Describe your annual leave policy and approval route. Makeform creates an editable holiday request form for dates, partial days, cover notes, and manager review.
Route holiday requests to email, Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a prompt, tailor it to your leave process, or send it to the Makeform builder.
Audience
Employees requesting a block of paid holiday
Format
Request form with manager review
Prompt size
218 chars
Example form structure
Request form with manager review
Employee, department, and manager
First day away and last day away
Full days or partial days?
Cover and handover notes
I understand this request requires review
Suggested routing tags
New request
Manager review
Decision recorded
Collect the first and last day away plus the expected return date to remove ambiguity.
Step 1
Request
employee, dates, duration, and cover plan
Step 2
Review
manager checks staffing and conflicts
Step 3
Decide
status and reviewer note are recorded
Step 4
Notify
employee and HR receive the next step
Why structured holiday intake
A holiday request form gives managers consistent dates, totals, and cover information while keeping submission distinct from approval.
Separate start, end, and return fields make overlaps easier to scan. Conditional time fields handle half days.
Show hours for partial days, handover details for longer breaks, and alternative dates when needed.
Route submissions to the right manager, distinguish pending from decided requests, and notify HR at the right step.
Fit your leave process
Keep identity and dates consistent, then adapt duration, cover, and routing fields by team.
Capture dates, expected return, working-day total, cover, and handover notes.
Reveal start and end times only when an employee selects a partial day.
Use department, location, or manager to send each request to its reviewer.
Ask who can cover priority work and whether the dates are flexible.
Build the workflow
Generate the intake, tailor the rules, connect review, and test each request path.
Specify employee details, holiday dates, duration choices, cover questions, and manager routes.
Replace example departments, add notice guidance, and clarify who calculates working days and balances.
Route submissions to the manager and define pending, approved, declined, and changes-needed states.
Test full-day, partial-day, and overlapping requests. Verify routing and neutral pending messages.
Request options
Chat and spreadsheets can separate the request, cover details, and response. A generated form starts with consistent inputs.
Field guide
Use these six sections, then match them to your leave policy and scheduling.
Employee and reviewer
Collect the work details needed to identify the employee and route the request. Avoid unrelated personal information.
Holiday dates
Ask separately for the first day away, last day away, and expected return. Reveal time fields only for partial days.
Working-day total
A calendar range and leave amount can differ. Capture working days or hours, and label employee-entered balances as estimates.
Cover and handover
For longer holidays, ask about affected work, a proposed cover contact, and urgent handover items. Keep one-day requests concise.
Manager review
Send each request to the intended manager in a pending state. Record the reviewer, date, status, and optional note before notifying the employee.
Acknowledgment and updates
State that the details are accurate and submission begins review. Explain how to change or withdraw the request, and add your policy wording.
Related tools
Build adjacent leave, absence, availability, and shift forms with live Makeform tools.
FAQ
Answers for HR teams moving annual leave requests into a form.
A holiday request form lets employees ask for planned annual leave. It records the employee, manager, dates, duration, and cover notes. Submission starts review; it does not mean the dates are approved.
Include employee, department, manager, dates, expected return, duration, and working days or hours. Show times for partial days. For longer breaks, ask about affected work, cover, and handover. Explain review and how to change or withdraw the request.
Route the submission to the manager or department reviewer as pending. Record the reviewer, date, status, and note. Then notify the employee and HR, and test the handoff before launch.
Yes. Offer full day, half day, or specific hours. Reveal start and end times only for a partial-day choice, and collect the date and total hours in structured fields.
Only if useful. Label an employee-entered balance as an estimate; HR or your internal system can verify it. Focus the form on dates, duration, work impact, reviewer, and next step.
Collect dates, department, role, and cover separately for comparison. Ask for alternatives when employees are flexible. Staffing rules determine the outcome, so the receipt must not imply that dates are reserved.
Yes. Makeform supports unlimited free forms and responses. Teams can generate, edit, publish, and collect requests without a response cap; the paid tier only removes the Makeform badge. Add your departments and policy wording, then test manager routing.
Say the request was received and is pending review. Restate the dates, identify the reviewer or contact, and explain how to change or withdraw it. Do not call the holiday booked or approved until that decision is recorded.
Give every annual leave request a clear route.
