TimeTally - Timesheet Management AppTimeTally
Holiday and absence tracking for UK schools

Leave Management for Schools and Education

Manage annual leave, INSET days, and sickness absence for teaching and support staff. Term-time-only teaching assistants, caretakers and admin staff each get the allowance their contract provides, and TimeTally pro-rates it from their start date and their working pattern. Replace spreadsheets with a simple system that keeps your leave management organised and fair for every member of staff. Timesheets are included in the same £3 per employee per month, alongside your school timesheets.

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A teaching assistant selecting days off and a leave type on their phone

“The app is simple to use, reliable, and makes managing holidays, absences, and staff records straightforward. The system has saved us a significant amount of administration time.”

CLI ManchesterJordan Ingoe, CLI Manchester

Staff book their own leave and the request lands with the office

Teaching assistants, caretakers, admin and catering staff pick the days they want from an interactive calendar. Their remaining holiday balance updates as they go, and the request reaches the school business manager for approval or rejection. No paper forms, and no signature to chase down a corridor.

Booking time off in TimeTally: three months of dates, the leave type grid, and a submit button

  • Three months on screen

    A member of staff sees the end of term and the first week back without changing view

  • Tap the days, weekends are skipped

    The count updates as dates are selected, so three days of half term reads as three days

  • Choose the leave type

    Annual, sick, maternity, paternity, TOIL, or a type your school added such as INSET Day

  • Add a reason, then submit

    The request reaches the school office with the dates, the day count and the type on it

Every Pending Request in One List

Pending requests sit in a single list on the manager's dashboard. Each row shows who asked, the dates, how many days it comes to, and which leave type it is — annual leave, sick leave, an INSET day, or a type your school added. A tick approves it and a cross declines it, so the office can clear the queue before registration.

  • Open a request to see the full detail before deciding: the person, their job title, the leave type, the day count and any reason they added.
  • A rejection can carry a written reason. A teaching assistant who asked for the last day of term knows why, and can resubmit for a different week without starting again.
  • Every request, approval, rejection and deletion is logged with a timestamp and the person who made it.
  • Managers can book leave on behalf of anyone, for the member of staff who phones the office in the morning.
Leave requests Get Started
A school business manager approving a three-day annual leave request, showing the dates, the leave pay and Approve and Reject buttons

Leave types built for schools

Schools need more than just “annual leave” and “sick leave”. With TimeTally, you can create unlimited custom leave types to match your school's policies — INSET days, training leave, compassionate leave, or anything else you need. Each type gets its own colour on the team calendar.

  • Colour-coded by absence typeInstantly see whether someone is on annual leave, off sick, or at an INSET day from the calendar view
  • Set allowances per leave typeGive a type its own balance and its own number of days per year — 5 INSET days, or a training day allowance — and it will not come off annual leave
  • Export for payroll and reportingExport leave data via CSV, or sync with Xero or QuickBooks for seamless payroll processing
The leave types list, each type with its own colour and set as paid or unpaid

Set the allowance a term-time-only contract gives

Term-time-only teaching assistants, midday supervisors, caretakers and admin staff are part-year workers. Following the Supreme Court ruling in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022], their statutory holiday entitlement cannot be capped at 12.07% of the hours they work. They are entitled to 5.6 weeks based on their average pay over the 52-week reference period, even where that produces a higher figure than hours worked would suggest.

  • TimeTally does not calculate a 52-week average of pay. That is a payroll calculation and it stays with your payroll.
  • What TimeTally holds is the figure you decide on. Type each person's yearly entitlement in days on their profile and every approved request is counted against it.
  • Turn the pro-rata toggle on for a mid-year starter and the allowance is scaled from their start date and their working days per week, rounded to the nearest half day.
  • Check a figure before you enter it with the pro-rata holiday calculator.
An employee's leave allowance card showing the days left, the annual leave balance and the days already used

See who is off across your school

The team calendar gives headteachers and department heads a single view of all leave. See annual leave, sick leave, INSET days, and training leave side by side so you can plan cover with confidence.

  • School-wide visibility

    See who is off across your entire school or department to plan lesson cover effectively

  • All absence types together

    Annual leave, sick leave, INSET days, and training leave all visible on one calendar

  • Avoid staffing shortfalls

    Check the calendar before approving leave to make sure you have enough staff to cover all classes

  • Check from anywhere

    View the team calendar and approve requests on the go via the iOS app — no need to be at a desk
Three month team calendar showing how many school staff are booked off on each day

Know who is available every day

In a school, knowing who is available is essential for planning lesson cover and keeping the day running smoothly. TimeTally's “Who's Off” widget gives you an instant snapshot of staff availability so you can arrange cover before gaps become a problem.

