Rota Planning
Rota PlannerSchedule shifts and manage your teamTime & Attendance
Time TrackingTimesheets, clocking in, and moreView all features One plan · £3 per employee per month
Free Notice Period Calculator
Instantly calculate the statutory minimum notice period under UK employment law. Enter a start date or years of service and get the notice weeks, calendar days, and estimated last working day.
Notice of dismissal
From the employer to the employee
Notice to give7 weeksby law
Last dayFri 20 Nov2026
Notice runs from the day after it is given.
7 years 6 months of service. 7 full years: 1 week for each full year from 2 to 12. By law: 7 weeks.
Paying instead? Pay in lieu of notice (PILON) covers the same 49 days and is taxed like normal pay. Holiday not taken by the last day is paid in the final pay.
Free for 14 days, then £3 per employee per month. No card needed.
Your notice, day by day
Notice given on Fri 2 Oct 2026, 7 years 6 months after they started. By law the employer gives 7 weeks (7 full years). The notice runs from Sat 3 Oct 2026 to Fri 20 Nov 2026: 49 calendar days, and Fri 20 Nov 2026 is the last day.
The law's notice, by full years of service
Once someone has worked for an employer for a month, the employer must give at least 1 week's notice if they have less than 2 years' service, then 1 week for each full year of service from 2 to 12 years, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. An employee who resigns after a month or more must give at least 1 week. A contract can require longer notice, never shorter.
Worked example: an employee who started on 15 March 2019 and is given notice on 2 October 2026
Statutory minimum notice: 7 weeks, ending 20 November 2026, unless the contract gives more.
From the calculator to their last day
Accrued holiday to the leaving date is worked out for you, and their final timesheets and handover rota sit in the same place, from records you already have.
Notice givenFri 2 Oct
Put their leaving date on their profile. TimeTally works out the holiday they'll have built up by then, in days or hours, from their start date and their working week.
During the noticeSat 3 Oct – Thu 19 Nov
Approve what they ask for, or book it for them. Leave after their last day can't be booked. To have them use holiday during their notice, the law asks you to tell them twice as many days ahead as the leave.
Their last dayFri 20 Nov
TimeTally shows what they've built up by their last day: days still to pay in their final pay, or days taken beyond it. After the day, the Team page marks them as Left.
Notice period law has more nuance than most people realise — here's what you need to get right.
Before notice is given
The rules that set how long it is.
Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the statutory minimum notice an employer must give: one week after one month's continuous service, then one additional week per complete year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks for employees with 12 or more years' service. Employees must give a minimum of one week's notice after one month's service — and unlike the employer's obligation, this does not increase with length of service unless the contract provides for it. Contracts cannot reduce notice below the statutory minimum on either side.
Employment contracts commonly specify longer notice periods than the statutory minimum — for example, one month or three months. Where contractual notice exceeds the statutory minimum, the contractual period applies. Where a contract provides for less than the statutory minimum, the statute overrides and the minimum applies regardless. Employees must give at least the contractual notice period specified in their contract, or the statutory minimum of one week if the contract is silent — whichever is greater.
The statutory minimum notice of one week applies from the first day of the second month of employment — including during a probation period. Contracts often specify a mutual one-week notice period during probation, which aligns with the statutory minimum for a first-year employee. Once the main contract notice period kicks in (on confirmation or at the end of the stated probation), higher contractual notice applies. Employers who dismiss without any notice during probation are still exposed to a wrongful dismissal claim for one week's pay.
While it is worked
Where they work it, and their holiday.
Garden leave is a contractual arrangement under which an employee serves their notice period at home, remaining on the payroll and entitled to all contractual benefits, but prohibited from attending the workplace or engaging with clients, competitors, or colleagues. It is most commonly used for senior employees, client-facing roles, or those with access to sensitive commercial information. A garden leave clause must be expressly included in the employment contract — it cannot be imposed unilaterally. During garden leave, annual leave continues to accrue and the employer can direct when leave is taken.
Annual leave continues to accrue during a notice period. An employer can require an employee to take annual leave during their notice period by giving notice of at least twice the length of the leave to be taken — so to require 5 days of leave, at least 10 days' advance notice must be given. Any accrued but untaken leave remaining at the end of the notice period must be paid out as part of the final settlement. Leave taken during a period of garden leave counts against the employee's annual entitlement.
Ending it early, or without notice
Paying instead, gross misconduct and redundancy.
Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) allows an employer to terminate employment immediately and pay the employee their salary (and other contractual entitlements) for the notice period, rather than requiring them to work it. Since 6 April 2018, all PILON — whether contractual or not — is subject to income tax and National Insurance in full via the post-employment notice pay (PENP) calculation. Previously, non-contractual PILON could benefit from partial tax exemption; that treatment no longer applies. Errors in PILON tax treatment are a common payroll compliance risk.
