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Leave Liability Calculator

Accrued leave liability is the payable share of your unused leave balance, valued at what a day of that employee costs. Enter your headcount, the average unused days people are carrying, and your own daily cost and payable percentage to see the provision, the per-employee figure, and every step of the arithmetic behind them.

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Your leave balances

Every field starts at zero. How much of an unused balance is actually payable is set by the law where you employ and by the contract, so that share has to be yours to enter. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.

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Whether unused leave must be paid out on exit, can be capped, carries forward, or lapses at year end is a matter of statute and contract, and it differs by country and often by state. So is whether an encashment attracts employer contributions or tax. How the resulting amount should be recognised in your accounts — provision, accrual or disclosure — is a question for your auditor. Enter the figures that apply to you and confirm the treatment with your finance or compliance advisor.

Your accrued leave liability

Enter headcount, average unused days and a daily cost to see the liability.

Nothing is pre-filled on purpose. There is no credible cross-industry average for unused leave, so any starting figure here would be invented.

A balance you cannot see is a balance you cannot manage

Leave liability builds quietly while attention sits on hiring. Pitch N Hire keeps the people record — from offer to joiner to exit — in one place, so the headcount your provision is built on is the headcount you actually have.

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01 The method

How this leave liability calculator works

The calculation runs in two halves: how many days you owe, and what a day costs. Days come from headcount and the average balance, reduced by the share that is genuinely payable under your rules. Cost comes either from a daily figure your finance team already publishes, or from an annual cost divided by your own working-day calendar. The two are multiplied, and any employer on-costs due on a payout are added on top.

  1. Daily cost = average annual cost per employee ÷ your working days per year.
  2. Total accrued days = headcount × average unused days per employee.
  3. Payable days = total accrued days × the payable share you enter.
  4. Base liability = payable days × daily cost.
  5. Total liability = base liability + employer on-costs at the rate you enter.
02 Honest limits

Why there is no benchmark balance here

A calculator that told you fifteen unused days per employee is normal would be inventing the most important number on the page. Statutory entitlement alone ranges widely between countries, and on top of that sit carry-forward caps, encashment rules, leave year timing and the simple fact that some teams take their leave and some do not. The share of a balance that is actually payable is the same story: in one jurisdiction it must be settled on exit, in another it lapses. So this tool takes both numbers from you, shows the arithmetic, and points you at your finance or compliance advisor for the treatment. It also refuses to say whether your balance is healthy — the useful signal is your own trend and the split by team, not a comparison with a company you know nothing about. The HRMS and benefits administration entries cover where leave records normally live.

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FAQ

Leave liability calculator — FAQs

How do you calculate accrued leave liability?
Multiply headcount by the average unused leave days each employee is carrying to get total accrued days. Apply the share of that balance that is actually payable under your rules, which strips out anything that lapses or sits above a carry-forward cap. Multiply the payable days by the average cost per employee per day, then add any employer contributions or taxes that would fall due on a payout. This calculator does exactly that and prints every step.
How do you work out the daily cost of an employee for a leave provision?
Divide the average annual cost of an employee — salary plus the employer on-costs you carry — by your own number of working days in a year, after public holidays and non-working days. The calculator will do that division for you and show it, or you can enter a daily figure directly if your finance team already publishes one.
Is unused annual leave always a liability?
No, and that is exactly why this tool asks you what share is payable rather than assuming it. In some jurisdictions and contracts an unused balance must be encashed when someone leaves, in others it carries forward up to a cap, and in others it lapses at the end of the leave year. Whether an amount should then be recognised as a provision, an accrual or only a disclosure in your accounts is a question for your auditor.
Should employer on-costs be included in a leave provision?
Usually yes, if a leave encashment would attract employer contributions or payroll taxes in your jurisdiction, because the true cost of settling the obligation includes them. The calculator applies a loading percentage that you set for exactly this reason, and reports the base liability and the loading separately so both are visible. Confirm the treatment with your finance or compliance advisor before you book it.
What is a normal amount of unused leave to be carrying?
There is no credible cross-industry benchmark, so this calculator deliberately does not grade your balance. Statutory entitlements, carry-forward rules and taking patterns differ enormously between countries, contract types, seniority levels and seasons. Measure your own balance at the same point in each period and watch the direction, and split it by team, because a balance concentrated in one group is usually a workload signal rather than an accounting one.
How often should leave liability be recalculated?
At every reporting date your accounts require, and in practice more often than that if headcount is moving. The two inputs that shift fastest are headcount and average balance, and both change with every joiner, leaver and leave year rollover. Recalculating monthly with the same method means the movement is visible early rather than arriving as a surprise at year end.
Does this calculator handle sick leave or compensatory off?
It handles any leave type you can express as an average number of unused days per employee with a payable share. Run it separately for each type rather than merging them, because the payable share is usually different — many sick leave schemes are not encashable at all, while accrued annual leave often is.
Is this leave liability calculator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no signup, and runs entirely in your browser, so none of your headcount or cost figures are sent anywhere. If keeping an accurate people record is the harder half of the problem, you can ask for a walkthrough of Pitch N Hire, but that is entirely optional.
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