Review a leave request and check the balance
Make a decision on the exact pending leave request and check its saved outcome and matching balance.
Review a leave request and check the balance
Make a decision on the exact pending leave request and check its saved outcome and matching balance.
Before you start: You must be the appropriate reviewer. Have the applicable policy, employee’s dates and work pattern, relevant-year balance and any required coverage information.
Steps
1. Open People → Leave and identify the pending request by employee, full leave-type name, start date and end date. Inspect its current state. If already decided, skip approval in step 5 and review the existing result instead.
2. Check the request’s Duration and unit against the intended dates, work pattern and policy. A calendar span and charged leave days may differ. Resolve an unexplained count before deciding.
3. Where your role permits, open Admin → Balances and match the same employee, leave type and year. Read Total Days, Used, Carried Over and Remaining, scrolling horizontally on that same row when needed.
4. Consider eligibility, notice and coverage under the actual policy. If information is missing, obtain clarification rather than treating uncertainty as an automatic rejection. Do not change the type or balance just to make the request fit.
5. For an eligible pending request you intend to approve, open its matching leave item in Pulse through the approval route. Read the complete identity, type, dates, duration and reason before selecting Approve. This action can apply without an intermediate confirmation, so check the target first.
6. Return to the source request and All Requests where permitted. Find the same employee/type/date combination and read its retained status and reviewer attribution. A disappeared pending card is not enough to establish the result.
7. Reopen the matching Admin → Balances row and compare its components with the prior balance and the approved request. Include any other intervening leave movements rather than expecting a historical number to return.
8. If the request, queue and balance disagree, give the leave administrator the exact request and discrepancy. Keep cancellation or withdrawal separate; do not delete a request or invent a balancing adjustment to simulate it.
Expected result
The exact request has a traceable decision, and its balance consequence has been checked in the correct person/type/year scope.
Common pitfalls
- A request within the available balance can still require policy and coverage review.
- A displayed requester name or pending count is insufficient when similar requests exist. Match both dates and the full type.
- Approval, cancellation and payroll treatment are separate outcomes; do not infer one from another.
Continue learning
In this series: People operations — guide 3 of 6.
Turn what you learned into the way the team works.
Mark this lesson complete once the workflow exists in your workspace—not simply when you reach the bottom.