How do I cancel approved leave?
Cancelling approved leave goes back through the request record and the people who handle approvals, rather than being deleted quietly. The cancellation needs to reach the same places the booking did: the balance it drew on, the capacity plan it appeared in, and whoever arranged cover around it.
A cancellation is the half of leave management that teams consistently neglect, and it costs more than the booking does.
Three things moved when the leave was approved. A day came off a balance. A marker appeared on the planning grid. Somebody arranged cover.
Reverse only the first and the other two persist. The planner still sees an absence. The colleague still has a rearranged Tuesday for nothing.
This is why a cancellation is a change to a record rather than a removal of one. A deleted request leaves nobody able to explain why the cover was arranged.
The trail is what makes that work. A changed record keeps its before and after values, so the history of a cancelled booking survives instead of simply vanishing.
The planning grid reads from the same record, so a properly cancelled day stops showing as an absence there. That is the half people forget, and it is the half a planner actually looks at.
The colleague is the half no system can fix. Somebody rearranged a Tuesday for you. Tell them yourself, the same day.
Timing decides how clean the cancellation is. Called off a week ahead, it is simply a booking that went away. Called off the evening before, cover has already moved and somebody has to move it back.
After the day has passed it stops being a cancellation at all. That is a correction, and whether the day returns to a balance is a policy call rather than a mechanical one.
So cancel early where you can. The record copes with any of it. People cope with less.
A cancellation arriving after the day has passed is a correction rather than a cancellation. Whether it returns the day to a balance is a policy decision rather than a mechanical one.
Tell whoever arranged cover directly, on the same day. The record keeps the balance right; only a person can release the colleague who rearranged their week.
Related questions
Does the day come back to my balance?
The used and remaining figures follow the state of the request. What the record shows should match what the policy intends, which is worth confirming for a late cancellation.
Does the planning grid update?
The capacity view overlays leave against the days it covers, so a changed record is reflected where planners read it rather than only in the leave list.
Is the cancellation recorded?
Changes keep their before and after values in the audit trail, so a cancelled request leaves a history rather than an absence of one.