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Payroll & HR

Manage staff leave

How to record annual, sick and other leave for each employee, and read their live BCEA leave balances.

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.

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

  1. Open Leave.
  2. In the Employee field, tap the 👤 Pick button.
  3. Choose the employee from the list. Each name shows a quick summary of their Annual and Sick days remaining.
  4. Once selected, a dark balances panel appears showing Annual leave, Sick leave and Family responsibility, each with the days remaining and how many days have been taken.

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.

Record leave taken

  1. Pick the employee first, so you can see their balances.
  2. Under Record leave taken, choose the Leave type. Your options are Annual, Sick, Family responsibility, Unpaid, Maternity and Parental.
  3. In Days taken, enter the number of days, for example 3.
  4. Set the Start date. It fills in with today's date, so change it if the leave started on another day.
  5. If the leave runs over more than one day, set the End date next to it too.
  6. Add a Note if you like, for example that a medical certificate was provided. This is optional.
  7. Tap Record Leave.

After you save, the leave shows up under Leave history for that employee, newest first, and their balances update straight away.

Fix a leave entry

Recorded the wrong days or dates? You can edit a leave entry you captured here. In Leave history, each entry you can change has a ✏️ pencil on its row.

  1. In Leave history, tap the ✏️ pencil on the entry you want to change.
  2. The form heading changes to Edit leave and loads that entry's type, days, dates and note.
  3. Change whatever is wrong. The balances update as you go.
  4. Tap Update Leave to save, or Cancel edit to leave it as it was.
💡Leave that came across from a Pay Run shows a "from Pay Run" note and has no pencil, so you can't edit it on this screen. If that one is wrong, fix it in the Pay Run it came from.

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 Leave history, 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 just 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, the screen reminds you that the employee may be able to claim UIF maternity benefits, and points you to the nearest Labour Centre or uFiling.gov.za.
⚠️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.

Related guides
Add staff to your register →Run a pay run (payroll) →Record a staff advance or loan →Do your EMP201 →Payroll Reports →
Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.
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