Planning holiday

Online holiday planner: requests, cover, remaining days

An online holiday planner replaces three things at once: the request by email, the list on the wall in the corridor and the Excel sheet with the remaining days. Requests happen in the browser or in the app, decisions arrive as a notification, and the rest calculates itself.

  • Request, approval and cover in one process
  • Remaining holiday and carry-over calculated automatically
  • A warning before holiday expires, 30 days ahead

Last checked on4. September 2026

What a holiday planner has to be able to do

The request function is the smallest part. What holiday management founders on day to day is the arithmetic behind it: pro rata entitlements when somebody joins or leaves mid-year, part time with unevenly spread days, carry-over into the next year, special leave, illness during holiday.

  • An entitlement per person, pro rata when somebody joins or leaves mid-year.
  • Ten absence types, from holiday through sickness to special leave.
  • Approval with a cover rule, so nothing sits waiting while the manager is away.
  • A team calendar that shows who is away, without naming the reason.

The legal framework, briefly

Under § 3 (1) of the Federal Holiday Act the minimum holiday is 24 working days a year, based on a six-day week. On a five-day week that is 20 working days. More by contract is common and permitted, less is not.

Carry-over into the following year is the exception, not the rule: under § 7 (3) BUrlG the holiday has to be taken in the current calendar year, and a carry-over to 31 March requires urgent operational or personal reasons.

What matters in practice is the case law on it: holiday expires only if the employer has specifically asked the person beforehand to take it and has warned them about the impending expiry (Federal Labour Court, 19.02.2019, 9 AZR 541/15, following the Court of Justice of the EU). An employer who does not ask carries the remaining holiday forward.

The calculation spreadsheets founder on

As long as everybody works full time five days a week and is there all year, a list will do. As soon as somebody joins in March, cuts down to three days or leaves in September, there is arithmetic, and it is per person.

The pro rata entitlement follows from the full months of employment: one twelfth of the annual entitlement per month. With part time the change of weekdays comes on top, because 20 days on five weekdays equals 12 days on three weekdays, so that the free time stays the same.

Pro rata entitlement, example with 30 holiday days a year

  • Full time, whole year

    Calculation
    30
    Entitlement
    30 days

  • Joins on 1 April

    Calculation
    30 divided by 12, times 9
    Entitlement
    22.5 days

  • Leaves on 30 June

    Calculation
    30 divided by 12, times 6
    Entitlement
    15 days

  • Part time on 3 weekdays

    Calculation
    30 divided by 5, times 3
    Entitlement
    18 days

Fractions of at least half a day are rounded up to whole days under § 5 (2) of the Federal Holiday Act, but only in the cases covered by § 5 (1). Contractual arrangements may be more generous, not less.

Frequent questions

What we are asked most often about Planning holiday.

Under § 3 (1) of the Federal Holiday Act, 24 working days on a six-day week, which equals 20 working days on a five-day week. Higher minimums apply to young workers under § 19 of the Young Persons Employment Act, and people with a severe disability receive five extra days (§ 208 SGB IX).

In principle on 31 December, or with a permitted carry-over on 31 March of the following year. But it expires only if the employer has specifically asked beforehand and warned about the expiry (Federal Labour Court, 19.02.2019, 9 AZR 541/15). MetronHR warns 30 days before the stored cut-off date.

Pro rata by full months of employment, that is one twelfth of the annual entitlement per month. Somebody starting on 1 April with a contractual 30 days arrives at 22.5 days. If the number of working days a week changes, it is converted so that the free time stays the same.

Days covered by a medical certificate are not counted against the holiday under § 9 of the Federal Holiday Act. In the system the absence type is changed for those days, and the entitlement rises again accordingly. The reason for the illness is recorded nowhere.

Two cases, two answers. If the same person requests the same period twice, the system rejects the second request, even when the first has not been decided. The only exception is set by § 9 of the Federal Holiday Act: a sick note may lie over approved holiday and cuts the sick days out of it. If, on the other hand, two people want the same time off, that is not a technical decision but an operational one. The team calendar shows the overlap before anything is approved, and the manager decides. MetronHR rejects nothing here of its own accord.

It is included in the Team plan, so 5 € per person a month, together with time tracking. There is no separate price for holiday management and no module surcharge. Shift and duty planning belong to the Professional plan at 10 €.

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

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