Whether you manage a primary school, a secondary school, an academy, or a university department, having a clear view of who is off and when makes all the difference to keeping things running.

  • The widget counts everyone off this week and shows the days each of them is away, whether that is one Tuesday or a full Monday to Friday.
  • Tip: Check the staff holiday tracker before the start of each week to see who is off and arrange cover in advance rather than on the morning.
Off this week widget showing two school staff booked off, one for a single day and one for the full week

Every leave scenario a school has to handle

Tap a card to read the detail.

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See the Whole Leave Flow in One Loop

A short loop of the leave screens. A member of staff taps three days, picks Annual Leave and submits. The request then appears in the manager's time-off queue, is opened for the detail, and is approved.

Back

Book Time Off

Jul 2026

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3 days selected· excl. weekends

Family holiday, flights booked ✈️

Submit Request Submitted

Leave Allowance

18

days left

Annual Leave Balance

18 days

Annual Leave Used

7 days

All Departments
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AR1

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Maya Patel

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Timesheet Requests

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Tom Wilson

37h 30m · Week of Jun 1

Time-off Requests

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Maya Patel

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Notes

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Approve Approved
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Common leave management problems in education

If any of these sound familiar, it is time to replace paper forms and spreadsheets with a proper staff holiday tracker. Most of them come down to the same thing: teaching and support staff are on different contracts and the spreadsheet treats them the same.

Term time

Term-time complexity

Different leave rules apply to term-time only staff and year-round staff. Calculating entitlements manually for both groups leads to errors and disputes.

  • Term-time-only staff are part-year workers, so the 12.07% shortcut does not apply to their statutory entitlement
  • Set the number of days their contract gives them and TimeTally counts every request against that figure
Cover

Covering lessons when teachers are absent

When a teacher is off, someone needs to cover their lessons. Without a clear view of who is already absent, arranging cover becomes a last-minute scramble.

  • The team calendar shows three months of approved leave, so supply cover is booked before the morning it is needed
  • Sick leave is one of the six leave types TimeTally seeds, so a same-day absence is recorded rather than remembered
INSET

INSET days and training leave go untracked

INSET days, CPD sessions, and external training are not recorded in one place. There is no easy way to see how many training days each staff member has taken.

  • Add an INSET Day type, switch on its own balance, and set the number of days per year
  • A type with its own balance does not come off annual leave, and it resets at the start of each leave year
Contracts

Different entitlements for teaching vs support staff

Teaching staff, teaching assistants, office staff, and caretakers all have different leave entitlements and working patterns, but they are all managed on the same spreadsheet.

  • Allowance, start date, working pattern and accrual method are all set per person, not per school
  • Teachers on contractual school holidays and support staff on an annual leave allowance sit on one staff list
Pro-rata

Part-time teacher pro-rata confusion

Calculating correct entitlements for part-time teachers is done manually and frequently gets it wrong, leading to staff taking too much or too little leave.

  • Turn pro-rata on and the allowance is scaled from the start date and the working days per week
  • Every figure is rounded to the nearest half day, which is standard UK practice
Visibility

No school-wide absence view

School leaders cannot see absence across the whole school at a glance. Decisions are made in isolation, leading to clashes and staffing shortfalls on the same day.

  • One calendar covers the whole organisation — teaching, admin, the site team and catering together
  • Letting staff see each other's booked leave is a setting you turn on, not the default
Get Started

The Two Leave Settings a School Business Manager Changes First

Most of TimeTally works out of the box. These two are worth ten minutes on the day you set it up, because they are the two that schools get wrong.

Allowances and working patterns

Set the allowance per person, then set the days they work.

Allowance is a per-employee field. Open a member of staff and type their yearly entitlement in days. A full-year school business manager, a 0.6 FTE teacher and a term-time-only teaching assistant can all sit on one staff list with three different figures.

Underneath it, set the working pattern day by day and the hours in their working day. TimeTally uses that to take the right amount off the balance for each day taken, so a Monday-to-Wednesday teaching assistant is not costed like a five-day caretaker.

Turn the pro-rata toggle on for a mid-year starter and the allowance is scaled from their start date and their working days per week. Every result is rounded to the nearest half day, which is standard UK practice.

One limit worth stating plainly. TimeTally does not decide the statutory figure for you and it does not average 52 weeks of pay. Work the number out with the pro-rata holiday calculator and enter it.

Leave year, carryover and INSET days

Run the leave year September to August and keep INSET days in their own pot.

The leave year runs January to December unless you change it. Set any reset date and the year starts the day after it, so a school year ending on 31 August is one field rather than a workaround.

