Approve or decline requests

Managers and admins see Approvals in the Manage menu, with a live count of everything pending — leave requests, plus shift claims and swaps if your organisation uses them.

Anatomy of a request card

Each card shows who’s asking, the leave type and dates (or times, for hourly requests), and any warnings you should weigh up before deciding:

• ”✗ Approving leaves a gap” — the request would breach a coverage rule (for example too few first-aiders that day).
• ”⚠ Department over capacity” — it would push the department past its max people off at once limit.
• “Also rota’d” — the person has published shifts on those dates.
• “Level 2 of 3 · 1/2 approved” — where the request sits in a multi-level approval policy.
• “On behalf of [name]” or “Escalated — [name] is on leave” — you’re seeing it through delegation.

Three buttons per card: Amend (opens the request in the edit form so you can adjust dates before approving), Decline and Approve.

Approving

Click Approve and confirm — the dialog reminds you “They’ll be notified straight away.” If the request would breach coverage, the dialog becomes “Approve despite the coverage gap?” and you must type an override reason before Confirm override unlocks. Overrides are deliberate, recorded decisions — not a bigger OK button.

Declining

Click Decline. The reason field is optional — “They’ll be notified with your reason if you give one.” A short, honest reason lands far better than silence.

Staying on top of it

• Requests email you as they arrive (“A leave request needs my approval”) and there’s an optional daily summary of requests awaiting my approval — both in your notification preferences.
• Going away? Set a delegate so requests route to cover while you’re out.