HR
Leave tracking in Excel or HR software: what suits your team?
Choosing leave tracking in Excel or HR software? Discover the differences in administration, part-time schedules and balances, and download our template.
Holiday hours can be tracked in a spreadsheet, but requests, approval and different schedules call for extra agreements. Download the simple leave overview and compare it with the way of working in HR software.
Leave tracking in spreadsheets in practice
For a starting team, a clear spreadsheet is often perfectly adequate for tracking absence. The manager notes the available number of leave hours at the start of the calendar year and deducts hours taken after receiving an email or verbal agreement.
This manual set-up involves no extra licence costs. Modern cloud environments such as Microsoft 365 support version history and simultaneous editing of documents, so several people can work in the same file. Even so, specific bottlenecks arise in daily practice as soon as the staff mix becomes more diverse. A simple spreadsheet has no automated request workflow, offers no interactive team calendar for checking staffing levels and does not flag overlapping absence of key staff on its own.
Bottlenecks with part-time work and leave administration
The complexity of leave management lies mainly in varying contract types and different leave categories:
- Varying part-time schedules: Worked example (fictitious): An employee works 32 hours per week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. If this person takes two consecutive weeks of holiday, the regular day off on Wednesday must not be deducted from the leave balance. In a manual spreadsheet, the administrator has to check by hand, for every employee, which working days actually apply.
- Different types of leave and expiry dates: Dutch employment law and applicable collective labour agreements (cao) set specific rules for different types of leave days. For instance, statutory and any non-statutory (above-statutory) holiday days have their own accrual and expiry periods. A basic template does not split these pots automatically and cannot decide on its own which hours should expire first. For the exact statutory rules and expiry periods, always consult the current publications of the Dutch central government (Rijksoverheid) or the provisions of the cao for your industry.
- A change after approval: if leave is withdrawn or amended, you must correct the balance and be able to trace the reason. Agree who does this. Assess special situations according to the applicable agreements; the spreadsheet does not decide that.
Functionality of specialised HR software
In modern HR software, the entire leave process runs through structured digital workflows. Employees see their current hours balance in an app, submit a request and the manager approves it with one click.
Providers in this market each have their own emphasis:
- HoorayHR: Aimed specifically at small and medium-sized organisations. As documented on their product page on leave tracking at HoorayHR, the system automatically synchronises leave requests with the team calendar and balances are updated in real time. For teams that are still exploring their options, the supplier also offers free Excel templates and HR whitepapers.
- Personio: A broad HR suite that connects leave tracking directly with time tracking and the preparation of the monthly payroll.
- AFAS HRM: Offers extensive self-service workflows for medium-sized and large organisations where leave requests follow configurable authorisation roles.
- Youforce: Aimed at large-scale employers in education, healthcare and government, with sector-specific leave budgets and complex arrangements.
Comparing selection criteria and possible software features
The table below shows the main selection criteria and possible functionality that you can verify during a software demonstration, compared with a basic template:
| Selection criterion / Functionality | Simple Excel template | Specialised HR software (to be verified in a demo) |
|---|---|---|
| Request and approval | Manually by email or verbal consultation; manual registration by the administrator. | Self-service portal via mobile app or browser with automated notifications. |
| Insight into current balance | Depends on periodic updates by the administrator of the spreadsheet. | Real-time insight into available and planned leave balance for employee and manager. |
| Different types of leave | Requires manually adding columns and formulas for the different pots. | Ability to track statutory leave, above-statutory leave and special leave separately. |
| Team calendar and staffing | Has to be kept up manually in a separate tab or shared calendar. | Integrated overview that shows overlaps immediately and warns of possible understaffing. |
| Data protection | Depends on file permissions within your storage environment. | Role-based authorisation where employees can only see their own data. |
| Cost structure | No additional software licences required. | Monthly licence price per active employee. |
Download the SoftwareWatcher leave tracking template
For teams that want to manage leave administration in a spreadsheet for the time being, SoftwareWatcher provides a basic template via Download the leave tracking template.
This template contains the following set-up:
- Employee: A recognisable name or internal identifier; there is one input column.
- Opening balance: The number of accrued holiday hours at the start of the calendar year.
- Accrual: The hours you have determined yourself for the chosen period. The file does not calculate the entitlement.
- Approved leave: The manually entered total of approved and taken leave hours.
- Remaining balance: The formula-calculated balance that remains for the rest of the period.
Bear in mind the technical limits of this basic template: the file is designed solely for simple manual entry of hours and elementary calculations. It has no automated engine for statutory expiry periods, no link with official public holidays and no audit log to record who made which changes and when.
When should you move from a spreadsheet to software?
The choice to move from a spreadsheet to specialised software is related to operational bottlenecks:
- Your team has to deal with various part-time factors, varying working days or flexible employment contracts.
- Managers spend a lot of time each month answering questions about current hours balances.
- There are regular discussions about the accuracy of outstanding leave days or carrying hours over to the following year.
- You want to be able to link leave tracking directly to time tracking or to the preparation of payroll.
Check example for your first entry
The first fictitious employee starts with 24 hours, has 160 hours of accrual entered and has 64 hours of approved leave. The result is 24 + 160 − 64 = 120 hours. If you increase the approved leave to 72 hours, 112 hours should remain. An empty employee row stays empty. Use 0 where there are no hours; missing input is shown as a message.
Twenty input rows have been prepared. If you have more employees, also copy the formula in the last column. Keep decisions and corrections separately if you need to be able to check them later. The balance alone does not tell you when leave was requested or who approved it.
