Annual leave request form template
A complete holiday request form you can copy into a document today - plus the statutory notice rules behind it, and an honest note on why most teams stop using forms.
A holiday request form needs six things: who's asking, the dates, the type of leave, the balance before and after, the manager's decision, and the date it was decided. The full template is below - copy it into a document, or skip it entirely and let people book on a shared calendar, which is what most UK teams did the moment they outgrew paper.
Download the leave request form PDF · 2 pages · edit the [bracketed] parts
The template
Everything from here to the end of section 4 goes into your form. Replace each [bracketed placeholder].
- Name: [ ]
- Team / department: [ ]
- Manager: [ ]
- Date of request: [ ]
- Type of leave: annual leave / time off in lieu / unpaid / other: [ ]
- First day: [ ] Last day: [ ]
- Half day? No / Morning only / Afternoon only
- Total working days requested: [ ]
- Handover notes - who is covering, and what needs finishing first: [ ]
- Entitlement this leave year: [ ] days
- Taken or already booked: [ ] days
- This request: [ ] days
- Remaining if approved: [ ] days
- Decision: Approved / Declined
- If declined, the business reason: [ ]
- Counter-notice given on: [ ] (see the notice rules below - a refusal needs counter-notice at least as long as the leave requested)
- Manager signature: [ ] Date: [ ]
- Recorded on the leave record by: [ ] Date: [ ]
How much notice does a holiday request need?
Unless your contract or policy says otherwise, the Working Time Regulations set the defaults - and they're symmetrical in a way most people don't realise:
| Leave requested | Worker must give | Employer's refusal needs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day | 2 days' notice | 1 day's counter-notice |
| 1 week | 2 weeks' notice | 1 week's counter-notice |
| 2 weeks | 4 weeks' notice | 2 weeks' counter-notice |
Most employers set friendlier rules in policy, which is fine - the statutory positions are the fallback, not a target. What an employer can't do is refuse so persistently that someone loses their statutory minimum: see can my employer refuse my holiday request?
How to adapt the form
- Match the leave types you actually offer. If you run TOIL, appointments or a purchase scheme, list them - an "other" box collects nothing useful.
- Keep the balance section. It's the part that prevents the awkward conversation in November about days that were never there.
- Don't ask why. There's no need to record the reason for annual leave, and a "reason" column invites inconsistent decisions.
- Say where it's stored. Leave records are personal data - the form should end up in one known place, not a manager's inbox.
Or stop using forms
Honest version: this template exists because people search for it, and if you're running leave on paper it's better than nothing. But a form is a workflow written down - request, check the balance, look for clashes, decide, record it, tell payroll - and every one of those steps is arithmetic and memory that software does for free.
In a leave system, the balance is calculated rather than typed, the clash with two colleagues off the same week is visible before approval, the decision is one tap, and the record updates itself. Nobody has to remember to file anything. If the form below is currently your process, it's worth seeing the alternative - and the pro-rata calculator and annual leave guide will help you set the entitlements either way.
More to download: All 30 templates · 66 guides explaining the rules · 24 calculators
The form, but it fills itself in
CoDash books leave on a shared calendar: balances calculated, clashes flagged before approval, decisions in one tap, records kept automatically.