How to Manage Employee Leave Requests

Managers and admins can review, approve, decline, or undo employee leave requests from the Leave Management screen.

Depending on your role, you can manage leave requests for your whole company or just your team. Admins can approve or decline requests for any employee, while Team Managers can only act on requests from employees within their assigned team. This article explains how to review a request, approve or decline it, view more details, and undo a decision if needed.

Before you begin

• You need an Admin or Team Manager role. Admins can act on requests from any employee; Team Managers can only act on requests from employees in their assigned team(s).
• The employee must have submitted a leave request that is showing as Pending.

Complete the task

✅ Step 1 – Open the Employees tab

Select the "Employees" dropdown from the left-hand navigation panel.

✅ Step 2 – Open the Leave section

Click the "Leave" sub-category under Employees. A notification icon appears on this tab whenever there are pending leave requests waiting for your review.

✅ Step 3 – Review the leave request

This opens the Leave Management screen, where each pending request shows the employee's name and job title, the leave type and dates, the reason for leave, the number of working days requested, the employee's current balance for that leave type, their work schedule, and their employment territory.

✅ Step 4 – Approve or decline the request

Click the green check mark to approve a request, or the blue X mark to decline it.

• Approving a request changes its status to Approved, deducts the leave days from the employee's balance, notifies the employee, and records the approval timestamp and approving manager.
• Declining a request changes its status to Declined, does not deduct any days from the employee's balance, notifies the employee, and records the decline timestamp and declining manager.
• Click the "i" icon on a request to view more information about it.

✅ Step 5 – Undo a decision if needed

Once you approve a request, the employee is notified. To reverse an approval, click the blue backwards arrow. You can only undo an approval if it was approved after the most recent payroll run; this prevents changes to leave that has already been processed in payroll. Undoing an approval returns the request to Pending and restores the days to the employee's balance.

Declined requests can always be undone. Reversing a decline returns the request to Pending so you can re-evaluate it.

What happens next

The employee is notified as soon as you approve, decline, or undo a decision. Approved leave is deducted from the employee's balance immediately; declined leave leaves their balance unaffected. You can review balances and usage for your whole team at any time from the Leave Balances tab.

Tips for managing leave requests

• Review requests promptly to avoid delaying an employee's plans.
• Check team coverage before approving leave during busy periods.
• If you decline a request, follow up with the employee to explain why.
• Only undo an approval before it has been processed in payroll.