Managing staff holidays should be simple.
An employee requests some time off. Their manager checks the dates, approves the request and everyone gets on with their day.
But for many SMEs, there are several hidden steps behind every holiday request.
Someone needs to check the employee’s remaining holiday entitlement.
- Then check who else is already off.
- Then make sure there is enough cover.
- Then approve or decline the request.
- Then update the holiday spreadsheet.
- Then update the calendar.
- Then tell the employee.
And a few weeks later someone will probably ask:
“How much holiday do I have left?”
Individually, these tasks may only take a few minutes.
Across an entire workforce and a full year, however, manual annual leave management can create a surprising amount of HR admin.
That is exactly where holiday management software can help.
How Much Time Does Managing Employee Holidays Really Take?
Consider a business with 30 employees.
If every employee submits six separate holiday requests during the year, managers have 180 holiday requests to process.
Each request may involve:
- checking holiday entitlement;
- looking for clashes;
- checking team cover;
- responding to the employee;
- updating a spreadsheet;
- updating a calendar; and
- keeping the records accurate.
And that is before you include cancellations, amended dates, new starters, leavers, part-time employees, carry-over or TOIL.
The problem isn’t necessarily that one holiday request takes a long time.
It’s the repetition.
Hundreds of small pieces of admin gradually take managers away from running their teams and growing the business.
Why Holiday Spreadsheets Become Harder to Manage
Spreadsheets can work perfectly well when a business is very small.
But as the workforce grows, managing annual leave manually becomes increasingly difficult.
Holiday information often ends up spread between:
- Excel spreadsheets;
- emails;
- Outlook or Google calendars;
- Teams messages;
- WhatsApp conversations; and
- managers’ own notes.
That can create several problems.
Which spreadsheet is the latest version?
Has someone’s holiday actually been approved?
Was the shared calendar updated?
Does the employee’s remaining allowance include that day they cancelled last month?
These are common warning signs that a business may have outgrown its holiday spreadsheet.
What Does Holiday Management Software Automate?
A good staff holiday planner removes many of the repetitive tasks involved in managing employee annual leave.
With WorkSmarter, employees can request time off themselves using the platform or mobile app.
Managers can then review the request while seeing whether the employee has enough holiday remaining and whether the dates conflict with other team members.
Once approved, the employee’s holiday allowance is updated and the shared calendar reflects the leave automatically.
Instead of using several different systems, the entire process can happen in one place.
Where Does HR Software Actually Save Time?
1. Employees Submit Their Own Holiday Requests
Employees can request annual leave directly through the system.
Managers no longer need to take information from an email or verbal request and manually enter it somewhere else.
That removes one administrative step immediately.
2. Holiday Entitlement Is Calculated Automatically
One of the most common questions managers receive is:
“How much holiday do I have left?”
With annual leave software, employees can view their own holiday balance.
WorkSmarter can calculate entitlement using the employee’s working pattern and start date, while approved holiday automatically reduces the remaining balance.
That means fewer manual calculations and fewer holiday-balance queries for managers.
3. Managers Can See Who Is Already Off
Before approving a holiday request, managers need to know whether granting it could leave the team short-staffed.
A shared staff holiday planner gives managers visibility of who else is already away.
WorkSmarter can also flag clashes and potential staffing conflicts before the request is approved.
This is particularly useful during busy periods such as school holidays, summer leave and Christmas.
4. Holiday Approvals Are Recorded Automatically
A manual process can quickly lead to uncertainty.
Was the holiday approved in an email?
Did the manager agree to it verbally?
Was somebody supposed to update the spreadsheet?
Using holiday tracking software gives the business a clear record of requests and decisions.
Both the employee and manager can see what has happened without searching through old emails or messages.
5. The Holiday Calendar Updates Automatically
Once a request is approved, managers should not need to update several different systems.
WorkSmarter’s shared holiday calendar automatically reflects approved leave, giving employees and managers visibility of who is away.
That means less duplicated admin and fewer opportunities for mistakes.
Holiday Management Software Is About More Than Saving Time
The benefit of annual leave software isn’t only speed.
Better information can also help managers make better decisions.
When reviewing a holiday request, they can see information such as:
- remaining holiday entitlement;
- holidays already booked;
- other employees who are away;
- potential conflicts; and
- team availability.
That helps businesses manage annual leave more consistently and avoid situations where too many employees are approved for leave at the same time.
This can become particularly important around bank holidays and other popular periods when demand for annual leave increases.
Seven Signs You May Have Outgrown Your Holiday Spreadsheet
Your business may benefit from holiday management software if:
1. Employees regularly ask how much holiday they have left.
2. Managers maintain different versions of the holiday spreadsheet.
3. Holiday clashes are discovered after requests have already been approved.
4. Part-time or new-starter entitlement needs to be calculated manually.
5. Managers forget to update the central holiday record.
6. Holiday information is split across emails, calendars and spreadsheets.
7. Different departments manage annual leave differently.
If several of these sound familiar, the issue probably isn’t your spreadsheet.
Your business may simply have reached the point where a dedicated holiday management system makes more sense.
What Should SMEs Look for in Holiday Management Software?
Not every SME needs a complicated HR system.
A good annual leave management system should make life simpler, not add another layer of admin.
Look for:
- Employee Self-Service
- Employees should be able to request their own holiday and check their remaining entitlement.
- Automatic Holiday Calculations
- The system should calculate holiday entitlement and update balances automatically.
- Manager Approvals
- Managers should be able to see the information they need before approving or declining a request.
- Holiday Conflict Alerts
It should be easy to identify when other team members are already away.
- Shared Holiday Calendar
- Employees and managers should have clear visibility of who is off and when.
- Flexible Holiday Rules
- Different businesses manage annual leave differently.
WorkSmarter, for example, supports holiday tracking in days or hours, carry-over and TOIL alongside different employee working patterns.
- Mobile Access
- Managers and employees should be able to manage simple holiday requests wherever they are.
How WorkSmarter’s Staff Holiday Planner Helps SMEs
WorkSmarter’s
Staff Holiday Planner is designed to make annual leave management simpler for growing businesses.
Employees can request holidays through the website or mobile app.
Managers can review requests while seeing holiday balances and potential staffing conflicts.
Once approved, entitlement is updated automatically and the holiday appears on the shared calendar.
WorkSmarter can also help businesses manage:
- holiday entitlement in days or hours;
- part-time employees;
- new starter pro-rata calculations;
- carry-over;
- TOIL;
- holiday cancellations;
- calendar synchronisation; and
- holiday reporting.
Instead of keeping multiple spreadsheets, calendars and email chains up to date, businesses can manage employee holidays from one place.
How Much Time Could Your Business Save?
A useful exercise is to look at your current holiday process.
Ask yourself:
How many steps does one holiday request involve?
- How many systems does your manager need to check?
- How often do employees ask about their remaining entitlement?
- How much time is spent correcting holiday balances or checking spreadsheets?
- How often is the same information entered more than once?
- Then multiply that across every employee and every holiday request made during the year.
That’s where the time saving becomes clearer.
Holiday management software doesn’t necessarily save hours on a single request.
It removes hundreds of repetitive administrative tasks throughout the year.
For an SME, that means managers can spend more time managing people, supporting customers and growing the business.
Still Managing Staff Holidays on a Spreadsheet?
Excel is familiar, but it doesn’t have to remain your holiday management system forever.
As your team grows, moving to dedicated HR software for SMEs can make holiday requests easier for employees, give managers better visibility and remove unnecessary admin from the business.
It could be one of the simplest ways to give your managers some valuable time back.