Carryover is off by default. Turn it on and you can cap the number of days that carry, and set an expiry so days left at the end of the summer term are used rather than banked indefinitely.

Add an INSET Day leave type, switch on “Has its own balance” and set the days per year. A type with its own balance does not deduct from annual leave, and it resets at the start of each leave year.

Negative balances are off by default too. Turn them on, with a limit, for a September starter who needs a day in October before they have earned it.

How leave years, carryover and balances work

How TimeTally works for schools

Everything you need to manage leave across your school, from request to approval to payroll export.

One-tap approvals

Staff submit leave requests online. Managers get notified and approve or reject with one tap — no more paper forms or chasing signatures. A rejection can carry a written reason, and the member of staff can resubmit an amended request without starting again. Every decision is logged with a timestamp.

Pro-rata entitlements

Calculate correct annual leave entitlements for part-time teachers, term-time staff, and mid-year starters. You set the full-time allowance for the school — TimeTally starts at 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an admin can change either figure — and each person's share is worked out from their start date and their working pattern.

INSET and training tracking

Track INSET days and training leave as separate leave types with their own allowances, so you always know how many training days each staff member has used. Give the type its own balance and a number of days per year and it sits in its own pot instead of coming off annual leave.

Export to payroll

Leave can be exported on its own or alongside timesheets. CSV works with no connection at all, and there are direct Xero and QuickBooks integrations included in the same £3 per employee per month. The school timesheet side of the product uses the same export.

UK compliance

Holiday Compliance in a UK School

TimeTally is a leave tracking tool, not a compliance system. It keeps the record that every one of these obligations rests on. Here is what the data supports in a school, and what it does not do.

Term-Time-Only Staff Are Part-Year Workers

Following the Supreme Court ruling in Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022], employers cannot cap the statutory holiday entitlement of part-year workers — term-time-only staff included — at 12.07% of hours worked. They must receive 5.6 weeks based on their average pay over the 52-week reference period, even where that produces a figure that looks high against the hours they work. The 12.07% method remains valid only for genuine variable-hours workers who work throughout the year without a term-time or seasonal gap.

The Allowance You Set, Pro-Rated

Every worker in a UK school gets 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, which is 28 days for someone on a five-day week. You set the full-time allowance; TimeTally starts at 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an admin can change either figure. TimeTally then works out each person's share of it from their working pattern and their start date, rounded to the nearest half day. It does not decide the statutory figure for you.

Teaching Contracts and Support Contracts

Teachers' leave is usually contractual rather than booked: the school holidays are the leave, and there is no annual allowance to draw down. The staff who need a leave system are the support staff — teaching assistants, midday supervisors, caretakers, the site team, catering, office and finance staff. TimeTally is built for that group, and teaching staff can still sit on the same list for INSET days, sickness absence and training leave.

Bank Holidays and Closure Periods

There is no right to a paid day off on a bank holiday in the UK. TimeTally uses the correct bank holiday set for England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, blocks them out automatically unless you turn that off, and lets you decide whether they sit inside the annual allowance or on top of it. That is an organisation-level setting, decided once for the school, not per employee.

Sickness Absence and Cover

Sick leave is one of the six leave types TimeTally seeds, so a teacher ringing in at 7am is recorded rather than remembered, and the pattern behind repeated Monday absences is visible. TimeTally does not calculate or pay Statutory Sick Pay — use the statutory sick pay calculator for that, the sick leave tracker for how absence recording works, and the Bradford Factor calculator if your absence policy uses one.

Records You Can Produce

Every request, approval, rejection and deletion is stored with a timestamp and the person who made it. Balances, entitlement and days taken are held per employee per leave year. If a former teaching assistant disputes their final holiday pay, or a trust audit asks how a figure was reached, the record of what was booked and what was left is in one place rather than in six versions of a spreadsheet.

Academies and Multi-Academy Trusts

A trust running several schools on one TimeTally organisation gets one staff list and one calendar. Be aware of the limit before you plan around it: there are two access levels, admin and employee, with nothing per-school in between, so anyone you make an admin sees leave across every school in that organisation. Department is a grouping and export filter, not an access level.

What TimeTally Does Not Do

It does not calculate holiday pay from a 52-week average of earnings — that is a payroll job. It does not chase anyone automatically: there is no scheduled reminder, only a manual nudge you send to one person. And it does not arrange supply cover or book agency staff; it tells you who is off so that the person who does arrange it knows in advance.

Simple, Transparent Pricing

One price. Every feature. No surprises.

£3/employee/month

Billed monthly, incl. VAT. Cancel anytime.

INSET day tracking
Team calendar view
Unlimited leave types
Timesheet tracking included
Get Started

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In short

What is staff absence management software for schools?

