December is approaching, some people still have holiday left and a few requests are waiting for an answer. It is a good time to look at the plans together: who wants time off, which dates are already approved, and who still needs a reminder about their unused leave?
This checklist helps you get your team's leave records in order before the 2026/2027 year-end in Germany. It explains which figures to check, when employees need individual information and which situations deserve a closer look.
Five tasks before year-end
- Check the balance: how much leave is the person entitled to, what have they taken and what is still planned or requested?
- Contact each person: explain their outstanding entitlement, ask them to take the leave and explain when it could expire. Allow enough time for them to act.
- Arrange time off: answer requests and agree cover so that people can actually take their leave.
- Check special cases: for example, prolonged illness, parental leave, termination or particular contractual rules.
- Keep a record: note what was agreed, who will deal with open questions and when you will check again.
You can agree a date for the team to submit initial holiday preferences. That does not automatically make a later request invalid.
How much leave is still outstanding?
Choose a date for your review. For each person, list the annual entitlement, leave already taken, approved future absences and requests waiting for a decision. Keep any entitlement from earlier years separate and label it with the relevant year.
A request is not leave already taken. Even approved December leave is still a planned absence at an October review. Check afterwards whether the leave happened as planned or whether circumstances changed.
Take a closer look at digital leave balances. Some systems already deduct approved or requested days from the amount available. Check what “remaining” means in your system before putting that number in a message to an employee. The display alone does not tell you whether a legal entitlement exists or has expired.
With a regular part-time schedule, the number of working days is particularly relevant to the number of leave days. See calculating part-time holiday entitlement for the calculation and its limits.
What should you tell each employee?
Statutory annual leave generally expires only if the employer has given the employee a genuine opportunity to take it. This includes clear information about their entitlement, a request to take the leave and a timely explanation of when it could expire. A general clause in an employment contract will normally be insufficient. The Federal Labour Court explains this in 9 AZR 541/15, particularly paragraphs 43–46.
Check what you have already told the employee. A last-minute email may be too late if they can no longer take the leave before year-end. How early you need to act depends on the days outstanding and the opportunities to take them. There is no single November deadline that works for every case.
Include the entitlement year, the balance at a stated date and someone to contact with questions. Keep the message and appropriate evidence that it was sent. A receipt confirmation can help, but it does not establish whether the employee also had enough time and opportunity to take the leave.
When can unused leave carry over to the next year?
Section 7(3) of the Federal Leave Act generally provides for annual leave to be taken during the current calendar year. It permits carry-over for urgent operational or personal reasons and specifies the first three months of the following year. Employer cooperation requirements and individual circumstances also need to be considered.
Check the reason for carry-over before assigning a deadline. Not all outstanding leave automatically disappears on 31 March 2027. Additional contractual or collectively agreed leave may also follow different rules from statutory minimum leave.
Prolonged incapacity for work particularly requires more than a standard deadline. BAG judgment 9 AZR 245/19 distinguishes, among other factors, whether the employee worked during the entitlement year before the continuing illness began. It does not establish that all leave outstanding because of illness expires after 15 months.
Limitation periods and expiry of leave are also separate questions. See BAG 9 AZR 266/20 on the start of the limitation period for statutory minimum leave and employer cooperation. Parental leave, departure and disputed earlier-year entitlements need their own assessment; an account balance cannot replace it.
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Example: five people, different next steps
Imagine an office with five employees. On 29 October 2026, the team lead reviews their leave records. This is a fictional example, and all days belong to an assumed 2026 entitlement. Approved days and pending requests are counted separately.
| Person | 2026 entitlement | Already taken | Approved future leave | Pending request | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mara | 30 days | 22 days | 4 days | 2 days | Decide the request and discuss further dates |
| Jonas | 24 days | 20 days | 4 days | 0 days | Confirm planned December leave and cover |
| Lea | 30 days | 30 days | 0 days | 0 days | Check that the records are complete |
| Timo | 20 days | 15 days | 0 days | 0 days | Discuss five days without planned dates |
| Nora | 30 days | 18 days | 0 days | 0 days | Check the rules that apply to her prolonged illness |
Mara has not yet taken eight of her 30 days. Four are approved, two have been requested and two have no dates. If the software reserves both approved and pending leave, it might show only two days available to book. The six reserved days still need to be checked: a reservation is not the same as taking leave, and it does not determine whether the entitlement expires.
For Jonas, the next step is to confirm the planned leave and cover. Timo still needs to agree suitable dates with the team lead. For Nora, the employer needs to check which rules apply because of her prolonged illness. Earlier-year entitlements and the individual information already given to each employee also need to be reviewed.
A reusable year-end review checklist
Use this list to work through the outstanding tasks. Keep the notes brief and limit access to the people who need them.
| Review field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Person and entitlement year | Which entitlement is under review? List earlier years separately. |
| Balance as of date | Entitlement, taken, approved future leave and pending requests separately. |
| Open tasks | Which records or decisions are still missing? |
| Message to the employee | Date, contents, recipient and evidence of transmission. |
| Planning | Requested dates, decision and necessary cover. |
| Carry-over or special case | Which rule applies, who is checking it and what is still unresolved? |
| Next review | When will you check again or contact the employee? |
Health details do not belong in a team-wide planning sheet. For operational planning, the necessary information about an absence will generally suffice. Retain individual communications and special-case assessments with appropriate access restrictions.
For the actual dates, continue with planning annual leave for 2027 as a team. That guide focuses on public-holiday opportunities and cover arrangements.
Check leave balances and requests in Minutezilla
Employees can view their leave balance and request time off in Minutezilla. Admins and managers handle requests, while admins set the allowance for each year. Pending requests also affect the amount shown as available, so look at each request's status alongside the balance.
Start with one employee: is the annual allowance correct, are the requests recorded properly and does the display match your records? Then work through the rest of the team. You still need to organise the individual messages, decide how carry-over should be handled and check the legal position.
See how leave management with time tracking works, or try Minutezilla in your browser.
Frequently asked questions about unused leave
Does unused annual leave automatically expire on 31 December?
No. Leave does not disappear just because the year ends. For statutory leave, check what the employer has done to enable the employee to take it, whether they had a real opportunity to do so and whether special circumstances apply.
Is 31 March always the final deadline?
No. The statutory carry-over provision has conditions. Notices, illness and other special rules can affect the assessment. Automatically deleting every balance on that date is not a reliable process.
Does a pending request count as leave already taken?
No. Requested, approved and actually taken are different states. A reservation in an account may reduce the available figure before the absence happens.
Is a balance in leave-management software enough as an individual notice?
Do not rely on the balance display alone. Check whether the required specific information, invitation and timely opportunity to take leave actually exist. Account management does not automatically replace those steps.
Sources and review date
Reviewed on 29 October 2026. The legal explanations are based on the linked legislation and Federal Labour Court decisions. The team example is fictional, and the checklist is intended to help you organise the review. Special cases need to be assessed under the rules that apply to them.
