What's covered in this guide?:
Submit Leave Requests
Employees can apply for leave via the Workforce.com Mobile App or online at my.workforce.com. This needs Allow staff to enter leave requests (US: Allow staff to enter time off requests) to be on in Settings > Permissions. It’s on by default.
Employees can submit unavailability requests (days or times they cannot work) through the same channels.
Managers approve requests online at my.workforce.com or via the Workforce.com Mobile App. Managers only see requests for staff in teams they manage.
Leave Approval Process
When an employee submits a leave request, it stays pending until it’s approved or declined.
Once it’s approved, Workforce.com adds the leave to the employee’s timesheets for those dates, using the hours in the request. If a timesheet doesn’t exist yet, it’s created.
Approve Leave Requests
To approve leave requests:
Go to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Requests
Click View Request, or open the dropdown arrow ˅ next to it.
Choose Approve or Decline.
Approve: adds the leave to the employee’s timesheets and notifies them.
Decline: declines the request. To add a reason the employee can see, decline from View Request.
Tip: To decline a request that’s already approved, click View Request > Decline.
📝 Important to note: If a timesheet for those dates has been exported, Approve isn’t shown, and an approved request can’t be declined. You can still decline a pending request. To approve it, unlock the timesheet first.
Approve Leave Requests on the Rota
To approve leave requests on the rota:
Open the rota.
Click the pending leave request.
In the pop-up, click Approve leave.
To see the full request first, click View leave request.
These buttons show for staff you manage. Approve leave only appears on pending requests.
Edit Leave Requests
To edit a leave request:
Go to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Requests
Click View Request, then Edit.
Change the Leave Details (dates, duration, leave type), then continue.
On Review & Submit, check the daily breakdown, reason and attachments. You can change the hours for each day and the team. To put the whole request on one team, use Assign a single team.
Click Submit.
You can edit pending and approved requests. If part of an approved request has been exported, you can only change the dates that haven’t been exported. If it’s fully exported, it can’t be edited.
Block out Periods of Leave
Use custom events to prevent leave being taken during specific times.
Open the rota.
Open Events & Comments and click Add new event. You can also use the actions menu and choose Add event.
Under Leave Restrictions, choose Blackout leave. To only warn staff instead, choose Discourage time off.
To let a limited number of people off, enter Max leave requests. You can also limit the blackout to certain Leave Types.
Managers who can approve leave can still book leave on blocked dates.
(For more detail, see the guide: Leave Blackouts.)
Bulk Apply Holiday Leave
Apply holiday leave to multiple employees at once using the Bulk Apply Holiday Leave tool.
To bulk apply holiday leave:
Go to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Requests
Open Leave Tools
Select Bulk apply holiday leave
Apply holiday leave
Under Pick a Holiday, select the holiday.
Under Choose Leave Type, choose the leave type.
Click Submit.
Only leave types set to apply automatically on holidays are listed, and the date must already be set up as a holiday in your settings. Only people who can create leave types see this option.
Allow employees to view other employees’ leave
To allow employees to view other employees' leave:
Go to Settings > Permissions.
Turn on Allow staff to view the full leave calendar
Under Select view preference, choose The teams they work in or The locations they work in.
Employees will then see their colleagues’ leave on the rota and calendar:
Visible: that the person is On leave, for approved and pending requests.
Not visible: the leave type, the reason, and declined requests.
View Leave Request History
Each request has a full audit trail of submissions, approvals, declines, and timestamps.
Open the dropdown arrow ˅ next to the request, or the ⋯ menu inside it, then click History.
Notifications
Once a day, at 8am, Workforce.com emails a summary of the previous day’s new leave and unavailability requests.
Who gets this email is set in Settings > Leave, under Send daily update emails to... . By default, only Admins get it. To include managers, choose Employee’s team managers or Admins & employee’s team managers.
People who haven’t logged in within the past 30 days don’t get these emails.
To change your own email preferences, click your profile (top right) and choose Notification Preferences.
(For more detail of managing notifications, see the guide: Manage Notification Settings.)
Leave Request Details Explained
When you click View Request, you’ll see:
Leave request → when the request was created
Dates → when the leave starts and ends
Duration → total length of the leave
Leave length → total hours or days requested
Leave type → the type of leave
Fallback leave → the leave type used if the balance runs out (if set up)
Current balance → the employee’s balance, and whether it’s enough
Reason and Attachment → optional (for example, a medical certificate)
The tabs at the top show Shifts that clash with the leave, the employee’s Leave Balances, and Comments. Overlapping events and other requests are also shown.
To decline, click Decline. In Decline request, add a Reason for declining if you want, choose whether to email the employee, then click Confirm Decline.
Availability requests
How it works
Staff set their availability (the days and times they can work) through the app or online at my.workforce.com.
There are three types:
Ongoing availability: a recurring weekly or fortnightly pattern (for example, always available Monday to Friday).
Temporary change: a short-term change to the ongoing pattern, with a start and end date (for example, reduced availability for two weeks).
Once-off unavailability: a single day or time they can’t work.
Requests are pending until a manager approves or declines them.
Approved availability is visible on the rota.
Approve availability requests
Go to Time & Attendance > Availability (on some accounts this is called Unavailability).
