This article will show you how to approve and decline leave using the Deputy website and will cover:

• Who can see and manage leave requests?
• Declining leave
• Leave approval workflow
  • 2-step leave approval
  • 1-step leave approval
• How leave hours are determined
• When a team member is already scheduled for the requested leave time period
• Timesheets and pay
  • Leave timesheets

If you are aware of a new leave request that you need to decline, you need to leave a comment explaining to the team member the reason for declining the leave, and click Decline & Notify Team Member.

Deputy will notify the team member by email and push notification, and the status of the leave request and your comment will be visible to them in both the notification and their Me tab.

When it comes to approving new leave requests, your workflow may depend on the reporting hierarchy in your organization.

You may have one person (usually a manager or above) who approves all leave requests or two levels of people who approve the requested date range and leave type separately. In this 2-step approval workflow, the date range of the request is approved by a supervisor, then the type of leave requested is approved by a manager above the supervisor.

We’ll cover both workflows here, starting with 2-Step approval, where a supervisor must approve the date first.

Supervisors can only approve the date range of the leave request, not the leave type.

Note: In Deputy Enterprise plan accounts, you can make new roles with customized access levels and permissions. Roles that are able to approve the date range only can be configured in the Enterprise tab, under Access Levels & Permissions.

In the example below, employee Eli has sent the leave approval to their supervisor Fasih. Supervisor Fasih has approved the leave for the date range, added a comment and notified Eli's manager Maisie that they need to now approve the leave type.

Once the Supervisor has approved the date range of the leave request, the next step is for the Manager, or another role above the Supervisor to approve the leave type. They will be notified by the bell icon (or push notifications on the mobile app if enabled) and also see the leave request on Dashboard.

When the manager Maisie is viewing the leave request, you will see that only the date has been approved. The manager can change the leave details, set the leave type, and add a comment. The manager then has the option to Approve & notify the team member, or Decline & notify team member (you must add a comment when declining).

Managers and above are able to approve leave without any other party’s approval needed. You can approve it quickly using two clicks, or you can adjust pay, time, and leave type before approving. We’ll explore both methods here.

Approving quickly for paid, working days only

Click Approve Leave. If the request’s date range doesn’t include unpaid non-working days, and the leave type is appropriate, you can click Approve & Notify Team Member.

Assigning leave type and accounting for non-working days

For leave requests that include unpaid, non-working days (typically weekends), select any days that the team member would normally work and set the Leave Type for the days in the requested period that the team member is taking as leave. The non-selected days will be left as non-working days as shown in the example below.

Note:

• there is a setting that System Administrators and Location Managers can enable in the Location settings so that any days that your location is 'closed' according to the operating hours you have set up will default to a non-working day in leave requests submitted by employees in that location. However, this can still be edited by the manager reviewing the leave request using the drop-down menu for that day to select the correct option.
• there is a setting that System Administrators and Location Managers can enable in the Location settings so that any days that are set as a public holiday in your location will default to a non-working day. However, this can still be edited by the manager reviewing the leave request using the drop-down menu for that day to select the correct option. 

Then add a comment and click Approve to notify the team member.

Adjusting leave type

You can adjust the leave type for any of the days within the request, as well as adjust the typical work hours that would be paid for the request.

In the below example, Abby has to go to the dentist but has accidentally requested to use Vacation Leave for this. Abby’s manager Ed adjusts the leave type for the selected days to Sick Leave using the drop-down menu for the leave type. You can also adjust leave type and working hours for each individual day.

When approving leave, you will see start and end times for each day of the request. These times will apply to the resulting timesheets for those days, and are based on either: 

If the team member whose leave you’re approving doesn’t have an employment term assigned to them, the leave hours are based on your location’s open time, plus the default shift duration, minus the default meal break duration.

On the Location page you can edit your Location settings in the Scheduling section to set shift duration and meal break duration as shown below.

In this example, the location's default shift duration is 8 hours with a default meal break of 30 minutes.

8hrs - 30min = 7hrs 30min

This means the leave time for a standard day will be entered as 7hrs 30min and the team member will be paid for 7hrs 30min hours on each timesheet.

In the General section of this Location's settings, the opening hours are set at 8am so that will be the default time that is entered for all leave time at this Location, as shown in the example below.

Note: Make sure these details are correct before approving leave. If the leave is in the past, approving it will generate a new timesheet for each day in the request, and any incorrect information will need to be corrected on each individual timesheet.

You can set standard leave hours for your team members individually or in bulk.

In the example below the team member has a Standard Day of 7hr 36min set in her employment terms so that is the amount applied for 1 day of leave.

Setting standard leave hours in Enterprise

In Enterprise plan accounts, you can create your own standard hours which will apply when approving leave hours.

Here, you can determine the start and end times, break duration, and leave deduction.

The team member requesting leave may already be scheduled to work during the leave date requested.

Whether the team member is applying for sick leave due to shifts missed in the recent past, or a last-minute request in the near future, Deputy will notify you of the scheduled shifts on the request.

In the example above, the approving manager receives a warning that Eli is already scheduled for a shift during the period they are requesting leave.

The manager has the option to make the shift open or empty, or to keep Eli in the shift. You must make this selection before approving the leave.

If the shift is made open, once the leave has been approved, other appropriate team members will be invited to claim the shift.

If the shift is made empty then it will be up to the manager to find a replacement for Eli once their leave is approved.

If the manager chooses to keep Eli in the shift, then this shift will still appear as Eli's shift in the schedule, but will display a warning icon. When the shift is opened it will display an explanation for the warning. The manager will need to find a replacement for Eli on this shift by clicking on the three horizontal dots and selecting Find replacement.

In the below example, Frank missed his shift last Thursday and is submitting bereavement leave for that day. The shift is in the past, so there’s no reason to make the shift empty or open. Because he never clocked in, no timesheet was generated, and once the manager sets the Leave Type and Approves the Leave, a timesheet will be created for that day with the standard hours.

If the leave is in the future and is approved, leave timesheets will automatically generate at the start time of the first day of the request, and continue as each day of the request passes. 

If the leave is in the past for a shift that was scheduled but not worked then a timesheet will be created when the leave is approved.

If the leave is being applied to a shift where the team member has already begin their shift (for example if a team member needs to go home sick) then the timesheet will need to be adjusted.

Payroll

Approved leave timesheets are automatically synced to Deputy Payroll when a pay run is processed for the period in which the leave occurred.

Hours worked in the timesheet will automatically accrue leave for:

• Annual leave
• Personal / Carers' leave
• Long service leave 

Leave timesheets for these leave types will automatically deduct leave amounts in Payroll from the balance of:

• Annual leave
• Personal / Carers' leave
• Long service leave 

which will then sync back to the employee's leave balance in Deputy when the pay run is locked.

Learn about managing leave for National Employment Standards (NES) leave types other than the three three listed above.