without deciding on it, such as an office manager planning cover. A time off viewer can open the Leave Requests tab, the Time off history tab and the Holiday Planner, and sees the read-only Time off requests card on the home page. They can also open the time off planner tab of a project, read-only, showing that project's members. Someone who holds time off roles but none of the projects roles sees only that tab of the project, and a link to any other tab of it opens the planner instead. They cannot accept, reject, add, edit or remove time off. The role is granted on a person's Permissions tab, as Time off viewer. See Permissions.

Supporting Documents

When the leave type asks for a supporting document, the drawer shows a Supporting documents section: the documents already attached, each of which can be opened, and a warning while one is missing. A request whose type requires a document cannot be accepted until one is attached.

The employee and anyone with the Time off manager role can add one with Attach document — for example on behalf of an employee who is off sick. An approver without that role can open the document but not attach one: the document comes from the employee, and the approver is the person waiting for it.

Approval Mechanism

If only one approval is required (i.e., Approval Count = 1), the first approver to accept the request will finalise it:

The status changes from Pending to Accepted
The request is automatically moved to the "Time off history" tab
The approver sees both Accept and Reject buttons

If multiple approvals are required:

Once the current user approves, they no longer see action buttons
The leave remains in the Leave Requests tab until all approvals are completed
The request is only moved to Time off history once all required approvals are fulfilled

When the Request Is Your Own

A holiday manager is also an employee, and may have a pending request of their own in the Leave Requests tab. Opening it shows the same drawer, but not the Accept and Reject buttons: nobody approves their own leave, so those actions are refused.

Instead the drawer offers a Bin button to withdraw the request, with the same confirmation used elsewhere. This is the same action available next to your own request on the "My absences" page — it is simply also reachable here, from the request's details.

This ensures full transparency in multi-level approval workflows while simplifying single-level approval cases.

All holidays that have been fully accepted are displayed in the Time off history tab. Ongoing holidays will have a blue background, making them easier to identify. Leave Requests and Time off history tabs can be filtered by Employee and type of holiday.

Managers have the ability to manage already approved holiday requests directly from the Time off history tab. When viewing a specific employee's approved leave:

Edit Functionality

By clicking the "Edit holiday leave" option in the side drawer, a standard edit modal appears.

The modal allows the manager to:

Modify the leave type.
Adjust the description.
Change the duration of the leave (date range and hours).

Note: It's not possible to change the employee when editing an already created holiday.

The leave balance displayed in the modal dynamically updates based on the edited duration. Once changes are saved, the leave details and leave balance are updated accordingly.

Remove Functionality

Managers can also click the "Remove holiday leave" button to delete the leave entry. A confirmation dialog will appear asking: "Are you sure you want to delete?" After confirming via "Yes, continue", the leave is removed from the system. If the deleted leave had previously reduced the employee’s leave balance, the balance will be automatically recalculated and updated to reflect the deletion.

This ensures full flexibility and accuracy in managing leave records, while maintaining up-to-date tracking of available days off for employees.

Creating Holiday on Behalf of Employee

As a manager, you also have the ability to create time off on behalf of any active employee by clicking the Add time off button in the top right corner. The dialog can do two different things, and a switch at the top of it — just under the person you picked — decides which:

Add absence records the time off straight away, with no approval. This is what this dialog has always done, and it stays the default.
Request on behalf files it as a request instead. It goes to that person's approvers exactly as a request they had submitted themselves would, and it is not time off until they approve it.

One line under the switch repeats which one you are on: Recorded straight away, without approval, or Goes to the approver like an ordinary request. The footer button changes with it — Create time off against Send request — and in request mode the footer also names who it will go to, under Approved by.

Note: The switch appears only for administrators and HR managers. A holiday manager without the HR role can still add an absence for someone, but cannot file a request in their name. If you do not see the switch, that is why.

To create time off on behalf of an employee, follow these steps:

Open the Time off group in the sidebar and go to the time off requests.
Click on the Add time off button.
Select the employee from the dropdown list.
Choose Add absence or Request on behalf.
Select the holiday type.
If that type is split by reason, pick one. The reason decides which part of the entitlement the time off draws on, so the figures beside the form follow it.
Provide a brief description (optional, if set as not required in settings).
Select the day or period for the holiday in the calendar using drag&drop functionality.
Save it with Create time off, or send it with Send request.

Note: Once a holiday type is selected, the description field will be marked as required or remain optional based on the common holiday settings.

Note: You also have the option to select a few hours (from 1 to 7) inside Hours field if the time off is less than one full day.

Note: Once you have chosen both a person and a type, the panel beside the form shows what the time off would change for that person, not for you. It gives the number of working days it actually costs — weekends, public holidays and that person's own working pattern are already taken out — their balance now and what it would become, and how much would still be left to take by the end of the year. Nothing is shown before both are chosen, because every figure in it belongs to a particular person.

