SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     How Do I Request a Half-Day Leave?
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-request-a-half-day-leave/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2020-12-29
UPDATED:   2026-02-09
READING:   2 min
SUMMARY:   Requesting a half-day leave is as simple as requesting a regular leave. It’s just an organizational construct to help you on those days when you need to finish something up outside of work.

How Do I Request a Half-Day Leave?

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Last updated on February 9, 2026

How Do I Request a Half-Day Leave?

If your Admin has enabled half-day intervals on a Leave Policy, the standard request form lets you book a half-day instead of a full one.

Prerequisite
The Leave Policy must have Shortest Leave Duration set to Half day (or finer). If you don't see a half-day option for the Leave Type you want, ask your Admin to enable it on the policy. See Set Half-Day Intervals.

Dashboard

  1. Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io.
  2. Click Request Leave.
  3. Pick the Leave Type with the half-day option indicated.
  4. Pick the date and choose the start hour for the half-day. You pick only the start time (not start and end) because the duration is fixed — exactly half your configured workday. Picking the start hour tells your team when you'll be away (e.g. 8am means you'll be out from 8am for the first half of your workday; 1pm means you'll be out from 1pm for the second half).
  5. Add a reason if required, then click Request Leave.
Dashboard Request Leave modal with a half-day Leave Type chosen, single date picker, start-hour selector for the half-day window, and Reason field

Slack

  1. Type /vacation in any Slack conversation.
  2. Select Request Leave.
  3. Pick the Leave Type marked as half-day capable.
  4. Pick the date and start hour, add a reason, click Submit.

Microsoft Teams

  1. Open the Vacation Tracker chat in Teams.
  2. Type Request Leave, send.
  3. Pick the Leave Type with the half-day option.
  4. Pick the date and start hour, add a reason, click Submit.
How a half-day deducts
A half-day deducts 0.5 days from your balance for that Leave Type — or, expressed in hours, exactly half your configured workday length. If your workday is 8h, a half-day pulls 4h from your balance. If your workday is 7h, a half-day pulls 3.5h. The dashboard shows both formats so you can flip between Days & Hours and Decimal to confirm.

Common Questions

Because the duration of a half-day is fixed at exactly half your workday — there's no flexibility there. The only thing that varies is when you'll be away, which is what the start time captures. If your workday is 8h and you pick 8am as the start, you'll be out from 8am–12pm. Pick 1pm and you'll be out from 1pm onwards.

The Leave Policy that ties that Leave Type to your Location doesn't have half-day intervals enabled. Your Admin has to set Shortest Leave Duration to Half day (or finer, like 1 hour / 30 minutes / 15 minutes) on the policy. Ask them to enable it, or see Set Half-Day Intervals.

A single half-day request is one date only. If you need half-days across multiple dates (e.g. half-day Monday + half-day Tuesday), submit them as separate requests. For longer continuous absences with partial days at the edges, an hourly leave request might fit better — see How Do I Request an Hourly Leave?

What's Next?

Set Half-Day Intervals (Admin) Request an Hourly Leave Request a Full-Day Leave
Need help?
Contact our Support team via email or chat, Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.

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