Vacation/Holiday Request

Question

Our company has just got Office 365 and SharePoint online. I would like to create an online Vacation/Holiday Request form but don't know where start.

I haven't used SharePoint before so can this be created using the online version? or do I need any extra tools?

I would like the user to be able to, put their details in to a form (Name, Start Date, End Date, No. of Days).

The details and or a notification is sent to the users line manager for approval.

If approved the holiday is then put on to a calendar.

I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Answer 1

For this I would use a custom list, it works like a table in a database.

You can create the structure you want and after this create a form with InfoPath for input the data.

With a workflow you can add this data automatically to a calendar, or do whatever you want with this raw data. You can follow this tutorial for creating custom lists:

• SharePoint lists IV: Create a custom list

And for add this data to a calendar you can check this question here: How to update calendar item created by an other list?

Answer 2

I would use a calendar for this. A calendar is a type of list you can add out of the box. Fields like start date etc. Are already present and you can add extra columns to make it a real vacation form.

For the automatic email you can create a workflow via SharePoint Designer that sends the mail when a new item is created in The list.

Or you can attach The out of the box approval workflow.

Answer 3

We have a created Vacation request in online same as above business case. The steps we followed as follows

1. Created a SharePoint list to store request information.
2. We built a custom form to apply additional details like getting manager and other and some additional calculation for a type of leave.
3. Created the SPD workflow on item added. It will send a notification to a manager and wait until status changes. If status approved, sends a notification and add a record to the calendar or sends a rejected notification.

I will help you further if you stuck somewhere need additional clarification.

Thanks, Venkat Konjeti

Answer 4

There are dozens of ways to do this in SharePoint so you are going to continually get different answers from everyone you ask. I would encourage you to build some lists on the site to learn how they work to capture information. There are all sorts of columns you can add to lists to customize it to meet your needs. If you are going to build any workflows you will need to download SharePoint designer 2013 to build them to send if you have custom logic that needs to send emails and update items etc.

My advise is to keep things as simple as possible. There is a built in approval setting found in any given list that lines up with an approval permission level but it may or may-not work for your situation. Do some tests to see if it works for you, if not go about it another way such as making columns that filter views based on status etc.

Info on the built in approval: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Require-approval-of-items-in-a-site-list-or-library-CD0761C4-8C3F-4EA2-9435-13C28AA23D08

Info on lists: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Data-and-lists-in-SharePoint-647a1fba-e144-4755-85e8-1f3cc0eaf2a8