PTO Request Acceptance

This article is for Administrators or members who have been granted the ability to review, accept/reject PTO requests.

Also see: PTO Balances & Accruals

About PTO Requests

  • In some cases, members may request PTO at any time, regardless of their current scheduled shift(s), assuming they have the necessary available hours in the associated PTO bank.
  • If your organization allows members to have a negative PTO balance, they will be able to submit a PTO request at any time no matter what.
  • As soon as a PTO request is submitted, the # of available hours within the associated bank is reserved. The software will place a “hold” on those hours until such time the request is accepted or rejected. The # of available hours in the associated bank is not reduced at this time.
  • If the PTO request is rejected (or canceled by the employee), the “hold” is removed.
  • Depending on your organization’s settings, you may allow a “negative PTO balance”. In this case, your members can submit a PTO request, and have it accepted, even though they have not yet accrued the necessary hours to cover the time off. Contact our Customer Support for assistance or questions.
  • If the requested PTO date passes and the request was not approved or rejected, it will remain in a “pending” status. A Time Clock Administrator will need to reject the old PTO request in order to free up the available PTO hours within the member’s PTO bank. Alternatively, the member can “cancel” the old PTO request.
  • If you’re accepting a PTO request for a shift that is not yet scheduled, eSchedule will still proceed with the acceptance process.
  • In the event a Scheduler attempts to schedule the member for a shift that falls within the accepted PTO shift date/time, it will alert them accordingly.

Accepting / Rejecting a PTO Request

  1. Navigate to “Time Clock > PTO Report”.
  2. Adjust the filters at the top of the screen by using the “View more sort / filter options” icon:


  3. Multiple options for viewing PTO requests are available including:
    1. Member
    2. Start Date & End Date
    3. PTO Type — corresponds with list of available “bank” types.
    4. PTO Status:
      1. Accepted – PTO requests that have been accepted
      2. Rejected – PTO requests that have been rejected
      3. Pending – PTO requests that are awaiting acceptance or rejection
      4. Cancelled – PTO requests that were canceled by the member prior to acceptance or rejection
    5. Member Status — All, Active, Inactive
    6. Sort By — This will alter the default sorted data view.
    7. Include Submit Date — Checking this box will display the date & time for when the member submitted the PTO request.
    8. Include Start Date — Checking this box will display the member’s start date (seniority date).
  4. Click the “Refresh” icon:


  5. In the “Comments” field, enter any comments you wish for the member to see upon acceptance or rejection.
  6. Select “Accept” or “Reject”.
  7. Click “Go”.

    Note: For reference, to view the member’s scheduled shifts, click the “binoculars” icon. Their schedule will open in a new tab in your browser.
  8. At this point, the member will receive an e-mail and/or text message notifying them that their PTO request was accepted or rejected (assuming they have “Paid Time Off Notifications” activated within their member profile).

Remove Conflicting Shifts

  1. Upon accepting a PTO request, eSchedule will alert you of any conflicting shifts.


  2. To remove the member from the scheduled shift(s), check the boxes next to the shifts and click “Sign Off”.