The Leave Requests menu includes the ability to create new leave requests as well as view or cancel existing requests. If your user account have been granted additional roles (other than the Standard User role), you may have additional options under the Leave Requests menu.

Create Leave Request

Role: For users with User role.

Allows a user to create a new leave request for a position that is eligible for leave in USPS (sick, personal and/or vacation) as well as other available leave types that are configured under System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration . Once the request is created, it will follow the employee’s approval work flow.

To create a leave request:

Under Leave Requests, click ‘Create Leave Request’
Enter the desired leave information. NOTE: System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration settings may impact what is displayed or required when creating a leave request.

Click ‘Create Leave Request’ to submit your request. You will receive a green notification in the upper right corner of the screen stating the request was created successfully as well as an email that your request has been submitted. The ‘leave type’ and ‘total time request’ fields will be reset (and highlighted in red) to indicate you can enter your next leave request if desired.

Fields Defined

Position: Displays employee’s (USPS) positions whose job status is configured under System>Configuration>Job Status Configuration in ESS. For example, if only ‘active’ jobs are configured under Job Status Configuration, the employee can only create leave requests for their active positions. If the employee has multiple positions, it will display the first active position by default however, the employee has the ability to select a different position from the drop down.
Leave Type: Select the desired leave type for the position selected. If the user’s position is eligible for sick, vacation and/or personal leave, once selected, it will display their current leave balance (including on-going leave requests). On-going leave requests include initiated and approved only.
Reason: Enter a reason for the request. The district may configure this field to be required depending on leave type selected in System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration.
Start of Leave/End of Leave: Enter the beginning and ending date and time of your request.
- If you prefer the leave time to always default to your set work schedule, please refer to User Profile for further information on how to set your default start/end work time. Even if a default work schedule is set up in the User Profile, the user can always overwrite it when entering their leave request.
- NOTE: If you enter a date that is in the past you will receive a warning message that the date exists in the past. You can still create the request for the date in the past by clicking submit.
Total Time Requested: Display in hours or days leave increments depending on the settings configured under System>Configuration>Leave Time Configuration. Click on + to increase total time or - to decrease total time.
Phone Number: Optionally enter a phone number. If you prefer the phone number to default to a specific number, please refer to User Profile for further information.
Comments: Optional comment field allow you to enter any comments you want your approvers to see or anyone else who has access to see your request.
Substitute Comments: If ‘Substitute Needed’ is marked, this field optionally allows you to enter the name(s) and contact information, if available, for any possible substitute(s) you would like to have called and any notes that need to be passed on to the substitute. Anyone who has access to view your request will see this information.
Substitute Needed: If tracking substitute calling in ESS, the district may optionally configure ESS to require this box be checked for specific leave types.
- NOTE: District may alternatively use a third party sub-calling software instead of ESS
- Refer to ‘Default Substitute Needed’ option under System>Configuration>Leave Type Configuration for more information.
Substitute Scheduled: If tracking substitute calling in ESS, the user with the sub coordinator role will update the leave request with the substitute’s information (substitute comments, substitute first name, substitute last name, and substitute phone number) and checkmarks ‘Substitute Scheduled'.
Upload Files: Allows user to upload a supporting document they would like attached to their leave request.

Elevated Create Leave Requests

Role: For users with Leave Manager, District Manager or Admin role.

Allows user to create a leave request for another ESS user in their district.

To create an Elevated Leave Request:

Under Leave Requests, click ‘Elevated Create Leave Request’
Select the Employee you are creating the leave request for. You may
Enter the desired leave request information for the employee and click ‘Create Leave Request’ to submit the request on behalf of the employee.

My Leave Requests

Role: For users with User role.

Displays a user’s existing leave requests in a grid format. The user may use the filter row to filter their leave requests as well as use the more button to add or remove columns from the grid.

View Leave Requests

user may view the details of their leave request.

Leave Request Details: includes the information entered on the leave

Leave Request Daily Details: displays the week(s) inclusive of the leave request beginning and ending dates, the start and end time of the request, and the amount of leave requested. If the leave has been exported from ESS, the Exported box will be checked.

Leave Request Approval Trail: Tracks the approval activity on the leave request, from original requester to final approver. The ‘Note’ column on the grid may provide helpful information on what took place during the approval process. Please refer to the ‘Leave Request Approval Trail Note’ in the More Information section of this chapter for examples.

Edit Leave Requests

user may edit their leave request as long as the request status is ‘initiated’ or ‘rejected’. Once the request has been approved through the entire workflow, the status will change to ‘approved’. Once marked approved, the user can no longer edit the leave request. ‘Cancelled’ leave requests cannot be edited.

Cancel Leave Requests

user may cancel their leave request as long as the status is initiated or approved. To cancel an exported leave request, please refer to Export Leave History on how to revert an exported leave request.

