Leave request process flowchart
Leave request process flowchart: submission with dates and leave type, balance and cover checks, manager approval, HR escalation, payroll and return to work.
How it works
Rename the lanes to your real roles
Replace Employee, Manager, HR and Payroll with the functions you actually have. In smaller organisations HR and Payroll are one lane and should be merged rather than drawn as a handoff that never happens; in shift-based teams a scheduling or rota lead usually deserves a lane of its own, because that is who really decides whether cover exists.
Set the rules the balance check uses
Decide what 'Sufficient leave balance?' tests: balance accrued at the leave dates or full-year entitlement, how carry-over and half-days count, whether TOIL sits in the same pot, and whether a negative balance is ever permitted. Put the answer in the step notes so approvers are not each applying their own version.
Define the escalation threshold
Give 'Long or unpaid leave?' a number and a list. Typical triggers are any unpaid day, any statutory leave (parental, adoption, long-term sickness), or an absence beyond a set count of consecutive working days. Record which evidence HR needs for each type, so the HR review step has a defined input.
Name the payroll cut-off and the trigger for return-to-work
State the date payroll needs the absence by and who sends it, then set the condition that makes a return-to-work meeting mandatory, for example any sickness absence beyond a defined length or any long-term leave. Both are the steps teams most often leave implicit.
Add the leave types you actually run
Annual, sick, parental, compassionate, unpaid and study leave rarely follow the same route. Either add the ones that diverge as branches from the leave type captured at submission, or keep this chart as the general path and hold the exceptions in separate, linked maps.
Review it with managers, then version the approved map
Walk the chart with two or three managers and HR before publishing; the arguments will be about the escalation threshold and who tells payroll. Once agreed, approve and version the map in QueryChart so the process managers are trained on is the same one you can point at later, and so amendments are tracked rather than circulated as new attachments.
Frequently asked questions
What steps should a leave request process include?
At minimum: a request carrying dates, half days and leave type; an entitlement and balance check; a cover and staffing impact check; a manager approve or decline decision; an escalation route for long or unpaid absences; a calendar and rota update; notification to payroll before the cut-off; and, for long absences, a return-to-work meeting. The steps most often missing are the exception paths, namely what happens when the balance is short, when cover is not available, and when an approved request is later amended or cancelled.
What happens when an employee does not have enough leave left?
Give it three named routes rather than letting the approver improvise. The employee can take the days unpaid, which should be a policy decision and normally an HR one because it changes pay; amend the dates to fit the accrued balance and resubmit; or withdraw the request. Silently approving into a negative balance is the common failure, and it usually surfaces at year end or when the person leaves and the balance is recovered from final pay.
Who approves a leave request, the manager or HR?
The line manager normally approves ordinary annual leave, because the real decision is whether the team has cover. HR involvement is triggered by type and length rather than by seniority: unpaid days, statutory leave such as parental or long-term sickness, and absences beyond your defined threshold need HR to confirm policy, entitlement and evidence before the leave is booked. Writing that threshold down is what keeps the escalation consistent between managers.
How should cancelled or amended leave be handled?
Treat an amendment as a new request against the same record: re-check cover, update the calendar and the HR system, and tell payroll. The step that gets skipped is the payroll one, because deleting a calendar entry notifies nobody. If the change lands after the payroll cut-off it cannot be pulled from that run, so it is corrected in the following period. Keeping cancellations on the record, rather than deleting them, also keeps the absence history accurate for later reporting.