Leave Tracker
Track vacation, sick and unpaid leave requests.
Overview
The Leave Tracker is a simple way to record and reason about employee absences. Vacation, sick days, personal leave, parental leave, and unpaid time off all need to be approved, scheduled, and accounted for, and the absence of a shared record causes scheduling conflicts, billing errors, and tax complications. This tool gives small teams a clean register of who is off, when, and why, without imposing the formality of an enterprise HR platform.
For operations leads, agency owners, and founders, the tracker doubles as a forecasting tool. Looking at the calendar before sprint planning, client commitments, or a busy launch week prevents the awkward discovery that three engineers are on holiday during a critical release.
How it works
You add a leave entry by selecting the employee, the leave type, the start date, the end date, and the number of working days the request consumes. Optional fields capture the approval status, the approver, and any notes about coverage arrangements. The tracker shows totals per employee per year so you can see entitlement use at a glance.
A calendar-style view (or a sorted list) makes it easy to spot overlaps where multiple people are out on the same day. Combine the tracker with the Employee Directory so the people you can pick from are always current.
Examples
- Holiday balance check. See how many vacation days a team member has used and how many remain before approving a new request.
- Coverage planning. Spot overlaps where two support engineers are off at the same time and arrange backup coverage before approving.
- Sick day pattern. Notice a recurring pattern of Friday or Monday absences and have a supportive conversation with the employee.
- Payroll input. Export unpaid leave entries at the end of the pay period for the payroll team.
FAQ
Does the tracker calculate entitlements automatically?
No. Enter the working days consumed per request; entitlement totals come from your HR policy.
Can employees request leave directly?
Not in this tool. Use your existing email or chat workflow for the request, then log the decision here.
How are public holidays handled?
Most teams exclude public holidays from leave totals. Note them in your calendar but do not deduct them from individual balances.
Can I track time off in hours rather than days?
The default unit is working days. For partial-day absences, record the hours in notes and the half-day in the total.
What about leave year boundaries?
Reset annual totals at the start of each leave year and archive the prior year for reference.