Leave and Absence Tracking

You keep an accurate, private record of who is off, why in broad terms, and how much entitlement each person has left, and you turn it into reports that help managers plan cover and support people. Accuracy matters because leave becomes pay. Privacy matters because absence reasons are often health data, which data protection law treats as special category data (GDPR Article 9 in the UK and EU). You track and report; you never change pay, deny leave, or start a formal absence process.

When to use

• "Set up a holiday tracker for the team."
• "How many days does Alex have left?"
• "Who's off next week? Do we have cover?"
• "Give me the monthly absence report."
• "Is anyone at risk of losing untaken holiday?"

What you need

• The leave policy and each person's contract terms: entitlement, leave year start, working pattern (days and hours), start date, part-time percentage, carry-over rules.
• Country and region of each person (for public holidays and statutory rules).
• Existing records: HR system exports, spreadsheets, calendar entries.
• Access: the HR or payroll system through a connected app, or the agent's own browser signed in by the owner, or files the owner gives you. Store the tracker where HR data is kept, with access limited to HR and the owner.

Method

1. Design the tracker. Use the schema in references/tracker-schema.md: a people table (employee ID, location, working pattern, entitlement, leave year) and an absence table (one row per absence episode).
   • Use employee IDs, not names, in analysis files.
   • Record the leave type (annual, sick, family, bereavement, unpaid, other statutory, public holiday), never a diagnosis.
   • Fit notes and medical documents stay in the HR system with restricted access.
2. Confirm the entitlements. For each person, entitlement comes from the contract and policy, and must be at least the legal minimum where they work.
   • Check the minimums with web_search on official sources and record them (for example, the UK statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks for most workers, with a specific accrual method for irregular-hours and part-year workers in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 (12.07% of hours worked in each pay period); the EU minimum is four weeks; the US has no federal paid holiday minimum, but some states and cities require paid sick leave).
   • Do not decide legal questions yourself: if contract and law conflict, flag it.
3. Calculate correctly. Use execute_code with the formulas in the schema file:
   • Pro rata for part-time: full-time entitlement times contracted days (or hours) divided by full-time days (or hours).
   • Joiners and leavers: entitlement times the fraction of the leave year employed, then apply the policy's rounding rule (state it; do not invent one).
   • Working days in an absence: count only the person's working days, excluding their public holidays.
   • Balance: entitlement plus carry-over plus adjustments minus taken minus booked.
4. Load public holidays per location. Get them from official government sources for each country and region, for the whole leave year. Do not assume one country's holidays apply to everyone.
5. Reconcile monthly. Compare the tracker with the HR system, calendars and payroll inputs.
   • Investigate any difference over half a day.
   • Log corrections with who confirmed them.
6. Report monthly. Absence rate = days lost to absence (excluding annual leave and public holidays) divided by available working days, times 100, by team.
   • Show also: upcoming leave for the next 4 weeks and cover gaps, people with large untaken balances (as a working rule, more than half their entitlement unused with less than a third of the leave year left), and people at or above their sickness trigger points under the policy.
   • Use show_card.
   • Suppress any breakdown that would identify an individual's health information to people who should not see it.
7. Use trigger points with care. If the owner's policy uses a measure such as the Bradford Factor (spells squared times total days), treat a trigger as a prompt for a supportive conversation, not as a decision.
   • Absences related to disability, pregnancy or maternity must be considered separately; counting them towards sanctions can be unlawful discrimination.
   • Any formal absence process (warnings, capability reviews, dismissal) goes to the manager and a qualified HR professional; you only provide accurate records.
8. Prompt the right conversations. After a sickness absence, remind the manager to hold a short return-to-work conversation (template in the schema file).
   • For large unused balances, draft a friendly nudge to the employee for the owner or manager to approve.
   • Never send messages to employees yourself without approval.
9. Hand off to payroll. Produce a monthly list of leave that affects pay (unpaid leave, statutory pay periods, leave paid out on leaving) for payroll to process. You never change pay.

Judgement calls

• Sick during booked holiday: in many places the person can take the holiday again later. Check the local rule and the policy before recording it.
• Leave during a notice period, and pay for untaken leave on leaving: the rules differ by country. Payroll and HR decide; you supply the balance.
• Long-term sickness: in some countries holiday keeps accruing during sick leave and can be carried over. Check before you zero a balance.
• Overlapping requests in a small team: show the manager the cover gap. The manager decides, using the policy's rule (for example first come, first served, or rotation at peak times).
• An employee asks what is recorded about them: that is a data access request. Route it to HR the same day.
• A public holiday on a part-timer's non-working day: pro-rata rules vary. Apply the policy and flag any unfairness you notice.

Output

• The tracker (spreadsheet or HR system records) with the two tables.
• absence-report-<yyyy-mm>.md and a summary card: absence rate by team, upcoming leave and cover gaps, unused balances, trigger points reached (manager and HR only).
• Draft nudges and return-to-work reminders for approval.
• A payroll handoff list.

Monthly card layout:

Absence <month>: rate <x>% (last month <y>%)
By team: <team> <x>%, ... (teams under <n> people merged so no one is identifiable)
Next 4 weeks: <n> people off; cover gaps: <team, dates>
Large unused balances: <n> people (names go to their managers only)
Trigger points reached: <n> (manager and HR only; protected absences excluded)
Payroll items: <n> (unpaid days, statutory pay periods, leavers' balances)

Checks before you finish

• Every entitlement is at least the legal minimum for the person's location, with the source recorded.
• Balances recompute exactly from the absence rows (re-run the formula, compare).
• No diagnosis or medical detail appears anywhere outside the restricted HR record.
• Public holidays are per location, from official sources.
• Disability and pregnancy related absences are flagged as excluded from triggers.
• Nothing was sent to employees or payroll without approval.

Pitfalls

• One calendar for all. A Scottish, a Texan and a Bavarian employee have different public holidays.
• Calendar days instead of working days. A Monday to Friday absence over a bank holiday is four days for some people and five for others.
• Health details in spreadsheets. "Off with depression" in a shared sheet is a data breach. Record "sick".
• Triggers as verdicts. A high score is a reason to talk and support, not to sanction.
• Silent use-it-or-lose-it. In some countries, employers must actively give people the chance to take leave before it can be lost. Check, and nudge early.

See also: draft-hr-policy for the leave and sickness policies this tracking applies.