Leave & sick days
Submit and approve requests, and keep an eye on remaining leave with monthly accrual (pro-rata)
→ Open leave in SimpliServ · Open approve requests
Leave, sick days, special leave, unpaid leave and time off in lieu are all handled through the same request system. An approved request lands automatically in the calendar and is correctly offset in the hours balance.
Request types
| Type | When | Draws from | Approval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave | Planned time off | Annual leave entitlement (pro-rata) | Manager |
| Sick leave | Illness | (No deduction, shown separately) | Auto-approved |
| Special leave | Wedding, moving, bereavement | Annual leave entitlement | Manager |
| Unpaid leave | A longer break without pay | — | Manager |
| Time off in lieu | "Using up" overtime | Hours balance (plus hours) | Manager |
Submit a request (staff)
Click New request
In the top right of the leave overview.
Choose the type
Leave, sick leave, special leave, unpaid or time off in lieu.
From – to
Choose the start and end date. Weekends and holidays are automatically not counted.
Half days (optional)
If the first or last day should only be a half day (e.g. "Friday off from noon"), tick the corresponding box.
Reason (optional)
A short note on what you're planning – helps the manager approve.
Submit the request
For sick leave: approved immediately, the staff member is "done". For all other types: status "pending", all managers with approval permission automatically get an email.
Sick leave — auto-approval
A sick note is a notification, not a request. As soon as it's submitted:
- The status jumps straight to "approved" — no admin step needed
- The days are immediately counted in the sick-leave statistics
Sick leave has no daily allowance — days_remaining stays open. In the balance area, for illness only the number of days taken appears, no "remaining". The electronic sick note (eAU in DE, ELDA in AT) is handled outside the software via the health insurer — SimpliServ only records the days for your internal statistics.
Approve or reject a request (manager)
Applies to leave, special leave, unpaid, time off in lieu. Sick leave needs no approval.
Open the list of open requests
/dashboard/leave-requests — a table with all requests, filter by status + type, sortable, with show/hide columns.
Approve or reject inline
Per row: Approve (check) or Reject (cross). Directly from the table, no click into the detail needed.
The staff member is informed automatically
The staff member gets an email with your decision.
What happens after approval?
- The request status switches to "approved"
- An all-day entry in the calendar is created automatically (e.g. "Leave" or "Illness")
- The staff member's leave entitlement is reduced accordingly – or, for time off in lieu, the hours balance
- In the roster the leave appears as a conflict warning if a shift falls in the period
Withdraw / cancel a request
- Pending requests can be cancelled by the staff member themselves
- Approved requests can be cancelled by a manager with the management permission. The leave entitlement is credited back, the calendar entry is deleted
Leave entitlement — monthly accrual (pro-rata)
SimpliServ calculates the leave entitlement to the day, pro-rata based on the active employment contract. There's no manual balance entry any more — everything follows from contract + date.
Example
A staff member starts on 01/10/2026 with a 25-day contract → on 31/12/2026 they have pro-rata approx. 6.3 days available (3 of 12 months ≈ 25 × 92/365). The full 25 days only in the following full calendar year.
Formula
periodStart = max(year-01-01, contract.start_date)
periodEnd = min(year-12-31, today, contract.end_date)
days_accrued = vacation_days_per_year × (workedDays / daysInYear)
days_remaining = days_accrued + days_carried_over − days_usedColumns in the balance area
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Accrued | What the staff member has accrued up to today (days_accrued) |
| Annual entitlement | The full 12-month quota from the contract (days_total, hidden by default) |
| Carry-over | Carried from last year (days_carried_over, calculated on read) |
| Taken | Already consumed via approved requests |
| Remaining | Accrued + Carry-over − Taken |
For sick-leave rows, "Accrued" and "Remaining" are empty (—) — there's no entitlement, only a statistic of the days taken.
Contract ending mid-year
If the contract ends mid-year (end_date set), the periodEnd is shortened to the contract end. Example: a 25-day contract running until 30/06 → pro-rata 12.3 days instead of 25.
Carry-over from last year
Calculated automatically on read: whatever was left from last year moves into the new year (no manual posting, no cron). Expiry after a deadline (e.g. 18 months in AT) is currently not implemented — it can be added if needed.
Overview for staff
In the personal leave overview you see:
- Pro-rata entitlement for the current year
- Remaining leave from last year
- Days already taken
- Remaining leave left
Overview for managers
In /dashboard/leave-requests you see:
- Requests table: all requests with filter (status, type), inline actions, sort, column toggle
- Balances table: all staff with staff name + avatar, year, type, accrued, carry-over, taken, remaining
Time off in lieu (using up overtime)
Time off in lieu draws from the hours balance instead of the leave entitlement. Someone with 8 plus hours who takes a day of time off in lieu (8 hrs) has 0 plus hours afterwards. On cancellation, the hours are credited back.
Holidays by location
Holidays are taken into account automatically: if a holiday falls in the leave period, it doesn't count as a leave day. Which holidays apply follows from the staff member's location (country + state/canton). Example: Assumption Day 15/08 is a holiday in Bavaria but not in NRW — both DE, but different states.
Related topics
- Employment contracts — weekly hours and leave entitlement from which the pro-rata entitlement is calculated
- Time reports & balance — how sick leave and time off in lieu feed into target/actual and the hours balance
- Calendar & appointments — the all-day entry created automatically on approval
- Roster & shifts — leave appears in the weekly plan as a conflict warning
- Locations (multi-site) — country and state control which holidays count as leave days
How is this guide?