How I Automated Employee Leave Requests with Make.com (Free Tools Only)

Leave requests are one of those things that seem simple but create endless friction — messages getting lost, statuses unknown, managers forgetting to reply. Here's an automation I built that handles the entire flow without any paid tools. The flow Employee fills Google Form ↓ Request saved to Google Sheet (Status: Pending) ↓ Manager receives email → clicks APPROVE or REJECT ↓ Sheet updates automatically ↓ Employee receives confirmation email Two Make.com scenarios The system uses two separate scenarios connected via a webhook. Scenario A — Registration Watches Google Forms for new responses → adds a row to Google Sheets → sends the manager an email with approve/reject links. Scenario B — Approval Triggered when the manager clicks a link → finds the correct row in the sheet → updates the status → emails the employee with the decision. The key piece is the webhook URL embedded in the manager's email buttons. Each button passes the employee data as URL parameters (action, email, name, typ