How Do I Respond to a Leave Request?

As an Approver (or Admin), where you respond to a leave request depends on which integration your workspace uses. Slack workspaces respond through the Slack bot. Microsoft Teams workspaces respond through the Teams bot. Google Workspace and Email Only workspaces respond via email. The dashboard is available to all four, and is always there as a fallback.

From Slack or Microsoft Teams

When someone in your Department submits a leave, the Vacation Tracker bot sends you a message containing the request details (requester, dates, leave type, reason) and three action buttons:

• Approve — confirms the leave; the User is notified and the days come out of their balance immediately.
• Deny — rejects the leave with no reason attached.
• Deny with Reason — opens a short text field so you can explain why, then submits the denial. The User sees the reason in their notification.

Click any of the three from the bot message — you don't need to open the dashboard. The bot also offers a Snooze action that suppresses the next reminder for this request without committing to a decision.

From Email

Email notifications are the response channel for workspaces on the Google Workspace and Email Only integrations. The email contains the request details and the same three action options — Approve, Deny, and Deny with Reason — as links. Clicking takes you to a confirmation page in your browser; confirm and you're done.

From the Dashboard

1. Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io.
2. On the Dashboard, scroll to the Pending Requests section.
3. Each pending request is laid out in full on the page — requester, Leave Type, dates, reason, all visible without clicking. There's no separate detail view to open.
4. Use the three buttons on the request card: Approve, Deny, or Deny with Reason. Deny with Reason opens a text field so you can explain why.

Reminders if You Don't Act

If you don't approve or deny within the reminder window, Vacation Tracker sends up to 3 reminders before the request auto-expires. The expiration timing depends on a few variables:

• Standard requests — expire 7 business days after submission by default.
• Past-dated requests — expire 10 business days after submission.
• The Department's Leave Request Expiration setting — an Admin can flip this to Yes, keep future pending requests open until the leave end date, which disables auto-expiry on the 7-day clock entirely. In that mode, pending requests stay open until the leave end date itself.
• If the leave ends before expiration — the request expires at the end of the last day of leave, whichever comes first.

For the full breakdown, see Reminder Schedule and What happens if a leave isn't responded to right away?

Multi-Level Approvals

If the Department is configured with Multi-level Approval (Complete plan), each request moves through First Level, then Second Level, in sequence. Where you fit in depends on which level you're on:

• If you're a First Level Approver — you get notified as soon as the User submits. Second Level sees nothing yet. Your decision starts the chain.
• If you're a Second Level Approver and First Level hasn't acted yet — you won't be notified. The request is sitting with First Level. Until they Approve or Deny, the Second Level stage doesn't begin and the request isn't on your queue.
• If First Level approves — the request advances to Second Level. You get notified now, along with context about who approved at First Level so you have visibility into the decision before yours.
• If First Level denies — the request is rejected immediately and the chain ends. Second Level is never notified. There's no way for Second Level to override a First Level denial.
• Within a level, any one Approver moves the request forward — if three people are on First Level, whoever acts first decides. The other two don't also need to weigh in.

So as a Second Level Approver: if a request lands on you, that's confirmation that First Level has already approved. Your job is the final yes/no. See How To Set Up Multi-Level Approvals for the full flow.

Common Questions