Approvals

Leave Approvals

How approvers review the leave queue — approving and rejecting new requests and reviewing cancellation requests for already-approved leave.

This page is for approvers reviewing leave. It covers who can act, the two queues you'll work from, and the approve/reject and cancellation-review actions.

Who can approve or reject

You can act on a leave request if you have the isApprover flag or the role DEPARTMENT_HEAD, ADMINISTRATOR, or EXECUTIVE. In addition:

Your account must be active.
You cannot approve or reject your own request.
Department heads are limited to their own department. A department head with no department assigned sees an empty queue.

See Roles and permissions for the role model.

The two queues

The Approvals page presents leave in two tabs:

Tab	Source	Contents
New submissions	`GET /api/leaves/pending`	Newly submitted PENDING requests, oldest-first (FIFO). Excludes your own; department-scoped for heads.
Cancellation requests	`GET /api/leaves/pending-cancellations`	Requests to cancel already-approved leave.

New-submission leave also appears on the dashboard pending widget.

Approving and rejecting a new request

Action	What it does
Approve	Sets the leave to APPROVED. No reason is required.
Reject	Sets the leave to REJECTED and records the reason you provide.

On either action the requester is notified by email and in-app, and the team calendar is synced.

Reject with a reason. A rejection requires a reason — it's shown to the requester so they understand why and can re-book correctly.

Reviewing cancellation requests

When an employee wants to undo an approved leave, they file a cancellation request (see Editing and cancelling). The leave stays APPROVED and the balance stays reserved until you decide.

Decision	Result
Approve cancellation	Leave becomes CANCELLED, balance is freed, the calendar event is removed, and the owner is notified.
Decline cancellation	Leave stays APPROVED (balance still consumed); the owner is notified, optionally with your reason.

You can't review your own. An approver cannot review a cancellation request for their own leave — a separation-of-duties safeguard.

Common errors

Error message	Cause	Fix
"Leave request is already {status}"	The request is no longer PENDING.	Refresh — it may already be actioned.
"You cannot approve/reject your own leave request" (403)	You tried to action your own request.	Another approver must handle it.
"You can only approve/reject requests from your department" (403)	A department head acted outside their department.	Route to the right approver or an admin/exec.
"There is no pending cancellation request for this leave"	The cancellation request no longer exists.	Refresh the queue.
"You cannot review your own cancellation request" (403)	You tried to review your own request.	A different approver must review it.

For the full error list, see Leave troubleshooting.

Approvals overview — scoping and notifications.
Editing and cancelling — the requester side of cancellations.

Approvals Overview

What the approvals queue is, who can approve, how department scoping works, and how notifications keep approvers and requesters in the loop.

Expense Approvals

How expense reports are submitted, who approves them, the approve/reject/mark-paid actions, and how separation of duties scopes department heads.