Leave request process map

What is in this map

20 steps across 4 swimlanes and 5 phases, with 7 decision points.

Swimlanes (who does the work)

Employee, Manager, HR and Payroll

Phases (left to right)

Request, Checks, Approval, Scheduling and Payroll and return

Why map this process

Leave looks like the simplest process in the company right up until you write it down. Then you find the entitlement check, the cover check, the notice-period rule, the different handling for unpaid and for parental leave, the escalation when a manager sits on a request, and the payroll cut-off that quietly decides whether this month's salary is right. None of that is complicated; all of it is forgotten, and it is forgotten in a different way by every manager.

Because it runs constantly and touches everyone, this is the map that pays back fastest. A single page that says what happens when two people ask for the same week off settles an argument that otherwise gets re-litigated every summer, and it does it without anyone having to read a policy document.

Every step in the map

This is the spreadsheet behind the diagram. The numbers in “Goes to” are row numbers, which is exactly what the editor’s “Line to” column holds — so you can read the flow here and retype any part of it.

The decision points

Every branch in the map, with the label on each outgoing line. These are the questions the process has to be able to answer.

• 3. Sufficient **leave balance?**

  Owned by HR · Checks

  • Yes → step 7
  • No → step 4

• 4. Amend, unpaid or withdraw?

  Owned by Employee · Checks

  • Unpaid → step 7
  • Amend → step 5
  • Withdraw → step 6

• 8. Cover available?

  Owned by Manager · Checks

  • Yes → step 9
  • No → step 5

• 9. Manager **approves the leave?**

  Owned by Manager · Approval

  • Approved → step 11
  • Declined → step 10

• 11. **Long or unpaid** leave?

  Owned by HR · Approval

  • Yes → step 12
  • No → step 13

• 16. Leave cancelled or amended?

  Owned by Employee · Payroll and return

  • Taken → step 18
  • Amended → step 7
  • Cancelled → step 17

• 18. **Return-to-work** meeting needed?

  Owned by Manager · Payroll and return

  • Yes → step 19
  • No → step 20

Notes on specific steps

These notes travel with the map. In the editor they live in the Notes column and appear when you open a box.

1. Submit request with dates and type

The request has to carry start and end dates, half days, the leave type (annual, sick, parental, compassionate, unpaid, study) and who is covering. Requests with no leave type are the ones that stall, because nobody can tell yet whether pay is affected.

3. Sufficient **leave balance?**

Check the balance accrued at the leave dates, not the full year entitlement, and net off carry-over plus anything already booked but not yet taken. This is where most negative balances are created.

11. **Long or unpaid** leave?

Write the threshold down, for example any unpaid day, any statutory leave, or an absence over ten consecutive working days. Without a number, escalation depends on which manager received the request.

16. Leave cancelled or amended?

A change after the **payroll cut-off** cannot be pulled out of that run; it is corrected in the next period. Say who tells payroll about a late cancellation, because the calendar entry disappearing does not.

Making it yours

The check phase is where your own rules live. Each check is one Decision row with two labelled branches in the Line text column, so adding 'is this within the notice period?' costs one row and one edit. Put the actual numbers in the Notes column (the entitlement year, the notice threshold, the payroll cut-off date) because the person reading this map is trying to answer a specific question, not to admire the shape of the process.

What to watch out for

• The rejection branch must go somewhere. In most real processes a declined request is followed by a conversation and a resubmission, not by the process ending; if your map has rejection as a terminal box, it is describing a policy nobody follows.
• Payroll is downstream of approval but has its own deadline. If leave is approved after the cut-off, the correction happens next month, and that path deserves a row rather than a phone call.
• Do not let the manager lane absorb the cover check. Whether the team can spare someone is often a scheduling question owned by a supervisor or planner, and burying it in a manager's approval box is how holidays get approved that operations cannot support.

Frequently asked questions