There’s no single way to record time off for public holidays. Some businesses close on bank holidays, while others don’t. Some businesses include bank holidays in their annual leave entitlement, and others keep them separate.

💡EXAMPLE:

Company A - 25 days of annual leave a year includes five bank holidays
Company B - Employees get 25 days of annual leave a year in addition to five bank holidays. In reality, employees in Company B have 30 days off a year

How your company handles public holidays and leave determines how to set up time off policies and employee allowances.

Do adding public holidays come off an employee's time off allowance?

No, when you add public holidays in Sage HR, the system adds them to the Sage HR calendar. You then choose how those holidays affect employees' time off allowances.

We have an allowance that excludes the bank holidays

Some companies reduce the time‑off balance by the number of public holidays. If you use this approach, set public holidays so they don’t count against the policy allowance when employees take time off on those dates.

💡EXAMPLE: Employees receive 25 days of annual leave, including 5 public holidays.

Add the public holidays to the calendar
Set the time off allowance to 20 days by excluding public holidays
Make sure the system does not count public holidays as workdays

When you see a public holiday in the calendar, employees are not at work. Time off requests that include public holidays don't deduct those days from the employee’s allowance.

For example, an employee books Monday to Friday off. If Monday is a public holiday, the system deducts 4 days from their balance. This means you avoid manually booking public holiday leave for all employees.

We have an allowance that includes the bank holidays

Some companies include public holidays in the allowance and manually enter those dates as time off requests. If you do this, set public holidays to count as workdays.

💡EXAMPLE: Employees get 25 days of annual leave, which includes five public holidays.

Add public holidays to the calendar.
Set the time off policy allowance to 25 days.
Ensure you've set public holidays to count as workdays.
You process time off requests for multiple employees just for the public holiday dates.

These days come off the employees' allowance and show as approved leave in the calendar and time off reports.

Settings to consider

Set up public holidays

Before you configure time off settings, you need to set up public holidays to show in your employees' Sage HR calendar. You can import public holidays and put employees into public holiday groups.

Time off allowance

A time off policy allowance or the employee's individual allowance determines an employee's time off allowance. You can amend the policy allowance in the time off policy's settings. You can enter or amend an individual allowance in the Individual allowances settings.

Count public holidays as work days

This setting determines whether time off requests on these dates come off an employee's allowance once approved:

If you select this option, all time off requests falling on public holidays will count against the allowance
If you leave this option clear, all time off requests falling on public holidays won't count against the allowance

This setting is in your time off policy settings under General.

📎Count weekends as workdays and Count public holidays as workdays option only appears for time off policies based on Calendar settings. If it's based on working patterns, these options don't appear.

Example scenarios

Below are examples of how companies handle public holidays and the steps you'd need to set this up in Sage HR.

You can use the example scenario that best applies to your organisation to set up your settings. If you need further help, you can contact a Sage HR expert.

Scenario 1 - Public holidays are non-working days for employees. You don't include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance
Scenario 2 - Public holidays are non-working days. You include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance
Scenario 3 - Public holidays are working days. You don't include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance
Scenario 4 - Public holidays are working days. You include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance. You allow employees to receive a day back in lieu if they work a public holiday

Below are the settings you need to apply for these different scenarios.

Scenario 1

Public holidays are non-working days for employees
You don't include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance

There's no need to record this time off, as you'll know they'll be off on these public holidays.

Don't want to track when they take them off?

You don’t need to record employees as off on public holidays. However, you can still add the public holidays so that they appear in your calendar.

📌TIP: It's easy to import public holidays into your calendar.

Want to track when an employee is off on a public holiday?

This is optional. If you choose to do it, an employee or their manager must book the time off and approve the request.

In the employee's time off policy's settings, don't select Count public holidays as workdays.

Scenario 2

Public holidays are non-working days
You include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance

Include public holidays in the employee’s time off allowance. An employee or manager must book and approve public holiday time off.”

In the employee's time off policy's settings, select Count public holidays as workdays.

Scenario 3

Public holidays are working days
You don't include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance

Employees need to book a public holiday off like any other working day.

In the employee's time off policy setting, don't select Count public holidays as workdays.

Scenario 4

Public holidays are working days
You include public holidays as part of an employee's time off allowance
You allow employees a day back in lieu if they work a public holiday