Tracking leave and absence without a system

Leave tracking is the HR process small companies most often run informally, and the one that most reliably produces a dispute. The reason is that entitlements accrue continuously, are consumed irregularly, and are remembered differently by the two parties. For a product-level comparison in this area, review employee attendance tracking software. For broader independent guidance on this point, consult Family and Medical Leave Act resources.

Decide the leave year and the accrual rule

Two decisions determine most of the complexity, and both should be written down before the first employee is hired.

The leave year: a fixed year for everyone is far simpler to administer than an anniversary-based year, which requires a different calculation per person. The trade-off is a proportional first-year entitlement for joiners, which is a single calculation rather than an ongoing complication.

The accrual rule: whether entitlement accrues month by month or is available in full from the start of the year. Full availability is simpler and creates an exposure if someone leaves mid-year having taken more than they accrued — which is manageable, provided the contract addresses it.

Write down the awkward cases in advance

Every one of these will occur, and each is far easier to decide as a policy than as an individual negotiation with a specific person waiting for an answer.

• Carry-over: how much, if any, and by what date it must be used.
• Public holidays: included in the entitlement or in addition, and how part-time entitlement is calculated.
• Part-time and irregular hours: the pro-rata method, stated explicitly.
• Sickness during booked leave: whether the days can be reclaimed.
• Leave accrued during long-term absence or family leave.
• Untaken leave on termination: paid, and how calculated.

One authoritative record

Whatever the tool — spreadsheet, shared calendar, HR system — there must be exactly one place that holds the answer to 'how many days does this person have left'.

The failure mode in small companies is two records: a calendar for visibility and a spreadsheet for balances, updated by different people at different times. They diverge within a quarter, and the divergence surfaces in November when someone books the last week of December.

Approve in writing, always

Verbal approval is the origin of most leave disputes. Someone mentioned a week in a corridor, a manager said it should be fine, and neither recorded it. Four months later the trip is booked and the cover is not.

The rule that resolves this is simple and needs to be stated: leave is not approved until it is recorded. A one-line reply in a written channel is sufficient — the point is the record, not the formality.

Track absence separately, and look at the pattern

Sickness absence should be recorded distinctly from leave: dates, whether self-certified or certified, and the return-to-work conversation if you hold one.

Aggregate patterns are worth reviewing, with two cautions. Health data is sensitive in most data protection regimes and should be held accordingly. And absence connected to disability or to pregnancy is treated differently under most equality law — pattern-based triggers applied without adjustment are a common route to a discrimination claim.

Publish the balances

Employees should be able to see their own balance without asking. Where the balance is only visible to an administrator, every query becomes a task, and disagreements are discovered at the worst moment rather than continuously.

This is the single strongest argument for a simple leave tool over a spreadsheet — not the calculation, which a spreadsheet handles, but the visibility.