Select the request to review.
Click Approve. To decline, open Decline and notify, add an optional Message, then click Decline.
Availability details explained
Period → date range of the availability (or start date for ongoing)
Frequency → weekly or fortnightly
Requested on → when the request was submitted
Reason → required for temporary changes and once-off unavailability; optional for ongoing
Status → pending, approved, or declined
Schedule → a day-by-day view of when the employee is available
FAQs
Why can’t a user request a certain leave type?
Why can’t a user request a certain leave type?
An employee only sees leave types that apply to them. Check:
Tags: the leave type’s tags match the tags in the employee’s current pay conditions, and none of its excluded tags do.
Template: the leave type is on the same template as the employee.
The leave type allows requests: Prevent employees from creating leave requests of this type (US: Prevent time off requests for this time off type) isn’t ticked. On UK payroll leave types, this is called Prevent leave requests.
Workforce Payroll: if the employee is paid through Workforce Payroll, the leave type must be linked to a payroll leave type.
Managers who can approve leave see all leave types, so a manager may see types that their staff can’t.
Why can’t I approve a leave request?
Why can’t I approve a leave request?
You can only approve a request if:
It’s pending.
You can edit and approve that employee’s leave. Managers can only approve leave for staff in teams they manage.
It isn’t your own leave (see Can managers approve their own leave? below).
No timesheet for those dates has been exported. If one has, the request shows Pending (timesheets exported). Unlock the timesheet first.
If the dates have an exported timesheet, you’ll see Error updating leave request! with a note to unlock the timesheet. If the leave overlaps an approved request of the same type, or a shift, the error message says so.
Who can approve leave?
Who can approve leave?
By default, Admins, Payroll Officers, General Managers and Managers. Managers can only approve leave for staff in teams they manage. The General Manager role is turned off by default.
Why can’t an employee book leave for next leave year?
Why can’t an employee book leave for next leave year?
In the UK, if you use leave years, an employee may see: [Leave type] for the [leave year] leave year hasn’t been set up yet.
A starting balance needs to be configured before leave can be requested for this period. This often happens to people who joined partway through the leave year.
To fix it, open the employee’s Leave Balances, go to the next leave year and click Set starting balance. Or import starting balances for that leave year. A manager who can approve leave can also submit the request for them.
Why is a bank holiday counted in a holiday request?
Why is a bank holiday counted in a holiday request?
Usually bank holidays in a leave request are set to 0 hours, so they aren’t taken from the balance. They’re counted if the leave type’s Leave applies on is Every Day (incl. Bank Holidays) or Bank Holidays (US: Every Day (incl. Public Holidays) or Holidays), or if the date isn’t set up as a bank holiday in your settings.
To fix one request, click View Request > Edit, and on Review & Submit set the bank holiday to 0 hours. To fix it for future requests, check the leave type’s days and your bank holiday dates.
Why is leave showing 0 hours for some days?
Why is leave showing 0 hours for some days?
Leave hours are filled in automatically from your Leave Autofill Settings. A day is set to 0 hours if:
The rota for that week has no shift for them that day.
Their regular hours of work have no shift that day.
It’s a bank holiday or weekend that the leave type doesn’t apply to.
Autofill uses their recent work pattern, and there isn’t enough history for that day.
No default leave hours is turned on in Settings > Leave.
To fix it, click View Request > Edit and change the hours on Review & Submit.
Why can’t I see someone’s leave on the rota?
Why can’t I see someone’s leave on the rota?
Check:
You can see that employee. Managers see leave for staff in teams they manage.
If you’ve turned on Hide staff with no shifts, people who only have leave are hidden. Use Hide staff with no shift but display leave (US: …display time off) instead.
For employees to see colleagues’ leave, Allow staff to view the full leave calendar must be on in Settings > Permissions.
Staff who are only in a secondary team you manage may not show their leave on your rota. If you think leave should be showing and it isn’t, contact Workforce support.
How do I cancel or delete an employee’s approved leave?
How do I cancel or delete an employee’s approved leave?
Go to Time & Attendance > Leave > Leave Requests, click View Request, then Decline.
Untick the email option if you don’t want to notify them, then click Confirm Decline.
There’s no separate delete. Deleting leave in the mobile app also declines it.
Employees can cancel their own requests while they’re still pending.
📝 Important to note: Approved leave can’t be declined if the timesheet for those dates has already been exported to payroll. Unlock the timesheet first.
Can managers approve their own leave?
Can managers approve their own leave?
Managers can’t, by default. They can submit and cancel their own pending requests, but someone else needs to approve them.
Admins, Payroll Officers and General Managers can approve their own leave by default. To change what a role can do, go to Settings > Permissions, click Show Advanced Settings..., then Customise access & roles here.
Can I limit how long a leave request can be?
Can I limit how long a leave request can be?
There’s no setting for a maximum length. To limit how many people can be off on certain dates, add a blackout event with Max leave requests (see Block out Periods of Leave above).
Do leave blackouts apply to staff in secondary teams?
Do leave blackouts apply to staff in secondary teams?
No. A blackout event only applies to staff in that team or location as their main team. It doesn’t apply to staff who are only in it as a secondary team.