To request time off in Workday, open the “Request Absence” task from your Workday homepage, select your dates on the calendar, choose your time off type, and hit Submit. The whole process takes about a minute on desktop or mobile. Here’s exactly how it works, along with how to check your balances, edit a request, and track approval status.
Requesting Time Off on Desktop
From your Workday homepage, click the Request Absence task. A pop-up calendar will appear. You have two ways to pick your dates: click directly on the calendar days you want off, or use the date range fields to enter a start and end date. The date range option is faster if you’re taking a full week or longer.
Once your dates are selected, click Continue. Workday will ask you to choose a time off plan. You’ll see options like vacation, sick time, personal days, or whatever categories your employer has set up. Pick the one that applies. If you’re submitting a formal leave of absence rather than standard PTO, select Leave Request instead of Time Off.
After you choose a plan, Workday displays the daily hours for each day you selected. By default, it fills in your standard workday hours. If you only need a half day or a few hours off, adjust the hours for each individual day before submitting. You can also add a comment for your manager (helpful if you want to note a reason or mention coverage arrangements). When everything looks right, click Submit Request. Your request routes to your manager for approval.
Requesting Time Off on Mobile
Open the Workday mobile app and tap the Time Off app. Tap the calendar days you want to request off. Each day you tap gets highlighted, and you can tap a highlighted day again to deselect it. When your dates are set, tap Next.
Select your time off type from the list. Workday will show a review screen with the days and hours. If you need to adjust the hours for any particular day, tap that day and change the number. You can also enter a comment at this point. On iPhone, tap Submit. On Android, tap Done. A confirmation page will appear, and the request goes to your manager for review.
How to Check Your Time Off Balance
Before you submit a request, it’s worth confirming you have enough hours available. From the Workday homepage, click your Employee Profile icon, then click View Profile. From your profile, click Actions, hover over Time and Absence, and select View Time Off Balance.
A pop-up window will ask you to confirm a date. It defaults to today’s date. Click OK, and you’ll see a report listing each absence plan (vacation, sick, personal, etc.) along with your current balance for each one. The “Available” column shows your total entitlement for the year, including any carryover from the previous year. The “Year to Date” column shows what you’ve accrued so far.
If you want to see what your balance will look like at a future date (useful for planning a trip months out), click the three-dot icon on the balance report, go to Time and Absence, and select View Time Off Balance again. Change the date to whatever future date you’re curious about, click OK, and Workday will show your projected balance as of that date.
Editing or Canceling a Request
If you need to change dates or cancel a request your manager has already approved, go to your absence calendar and click on the approved time off. Approved days appear as green blocks on the calendar. Clicking one opens a pop-up with two options: Cancel Absence and Edit.
To cancel entirely, select Cancel Absence, enter a brief comment explaining why, and click OK. The cancellation goes to your manager (or whoever your organization routes it to) for approval. Once approved, the days disappear from your calendar and the hours return to your balance.
To modify instead of cancel, select Edit. From the edit screen, you can change the type of absence, adjust the daily hours, remove individual days you no longer need, or add days. You can also attach a document or leave a comment for your approver. When you’re done making changes, click Submit Request. The updated request goes back through the approval process, so your manager will see exactly what changed.
Tracking Your Request Status
After you submit, your absence calendar on the Workday homepage is the quickest way to track where things stand. Pending requests typically show in a different color than approved ones. Approved time off appears as green blocks on the calendar. If a request is still waiting for your manager’s action, it will show as pending.
You can also check your Workday inbox for notifications. When your manager approves or denies a request, Workday sends you a notification. If a request has been sitting for a while without action, it’s worth following up with your manager directly, since Workday doesn’t have a built-in way to send a reminder.
Tips for a Smooth Request
Your organization may have its own policies layered on top of Workday’s standard setup. Some employers require requests a certain number of days in advance, and Workday can be configured to enforce that. If you try to submit and get an error, check whether your company has a minimum notice period.
When requesting partial days, pay attention to the hour increments your employer allows. Some organizations let you request time in 15-minute blocks, while others only allow half-day or full-day increments. The hours field on the review screen will reflect whatever your employer has configured.
If you don’t see the “Request Absence” task on your homepage, try searching for it in the Workday search bar at the top of the screen. Type “request time off” or “request absence” and it should appear as a task you can launch directly. Some organizations customize their homepage layout, so the task might also live under an “Absence” or “Time Off” app rather than appearing as a standalone link.