A clean one-page form employees fill in to request vacation, sick leave, or personal days — plus a request log tab so HR can track every request, approval, and balance in one place. Download for Excel or Google Sheets, no email required.
Free download. No email required.
| Employee Time Off Request Form | |
|---|---|
| Employee name | Aisha Khan |
| Department | Operations |
| Type of leave | Vacation |
| First day of leave | Aug 11, 2026 |
| Last day of leave | Aug 15, 2026 |
| Total working days requested | 5 |
| Approved / Denied | Approved |
| Remaining balance after request | 7 days |
Preview of the template — the download includes formulas and all tabs.
Name, department, leave type, first and last day, and total working days requested. Print it or share the sheet digitally — both layouts work.
The approval section records the decision, approver name, signature, date, and the remaining leave balance after the request — so there is never a dispute later.
Copy each request into the log tab to build a running record per employee: date submitted, leave type, days, status, and approver — filterable by anyone on the team.
Employee name and department, the type of leave (vacation, sick, personal, bereavement, jury duty), first and last day of leave, total working days requested, a reason field, and an approval section with the decision, approver, date, and remaining balance. This template includes all of these.
No US federal law mandates a specific form, but written requests protect both sides: they document what was requested and approved, support FMLA and sick-leave compliance in states that require record-keeping, and prevent he-said-she-said disputes over balances.
That's a policy decision — two weeks is the most common for planned vacation, while sick leave is usually same-day. Whatever you choose, write it into your PTO policy and apply it consistently; the form's date-of-request field gives you the paper trail.
Paper works for very small teams, but forms get lost and balances drift out of sync. The Google Sheets version is a good middle step; past roughly ten employees, a system where requests, approvals, and balances live together (like ClockIt) removes the bookkeeping entirely.
Pair this form with our free PTO Tracking Template: log approved requests on the tracker calendar and balances total automatically. Or let ClockIt handle both — employees request in the app, managers approve in one tap, and balances update themselves.
Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly attendance grids with auto totals.
Log leave as date ranges — entitlement, taken and remaining calculate themselves.
Occasions, days lost, absence rate and Bradford Factor per employee.
Track vacation, sick and personal leave balances per employee.
Weekly, biweekly, monthly and project timesheets for payroll.
Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and shift schedules for your team.
Printable sign-in log for recording start and finish times.
Work out statutory leave entitlement, pro-rata and part-year.
25 copy-and-paste auto-replies for vacation, sick leave and handovers.