View Supervised Leave

Role: For users with Leave Supervisor for Staff, District Manager or Admin role.

Allows users ability to view their staff’s detailed leave request information by clicking on . The user may use the filter row to filter leave requests as well as use the more button to add or remove columns from the grid.

When viewing a leave request, it will provide all details of the leave request (listed below) as well as the ability to ‘Print Leave Expense Form’ for any professional leave type requests containing leave expense information. The Leave Expense Form will formatted as a PDF file with the following naming convention ‘leave-expense-report-YYYY-MM-DD’ using the current date.

Leave Request Details: includes the information entered on their leave
Leave Request Daily Details: displays the week(s) inclusive of the leave request beginning and ending dates, the start and end time of the request, and the amount of leave requested. If the leave has been exported from ESS, the Exported box will be checked.
Leave Request Approval Trail: Tracks the approval activity on the leave request, from original requester to final approver. The ‘Note’ column on the grid may provide helpful information on what took place during the approval process. Please refer to the ‘Leave Request Approval Trail Note’ in the More Information section of this chapter for examples.

To approve a leave request, the supervisor must have the Leave Request Approval Role. Approving leave is available under the Home screen or Leave Request Approval menu option.

View District Leave

Role: For users with Substitute Coordinator, Substitute Coordinator Read-only, Leave Manager, District Manager or Admin role.

Allows users the ability to view detailed leave requests for anyone in the district by clicking on . The user may use the filter row to filter leave requests as well as use the more button to add or remove columns from the grid.

Leave Request Details: includes the information entered on their leave
Leave Request Daily Details: displays the week(s) inclusive of the leave request beginning and ending dates, the start and end time of the request, and the amount of leave requested. If the leave has been exported from ESS, the Exported box will be checked.
Leave Request Approval Trail: Tracks the approval activity on the leave request, from original requester to final approver. The ‘Note’ column on the grid may provide helpful information on what took place during the approval process. Please refer to the ‘Leave Request Approval Trail Note’ in the More Information section of this chapter for examples.

Please note if you click on Export Leave Requests, it will take you directly to the ‘Export Leave Requests’ option under the Leave Management menu.

Supervised Leave Analysis

Role: For users with Leave Supervisor for Staff, District Manager or Admin role.

The Supervised Leave Analysis provides leave information balances as well as leave request details for a supervisor’s staff. It is split into two grids.

The top grid displays the leave balance information for a supervisor’s staff. Use the filter row to narrow down your search. If you would like to view employee leave request information, checkmark the desired employees and click ‘See Leave for Selected’. Their leave requests details will then be displayed in the bottom grid. You also have the option to export all or selected employees leave balance information to a spreadsheet via the ‘Export Grid Items’ as well as customize the grid by clicking the more icon.

The bottom grid displays the leave request information for the employees selected from the top grid. You also have the option of exporting the selected employees leave request information to a spreadsheet via the ‘Export Grid Items' as well as customize your bottom grid using the more icon.

More Information on Leave Requests

AESOP Integration

If the leave request originated from Absence Management (AESOP), the AESOP Origin, AESOP Absence Instance ID and AESOP Configuration Number will be displayed below the Supervisor information on the Leave Request Details screen.

Leave Request Approval Trail ‘Note’

The ‘Note’ column on the Leave Request Approval Trail may provide helpful information on what took place during the approval process. Please refer to the examples below:

When submitted, it will note the group chain the leave request is tied to. When approved (or rejected), approver may optionally enter a comment which is noted in the approval trail.
If the submitted (initiated) leave request was edited, it will be noted in the approval trail as ‘cancelled’ and then re-submitted to the workflow (same timestamp).
If the group was edited (via Users>Group), it will be noted in the approval trail as ‘group edited’ and then re-submitted to the workflow (same timestamp)
If the group chain was edited (via Users>Group Chain), it will be noted in the approval trail as 'group chain edited' and then re-submitted to the workflow (same timestamp)

More Option

My Leave Request grid allows for the following properties to be added or removed on the grid.

Start Date and Stop Date Filtering

The grids do not accept greater than (>), less than (<) and/or equal (=) symbols in the filter row. However, the start date and stop date columns each have a ‘filter start’ (aka >=) and ‘filter stop’ (aka <=) that allows you to filter that way.

Example: Using the ‘start date' column on My Leave Requests grid

If I want to see all leave requests with a start date greater than or equal to 11/11/2024, I would enter the date in the ‘filter start’:

If I want to see all leave requests with a start date less than or equal to 11/11/2024, I would enter the date in the ‘filter stop’:

If I want to see all leave requests with a start date greater than or equal to 11/11/2024 and a stop date less than or equal to 11/12/2024, I would enter the following:

If I want to filter leave requests for a specific day, 12/13/2024 only, I can enter the same date in both the start date’s ‘filter start’ and stop date’s ‘filter stop’: