Time Off Request Form

A time off request form records who is asking for leave, what kind, on which dates, and whether it was approved, by whom and when. It is the least glamorous document in HR and the one most often missing when it matters: when two people in the same team have booked the same week, when an employee says leave was approved verbally and the manager says it was not, or when a sick day is counted as an unexcused absence in a state where that is unlawful. A one-page form, filled in and kept, settles all three.

The generator below builds the form from your leave types and rules. The rest of the page covers the fields and why each is there, the notice and approval rules worth writing down, and the state sick leave laws that limit what a request form may ask for.

Time off request form generator

The fields and what each prevents

The one field the generator makes optional, and recommends leaving out, is the reason. For vacation it is nobody's business; for sick leave it is in many states unlawful to require, as the section below explains. Where a manager needs to know whether leave might be protected, the form's closing statement routes that question to HR rather than putting it on the form.

The rules to set alongside the form

• Notice for planned leave. Two weeks is common; a month for leave over a week. Write the rule down and apply it evenly, with an explicit exception for sick leave and emergencies, which cannot be planned.
• Decision time. Three business days. A request that sits unanswered for a fortnight is a no in practice and a yes in the employee's mind.
• Order of priority when requests clash. First submitted wins is the simplest and the most defensible, which is why the form records the submission date. Rotating priority for holiday periods is the common alternative.
• Minimum coverage. The number of people who must be in on any day, by team, so that managers decline for a stated reason rather than instinct.
• Blackout periods. Allowed for discretionary leave, if published in advance and applied to everyone. Not allowed for protected leave.
• Negative balances. Whether an employee can borrow against future accrual, and what happens to a negative balance at separation. Several states restrict deducting it from final pay; our final paycheck guide covers which.
• How accrual works. The PTO accrual calculator shows the balance under each method, and the policy should say which method applies and whether unused time carries over.

These rules belong in the handbook, with the form as the instrument. The attendance policy should cross-reference them so that an approved absence can never become an attendance occurrence.

What the form may not ask: sick leave law

Eighteen states, the District of Columbia and dozens of cities require paid sick leave, and most of those laws restrict what an employer can demand when it is used. The common rules: an employer may not require a reason beyond the category of use, may not require documentation for short absences, and may not count protected sick leave against attendance.

• California: the employer is not obliged to inquire into the purpose of paid sick leave, may not require a doctor's note as a condition of using it, and may not count it as an occurrence under an attendance policy.
• New Jersey: documentation may be required only for three or more consecutive days, or for leave on dates the employer has designated in advance as high-demand.
• Washington: verification may be required only for absences longer than three required working days, and the employer must have a written policy saying so.
• New York City: documentation only after more than three consecutive workdays, and only if the written policy said so before the leave; the employer must pay for the visit if it requires a note.
• Illinois: paid leave under the state law may be taken for any reason with no documentation required.

The practical result: a request form that asks for a reason and applies to all leave types is unlawful as applied to sick leave in those states. Make the reason optional or remove it, and put the documentation rule, with its three-day threshold, in the written policy rather than on the form. Where the absence may qualify for FMLA or an accommodation, the form's job is to get the request to HR, which then uses the certification process the law provides.

Paper, spreadsheet or system

Under about twenty employees, a form and a shared calendar work. Beyond that, the form becomes a workflow in whatever holds the records: the HRIS, the payroll system or a scheduling app. The fields do not change. What changes is that balances update automatically, clashes show before approval, and the audit trail writes itself. Our HR software comparison covers which platforms handle time off well at each size, and the vacation tracking guide covers the spreadsheet stage in between.

Whichever medium, keep the record for as long as the pay records it supports, which under federal rules is three years for the leave record and the state's period for the personnel file. An approved request is the evidence that an absence was authorised, and it is only useful if it can be found.

Key takeaways

• The form's job is evidence: what was requested, when, and what was decided, by whom, when. Dates on both the request and the decision are the fields that settle disputes.
• Separate leave types on the form so that protected leave is never treated as discretionary and vacation is never charged as sick.
• Set notice, decision time, priority order and minimum coverage in writing, and apply them evenly, with an exception for sick leave and emergencies.
• Do not require a reason. In California, New Jersey, Washington, New York City, Illinois and many other jurisdictions the form may not demand one for sick leave, and documentation is limited to longer absences.
• Route anything that might be FMLA, state family leave or an accommodation to HR; the form is not the certification.
• Keep the record with the pay records. An approval that cannot be found is no approval.