Send your first leave request
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Where to start it, which rules are enforced on submit, and what happens to your balance
Booking time off as the employee, not the admin - from the form to the balance change once the request is decided.
Start the request
Open Leave → My leave at https://app.squadbear.com/requests, visible to every role,
and choose Request time off. Your balance-tracked leave types sit above the list, up
to three chips.
Pick a type and dates
Choose a leave type; the picker appends the days you have left. Pick a start date - leaving the end date blank books that single day. On a single day a Duration control appears where the policy allows more than one mode - Full day and Half day on a half-day increment, plus Custom hours on an hourly one. A longer range books whole days. Add context holds an optional Note to approver and an attachment - PDF, JPG or PNG up to 20 MB - visible only to you, admins, and your approvers.
What is enforced on submit
The form previews the working-day count and the balance after approval; the policy rules are enforced on submit and returned as a list. For the default Vacation policy they are:
- 2 days' notice - book at least two days out, or it's rejected.
- 15 days max per request - split anything longer.
- A replacement - Vacation requires a name in the Cover / replacement field; submitting without one is refused.
- Available balance - each year the request touches is checked on its own.
A leave type you aren't enrolled in doesn't appear in the picker and is refused with
not_eligible through the API. Of the seeded policies only Unpaid leave enrolls new
hires automatically.
How your days get counted
Each day is checked against your work schedule and your holiday calendar - both under the policy's control, and both on for the seeded policies, so non-working days and public holidays aren't charged. See How leave works in SquadBear for the full model.
Who approves it, and what happens to your balance
Submitting reserves the days immediately; the Balance after approval figure already shows it. Vacation routes to the Manager field on your profile, not to the manager role; requests over 5 days add an admin step. Your manager sees it in Inbox and on Leave → Approvals. Approved reserved days become used days; rejected ones are released. A pending request can be edited or cancelled; an edit restarts the approval chain. An approved one can be cancelled whole or from a date, leaving earlier days approved. A rejected request is final.
Sick leave
Sick leave auto-approves the instant you submit it - no manager step - and isn't balance-tracked. It requires no notice and no replacement, has no per-request maximum, and accepts start dates up to 7 days in the past.
Worked example
Aleksandra takes the last week of July - Monday 27 to Friday 31, five working days, no holiday in the way. She opens My leave, picks Vacation, sets the dates, and names a colleague under Cover / replacement. The form reads 5 working days and a positive balance after approval. Her manager sees it in Inbox that day and approves, turning the 5 reserved days into used days - no admin step at 5 days.