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Days Off Calculator

Calculate leave entitlement, accrued days, remaining balance, and projected year-end leave usage from a defined leave year and leave-booking plan.

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HR Planning

Days off calculator guide: accrued leave, remaining balance, and year-end leave planning

A days off calculator turns leave entitlement into a more practical balance view. It combines annual allowance, carry-over, leave already taken, future bookings, and an accrual date so you can see not only what is left in total but also what is reasonably available now.

What the calculator is measuring

The calculator starts with total entitlement for the leave year, which is annual allowance plus any carry-over. It then compares that entitlement with leave already taken and leave already booked so you can see the projected balance if the plan stays unchanged.

It also separates accrued entitlement from total entitlement. That distinction matters because some organisations let employees book against the whole year while others expect leave taking to broadly track accrual during the year.

How the accrual and balance view works

The leave year creates the accrual window. The calculator measures how far through that window the accrual date sits and applies that same share to the total entitlement entered. That produces an accrued-to-date allowance that can be compared with leave already taken.

Projected year-end balance is then calculated by subtracting both leave taken and booked future leave from total entitlement. The result is helpful because it shows whether the current plan still fits inside the annual allowance even when leave has been booked well ahead of the accrual date.

Total entitlement = Annual allowance + Carry-over

The full leave pot available for the leave year entered.

Projected remaining leave = Total entitlement - Leave taken - Booked leave

The year-end balance if the current leave plan stays unchanged.

Worked example: 28 days plus 3 days carried over

Suppose the leave year runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026, annual allowance is 28 days, carry-over is 3 days, 8 days have already been taken, and 5 more days are booked. Total entitlement is 31 days and the projected year-end balance is 18 days.

If the accrual check date is 26 March 2026, only part of that entitlement has accrued so far. That means the year-end balance can still look healthy even while leave already taken is slightly ahead of the simple accrual curve on that date.

Why leave calculations still depend on policy

Holiday entitlement rules differ across employers and countries. Carry-over limits, treatment of public holidays, rounded half-days, part-year starters, part-time schedules, and whether leave may be taken ahead of accrual can all change the practical interpretation of the result.

That is why the calculator is best used as a planning baseline. It makes the arithmetic transparent, but policy decides what is actually bookable or payable in your situation.

Further reading

Frequently asked questions

Why can the projected year-end balance be positive while available leave now is negative?

Because the year-end balance uses total entitlement for the full leave year, while available-to-book-now compares leave already taken with the portion that has accrued by the check date.

 Does the calculator include public holidays?

No. It only uses the entitlement, carry-over, taken leave, and booked leave values you enter. Public-holiday treatment depends on employer policy and local law.

 Can I use this for part-time workers?

Yes, if the entitlement and leave entries are already expressed on the same basis. The calculator does not derive part-time prorating on its own.

 Why does the calculator ask for working days per week?

That lets it convert the remaining leave into an approximate working-weeks view so the year-end balance is easier to interpret operationally.

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