Leave management app
Leave management software with a balance people can trust
Your team requests leave from their phone, the balance for each leave type updates on approval, and at the end of the month the export for your payroll provider is ready.
Why a spreadsheet stops working for leave
A leave spreadsheet works until two people edit it on the same day, or until someone asks how many days they have left and the answer depends on who opens the file.
Leave management software keeps one balance per person and per leave type, records who approved what, and shows the planner which weeks are already thin. Built for your company, it follows your own work regulations instead of a template from abroad.
Leave types a Belgian system has to know
Most off-the-shelf tools count holidays and sick days. Belgian employment law has more categories, and each one has its own source and its own rules. These are the ones that come back in almost every company.
| Leave type | Where the entitlement comes from | What the software has to do |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory holiday | Days worked in the previous year; full time in a five-day week gives 20 days | Calculate the balance per person, including part time and people who started mid-year |
| Supplementary or youth holiday | Starting or restarting work, or a young employee with few days | A separate counter, because payment works differently |
| Compensatory rest (ADV) | Your working regime: a 40-hour week for a 38-hour contract builds up rest days | Accrual per period, with its own balance |
| Short leave for family events | A family event with a fixed number of days per event | A dropdown with the event, so nobody has to count |
| Sickness | A medical certificate | The certificate attached to the absence, and a notice to whoever needs to know |
| Sick during holiday | Since 2024 an employee who falls ill during holiday can take those days later | Put the days with a certificate back on the balance |
| Parental leave and career break | An application to the federal employment office | Record it as an absence, without a balance on your side |
That last row is why imported packages often struggle. They know holiday and sickness, but not short family leave with a fixed list, and not the Belgian rule on illness during holiday. In a custom system you set those rules once, next to your own work regulations. How leave connects to the hours your team works is covered on the time tracking app page.
A request that updates the balance on approval
Request from Sanne Peeters
Statutory holiday, 3 working days
Mon 16 to Wed 18 November
Statutory holiday
11 left
6 taken, 3 this request
Compensatory rest
4 left
2 taken
Short leave (brother's wedding)
2 left
0 taken
Example of what we can build, with made-up names.
A request on its way to the payroll export
- The employee picks dates and a leave typeThe app shows the remaining balance for that type before the request is sent, so nobody asks for days they do not have.
- The manager sees the team weekThe approval screen shows who else is off that week and how many people are left on each shift.
- Approval updates everything at onceThe balance drops, the planner shows the absence and the employee gets a notification in their own language.
- The month closes with an exportOne file with all absences per code, in the format your payroll provider asks for.
What goes into it
- A balance per leave typeHoliday, compensatory rest and short leave each have their own counter, visible to the employee.
- Approval with the team weekThe manager approves with the occupancy of the week on the same screen.
- Certificates with the absenceA photo of the medical certificate goes with the sick day, not into a mailbox.
- Several languagesEach employee sees the app in their own language, while the office works in one.
- An audit trailEvery change to a balance records who made it and why.
- Export for payrollA monthly file per absence code, so nobody types the month over.
How leave works on a platform we built for transport
For a Belgian transport company we built a platform where drivers request leave, upload fuel receipts and report incidents from one app, in Dutch, English and Turkish. Drivers log in with a name tile and four digits, because a long password at six in the morning in a truck does not work. The office works through five queues, and leave is one of them.
Drivers request holiday themselves. Compensatory rest, short family leave, unpaid leave and sickness are recorded by the office, because those need a document or a judgement call. Leave and the planning board sit in the same platform, so the planner does not keep a second list of who is away. The full story is in the DaTrans case. For a social secretariat we built a platform with employers, employees, work permits and documents per employer, described in the Business Centrum platform case.
What we took from those projects: the split between what the employee does and what the office does matters more than the number of features. A driver needs two taps. The office needs a queue that empties.
Spreadsheet or your own system: the sums for 25 people
A rough calculation for a company with 25 employees, each taking around 25 leave moments a year including single days and sick days.
| Task | With a spreadsheet and email | With leave management software |
|---|---|---|
| Requests per year | About 625, each by email or phone | About 625, each in the app |
| Time per request at the office | 5 to 10 minutes: read, check, reply, update | Under a minute: approve on one screen |
| Questions about balances | Several per week | The balance is in the app |
| Monthly payroll input | Retyped from the sheet | One export |
| Office hours per year on leave | Roughly 50 to 100 | Roughly 10 |
Those hours are an estimate, not a measurement. Plug in your own numbers with the software cost calculator. Whether you should build or buy depends on how far your rules sit from a standard package, which we compare in build vs buy software. What custom software costs in general is in the custom software cost guide.
A request checked against the week
Statutory holiday
Sara, late shift
Requests leave from Wednesday to Friday
- Thursday and FridayAfter the leave still 6 of 6 on the late shift
- WednesdayAfter the leave 5 of 6 on the late shift
Example with made-up names and numbers. The roster calculates with fixed rules; the planner decides.
What it does together with your other software
Leave rarely lives alone. These are the connections we build most often.
- SchedulingAn approved absence removes the person from the schedule. See staff scheduling software and, for transport, transport management software.
- Employee recordsContract, hours and certificates in one place: employee records software.
- ExpensesThe same app often handles receipts: expense claim app.
- IntranetAnnouncements, today's absences and the guests from your visitor management system next to the leave button: intranet development.
- PayrollAn export or a link to your payroll provider through an API integration, built as described under API integration services.
The app itself is usually a PWA: installable from the browser, no app store needed. For teams that still plan in a spreadsheet, the guide Excel scheduling or planning software helps you decide when to switch. Where AI fits into HR work is covered in AI for HR.
Questions offices ask us about leave software
Can employees see their own balance?
Yes, per leave type, updated on every approval. That alone removes most of the questions the office gets.
Does it work for part-time staff?
The balance follows the working regime per person. Someone working four days a week sees days in their own regime, or hours if your company counts that way.
Can we import the current balances?
Yes. We load the balances from your current spreadsheet at the start, and the first month runs alongside the old way until the numbers match.
Does it work for blue-collar and white-collar staff?
Yes. The number of days follows the same logic, but holiday pay does not. For blue-collar workers a holiday fund pays it, for white-collar staff the employer does. The software counts days and leaves the pay calculation to your payroll provider, which is where it belongs.
What happens when someone changes their working hours?
The accrual follows the new regime from the date of the change. Days already built up stay, and the history shows both regimes, so a question in December about a change in March has an answer.
What about privacy?
A medical certificate is a sensitive document. Only the people allowed to see it can open it, and every opening is logged. How we approach the build as a whole is on the web application development page.
What does it cost?
That depends on the leave types, the number of languages and the connections. A first estimate starts with a short call through the contact page.
Web application
How VBS helps you with this
We build software in the browser for your whole team, on every computer and phone, around the way you work.
- Roles and permissions per person
- Links to your accounting and your email
- Releases without downtime, with backup and rollback
How we approach it is on our page about Web application.
How many balance questions does your office get each month?
Tell us how leave works at your company today. We sketch what the app would look like and what it saves.
Rather get in touch right away?