# Approve and manage leave

Leave Management lists every leave request in the organisation, from employees and from managers booking on their behalf. Admins and Managers approve or reject them; approving takes the employee off any rostered shifts in those dates and opens the shifts for cover, and approving annual leave records its holiday pay. Cancelling approved leave puts the shifts back.

## Where is it, and who can use it?

Open **Scheduling → Roster**, then **More → Leaves**. **Back to Roster** returns you.

| Action | Needs | Default roles |
|---|---|---|
| Approve, and cancel approved leave | `leaves.approve` | Admin, Manager |
| Reject | `leaves.reject` | Admin, Manager |
| See the employee's reason | — | Admin, Manager |

Other staff can see the list, but not the reasons, and get no approve or reject buttons. Employees request their own leave from the employee portal — see [Request leave](/docs/employees/request-leave).

## What does the list show?

Four tiles — **Total Requests**, **Pending** (*Awaiting review*), **Approved** and **Avg. Duration** — then **Search**, **Status** and **Leave Type** filters, and one row per request: the employee, the leave type, the dates, the duration, the status and **Days Until** the leave starts (**Started** once it has).

![Leave Management with Back to Roster above the heading, and Export CSV (6) and New Leave Request buttons on the right. Tiles read Total Requests 6 (9 days requested), Pending 2 (Awaiting review), Approved 2 (Successfully processed) and Avg. Duration 1.5 days. Below a Search employees box and All Statuses and All Types menus, Leave Requests (6) lists: Priya Raghunathan, Annual Leave, 12 Sep 2026, 1 day, Cancelled; Ifeoma Adeyemi, Sick Leave, 9 Sep, 1 day, Approved, with View and Cancel; Gareth Pritchard, Annual Leave, 10 Sep, 1 day, Approved, with View and Cancel; Kirsty Fraser, Annual Leave, 11–13 Sep, 2 days, Pending, with a checkbox, View and Review; Dean Whitworth, Annual Leave, 8–10 Sep, 2 days, Rejected; and Siobhan Mullan, Annual Leave, 7–8 Sep, 2 days, Pending, with a checkbox, View and Review. Every row reads Started under Days Until.](/docs/img/leave-management.png)

**Export CSV** downloads the rows the filters show.

## How do I approve or reject a request?

1. Find the request — **Status → Pending** narrows the list to those awaiting a decision.
2. For a request that takes nobody off the rota, the row has a one-click **Approve**.
3. Otherwise press **Review**. The dialog shows the request in full; press **Approve Request**, or **Reject** and give a **Reason for Rejection \*** (required) before **Confirm Rejection**.

To approve several at once, tick their checkboxes and press **Approve N selected**.

You cannot approve your own leave while another Admin or Manager could: ask one of them. The only approver in an organisation can approve their own.

### Who is told about a request?

When leave is requested, or an absence is booked from the roster, the Managers and Control users assigned to the sites where the employee is rostered over those dates are told, because they have to find cover. If those sites have no manager, the Admins and Managers are told instead. The person who made the request and the employee are never told about their own request. Who may approve is unchanged.

### What happens when I approve?

- **The employee comes off their shifts.** Any rostered shift in the leave dates, scheduled or confirmed, loses its employee, is opened to applications from other staff, and is noted *[Leave] Booked off: name (type)*. The page tells you how many shifts were opened for reassignment. Fill them from the [roster](/docs/concepts/four-ways-to-fill-an-open-shift).
- **Annual leave is paid.** Approving annual leave calculates and records its holiday pay with your organisation's method — see [Set holiday pay and bank holidays](/docs/organisation/holiday-pay-and-bank-holidays).
- **The balance is checked, not enforced.** If annual leave would take the employee past what they have earned so far this leave year, the approval still goes through, with a warning: *Approving this request will over-allocate annual leave…*

### Can I undo it?

Yes. **Cancel** on an approved request — *Cancel this approved leave and restore the shift(s)?* — gives the employee back the shifts approving took off them. Cancelling a leave that has already ended is refused.

## How do I book leave for someone?

1. Press **New Leave Request**.
2. Choose the employee and the **Leave Type**, then **Start Date** and **End Date**. **Total Days** is worked out for you.
3. Add a **Reason (Optional)** and press **Create Request**.

The request is checked against the employee's earned annual-leave balance and their rostered days as if they had asked themselves. The rules can be overridden with a recorded reason by someone holding `leaves.override` (Admin by default), but this screen does not offer the override.

## If it goes wrong

| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| *Insufficient permissions to approve or reject leave requests.* | You do not hold `leaves.approve` or `leaves.reject`. |
| *You can't approve your own leave. Ask another administrator or manager.* | The request is yours, and another Admin or Manager can approve it. |
| *Please provide a reason for rejection* | A rejection needs a reason. |
| *Cannot cancel a leave that has already ended.* | Only leave still to come, or in progress, can be cancelled. |
| No one-click **Approve** on a pending row | Approving would take the employee off rostered shifts. Use **Review**. |
| A warning about over-allocating annual leave | The employee has asked for more than they have earned so far. It is your call; the approval has gone through. |

## Related

- [Request leave](/docs/employees/request-leave)
- [Set holiday pay and bank holidays](/docs/organisation/holiday-pay-and-bank-holidays)
- [Four ways to fill an open shift](/docs/concepts/four-ways-to-fill-an-open-shift)