Review leave requests

Managers and authorized HR reviewers use Leave Approvals to decide requests they are eligible to review. Check the employee, dates, working days, leave type, and approval stage before acting. A first approval is not always the final decision.

Access needed

Access depends on your assigned permissions and workflow scope.

Use the approval queue and take an assigned manager step: leave.requests.review
The queue requires an employee link. The request must be assigned to you or covered by an active leave delegation. Own requests cannot be reviewed.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: Manager or active leave delegate. Role names alone do not grant access.
Review leave requests
Review unassigned manager-stage requests or an HR stage: All:leave.requests.reviewleave.requests.approve
The HR stage needs a different person from the first approver. The linked approval queue excludes own requests. A role title alone is insufficient.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: HR reviewer. Role names alone do not grant access.
Review leave requests
Take HR leave approval steps
Read the employee request list: leave.requests.read
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: HR or authorized reader. Role names alone do not grant access.
Read employee leave requests
Restore missing leave approval tasks: leave.requests.manage
Task recovery does not approve requests.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: HR administrator. Role names alone do not grant access.
Manage other employees’ leave requests
Inspect related attendance and activity: Attendance for another employee needs attendance.read; the request Activity log needs audit.read. These are additional views and do not replace leave review permissions.
Role and permission labels
Typical responsibility: Authorized reviewer. Role names alone do not grant access.

Demo screenshots may show broader access than your account.

Open your approval queue

Open Leave Approvals under My Workspace, or Leave → Approvals. The queue shows requests available for your review, not every Pending request in the workspace. Your account must be linked to an employee and have review access.

Leave approvals queue with an eligible fictional employee request — Own requests are excluded from review selection.

Your own requests are excluded from your review queue. A manager can review assigned requests; an eligible delegate can review a manager step during their active delegation. Authorized HR reviewers can handle unassigned manager-stage requests and the HR stage where permitted. Seeing a request elsewhere does not automatically grant approval access.

Use Sort, the displayed date controls, and pagination when needed. Completed requests leave the Pending approval queue. Authorized staff can find their final result under Leave → Requests.

Inspect before deciding

Check the employee and dates
Open the request row and verify the employee number, leave type, date range, and working days. Read the reason without copying unnecessary private information elsewhere.
Read the approval details
Check Assigned approver, Approval flow, and Stage. Unassigned does not mean approved: authorized HR can provide review coverage where the workflow permits it.
Check relevant context
Review the team's coverage and applicable policy. Use Attendance for recorded entries over the request dates when available. Missing records do not prove absence, and scheduled work is not actual attendance.
Choose the appropriate action
Open Leave request options and choose Approve, Approve manager step, or Reject as appropriate. Read the confirmation before saving the decision.

Fictional pending leave request with dates, working days and approval flow — Check the stored flow and stage before deciding.

The example is a fictional request with an unassigned manager step and a one-step approval flow. The eligible HR reviewer can decide it. Your workspace may use a different flow.

Understand one-step and two-step approval

Flow and current stage	What approval does
Manager flow	Completes the request as Approved.
Manager followed by HR, at Manager stage	Records the first approval, moves to HR, and keeps the request Pending.
Manager followed by HR, at HR stage	An eligible HR reviewer completes the request as Approved.

The flow is stored when the request is submitted. Later setting changes do not rewrite that request's flow. In a two-step flow, the same person cannot take both approval steps. Nobody can approve or reject their own request.

A temporary delegation can cover the manager step when its dates and scope apply. It does not grant HR-stage access. Check the current assignment instead of switching to another person's account.

Approve a request

Choose the appropriate approval action and read its confirmation. A manager-step confirmation in a two-step flow explains that the request remains Pending for HR. A final approval sends the approved working dates to Attendance and the paid/unpaid leave treatment to Payroll.

Approve Leave Request confirmation explaining attendance and payroll updates — Read whether this decision completes approval or sends the request to HR.

Select Confirm once and wait for success. Check the resulting status and history. If the row leaves your queue, open the request under Leave → Requests when your access permits; disappearance from a filtered queue alone does not explain the final outcome.

Approved fictional leave request with submitted and approved history — Status and history confirm the completed one-step approval.

The example completed as Approved and records the reviewer in its history. The Stage can still display Manager for a completed one-step request; read the status and history together rather than interpreting Stage as proof of a second pending decision.

Reject with a clear reason

Choose Reject, enter a meaningful Rejection reason within 1,000 characters, and review the confirmation. The reason is recorded for the employee, so explain what needs to change using plain language. Avoid unnecessary sensitive details.

Rejection confirmation with an illustrative reason — This example was cancelled; no rejection was saved.

Select Confirm only when you intend to reject the request. Check for Rejected status and the saved reason afterwards. The pictured rejection form was cancelled; it illustrates the required reason without recording a rejection.

If a decision fails because the request changed, refresh and inspect the current state before retrying. Do not assume a failure message means it is still Pending.

Check attendance after final approval

Where available, open the request's Attendance tab to inspect recorded dates, status, hours, and overtime. In our example, final approval created two On Leave entries with zero recorded hours.

Approved request Attendance tab with two On Leave records and zero hours — The related entries reflect approved working dates, not clocked work.

Existing attendance can cause a date to be skipped and a conflict event to be recorded. Investigate the related records through authorized views. Do not add manual On Leave rows or delete valid attendance simply to make the displays agree.

Approval is not proof that a payslip or payment has completed. Check the relevant payroll workflow separately. If approved leave needs to be withdrawn, use the permitted cancellation process before the leave starts; cancellation is different from rejection or permanent deletion.

Review several requests

When selection is available, select only the eligible rows you have reviewed, then choose the bulk approve or reject action. The confirmation lists the requests. Approval takes each request's next step, so a batch can include requests that become Approved and others that remain Pending for HR.

A bulk rejection saves the entered reason on every selected request. Review whether the same explanation is appropriate for all of them before confirming.

Each request is processed separately. Successful decisions remain saved if another request fails. Read the per-request results, correct the cause, and retry only failed requests. Do not repeat successful decisions.

Missing approval tasks

Eligible requests can also appear in Tasks. If task delivery needs recovery, authorized administrators can use Restore approval tasks where offered. This republishes review tasks; it does not approve requests or change their status. Investigate the queue and assignment before treating missing tasks as missing requests.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Approval queue is empty	Check assignment, stage, delegation dates, and whether the request is your own or already completed.
You can view but cannot decide	Reading, reviewing, and HR-stage access have different requirements.
A request remains Pending after approval	It may have moved from manager review to HR; inspect the stored flow and history.
HR approval is unavailable after you took the first step	A different eligible person must take the second step.
A decision reports a conflict	Refresh and inspect the current status before retrying.
A bulk review partly fails	Keep successful outcomes and retry only failed requests after checking their messages.
Attendance differs from expected leave dates	Check working days, holidays, and existing attendance conflicts; missing rows alone do not establish a defect.