Note: The panel gives one of three answers, and here it warns rather than refuses. It fits: within the leave already accrued. Taken ahead of accrual: not accrued yet, your organisation allows it, and the panel gives the date it evens out by. Beyond the entitlement for the year: the panel says so and still lets you record it, because a manager sometimes has to enter what actually happened — a sick note, or a backfill. This is where this dialog differs from the employee's own, in which that answer stops the request being sent.

Note: The panel also warns about dates that overlap an absence the person already has, rather than letting the save fail afterwards, and says when a supporting document is required for the type and reason chosen. The calendar marks weekends, public holidays and that person's existing absences, and gives the working-day count for the period.

Note: Repeat this absence is offered for Add absence only. A request cannot repeat, so the option is hidden as soon as you switch to Request on behalf.

Time off added with Add absence appears in the Time off history tab straight away, with the possibility to be edited or removed. One sent with Request on behalf appears in the Leave Requests tab instead, and stays there until its approvers have dealt with it.

Holiday Planner

The Holiday Planner, in the Time off group of the sidebar, provides a visual calendar view of all approved absences across the organisation, helping managers and teams plan work around employee availability. On a standard desktop screen, the planner displays a rolling 30-day window, beginning from the current day. This helps managers track both upcoming and current leaves at a glance.

Holiday Planner includes:

Interactive Calendar View – View scheduled holidays for employees.
Quick Holiday Creation – Click on an empty day tile or use drag-and-drop to add a holiday.
Approval Workflow – Approve or reject pending holiday requests.
Editing & Removal – Modify or delete approved holidays if needed.
Pending Approval Visibility – If additional approvals are required, the request will be marked as pending with relevant details.

Reading the planner

Each absence fills the days it covers, top to bottom, in its leave type's colour. The label sits inside the block as far as space allows. Single-day absences show only the duration.
Approved absences are solid. A pending request is a pale tint with a dashed outline, and its label starts with Pending. A screen reader announces the status, the type and the exact dates.
When two absences of the same person share a day, for example a request filed over an approved leave, they are drawn one above the other in the same row, so neither hides the other.
A legend below the planner names the leave types currently on screen and shows the dashed Pending request swatch whenever a request is visible.
Every absence can be reached with the keyboard: press Tab to move to it and Enter or Space to open its details.

Filtering a large team

Next to the member filter, the planner offers two filters:

Project shows only the active members of the chosen project. Sub-projects are listed under their parent, and the list can be searched.
Department shows only people in the chosen department, counting both their main department and any additional ones. It is available to Time off managers. A Time off verifier does not see it yet.

A filter is only offered when there is something to choose. On a project's own planner, the project filter is not shown.

The planner opens on your own department, marked (my team) in the department list. The department, project and people you choose are kept in the page address, so going back, reloading or sharing the link shows the same selection. Once the selection differs from your team, Reset filters brings it back to your team. If nobody matches the filters, the planner says so and offers Reset filters as well. The planner of a single project, or of a chosen group of people, opens on those.

While you scroll, the date header and the week navigator stay pinned under the top bar, and on a narrow screen the names column stays in place while the days scroll sideways.

Adding a Holiday in Holiday Planner

Click on an empty day tile in the planner.
Alternatively, use drag-and-drop to define the holiday duration.
Fill in the required holiday details (e.g., type of leave, duration, description).
Click on "Create time off" button. Holiday will appear in the planner and all other relevant views as already approved.

Editing or Removing an Approved Holiday

Click on an already approved holiday.
Modify the details by clicking relevant button in the appeared sidedrawer.
Use the Remove holiday leave option to remove the holiday if needed.

Approving or Rejecting a Holiday Request

If a request is pending approval, it will visually differ from approved holidays in the calendar.
As a holiday manager, you can:
- Click on the request to view details.
- Approve or reject the request by clicking relevant button.
- If further approvals are needed, the request will remain as pending until all necessary approvals are completed.

Use the member, project and department filters to view specific employees.

The Holiday Planner simplifies leave management by providing an easy-to-use and transparent tracking system. With the ability to use filters to view specific employees, managers can ensure smooth holiday scheduling while maintaining workforce balance.

Example use cases

Approving pending requests: Quickly review and approve or reject multiple holiday requests submitted by your team members.
Creating leave for an employee: Add a sick day or special leave on behalf of an employee who is unable to submit it themselves.
Adjusting approved leave: Modify the dates or duration of an already approved holiday if plans change, ensuring accuracy in leave records.
Visualizing team availability: Use the Holiday Planner to get a comprehensive overview of who is on leave at any given time, aiding in workforce planning.