Holiday & absences

No more holiday requests by email

Manage holiday, sick notes and overtime digitally, for teams of 5 to 100 people. Clear, set up in minutes, calculated under the German Federal Holiday Act.

  • Ready in a few minutes, no training needed
  • The team calendar shows at a glance who is away and when
  • GDPR compliant, hosted in Germany

An end to email chaos and Excel lists

Holiday requests by email, remaining days recalculated in Excel and still no overview: most small teams know the feeling. MetronHR puts an end to it.

Problem

Email ping-pong with every holiday request

Your people write emails, you answer late, and in the end nobody knows who has holiday when.

Problem

Remaining holiday recalculated in Excel

Available days, carry-over from last year, days taken: the calculation is error-prone and costs time every month.

Problem

No overview of team absences

Overlaps are spotted too late, projects stall because key people are away at the same time.

Solution

Every absence in one place

MetronHR takes the whole holiday process digital: from the request through the approval to the automatic calculation of the days available. With a team calendar for planning holiday.

MoDiMiDoFrSaSoMoDiMiDoFrSaSo
Sophie K.Holiday
Jonas K.Sick
Greta W.Holiday
Mara B.Training
Nora V.Parental leave
Moritz L.Holiday
Nele A.Holiday
Ben O.Training
Lena F.Sick
Tim W.Holiday
Ida N.Holiday
Present9877888877

Result

Minutes instead of hours

Holiday requests, approvals and the remaining-holiday calculation, all digital instead of by email and Excel.

8:12
AbwesenheitenAugust
1Open5,5Taken12Rest
Holiday12 to 23 OctoberOpenFlexitime2 OctoberApprovedHoliday4 to 8 AugustApprovedTraining14 JulyApprovedFlexitime28 JuneApproved

This is how digital holiday management works

Three simple steps, no training, no setup project. Your team can start right away.

Step1

1. Request holiday in 30 seconds

Your people pick a date and a type (holiday, sick note, special leave and so on). The system shows the available days at once and checks for overlaps.

No more emails, no more doubt about the days available
June 2026Week 23 to24
MoDiMiDoFrSaSo
1234567891011121314
89101112
Neuer AntragChoose a typeHoliday012345DaysSubmitOpen, waiting for approval

Step2

2. Approve by click

You see every request at a glance, can check how the team is covered and approve or decline by click. Sick notes are approved automatically.

Decisions in seconds, not in days
Sophie KramerHoliday, 12 to 23 October10 DaysOpenApproved
Who else is away in this period
12131415161920212223
Sophie KramerHoliday
Jonas KellerTraining
Greta WinklerHoliday
Ben OsterlohSick
Nele AhrensHoliday
Mara Brandt
Moritz Lang
Lena Fischer
Tim Wagner
ApproveAblehnenEntered, on2 days only6 von 9 in the office

Step3

3. Automatic calculation and calendar update

Once approved, the holiday balance updates automatically and the absence appears in the team calendar. Everyone involved is informed by email.

No reworking by hand, no out-of-date information
Who is in when, week 376 dünne Stellen
Mo36746631
Di36757631
Mi25635521
Do36746631
Fr3664542
Sa1221

What absence management can do

Everything you need for clean holiday management, without the frills.

Absence types

10 different absence categories

Holiday, sick note, child sick, special leave, maternity protection, time off in lieu and more

Every type with its own rules and approval logic

Calculation

Automatic holiday carry-over with an expiry date

5 carry-over models under German employment law (BUrlG)

From "no carry-over" to "31 March" or "31 May", fully automatic at the turn of the year

Reminders

Warnings for expiring holiday days

30 days before expiry your people get automatic reminders

No more holiday days lost to a forgotten deadline

Overview

Team calendar with two views

Calendar and timeline view for planning holiday properly

Spot overlaps at a glance, with public holidays shown automatically

Automation

Sick notes are approved automatically

No waiting, visible in the calendar at once

From the configured threshold, usually three working days, a sick note is marked as requiring a doctor's certificate

Flexibility

Part time and individual working time models

Pro rata holiday calculation for part time staff

A mid-year start receives a pro rata entitlement automatically

Team lead

Approval workflows and bulk actions

Approve or decline several requests at once

Team leads can create absences for their people too

Analytics

Reports with Excel and CSV export

Holiday and sick days by person, department or period

For management and accounting, authorised roles only

Absence management for your whole team

Whether you run the company, lead a team or work in it, everyone gets exactly what they need.

