A holiday request form is the smallest piece of paperwork in the leave year and the one that does the most work: it is where a request stops being a conversation and becomes a line against the employee with dates, days and a decision. A small employer who has approved leave by text knows what happens without it. This page sets out what the form has to capture, what a holiday request form template should leave out, and how the request turns into the balance and the wall chart. The free annual leave policy template on this site states the rules the form applies.
The fields a holiday form template needs
Name, the dates requested, the number of working days that is for this person's pattern, the entitlement and balance as of the request, whether the leave falls in a closed week, and the decision with who made it and when. The days figure is the field that goes wrong: five calendar days for a three-day-a-week worker may be two working days or three, and the form should carry the person's own days, not the company's week.
The rule the form applies
Notice of at least twice the leave requested, plus one day, is the statutory default unless the contract sets its own rule, and the employer can refuse with notice as long as the leave. Print the rule on the form so nobody has to be told it after the fact. A request that arrives inside the notice period is not automatically refused, but it is the employer's call, and the form should say so.
From the form to the balance and the chart
An approved form does two things: it marks the days on the wall chart and it takes them off the employee's balance as approved-but-not-taken. If it does only one, the record is wrong within a month. On paper that is two entries by the same person on the same day; on the paid wall chart on this site it is one approval, and the employee sees the new balance and the chart together.
The annual leave template set
The request form sits inside a small set of documents: the policy that states the entitlement, the bank-holiday and carry-over rules and the notice rule; the request form that applies it; and the record that holds the result. The free policy template on this site is the first; this page is the second; the wall chart is the third. Keep the three consistent and the questions stop, because every answer is written down once.
Questions people ask about holiday request form
What should a holiday request form include?
Name, dates, the number of the person's own working days requested, the balance as of the request, whether it falls in a closed period, and the decision with the approver and the date.
Does a holiday request have to be in writing?
No law requires a form, but a written request with a written decision is the only way to keep the balance and the chart right and to show, later, what was agreed.
How much notice should the form require?
The statutory default is twice the length of the leave plus one day unless the contract sets a different rule. State the rule on the form.
Is there a free holiday request form template?
The annual leave policy template on this site is free and states the rules a request form applies. On the paid plan the request is made and approved on the wall chart itself, and the form is the record.