# Overtime request form with approval in SharePoint

> For the full documentation index, see https://250highstreet.com/llms.txt

> Build an overtime request form in a SharePoint list: one row per request, a manager approval in Power Automate, and a monthly hours total by person.

Short answer: make a SharePoint list where each row is one overtime request. Add columns for the employee, the work date, the hours asked for, the reason and the manager. Use a flow in Power Automate to ask the manager to approve or reject, then write the answer back to the row. Add a view that groups approved rows by month and shows a total of hours. This page covers the request and approval flow only. It does not cover pay rules, overtime law or payroll. Ask HR or payroll about those, and follow your own policy.

## Why overtime requests get messy

Overtime often starts as a message: "Can I stay late Thursday?" The manager says yes in chat. Payroll never sees it. At month end, someone asks how many extra hours a team used, and the answer is in five different threads.

Problems that follow:

- A request has no clear yes or no on record.
- The hours asked for and the hours worked are mixed together.
- Nobody can see a total for the month without searching messages.
- A manager approves the same request twice, or forgets one.

A list and a flow fix the record. They do not decide what is allowed. That stays with your policy.

## This guide and its neighbors

"[Time-off requests in email: one list, one approver, one calendar](/guides/time-off-requests-in-email/)" covers days away. "[Expense approval with a SharePoint list](/guides/expense-approval-sharepoint/)" covers money already spent. This page covers extra hours a person asks to work before they work them. For the general approval problem, see "[Approvals lost in email: how to stop chasing sign-offs](/guides/approvals-lost-in-email/)".

## What to track

One row is one request. A simple set of columns:

- Title (the employee label, for example "Employee 41". SharePoint makes Title required by default. You can rename it, for example to "Employee", or turn off the Require setting.)
- Work date (Date)
- Hours requested (Number)
- Reason (a short text column)
- Manager (a Person column, the one person who approves)
- Status (Choice: 1 Requested, 2 Approved, 3 Declined)
- Decision date (Date)
- Manager comment (text)
- Month (a calculated column, see Step 4)

Set a default value for Status of 1 Requested. A blank Status hides the row from any view that filters on status, so a new request would seem to vanish.

Use a Person column for Manager, not plain text. A Person column holds a real account, which the flow needs later.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: keep a second Number column, "Hours worked", that the manager fills in after the work. This keeps the hours asked for apart from the hours done.

## Step 1. Create the list

1.  Open the SharePoint site your team uses at [https://www.microsoft365.com](https://www.microsoft365.com) and pick the site, or open the Lists app.
2.  Create a new list and choose the blank option.
3.  Name it "Overtime requests".
4.  Add the columns above. Exact names may differ on your screen.
5.  Set the Status default to 1 Requested.

For a longer walk through of moving from a spreadsheet, see "[Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list](/guides/replace-spreadsheet-with-sharepoint-list/)".

## Step 2. Give people a form

People can add a row through the list's own New item form. If you want fewer boxes on that form, the list form can be customized. See "[Make the new-item form shorter: sections and show-if rules](/guides/customize-sharepoint-list-form-sections/)".

Show only the boxes the employee should fill: work date, hours requested, reason and manager. Leave Status, Decision date and Manager comment for the flow and the manager.

A form is not a lock. Anyone with edit rights on the list can edit any row, including Status. If that matters, read "[Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list](/guides/people-see-only-their-own-items-sharepoint-list/)".

## Step 3. Add the approval flow

Microsoft's page on approvals says: "With the approvals capability in Power Automate, you can automate sign-off requests and combine human decision-making for workflows." It adds: "When you submit an approval in a flow, approvers are notified and can review and act on the request." It lists "Approving vacation time requests" and "Approving expense reports" as popular cases, so a request like this fits the same pattern.

The page also says: "If you want to quickly get started with approvals, use the Start and wait for an approval action." For a plain request with one manager, the Microsoft table lists the type "Approve/Reject - First to respond", where "Approval or rejection by any approver completes the request."

One way to start, in [https://make.powerautomate.com](https://make.powerautomate.com):

1.  Select Create, then Automated cloud flow.
2.  Pick the SharePoint trigger "When an item is created". Choose your site and the "Overtime requests" list.
3.  Add the action "Start and wait for an approval" and choose "Approve/Reject - First to respond".
4.  In Assigned to, pick the Manager from the item. Use the email value of the Person column.
5.  In Title and Details, add the employee label, the work date, the hours requested and the reason from the item.
6.  Add a Condition on the approval Outcome. The options in Microsoft's table are "Approve" and "Reject".
7.  If yes, add "Update item": set Status to 2 Approved and set Decision date. Title is required by default, so also fill Title with the item's Title from dynamic content.
8.  If no, add "Update item": set Status to 3 Declined and set Decision date. Fill Title the same way.

Exact names may differ on your screen. Microsoft says a person can respond "directly from an Outlook email, a Microsoft Teams adaptive card, or the Power Automate action center if they have a Power Automate license or an Office 365 or a Dynamics 365 license with built-in Power Automate capabilities." For which license your team has, check with your admin.

