Free holiday request form template

What the form asks for

Four short parts. The employee fills in parts 1 to 3, the manager part 4:

1. Your details: name, job title, department or team and manager.
2. The leave: the type (annual leave, TOIL, unpaid or other), the first and last day off, the day they are back, the working days or hours it uses, and a morning or afternoon if it is a half day.
3. Their holiday this leave year: the allowance with anything carried over, what is already taken or booked, this request and what is left. In days or hours, whichever the allowance is in.
4. The manager’s decision: approved, approved with changes or declined, the reason or the changes, and a line to note who added it to the leave record.

The foot of the form reminds staff of the notice rule, so requests come in early enough. Both files say the same thing; the Word file has [Company name] highlighted to type over.

How to use the form

1. Download the Word file and type your company name over the highlighted placeholder. Change any wording you want, such as the leave types you offer.
2. Save it where staff can find it: printed in the staff room, on a shared drive, or sent as the PDF.
3. The employee fills in parts 1 to 3 and hands it to their manager in good time.
4. The manager checks the dates against who else is off, ticks a decision, signs and dates part 4, and gives a copy back.
5. Update your leave record the same day, and note on the form who did it.
6. Keep the form with your holiday records.

How much notice a holiday request needs

Unless the contract says something different, GOV.UK sets these notice periods (booking time off, checked 26 October 2026):

• A worker asking for leave gives notice of at least twice the length of the leave, plus 1 day.
• An employer refusing or cancelling leave gives notice of at least the length of the leave, plus 1 day.
• An employer can refuse leave at a certain time, but cannot refuse to let workers take their leave at all.

A contract can ask for more notice than this, for example four weeks for a week off. If yours does, change the note at the foot of the form to match.

Keep the forms with your holiday records

From 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave taken and holiday pay for 6 years (GOV.UK: holiday pay). Signed request forms, together with a tracker of the totals, are one way to show it. Our holiday record-keeping guide covers what to keep.

The form records each request. To keep everyone’s running totals, pair it with the free annual leave tracker; to see who is off on which day, the staff holiday planner.

When paper forms stop working

Paper works while the team is small and in one place. It gets harder when the manager is not there to sign, forms go missing, or two people ask for the same week and nobody spots it. In Rotaleave, staff ask for leave on the web or in the iPhone and Android apps, managers approve or decline it, and every balance and the team calendar update as they do. It is free for teams of 10 or fewer. See leave and holiday and how approvals work.