Vacation time tracking
- Off days the calendar must place this year
- 180
- Requests to approve at your typical length
- 36
- People off on an average working day, times ten
- 7
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only constants Offdayly supplies are the published paid-vacation figures and the vendor prices, each cited where it is used. The defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
Vacation time tracking is the arithmetic behind the calendar: the allowance each person starts the year with, the days deducted as requests are approved and taken, the balance left, and what happens to it at year end. Done in a spreadsheet it drifts, because the sheet is updated when someone remembers and the balance it shows is the balance as of the last time they did. Done as a record it moves the day the request is approved. The U.S. Department of Labor, cited on this site, says the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked such as vacations, so the allowance, the accrual and the carryover are the employer's own policy, which is exactly why they have to be tracked rather than assumed.
Open the Vacation schedule template Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Fix the allowance, the accrual and the carryover cap in writing
Whether days are granted on the first of January or accrue by the month, whether unused days carry over and up to how many, and whether part-timers are pro-rated: those are the employer's own rules and the tracking is only as good as the rules it applies. The template on this site takes the allowance and the carryover cap as inputs and prints the days the team may carry into next year and what that carryover is worth in pay.
Deduct on approval, not on memory
The balance moves the day a request is approved, with the days taken recorded when they are taken, so the figure the manager sees when the next request arrives is true. A sheet updated at month end shows a balance that was true three weeks ago, which is how the same person gets two weeks approved that they did not have.
Track sick days beside vacation, separately
Sick days and vacation days come out of different allowances under most policies and are read differently by the accountant, so the record keeps them as two counters against the same person rather than one. Pro holds both, with the request history behind each, and exports them side by side.
Vacation time tracking: common questions
Is there free vacation time tracking software?
The tools on this site size the year, the requests and the carryover from your own headcount, free and with no account. Offdayly Pro is the tracking itself: the balance per person that moves on approval, the request history, the sick-day counter and the export.
Does a small team need to track vacation time at all?
The moment one person's balance is disputed, yes, and the record that settles it is the one that was kept before the dispute. The Department of Labor page cited on this site says federal law does not require paid vacation, so the balance is a matter of your own policy and your own record.
What happens to unused days at year end?
Whatever the written policy says: forfeited, carried over up to a cap, or paid out where the state requires it. The template prints the carryover exposure at your cap and its pay value so the policy is decided with the number in front of it; the legal position in your state is the adviser's to confirm.
Offdayly Pro
Keeping what you make
The answers and the template are free forever. Pro turns them into your team's vacation calendar: every request recorded with who approved it and when, the balance held per person against the allowance and the carryover cap, the calendar showing who is off and who is due back, reminders to the person who owes an approval, and a clean export when the accountant or the auditor asks.
- Download the schedule as PDF
- No Offdayly watermark
- Save and reopen later
- Your business name and logo on it
- Bulk export schedules
- Approval and return-date reminders emailed under your business name
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$15per month, whole team
Start Offdayly Pro PricingRenews monthly at the price above until you cancel. We email you before any price change.
Will it do what you need for Vacation time tracking?
Tell us what your team needs and we will tell you straight whether Offdayly Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with something else. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
After 5 years of service, 32 percent of private industry workers with paid vacation received 15 to 19 days, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found in March 2025, so the balance a long-serving employee carries is worth tracking to the day.
Vacation schedule template (Off days the calendar must place this year): 180, Offdayly, worked example.
Cite as: "Vacation time tracking, Offdayly", updated 2026-09-04, https://offdayly.com/vacation-time-tracking/.