Why "When an item is created" and not "created or modified": your flow updates the same item. A flow that starts on every change and then changes the item starts itself again. If you do pick "created or modified", add a guard condition first, for example Status is equal to 1 Requested, and fill the Title when the flow updates the row because Title is required. For the full fix, read "[Power Automate flow keeps running itself over and over](/guides/power-automate-flow-triggers-itself-infinite-loop/)".

Test with a row for "Employee 41" and your own account as the manager before you tell the team.

## Step 4. Make the monthly total

A view can group rows and show a total. Microsoft Support says Group By will "Group list and library items by information in the columns." and that Totals will display "summary calculations for the columns in the view, such as: count, average, maximum, minimum." Microsoft also says: "The columns that are available for totals and the settings available for each column differ depending on the type of column, such as number, and the type of list or library the view is being created for." Check your view's Totals menu for a sum on Hours requested.

For the month, add a calculated column named Month. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: use a formula like =TEXT(\[Work date\],"yyyy-mm"). It turns a date such as 2026-11-05 into 2026-11. Do not try to use today's date in a calculated column. SharePoint blocks \[Today\] in those formulas, and the formula above does not need it.

Then build the view:

1.  Create a new view called "Approved by month".
2.  Open the classic view editor (Edit current view) and scroll to Filters. Set Status is equal to 2 Approved. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: set blank and "is not equal to" filters in the classic view editor too.
3.  Under Group By, group by Month, then by Title.
4.  Under Totals, set Hours requested to the total your menu offers.

Each month shows as a group, each employee label inside it, with the hours. To pull a report for one range of dates, filter Work date is greater than or equal to the first day and less than the first day of the next month. Microsoft says the \[Today\] and \[Me\] filters work only in the classic view editor. A fixed date range does not need either one.

## Step 5. A view for the manager

Make a view called "Waiting for me":

1.  Open the classic view editor (Edit current view), then Filters.
2.  Set Manager is equal to \[Me\] and Status is equal to 1 Requested.

Microsoft says \[Today\] and \[Me\] filters need the classic view editor, so set it there. A view is not security: anyone with list access can open another view.

## What to avoid

- Do not use this list to decide pay. Pay rules belong to HR or payroll.
- Do not leave Status blank. Set the default.
- Do not use a text column for the manager. Use a Person column.
- Do not start the flow on every change without a guard condition.
- Do not let the employee edit Status. Show only the boxes they need.
- Do not mix hours asked for with hours worked in one column.
- Do not delete declined rows. They are your record. Move old rows later; see "[Move closed items to an archive list so the main list stays fast](/guides/archive-closed-items-to-another-list/)".

## If the manager is away

An approval waits for its approver. If a manager is out, requests sit. Name a back-up person and agree how to handle it. See "[Approvals stuck when the approver is out](/guides/approval-stuck-approver-out/)". For a reminder to the approver, see "[Remind an approver who has not answered after two days](/guides/power-automate-approval-reminder-after-2-days/)".

## Honest limits

A list and a flow keep a record. They do not check pay law, limits on hours or contracts. The monthly total is only as good as the numbers people enter. If your flow also reads many rows with Get items, set Top Count and turn Pagination on. Microsoft says "The default item limit is 100", and you can raise it up to 5,000 with Top Count. This flow does not need Get items.

## When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: \$5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "[What a SharePoint tracker costs to build](/guides/what-a-sharepoint-tracker-costs/)". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: [Tools I built](/portfolio/)

## FAQ

### Does this tell me what overtime I must pay?

No. This page covers the request and approval flow only. Ask HR or payroll about pay rules.

### Can the manager approve from email?

Microsoft says approvers can respond from an Outlook email, a Microsoft Teams adaptive card, or the Power Automate action center, if they have a qualifying license. Check with your admin.

### Can two people have to approve?

Yes. Microsoft lists "Approve/Reject - Everyone must approve" and a sequential type, where "Approvals are requested one at a time, in a specific order."

### How do I see total hours for a month?

Make a Month column, group an approved-only view by it, and set Totals on the hours column. Check your view's Totals menu for the options.

### Is the Waiting for me view private?

No. A view is a display choice, not security. Anyone with access to the list can open another view.

## Sources

- [Microsoft Learn, Get started with Power Automate approvals](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/get-started-approvals)
- [Microsoft Support, Create, change, or delete a view of a list or library](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-change-or-delete-a-view-of-a-list-or-library-27ae65b8-bc5b-4949-b29b-4ee87144a9c9)
- [Microsoft Learn, In-depth analysis into Get items and Get files SharePoint actions](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/business-apps/power-automate/guidance/working-with-get-items-and-get-files)

## Related guides

- [Department budget requests and approvals in SharePoint for the new fiscal year](/guides/department-budget-request-approval-sharepoint/)
- [Expense approval with a SharePoint list](/guides/expense-approval-sharepoint/)
- [Set up a sequential approval in Power Automate](/guides/power-automate-sequential-approval/)
- [Get a person's manager in Power Automate](/guides/power-automate-get-manager/)
- [SharePoint PTO tracker: request, approve and see who is out](/guides/sharepoint-pto-tracker/)

Source: https://250highstreet.com/guides/overtime-request-form-sharepoint/