Staff absence management software for a school records who has booked time off, how much leave each person has left, and who is already absent before a manager approves the next request. TimeTally does this for UK primary schools, secondary schools, academies and multi-academy trusts from £3 per employee per month. Support staff book from the iOS app or any browser, in hours, half days or full days, and a manager approves or rejects in one tap with a written reason on anything sent back. Allowance, start date, working pattern and accrual method are set per person, so a term-time-only teaching assistant, a 0.6 FTE teacher and a full-year business manager sit on one staff list with three different entitlements. INSET days and training leave can be given their own balance so they do not come off annual leave. The leave year can start on any date, which is how a school runs September to August. Timesheet tracking is included in the same price.

Price
£3 per employee a month
Booking
iOS app or any browser
Term-time only
Allowance you set, pro-rated
INSET days
Own balance, own days per year
Leave year
Any start date
Includes
Timesheets at no extra cost

Frequently Asked Questions

How does TimeTally handle term-time only staff entitlements?

Term-time-only staff are part-year workers. Following Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022], their statutory holiday entitlement cannot be capped at 12.07% of the hours they work — they are entitled to 5.6 weeks based on their average pay over the 52-week reference period. TimeTally does not calculate that 52-week average; it is a payroll calculation. What TimeTally does is hold the figure you decide on. You set each person's allowance in days on their profile, set their working pattern day by day, and every approved request is counted against that allowance. This means teaching assistants, caretakers, and other term-time staff all get accurate balances without manual spreadsheet calculations. Use our pro-rata holiday calculator to check a figure before you enter it.

Can we track INSET days and training leave separately?

Yes. TimeTally lets you create unlimited custom leave types, so you can set up separate categories for INSET days, external training, annual leave, sick leave, compassionate leave, and anything else your school needs. Each type can be given its own balance and its own number of days per year — five INSET days, for example — which means those days do not come off anyone's annual leave. Each leave type gets its own colour on the team calendar, making it easy to see at a glance why someone is absent.

How do we manage different leave types for teaching staff versus support staff?

You can set a different leave allowance, start date, working pattern and accrual method for every member of staff. Teaching staff might have INSET days and training leave recorded against their own separate balances, whilst support staff have a standard annual leave allowance. Leave types are set up once for the school and each employee's profile carries their own entitlement figures, so there is no confusion about who is entitled to what.

How does TimeTally calculate leave for part-time teachers?

TimeTally calculates pro-rata holiday entitlement from each employee's working pattern and start date. Whether a teacher works 3 days a week or has a 0.6 FTE contract, you set the full-time allowance for the school and the system works out their share of it, rounded to the nearest half day. Whether bank holidays sit inside that allowance or on top of it is an organisation-level setting, so it is decided once for the whole school rather than person by person.

How do we handle the long school holidays for term time only staff (term-time-only on the contract)?

Extended school holiday management is mostly a question of when your leave year runs and what a closure period means for each contract. TimeTally lets the leave year start on any date, so a school running September to August sets one reset date rather than working around a calendar year. Term-time-only staff usually take their annual leave during the closure periods, so give each person the allowance their contract provides and let the balance run down as they book it. If your site team, catering staff or business manager work through the summer, they simply book against their own allowance like any year-round employee. Carryover is off by default, and you can turn it on with a cap and an expiry date if days are allowed to roll into the new school year.

Can staff submit leave requests from their phone?

Yes. TimeTally has an iOS app that lets employees submit leave requests from anywhere. Managers receive a notification and can approve or reject with one tap. This is particularly useful for teaching staff who are in classrooms all day and do not have regular access to a desktop computer.

How much does TimeTally cost for a school?

TimeTally costs £3 per employee per month with no setup fees or hidden costs. Managers who only approve and never submit timesheets of their own are free, so your school business manager or headteacher can run the system without adding to the cost. For a school with 30 staff on the system, that is £90 per month. There is a free 14-day trial with no credit card required.

Still have a question? See all FAQs

Related Resources

Calculators and guides for school business managers and trust HR teams

Staff Holiday Tracker

Balances, bookings and the team calendar for teaching and support staffLearn more

Pro-Rata Holiday Calculator

Entitlement for part-time patterns and mid-year starters and leaversOpen calculator

Absence Management Software

Absence patterns and reporting across the whole schoolLearn more

Sick Leave Tracker

Record a teacher ringing in at 7am and see the pattern behind itLearn more

Statutory Sick Pay Calculator

Check SSP for a member of staff who is off sick, which TimeTally does not payOpen calculator

School Timesheets

The hours side of the same £3, for term-time and casual contractsLearn more

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