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.