Leave Tracking for Small Teams: Requests, Balances and the Legal Basics
Leave tracking feels like a formality — until an employee leaves the company claiming twelve days of unused leave, and you can't produce a watertight record. In most European countries, the burden is on you as the employer to demonstrate how much leave was accrued and taken. This article covers the rules you need to know and how to set up leave administration properly in a small business.
This article is general information (as of mid-2026), not legal advice. Statutory leave rules differ per country — check your national legislation, collective agreement or an employment lawyer for your specific situation.
The Legal Basics in Four Rules
1. There is a statutory minimum — know yours. Every EU country guarantees a minimum amount of paid annual leave (the EU floor is four weeks). In the Netherlands, for instance, the statutory minimum is 4× the weekly working hours: someone working 40 hours a week is entitled to at least 160 hours (20 days) per year, and 96 hours on a 24-hour contract. Anything on top is contractual leave, often set in a collective agreement or employment contract — and many employers grant more than the minimum.
2. Statutory days can expire — and the clock varies by country. Many countries put a deadline on taking statutory leave, and it can be tighter than you'd expect. In the Netherlands, for instance, statutory days generally expire six months after the accrual year (days from 2026 lapse on July 1, 2027), unless the employee genuinely couldn't take them or you agree to something more generous in writing — while contractual days there only lapse after five years. Whatever your country's rules, the practical consequence is the same: your records need to track leave types with different expiry dates separately, and deduct taken leave from the days that expire first.
3. The employer must actively inform. European case law is clear on this: you must warn employees, in good time and concretely, about days that are about to expire. If you can't demonstrate that you did, those days may not expire at all.
4. Sickness and vacation interact. In most jurisdictions, an employee who falls ill during vacation does not use up vacation days for those sick days (provided they report sick correctly) — and employees on sick leave typically keep accruing vacation.
What You Should Record, at Minimum
Per employee: accrual per year (split by leave type, e.g. statutory vs. contractual), every absence with date and number of hours, the current balance and the expiry dates. Track leave in hours, not days — with part-timers and variable schedules, a "day" is too coarse a unit, and that's exactly where disputes start.
Why the Spreadsheet Fails Here
Leave in Excel breaks down in the same places as the timesheet in Excel: requests come in via email, WhatsApp and hallway conversations; the balance gets updated manually (or not); nobody sees expiry dates coming; and the planner only discovers in the project schedule that three people are off in the same week. With ten employees, spreadsheet-based leave admin easily eats a few hours a month — and it still isn't watertight.
The Practical Setup
One channel for requests. The employee requests leave in the system, the manager approves or rejects, the balance updates automatically and the request is documented. That's exactly how it works in Horixa HRM, per leave type and per year.
Balances visible to employees themselves. Half of all leave questions to HR boil down to "how many days do I have left?". A self-service balance saves everyone hassle and prevents surprises when someone leaves the company.
Leave connected to the schedule. Approved leave should automatically come off available capacity, so that capacity planning never schedules someone who isn't there — and so you can see at approval time whether a project gets squeezed that week.
Separate leave types. Vacation, time-off-in-lieu, special leave and unpaid leave each have their own balance and their own rules. One big bucket labeled "time off" makes your records useless the moment there's a dispute.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I refuse a leave request? Usually only for compelling business reasons (serious disruption of operations), and in many countries you must respond within a set period. In the Netherlands, for instance, you have to object in writing within two weeks — otherwise the vacation stands as requested. Offering an alternative period is part of the deal.
Do I have to pay out unused vacation days when someone leaves? In general, yes: the remaining balance is paid out at the applicable wage (in some countries including holiday allowance). One more reason to keep the balance airtight.
How long should I keep leave records? Keep them at least as long as the longest limitation period that applies to leave claims in your country — five years is a common, safe baseline. Payroll data is usually subject to its own tax retention rules.
What is time-off-in-lieu and how do I track it? Overtime compensated with free time instead of pay. Track accrual and usage as a separate leave type, linked to time tracking — that way the balance automatically matches the overtime actually worked.
Leave requests, balances and absence in one place, connected to hours and planning? Try Horixa free for 14 days.