people.vacation-request·version 1.0.0·draft4 to verify
Handle a vacation request and cover
The request is decided within the legal window, the balance is correct, cover is named, and vacation pay is scheduled on time.
When to use
An employee has asked for time off. Not for sick leave — use people.sick-leave, which follows a different document flow (medical certificate B, sick-pay days). Not for offboarding — use people.offboard-employee. Not for a contractor — contractors on service agreements have no statutory vacation; handle it inside their contract, not here.
Before you start
- The employee's entitlement balance is known: annual days for the year plus any carried-over days.
- The team calendar is open: who is already away in the requested window.
- You know whether the requested window overlaps a payroll cut-off.
What a run requires1
- Approval · S3 · ownerthe run stops until a named person records the decision
Any step can wait until a date and reopens by itself; every closed step leaves evidence (a note, a link, a number).
The trail8 steps
Log the requestagent
Enter the request in the people module: employee, first day, last day, type, any note from the employee.
Done when the request exists with a timestamp and status
received.Check the factsagent
Read the balance from the people module (do not recompute by hand); check the team calendar for overlaps and for other requests pending in the same window; check whether the first requested day is inside the two-week notice window measured from today.
Done when the request carries three written facts: balance, overlap result, notice-window result.
⛔ A balance read from memory or from last year's spreadsheet is not a check — read it from the module.
Decideownerneeds approval · owner
Approval · S3 · owner — the run stops until a named person records the decision
Present the request with the three facts from S2 and a recommendation.
Done when the owner has recorded approve or decline, with a reason if declined.
⛔ Do not approve verbally in a corridor and hope it gets written down — the decision in S4 must trace to this step.
Record and notifyagent
Set the request status to
approvedordeclined; write the decision to the employee in writing (e-mail or message in the people module), naming the exact dates.Done when the employee has a written answer with the dates, and the sent message is attached to the request.
Arrange coveragent
For each recurring or time-bound duty the employee holds, name a cover person and attach a short handover note (what, until when, where the instructions live) to the request.
Done when every duty in the handover note has a named person who has confirmed it.
Schedule the payagent
If approved paid leave: note the vacation period in the next payroll run so vacation pay is calculated and paid on time. Latvian law requires vacation pay to be paid before the leave starts (⚠ verify exact deadline, Darba likums on likumi.lv).
Done when the payroll note for the correct pay period exists and names the employee and the dates.
Verify before day oneagent
On the last working day before the leave: calendar blocked, auto-responder or mailbox note set if the employee faces customers, cover person knows they are cover, handover note attached.
Done when every item in this list is ticked in the request record.
Close on returnagent
When the employee returns, confirm the actual first and last days taken; if they differ from the approved dates, correct the balance and the payroll note, and record the change.
Done when the request shows actual dates, the balance matches them, and the payroll note is corrected or confirmed as matching.
Checks — how we know it worked
- Balance after the request = balance before minus approved days (read it back from the people module).
- The written decision to the employee is attached to the request, with the dates spelled out.
- The payroll run for the period before the leave includes the vacation pay line.
- The team calendar shows the employee away on exactly the approved dates, and the cover person is named
If it goes wrong
| Symptom | Response |
|---|---|
| Two employees want the same window | Present both requests to the owner together in S3 with the overlap named; never approve one silently and decline the other by silence. |
| Balance says the employee has no days | Check for carried-over days and for days accrued since the balance was last touched; if the balance is a bookkeeping error, fix it before declining — a decline on a wrong balance is the most expensive outcome here. |
| Employee falls sick during vacation | Stop this playbook and open people.sick-leave; the days overlap rules are handled there (⚠ verify overlap of sickness and vacation, Darba likums on likumi.lv). |
| Dates changed after approval | Re-run S3 for the new dates as a fresh decision; do not edit the old one — payroll and cover must match a decision the owner actually made. |
| Decision made too late for the two-week notice window | Tell the employee in writing immediately and agree new dates; record the miss as a measure, not as a note in the employee's file. |
What each step leaves behind
- S1the request exists with a timestamp and status
received. - S2the request carries three written facts: balance, overlap result, notice-window result.
- S3the owner has recorded approve or decline, with a reason if declined.
- S4the employee has a written answer with the dates, and the sent message is attached to the request.
- S5every duty in the handover note has a named person who has confirmed it.
- S6the payroll note for the correct pay period exists and names the employee and the dates.
- S7every item in this list is ticked in the request record.
- S8the request shows actual dates, the balance matches them, and the payroll note is corrected or confirmed as matching.
Evidence to keep
Request record with timestamp · the three S2 facts · the owner's decision (who, when, reason if declined) · the written notification to the employee · the handover note and named cover · the payroll note id · actual dates from S8.
How this playbook improves
After every 10 runs ask: how long from request to decision, and did any decision miss the two-week notice window? How many declines were reversed because the balance was wrong? Did any vacation pay land late or need correction in S8? A new version changes the step that caused the miss and says so in its change note.
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