How to Set Up a Leave Request and Approval Workflow

A good leave process guarantees three things: requests do not get lost, the manager answers within a reasonable time, and HR records are updated right after approval. A form, one approval step, a deadline and an HR task are enough to get there. This guide explains which fields a leave request form needs and how to build the approval flow step by step.

Which fields should a leave request form have?

The minimum set is: the employee making the request (linked to the staff record, not typed by hand), leave type (a choice list such as annual, compassionate, sick leave, unpaid, maternity/paternity), start and end date, number of days, a description, an attachment (such as a medical certificate), the manager’s note, and status (requested, approved, rejected, taken). Linking the employee to a record rather than typing the name stops the same person appearing under three spellings in reports.

How do you build the approval flow, step by step?

1) Start: the employee fills in and submits the form. 2) Manager approval: the request lands directly in the manager’s task list; the manager approves or rejects, optionally with a note. 3) HR record: an approved request goes to HR as a task and is recorded. 4) End: the flow closes as “leave approved” or “leave rejected” and the employee is notified. In Tenderely BPM’s Human Resources module these four steps come ready-made.

What if the manager does not respond?

A deadline (SLA) is set on the approval step. In the ready-made module the manager approval deadline is 2 business days, so weekends do not count. When it is missed, a warning notification goes out. Notifications can be sent in-app, by email, SMS and mobile push. Instead of a request being forgotten in an inbox, the delay becomes visible and measurable.

Can longer leave require a second approval?

Yes. With conditional branching, for example, a request above a certain number of days goes to a second approver (department head or HR), while shorter ones go straight to the HR record. Parallel branching can request approval from several people at once. The ready-made module ships with a single approval level; you add these branches yourself in the designer.

Reminders and reports

Triggers come ready-made as well: when a new leave request arrives the right people are notified, and a reminder is sent one day before leave starts. Dashboards show who is on leave when and which requests are pending, and the “Leave List” report can be produced as a PDF for any period. Employees follow their request and its status in the mobile app instead of asking HR.

Who can see which leave?

Visibility is set per form. In a typical setup employees see only their own requests, managers see their team’s, and HR sees all records. If the form holds sensitive documents such as medical certificates, mark it as sensitive and every read is written to an access log.

Common mistakes in leave processes

1) Taking approval by email: the approval stays in someone’s inbox and HR and payroll have to ask for the same information again. 2) Depending on a single approver: requests wait while the manager is away; the flow should define a deputy or second approver. 3) Leaving leave type as free text: “annual”, “Annual leave” and “yearly” become three different values and the balance report breaks. 4) Not requiring attachments where they matter: for leave types that need a medical certificate, the attachment should be required for that type only. 5) Rejecting without a reason: a rejection with no reason leads to the same request being raised again and to avoidable arguments.

Frequently Asked Questions