---
title: "Approving absence requests"
slug: "approving-absence-requests"
updated: 2026-06-10T11:26:25Z
published: 2026-06-10T11:26:25Z
canonical: "help.cintra.co.uk/approving-absence-requests"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.cintra.co.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Approving absence requests

### How do I review and approve an absence request?

Once an employee has submitted an absence request, Self-Service notifies you by email that the request needs to be approved. From time-to-time, you may have to reject a request after reviewing it.

If you create your own Absence Request or a request on behalf of an employee, it is automatically approved if you are the sole manager. Otherwise, the request must go through tiered approval. Any submitted or cancelled requests that come through the Sickness & Absence module must be approved in order to keep track of an employee’s history of absences.

While you can quickly approve a request in Approvals, you can approve a request within Calendar if you want to see an overview of all the requests within the year or approve a request in the Team calendar, if you want to keep track of the requests of your team by month.

1. Sign in to **Self-Service**.
2. Navigate to the Managing Sickness page, by clicking the **Sickness Approval** menu option under **Management**.
3. Filter the employees to display the Absence Requests you want to approve. Any associated absence request records appear.
4. Click the desired request. The Edit Sickness form appears.
5. Review the request.
6. Click the **Approve** button. The **Confirm** button appears.
7. Click the **Confirm** button. The following changes have occurred:
  - The request record in the Approvals view has changed to Approved Booking.
  - The request has been updated accordingly in the Calendar and Team calendar views.
  - The date in the employee's Calendar and Team calendar is now colour-coded to reflect the status: Approved Booking.

> [!NOTE]
> Note: If you, the manager, create an absence request for yourself, the request is approved automatically. This is reflected in the Calendar and Team calendar views under Sickness.

### How do I approve an absence request quickly?

Depending on how your system is configured, once an employee submits an absence request, Self-Service notifies you by email that the request needs to be approved.

But if you create your own Absence Request or a request on behalf of an employee, it is automatically approved if you are the sole manager. Otherwise the request must go through tiered approval.

Any submitted or cancelled requests that come through the Sickness & Absence module must be approved in order to keep track of an employee’s history of absences. Although you can approve/reject a request in Approvals, Calendar or Team calendar, if you have several requests to approve, you can do so quickly.

1. Sign in to **Self-Service**.
2. Navigate to the Managing Sickness page, by clicking the **Sickness Approval** menu option under **Management**.
3. Highlight the desired Absence Request in **Approvals**.
4. Click the desired check box in the **Approve/Reject** column.
5. Click the **Submit Requests** button.
  - The request record for each absence in the Approvals view has changed to Approved Booking.
  - The Calendar and Team calendar are updated accordingly.
  - The date in the employee's Calendar and Team calendar is now colour coded to reflect the status: Approved Booking.