Owner or director

An overview without the work

Who still has how many holiday days? Until now only an Excel search could answer that.

Every absence at a glance, with automatic holiday calculation and finished reports for your accountant.

Team lead

Coordinating team holiday

Overlaps spotted too late, remaining holiday checked by hand.

The team calendar shows how the team is covered, entitlements are checked automatically, approval is one click.

Employee

Managing your own holiday

No certainty about available holiday days and long waits for approval.

See available days at any time, request holiday in 30 seconds, get an answer as soon as it is approved.

Accountant

Reliable figures for payroll

Every month, incomplete information about sick days and special leave.

Finished exports with every absence by period and person, at the push of a button.

Security and data protection

Your data is safe: hosted in Germany, GDPR compliant and encrypted.

  • Full implementation of the German Federal Holiday Act (BUrlG)
  • GDPR compliant, on German servers
  • Change history for approvals, carry-over and holiday adjustments
  • Role-based access control for data protection
  • GoBD compliant archiving

Trust Center

BUrlG compliant

Made in Germany, hosted on German servers
Trust Center

Frequent questions about absence management

Everything you need to know about holiday management with MetronHR.

MetronHR supports 10 absence types: holiday (with automatic balance management), sick note (approved at once), child sick (under § 45 SGB V), special leave, maternity protection (§§ 3-6 MuSchG), overtime reduction, training, quarantine (§ 56 IfSG), military service and unpaid leave. Each type has its own approval logic: sick notes are approved automatically, holiday checks the available entitlement, special leave can be released automatically by company policy. For every type you decide whether it needs approval, how much notice is required and whether documents have to be uploaded.

Carry-over runs fully automatically. You pick one of 5 models: no carry-over (all days expire on 31 December), until 31 March (§ 7 (3) BUrlG), until 31 May (TVöD), an individual date, or no expiry at all. On 1 January an automatic job works out the available days for everyone, applies the carry-over policy and calculates expiry dates. 30 days before expiry your people get automatic warnings in the dashboard. That stops holiday days from lapsing unused and saves you the manual work in Excel.

Yes, team leads can create absences for the people who report to them. These are approved automatically and appear in the team calendar at once. Typical cases: someone calls in sick in the morning, or an urgent client appointment forces a holiday change at short notice. The system still checks the holiday entitlement, overlaps and permissions. The employee receives an email with all the details, and the change history records who created the absence.

MetronHR calculates holiday entitlements automatically for every working time model. Part time staff receive pro rata days based on their percentage (50% part time = 12.5 instead of 25 days). For a mid-year start the entitlement is calculated pro rata automatically: a start on 1 July gives 12.5 days. You can store different models per person: five-day week, six-day week, shift work or flexible hours. If something changes, for example full time to part time, the calculation adjusts pro rata.

Sick notes are approved automatically and at once, with no wait for a release. The absence appears in the team calendar and the team lead is notified. Once the report reaches the configured threshold, three working days by default, the system marks it as requiring a doctor's note. The mark is set when the absence is created and is not updated afterwards: if the illness is extended later, the requirement does not arise by itself. The application marks, it does not chase, and it does not demand a file attachment. When a note becomes necessary is something you set in the company policy, some businesses start on day 1. Every sick note feeds into the exportable reports.

The absence report is available only to management and accounting (role-based access control). You filter by period (month, quarter, year or a custom range), person and department. The report shows every absence per person with type, date and days, plus totals for holiday, sickness and other. Export as Excel or CSV. You can pass the exports straight to your accountant.

The team calendar offers two views. The calendar view shows a month, quarter or year with absences colour-coded by type (holiday green, sickness red). Public holidays appear automatically. The timeline view is made for team leads: a horizontal timeline across 3 months, people as rows, grouped by department. Overlaps are checked automatically, with a warning when too many people are away at the same time.

Yes, MetronHR implements the German Federal Holiday Act in full. § 3 BUrlG (minimum holiday): the system warns below 20 working days. § 7 (3) BUrlG (carry-over): the default model uses 31 March as the deadline. § 9 BUrlG (holiday pay): correct calculation and protection against overdrawing. On top of that: § 45 SGB V (child sick days), §§ 3-6 MuSchG (maternity protection), § 56 IfSG (quarantine). Every calculation and change is recorded in the change history.

Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.

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