Manage staff leave — Worklog Help

What the Leave screen does

The Leave screen keeps a running record of the leave each of your employees has taken, and works out how much they have left. You pick an employee, see their balances at a glance, then record any leave they take. Balances are worked out automatically from the employee's start date, following BCEA rules, so you do not have to do the maths yourself.

Leave you record here and any leave you enter during a Pay Run both count toward the same balance, so the numbers stay in step no matter where you captured the leave.

💡Record leave before you run pay. The pay run for those dates picks it up: leave recorded as Unpaid comes off the days paid, and every other type is paid in full, maternity and parental leave included. Don't enter the same leave again in the Pay Run.

Before you start

The employee must already be in your Staff Register. If nobody shows up when you pick an employee, add them there first.
Each employee needs a start date on their record, because that is what the balances are counted from.
Leave is one of the payroll tools, so it is on the Team and Complete plans. It is not available on the Solo plan.

See an employee's leave balances

Open Leave and tap + New.
Pick the employee from the Employee list. Each name shows their annual and sick days left.
Once you pick someone, a dark Balance remaining panel shows the days they have left of Annual, Sick and Family leave.

A balance turns red when it is running low, for example when annual leave reaches zero or sick leave drops below five days, so you can spot it quickly.

💡To see the days taken as well as the days left, for everyone on one page, open the Leave report under Payroll Reports.

Record leave taken

Tap + New and pick the employee first, so you can see their balances.
Choose the Leave type. Your options are Annual, Sick, Family responsibility, Unpaid, Maternity and Parental.
Set the Start date. It fills in with today's date, so change it if the leave started on another day.
If the leave runs over more than one day, set the End date next to it too.
In Days taken (working days), enter how many working days the leave comes to, for example 3.
Add a Note if you like, for example that a medical certificate was provided. This is optional.
Tap Record Leave.

After you save, the entry appears in the list on the Leave screen, and their balances update straight away.

Fix a leave entry

The Leave screen lists every entry for all your employees, with the dates, the leave type and the days. Each entry gets its own number (like LVE-2026-0003), leave a pay run books included. Search by name, that number or the employee number, use Show ▾ to pick a leave type, how it got there (added by hand or booked by a pay run), who saved it (once two or more people have) or a stretch of time, or change the order with Sort ▾. Recorded the wrong days or dates? You can change any entry you recorded here. Under the list, 📄 PDF and 📊 CSV / Excel print it as you have it — dates, number, person and employee number, leave type, how it got there, note and days — with the days added up.

Tap the entry you want to change. The form opens as Edit leave, with that entry's type, days, dates and note.
Change whatever is wrong.
Tap Save changes. To leave it as it was, close the form.

💡Recorded one by mistake? Tap the ✕ on its row to delete it. The days go back into their balance.

💡Leave that came across from a Pay Run shows a "from Pay Run" note and can't be changed or deleted here. If that one is wrong, void the pay run it came from and run it again.

The leave period and history

Leave has a Start date and an End date sitting side by side. The start date fills in with today; add an end date whenever the leave runs over more than a single day, such as a week off. For a single day you can leave the end date empty.

⚠️If the end date is before the start date, a red note reminds you to check the dates. Fix it before you save.

In the list, an entry with an end date shows the full stretch as start → end, for example 2026-07-01 → 2026-07-05, so you can see at a glance how long each period of leave was. Single-day leave shows the one date.

Public holidays are not leave

Public holiday is not a leave type, and that is on purpose. A public holiday is a paid day off that every employee gets by law, not leave taken from a balance, so there is nothing to record on the Leave screen for it.

💡If an employee actually works on a public holiday, that is a pay matter rather than a leave one. Handle it in the Pay Run, where you can pay the higher rate the day earns.

Good to know

💡If you choose Maternity or Parental, the screen reminds you that the employee may be able to claim UIF benefits, and points you to the nearest Labour Centre or uFiling.gov.za. The next Pay Run takes those days off the days paid, like unpaid leave, because the employee claims them from UIF. If your business pays maternity or parental leave, type the full days paid on the run's Earnings step.

⚠️If you try to record more annual leave than the employee has left, the screen warns you that this will exceed their entitlement. It does not stop you saving, so double-check before you tap Record Leave.

Worklog keeps the leave record for you and works out balances using general BCEA rules. For a specific question about an employee's rights or a tricky leave situation, speak to a registered labour or payroll practitioner.

Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.

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