Leave Management FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Leave Management.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Leave Management Overview.
Setup
Do I need to create accrual policies before employees can submit requests?
Not necessarily. An employee can submit a request against any active leave type, but without an accrual policy the type carries no balance — so there is nothing to deduct from. If a leave type has Deduct From Balance turned on (the default) and no policy is assigned, the employee’s available balance is zero and the shortfall is recorded as unpaid hours. Create at least one accrual policy per balance-tracking leave type and assign employees to it before opening requests.
What happens if I save an accrual policy with a blank accrual amount?
The policy saves successfully with an amount of zero, but it never accrues hours for anyone. Always set the per-period accrual amount when creating a policy.
Which leave types do employees see?
Employees see only the leave types that are active and available in their work location. If you have configured the Availability matrix under Admin → Leave Configurations, each type is restricted to the jurisdictions where it applies. Employees outside those jurisdictions do not see the type in their request form. Deactivating a type hides it from new requests but does not affect existing ones.
Permissions and access
Who can approve leave requests?
By default, approvals follow the reporting hierarchy — the employee’s direct manager, plus administrators and app administrators. You can additionally configure a designated approver group at Admin → Leave Configurations → Notifications under Who can approve leave. Designated approvers are layered on top of the manager chain — they never replace it — and they can approve requests for any employee in the business.
Can a manager delegate their approvals while they are out of the office?
Yes. A manager can delegate leave approvals to a colleague for a date range of up to 180 days. While the delegation is active, the delegate inherits the delegator’s approval authority. The delegator keeps their own access, delegation does not chain (a delegate cannot re-delegate), and a delegate can never approve their own requests.
Day-to-day
Can employees request half-day or partial-day leave?
Half-day leave (morning or afternoon) is always available. An employee can also book a morning half-day and an afternoon half-day on the same date — the system treats them as non-overlapping.
Partial-day leave (a specific time window in 30-minute increments on a single day) is a separate setting. It is off by default and can be enabled at Admin → Leave Configurations → Notifications → Allow partial-day leave requests. When enabled, employees pick a start and end time; the minimum window is 30 minutes and times must land on a 30-minute boundary. Multiple partial-day requests on the same date are allowed as long as their time windows do not overlap.
How far back can an employee file a leave request?
Each leave type has a Backdating Window setting (default 14 days). An employee can log a past absence — for example, a sick day — as long as the start date is within that window. Requests further in the past are rejected. Admins importing historical leave via the import path bypass the backdating limit.
What happens when an employee submits a request and their balance is insufficient?
The request is still created. The shortfall is recorded as unpaid hours — the funded portion comes from the accrued balance and the remainder is marked as unpaid leave. The employee is told about the split at submission and the approver sees it when reviewing the request. If the leave type has Allow Negative Balance turned on, the full amount is deducted regardless of the balance.
Can an employee cancel or edit their own request?
An employee can cancel a pending or special-approval request at any time, or an approved request whose start date has not yet arrived. Once the leave has started, only a manager or admin can cancel it.
An employee can edit a pending, special-approval, or approved request only while the start date is still in the future and the overlapping schedule period is still open. Editing an approved request automatically reconciles the balance — shortening a five-day approved request to three days returns the difference.
What is the maximum date span for a single leave request?
A single request can span up to 731 days (two years). Requests beyond that limit are rejected with a field error.
Blackouts, coverage, and special approval
What is the difference between a blackout period and a coverage limit?
A blackout period is a date range during which new requests for specified leave types are either blocked outright or routed to special approval — for example, a year-end freeze. A coverage limit caps how many employees may be off at the same time, optionally scoped to a location, with separate weekday and weekend thresholds. Both can coexist on the same dates.
What does “special approval” mean?
A request is routed to special approval instead of normal pending status when it triggers one of three rules:
- Blackout period — the dates overlap a blackout configured to route rather than block.
- Advance notice — the request was submitted inside the leave type’s advance-notice window (default 7 days).
- Coverage limit — the dates hit a soft coverage limit.
The request appears in the manager’s approval queue with the reason displayed. The manager can approve or deny it like any other request.
Does a hard coverage limit block approvals too?
Hard coverage limits block new filings — if a date is already at the cap, the employee cannot submit a request for it. Once a request is filed (including one that was filed before the limit existed), the approver can still approve it. This prevents deadlocks where two pending requests block each other permanently.
When something looks wrong
“My employee says they can’t see a leave type that other employees can.”
The most common cause is the Availability matrix. If the leave type is restricted to certain jurisdictions under Admin → Leave Configurations → Manage, employees whose work location falls outside those jurisdictions will not see it. Check the employee’s primary location and the type’s jurisdiction settings.
“An employee submitted a request and the manager never got notified.”
Check the notification settings at Admin → Leave Configurations → Notifications. Each action (request submitted, approved, denied, etc.) has its own toggle for who is notified and over which channels (in-app and/or email). If the manager is on leave, check whether skip-level routing or an active delegation is in place — the notification goes to whoever has approval authority at that moment.
“An approved request shows a balance the employee no longer has.”
The balance snapshot on a request is captured at the time the request was created, not when it is viewed. To see the employee’s current balance, go to Admin → Leave Balances and find the employee. If the balance looks wrong, use Recalculate All to rebuild it from the ledger (all accrual transactions and approved requests).
Accruals, carryover, and expiry
What accrual frequencies are available?
Ten: Pay Period, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-annually, Annually, Hours Worked, and Custom. Each policy accrues a fixed number of hours at the chosen frequency. For Hours Worked, you also set how many hours worked earn one accrual unit.
How do carryover, grace periods, and expiry work?
Each accrual policy controls these independently:
- Carryover — enabled by default. An optional maximum carryover cap limits how many hours roll into the new year.
- Grace period — a number of months after year-end during which carried-over hours are still usable before expiry rules kick in.
- Expiry — hours that exceed the carryover cap or pass the expiry date are either forfeited or paid out, according to the policy’s expiry action. Consumption is FIFO, so only genuinely unused hours are affected.
Balance alerts warn employees and managers before hours are at risk. The alert types are: Approaching Maximum Balance (triggered at 80% of the cap by default), Balance Expiring Soon (triggered 30 days before expiry by default), Year-End Forfeiture Risk, and Balance Below Minimum.
Licensing and limits
Does Leave Management require a licence?
Yes. An administrator enables it from Admin → Apps Marketplace and it requires a licence. It is not auto-enabled — each tenant opts in.
Are there limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Maximum request span | 731 days |
| Notes and denial reasons | 2,000 characters |
| Accrual policy waiting period | Up to 3,650 days (10 years) |
| Approval delegation window | Up to 180 days per delegation |
| Partial-day minimum window | 30 minutes, on 30-minute boundaries |
| Balance unit | Hours (8 hours = 1 day) |
| Custom hours minimum | 0.5 hours |
More help
- Leave Management Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers leave balance, policy, and request questions from these articles.