This article explains how to track your employees' unused time off as the year ends by creating a report in the Analytics area.

You can then share the report with stakeholders (Supervisors, People Leads) so they can take action regarding their teams, based on the company's absence settings and whether unused time off expires or carries over to the next year.

Step 1: Create a custom report 

In Personio’s Analytics area, you can create a custom report to track unused employee time off as the year ends. Follow these steps:

Note
Make sure you have permissions to view the Analytics area and to create a custom report.

1. Go to Analytics > Reports.
2. Click Create report and select Classic Builder.
3. Fill in the different configuration fields:
   
   

   Field	Value
   Name / Description	Enter a descriptive report name. Example: "Holidays carrying over to next year."
   Type of report	Select the point-in-time report type.
   Date / Pick custom date	Last day of the year (31/12/2024).
   Table columns	Enter the name of the absence type for which you want to see the unused time off. Then, select the balance attribute. Example: "Paid Holiday — balance (days)". Tip Select all absence attributes to view additional information, like the employee's planned and upcoming time off.
   Set up report conditions	If applicable, add filters to your report to determine which employees appear in it. Example: "Status = Active".

4. Click Create report.
   

Step 2: Review the report and analyse the data

You can now view the custom report and the selected table columns:

Here are some key points to understand the data in front of you:

1. Unused time off is referred to as "Absence balance" in Personio 

Remaining, unused time off is referred to as "Absence balance” in Personio, and it’s visible for the employees at all times via their Absence Calendar. It indicates how many days or hours employees can still request as of a specific date, accounting for any future booked and approved absences.

Example:
An employee's annual absence entitlement for "Paid Holiday" is 30 days. They have already taken 15 days and have an upcoming 10-day Christmas holiday booked and approved in December. If they check their absence balance on November 1, it will show 5 days. 

2. The absence balance in reports excludes planned absences 

The absence balance shown in reports differs from the one visible via the employee’s Absence Calendar in that it does not include planned absences. It indicates how many days or hours employees can still request as of the report's generation date, excluding any future booked and approved absences. That's why, to see your employee's unused time off, you need to select Last day of the year as a date in the custom report.

Example:
An employee's annual absence entitlement for "Paid Holiday" is 30 days. They have already taken 15 days and have an upcoming 10-day Christmas holiday booked and approved in December.  If you create a custom report with Today date (example: 15/11/2024), the absence balance will show 15 days. However, if you create a custom report with Last day of the year date (31/12/2024), the absence balance will show 5 days. 

3. Each balance column in reports corresponds to one absence type

As an example, the "Paid Holiday — balance (days)" column shows the number of days/hours employees can still request for paid holiday in the current holiday year. However, it doesn't include the days/hours for other mandatory and accrued absence types (example: "Compensatory time off — balance (days)". You need to add each absence type as a separate column to the report.

4. Balance columns display time off in days or hours

Balance columns display the unused time off in days or hours, depending on the time unit selected when creating the absence type. Daily absences are used for time off typically taken in full or half-day increments, such as holidays or sick leave. Hourly absences are used for time off taken in smaller increments, like personal appointments or flexible work arrangements.

Step 3: Share the report with stakeholders

After creating the custom report, you can share it with the relevant stakeholders, such as Supervisors and People Leads, so they can take action based on whether time-off carryover is enabled.

To share the custom report, follow these steps:

1. Go to Analytics > Reports.
2. Select the custom report and click Sharing options.
3. In the window, enter the name of the employee you want to share the report with. An employee has to be in status Active or Leave to be included in the sharing option.
4. Click on the search result. The employee will then be added to the Sharing options window.
5. Save the changes to share the report.

Supervisors and People Leads can then access the Reports page in the Analytics area, review the specific report, and take follow-up actions in Personio, depending on your company's carry-over settings:

1. Carryover disabled:
Ensure the team requests their unused time off

Supervisors can create a custom workflow to remind their reports via email about requesting their unused time off before the end of the year.

2. Carryover enabled:
Ensure adequate staff coverage for the team at the start of next year

If carryover is enabled with a one-month expiration date, Supervisors can access their Absence Calendar and switch to My direct reports to evaluate which absence requests can be approved or need rescheduling for adequate coverage in January next year.

Note
As noted in Step 2, planned absences are excluded from the reports' absence balance, and that includes those booked for the next year (example: a period from 11/1/2025 to 15/1/2025). To check how much of your employee's unused carryover time off has been used in the new year, you need to create a new custom report with your carryover limit date as the report date (example: 31/1/2025).