Cancel or change a booking

Edit or cancel your own future leave in Rotaleave, and how managers end a booking early or cancel on someone's behalf.

Updated 13 October 2026

Cancel your own booking

On My leave, future bookings that are still Pending or Approved show a Cancel action. Click it and confirm in the “Cancel this time off?” dialog — if the booking was already approved, the confirmation notes the time is returned to your allowance. Your approvers are told about the cancellation. A booking that starts today or earlier has no Cancel (or Edit) on this page; ask a manager.

The bookings table on My leave with Pending, Approved and Declined rows; the future Pending and Approved rows have Edit and Cancel actions and the declined row shows its reason.

The Cancel this time off? dialog, saying the time will be returned to the allowance, with Keep it and Cancel booking buttons.

Change (amend) a booking

The same rows have an Edit action, which reopens the request form with your booking loaded. A banner explains the rule: saving replaces the booking and re-submits it for approval — unless you’re an admin. An admin who amends a booking that was already approved keeps it approved; a leave type that needs no approval skips the pending step too — unless a member of staff’s new dates would breach a blocking coverage rule or their department’s limit on people off, in which case the amendment waits for a manager.

The request form reopened to amend a booking, with the note that saving replaces it and re-submits for approval, and the leave type greyed out.

While amending, the leave type is fixed; change dates, duration or times, then submit. Your approver sees it as a fresh pending request. The original stays in your list marked Cancelled, and the new booking is checked afresh — allowance, notice period, embargoes and coverage all apply to the new dates.

Managers: cancel or shorten someone’s booking

Managers and admins open People → ⋯ → Bookings for the person. This works for everyone you are an approver for (or cover for) at any tier, not only the people whose requests reach you first; an admin can do it for anyone. The exception, for managers and admins alike, is someone whose leave a privacy block hides from you. For anyone else the action is refused. Two actions are available:

The Bookings dialog for Daniel Boothe, listing approved, pending and declined bookings, each pending or approved one with a Cancel booking button.

Cancel booking — for any pending or approved booking, with an optional reason. The person is emailed (they control this via the “My booking is changed or cancelled by a manager” notification preference).
End early — for an approved booking that’s already in progress (not one booked in hours): set the new last day, whether it ends Morning or Afternoon, and a required reason. The unused time goes back to their allowance. Handy when someone returns from leave sooner than planned. The person is emailed about this too.

Approvers can also Amend a pending request directly from the Approvals page before approving it, as long as it starts after today. The person is emailed when a manager amends their booking.

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