Selection guide

Leave management: what matters in the selection

Leave management rarely fails on the request and almost always on the calculation: part-time work, joining or leaving during the year, a change of weekdays, the carry-over into the following year. Anyone choosing should check those four cases and the public holidays of their own federal state, not the design of the calendar.

As at:September 2026

The four cases everything turns on

A leave request is trivial. The entitlement behind it is not, and that is exactly where the systems differ.

  • **Part-time work:** the conversion runs via working days per week, not via hours. Anyone working three days instead of five gets three fifths of the days.
  • **Joining and leaving during the year:** under section 5 BUrlG there is one twelfth per full month of employment, but leave is only reduced on departure for those leaving in the first half of the year. Anyone who has completed the qualifying period and leaves on 31 August has the full annual entitlement.
  • **A change of weekdays mid-year:** the entitlement already acquired is not converted retroactively. The ECJ has made that clear several times; anyone converting across the board reduces it impermissibly.
  • **Carry-over into the following year:** only for operational or personal reasons, and then until 31 March (section 7(3) BUrlG). Expiry also requires the business to have given notice about the leave.

What the providers in this market bring

Absences are available at almost all providers; the differences lie in the depth of the calculation and in whether the federal state's public holidays are stored. The table shows what is evidenced for the providers whose focus is HR or time recording.

  • absence.io

    Entry price
    from 2.99 euros/user, time tracking from 4.99 euros
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • clockin

    Entry price
    from 3.59 euros/user on a 24-month term
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    partly

  • timr

    Entry price
    from 8 euros/user, from 20 people on request
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    no
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • askDANTE

    Entry price
    a free plan, otherwise from 4.50 euros/user
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    partly
    Hosted in Germany
    partly

  • Clockodo

    Entry price
    from 4 euros/user, without a personnel file
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    no
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • Crewmeister

    Entry price
    from 1.50 euros/user, modules extra
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    no
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • Factorial

    Entry price
    from 8 euros/user, quoted individually
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    no

  • HRworks

    Entry price
    from 12.90 euros/user
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    no

  • Kenjo

    Entry price
    from 6 euros/user plus setup from 400 euros
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    partly

  • Personio

    Entry price
    Price on request
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    no

  • Sage HR Suite

    Entry price
    from 21 euros a month per module
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    partly

  • Timebutler

    Entry price
    from 29.95 euros a month
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • TimeTac

    Entry price
    from a 19.50 euro monthly base fee
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    no
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

  • MetronHR

    Entry price
    from 5 €/user
    Absences
    yes
    Personnel file
    yes
    Hosted in Germany
    yes

As of 15/09/2026. A collective agreement or a works agreement can provide more favourable rules, but cannot fall below the limits of the ArbZG.

What often gets forgotten

Three points only stand out in daily use. First, the public holidays: they differ by federal state, and a day of leave falling on a public holiday must not count against the entitlement. Second, the deputy rule: who approves when the manager is on leave themselves. Third, the remaining leave on departure, which has to be paid in lieu where it can no longer be taken (section 7(4) BUrlG).

Further reading:Sections 3, 5 and 7 BUrlG · Provider details from lib/constants/competitors, surveys from 22/05 to 20/08/2026

Information about competitors comes from their publicly available pages and can change. This is not legal advice; for a specific case in your business it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.

Frequently asked questions

What we get asked about this most often.

Under section 3 BUrlG at least 24 working days on a six-day week, so 20 workdays on a five-day week. Collective agreements and employment contracts often provide more; 25 to 30 days is usual.

In principle at the end of the year, and on a carry-over for operational or personal reasons on 31 March. Under the case law, though, expiry only occurs where the employer has given timely notice about the leave and the impending expiry.

Yes, the leave is set by the employer. Under section 7(1) BUrlG the employee's wishes have to be taken into account unless urgent operational reasons or the socially more pressing wishes of others stand against them. A rejection needs one of those grounds.

No. A statutory public holiday is not a working day within the meaning of section 3 BUrlG and is not counted. Anyone taking a week containing a public holiday uses four days of leave instead of five.

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