Can I require employees to give advance notice when booking leave?

2 min read By TimeOff Support

Yes. Advance Notice lets you control how early employees must submit requests for a particular leave type.

The rule is set separately for each leave type, so Holiday could require advance notice while Sick Leave has no notice requirement.

How do I set Advance Notice?

Go to:

Settings → Leave types → Select leave type → Edit

For each leave type, you choose one Advance Notice rule:

  • No advance notice required
  • A fixed number of days
  • A multiple of the leave duration

You cannot combine a fixed notice period with a leave-duration rule for the same leave type.

Advance Notice is measured in calendar days.

How does a fixed notice period work?

Use a fixed number when every request for that leave type should require the same amount of notice.

For example, if Holiday requires 10 days’ notice, an employee cannot submit a Holiday request starting fewer than 10 calendar days away.

The same 10-day requirement applies whether they are requesting one day or a full week.

Can the required notice increase for longer holidays?

Yes. Instead of using a fixed number of days, you can choose A multiple of the leave duration as the Advance Notice rule for that leave type.

Only one Advance Notice rule applies to a leave type at a time.

For example, if Holiday is set to require notice equal to twice the requested leave:

  • 1 day of leave requires 2 days’ notice;
  • 3 days requires 6 days’ notice;
  • 5 days requires 10 days’ notice.

This means the notice period automatically increases with the length of the request, rather than applying a separate fixed rule as well.

Can a manager make an exception?

Advance Notice applies when employees submit leave for themselves.

An authorised admin or manager booking leave on an employee’s behalf can still record the leave even when it does not meet the Advance Notice requirement.

This allows agreed exceptions, urgent absences or historical leave to be recorded without changing the rule for everyone.

Advance Notice only controls whether the employee can submit the request. Normal approval rules still apply afterwards.

For full setup instructions, see Advance notice for booking leave requests.