Leave

Set up leave types, request time off from your employee record, and approve or reject requests while balances update automatically.

Leave covers time away from work: annual leave, sick days, unpaid leave, or any other type your organization sets up. You request days off from your own employee record, a manager or HR administrator approves or rejects the request, and your balance updates as the request moves along.

Key concepts#

Leave type: A kind of leave, such as Annual leave or Sick leave. Each type has a name, a short code, whether it is paid, and optionally how many days a year it allows.
Leave request: One block of time off against one leave type: a start date, an end date, the number of days it counts for, and an optional reason.
Balance: Per person, per leave type, per calendar year: the days allocated, the days already used, and the days waiting for approval (pending).

Who can use it#

Permissions

employee.self_serviceemployee.view_sensitiveemployee.manage

Requesting, submitting and cancelling your own leave needs employee.self_service and an employee record linked to your UnitX account. Seeing someone else’s requests and balances needs employee.view_sensitive. Approving or rejecting a request, and creating leave types, needs employee.manage.

Your account must be linked to an employee record

Leave belongs to an employee, not to a login. If no employee record is linked to your account, UnitX tells you that self-service HR actions are unavailable. Ask an HR administrator to link your record. See People directory.

Set up leave types#

Nobody can request leave until at least one leave type exists. Until then, the Leave types tab says No leave types yet.

Open the Leave types tab
Go to PeopleOrg structureLeave types.
Fill in the new type
At the bottom of the tab, enter a Name (for example “Annual leave”) and a Code (for example “PTO”; it’s converted to capital letters as you type). Optionally enter Days/yr, the annual allowance. Clear Paid if this is unpaid leave. New types are paid by default.
Click Add
The type appears in the list with its code, its allowance (for example “25 days/yr”) and a Paid or Unpaid badge.

Codes must be unique. A second type with the same code is refused.
The annual allowance, if you set one, must be a positive number.
Leave types can’t be renamed or deleted from this screen. Choose names and codes you’re happy to keep.

Request leave#

You request leave from your own employee record. The Leave section shows your balances, your requests and a form for a new one.

Open your own employee record
Go to People and click your name.
Fill in the request form
In the Leave section, choose a Type, a Start date and an End date, and enter Days, the number of days the request counts for. Days can be in half-day steps, such as 0.5 or 2.5. Add a Reason (optional) if you like.
Click Request
The request is saved as a draft. It doesn’t touch your balance yet, and nobody is asked to approve it.
Click Submit
Submitting moves the request to pending and reserves the days against your balance for that year. It now waits for approval.

You enter the number of days yourself

UnitX doesn’t work out the days from the dates, weekends, holidays or your work schedule. Enter the working days the leave should count for. The end date can’t be before the start date.

Requesting more than your balance#

Submitting a request that takes you past your allowance isn’t blocked. The request is submitted and the confirmation reads Submitted — over allocated balance, so you and your approver both know. Whether to approve it is the approver’s decision.

Cancel a request#

Click Cancel next to one of your own draft or pending requests. Cancelling a pending request releases the reserved days back to your balance. Approved, rejected and cancelled requests can’t be cancelled.

Approve or reject a request#

Open the employee’s record
Go to People and click the person’s name. Their Leave section lists their requests and balances.
Find the pending request
Requests waiting for a decision show a pending badge with Approve and Reject buttons beside it.
Decide
Approve moves the days from pending to used. Reject releases the days back to the balance.

Only pending requests can be approved or rejected. A draft has to be submitted by the employee first.

How balances work#

Each balance card in the Leave section shows the leave type and a line such as 3/25 days used (2 pending).

A balance is created the first time someone submits a request of that type for a given year. Its allocation starts at the type’s annual allowance, or 0 if the type has none.
The year is taken from the request’s start date.
Submit adds the request’s days to pending. Approve moves them from pending to used. Reject or Cancel removes them from pending.

Request statuses#

Status	Meaning	What can happen next
Draft	Saved but not yet sent for approval. Doesn’t affect the balance.	Submit or cancel (by the employee)
Pending	Submitted and waiting for a decision. The days count as pending.	Approve or reject (by an approver); cancel (by the employee)
Approved	Granted. The days count as used.	Final
Rejected	Declined. The pending days were released.	Final
Cancelled	Withdrawn by the employee.	Final

Limitations#

Leave is always requested by the employee. There’s no way to file a request on someone else’s behalf.
The screen doesn’t ask for a rejection reason, and approved requests can’t be edited or reversed.
Approving leave doesn’t update attendance, timesheets or anyone’s assigned work, and it doesn’t check against holidays or work schedules.
Leave types have a “carry forward” setting, but it can’t be changed on the Leave types tab and unused days aren’t moved into the next year automatically.

FAQ#

Why don’t I see a request form in the Leave section?

The form appears only on your own record, and only once at least one leave type exists. If you’re looking at someone else’s record, you see their requests (and the approve and reject buttons, if you can manage people) but no form.

I get “No Employee record is linked to your account”.

Your UnitX login isn’t connected to an employee record, so self-service leave isn’t available. An HR administrator needs to link your account to your employee record.

Where did my pending days go?

Pending days move to used when a request is approved, and disappear from pending when it is rejected or cancelled. The allocation itself doesn’t change.

Can I edit a request after creating it?

No. Cancel the draft or pending request and create a new one with the right dates.

Employee profiles, where the Leave section lives
Work schedules and holidays
Attendance
Org structure

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.