TradedocHoliday pay record
A blank annual leave and holiday pay log you can print and fill by hand. Or the faster option — log every day taken on the phone, balance and pay calculated automatically, the full year on one page when HMRC or a tribunal asks. Tracks the Employment Rights Act 2025 explicit record-keeping duty (in force 6 April 2026).
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What it is
A holiday pay record is the running log every UK employer must keep of each worker's accrued statutory leave, leave taken, holiday pay paid, and balance carried forward. From 6 April 2026 the record-keeping duty is explicit and audit-checkable — silence on the books is not a defence to a tribunal claim. Holiday pay calculation continues to follow the 52-week reference period for irregular-hours workers.
UK legal requirement
Working Time Regulations 1998, as amended; Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces explicit holiday-pay record-keeping duties from 6 April 2026. Statutory minimum 5.6 weeks per year (28 days for a five-day worker). Holiday pay reference period: 52 weeks of normal pay (excluding zero-pay weeks, up to 104 weeks lookback) for irregular-hours workers; week-in-week-out normal pay for regular-hours workers. Holiday pay must include regular overtime, commission, and shift premia under the leading EU-derived case law (Bear Scotland; Williams).
Compliance status
This template tracks Employment Rights Act 2025 day-one rights (in force 6 April 2026). Our compliance radar crawls the publishing bodies every six hours — see the standards we build to today or the radar of what's coming next.
Engineer remains responsible for verifying compliance with the version applicable to their work. TradeDoc is a tool, not a regulator.
Who needs it
- ·Every UK employer with one or more workers — sole traders included
- ·Construction firms with mixed workforce of regular and irregular-hours operatives
- ·Letting agents and property managers running variable rotas
- ·Hospitality, retail and care employers where holiday-pay calculation is a known audit risk
What goes on it
Every mandatory field, in the order the inspector or auditor will check them.
Worker identifier
Worker's name, payroll reference, start date, contracted hours pattern (regular five-day, four-on-four-off, irregular hours, zero-hours).
Statutory entitlement
5.6 weeks per year, expressed as days for the worker's pattern (28 days for five-day; 22.4 days for four-day; pro-rata for part-time). Bank-holiday treatment (inclusive or additional) explicit on the record.
Accrual
Running tally of leave accrued each pay period for irregular-hours workers (12.07% of hours worked, the long-standing rule). Beginning-of-year credit for regular-hours workers, with mid-year leavers pro-rated.
Leave taken
Each booking with date(s), reason, hours/days off, approved-by, returned-by. Sickness during booked leave converts to sick leave — the leave returns to the balance, log it.
Holiday pay calculation
For regular-hours workers: normal weekly pay × number of weeks taken. For irregular-hours workers: 52-week reference period (excluding zero-pay weeks, up to 104-week lookback) average. Includes regular overtime, commission, shift premia. Excludes ad-hoc one-off payments.
Carry-over
Standard 4 weeks of statutory leave (the EU-derived portion) cannot be carried beyond the leave year unless prevented by sickness, maternity, or with employer agreement. Additional 1.6 weeks (UK top-up) can be carried by agreement. Track explicitly.
On termination
Pay in lieu of accrued-but-untaken leave at termination. Where worker has taken more than accrued, recovery is only allowed if a written authority is in the contract — Section 13 ERA 1996 deductions otherwise unauthorised.
Common mistakes on a hand-filled one
The small things that get picked up on audit, insurance review, or when the next engineer reads it.
- ✗Calculating holiday pay on basic pay only when the worker regularly does paid overtime — Bear Scotland requires regular overtime to be included
- ✗Using a 12-week reference period after April 2020 — the period was extended to 52 weeks (excluding zero-pay weeks) and using the old 12-week figure undercalculates pay
- ✗Treating sickness during booked holiday as cancelling holiday — sickness during booked leave converts to sick, the holiday goes back into the balance
- ✗Failing to carry over leave a worker could not take because of long-term sickness — EU-derived leave must be carried over in those cases
- ✗Recovering 'overtaken' leave from the worker's final pay without written contractual authority — Section 13 ERA 1996 makes the deduction unlawful
- ✗Excluding bank holidays from the 5.6-week entitlement without saying so — be explicit either way; tribunals look at the documented position
The faster option
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Frequently asked questions
What changes on 6 April 2026?+
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces explicit holiday-pay record-keeping duties. The substantive entitlement (5.6 weeks) and the calculation rules (52-week reference period for irregular hours, regular overtime included) are unchanged. What changes is the audit position — silence on the books is no longer a defence.
How is holiday pay calculated for irregular-hours workers?+
Average of the worker's normal pay over the 52 weeks before the leave is taken, excluding any week where no pay was received, with a lookback up to 104 weeks. Include regular overtime, commission, and shift premia. Apply the average rate to the leave period. The Department for Business has worked examples online.
Can I 'roll up' holiday pay into the hourly rate?+
Generally no — for regular-hours workers, roll-up is unlawful (Robinson-Steele). For irregular-hours and part-year workers, the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2024 permitted accrual at 12.07% with rolled-up payment, but only with clear documentation in the contract. Where you roll up, log every payment line as 'holiday pay' on the payslip.
What about bank holidays?+
Bank holidays are not a separate statutory right — they are part of the 5.6 weeks unless the contract says otherwise. Many contracts treat the eight bank holidays as additional, giving 28+8=36 days for a five-day worker. Whichever you do, document it explicitly so the worker knows where they stand.
How long do I have to keep the records?+
At minimum the duration of employment plus six years (general payroll-record retention under HMRC guidance). For holiday-pay tribunal claims, the limitation period is generally three months from the deduction (or last in a series of deductions), capped at two years' arrears, but defending claims is far easier with a complete log.
What if a worker leaves with leave overtaken?+
You can only recover the overpayment if a written authority is in the contract or written into a separate agreement. Without it, recovery is an unauthorised deduction under Section 13 ERA 1996 and recoverable by the worker at tribunal. Build the recovery clause into the Section 1 statement and reference it here.