Summary dismissal — termination without notice or PILON — is only lawful where the employee has committed an act of gross misconduct that fundamentally breaches the employment contract. Common examples include theft, violence, serious harassment, and gross negligence. Even where gross misconduct is suspected, the employer must carry out a fair investigation and follow a proper disciplinary process before dismissing without notice. A summary dismissal without due process will likely be both wrongful (no notice) and unfair (procedurally flawed), even if the underlying conduct was serious.
An employee being made redundant is entitled to their full contractual or statutory notice period — whichever is longer. They can be required to work that notice or receive PILON. Statutory redundancy pay and notice pay are two separate entitlements and can be received simultaneously — receiving one does not reduce the other. An employee with 10 years' service is therefore entitled to 10 weeks' statutory minimum notice (or longer if contractual) in addition to their statutory redundancy payment. Failure to give notice in a redundancy situation is wrongful dismissal, regardless of the redundancy process itself.
Beyond the calculator
This calculator tells you the statutory minimum. TimeTally tracks hours, leave, and absences for your whole team automatically — so every manager has the full picture when notice is given. From £3/employee/month.
Staff submit timesheets via the iPhone or Android app, or web. Hours, absences, and leave balances are kept up to date as people submit — no paper forms, no manual entry, no chasing.
Employees request leave via the app. Managers approve in one tap, or decline with a reason, from anywhere. Every decision is timestamped — full audit trail, no email chains.
See your whole team's time off at a glance — who's in, who's off, and who is taking holiday during their notice. Plan cover before issues arise.
Select any feature for the detail.
Employees see their current balance and their projected future balance — accounting for leave already booked but not yet taken. Optionally let staff see who else in their department has booked time off, so they can plan around colleagues. Managers can manually adjust any employee's balance at any time — ideal when setting up mid-year from a previous system.
Pick the accrual method that fits each employee: upfront (full entitlement from day one), monthly accrual (earned gradually each month), daily accrual (builds day by day), or hours worked (earned per hour worked at a rate you set, 12.07% by default). All calculations are handled automatically — no spreadsheets needed.
TimeTally comes with annual leave, sick leave, maternity, paternity and bank holidays set up. Need something else, like compassionate leave? Create unlimited custom leave types with any name. For each type you control: whether it's paid or unpaid, whether it deducts from the annual leave balance or has its own separate pot, and who it's turned off for.
Decide exactly what happens at year end: toggle carryover on or off, set a maximum number of days that can carry, and optionally add an expiry date so carried-over days must be used within e.g. 3 months. You can also allow employees to book leave before they've earned it (negative balance), with an optional cap to limit exposure.
Set each employee's contracted hours per day of the week (or use a company default). TimeTally uses this to deduct the right amount of leave — a half-day Tuesday only costs half a Tuesday's hours — and to pay the correct amount for each day taken. Pro-rata entitlements for new starters and leavers are calculated automatically from their start date.
Employees can request leave in hours, half days, or full days from the app or website — no training required. Managers can book leave on behalf of any employee. Public holidays are added automatically for the country you choose. Set a custom leave year start date (e.g. 7th April) and balances reset automatically. Easy to set up even when migrating from another system mid-year.
Managers can approve any leave request in one tap. Rejections include an optional reason so employees know why, and they can send a new request. Employees can also ask to change or cancel approved leave, and you approve or turn it down. Any booked leave can be deleted if plans change, and the days go back on the balance — all with a full audit trail.
Leave sits in the main team calendar alongside timesheets and rota shifts — one view of the whole business. If you use time tracking, overtime converts to TOIL automatically at a rate you define. Leave analytics give managers a clear picture of absence patterns, entitlement usage, and remaining balances across the whole team.
Real reviews from TimeTally customers
TimeTally has been excellent for our business… The system has saved us a significant amount of administration time.
Jordan IngoeCLI ManchesterSetup was dead simple and the team just got on with it. Got everyone up and running in an afternoon with no help needed. Does everything we need for timesheets and holidays without the faff.
Has completely changed how I handle timesheets. Used to dread it every week — now it takes me minutes. Really easy to get around and my staff picked it up straight away.
Started using it just for rotas but quickly realised it does loads more. The timesheets and leave management are great, and it even handles TOIL and overtime which I wasn't expecting. Use it for everything now.
Everything you need to know about notice periods in the UK. For related topics, try our redundancy pay calculator or working hours calculator.
Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the statutory minimum notice an employer must give an employee depends on length of service. After one month of service, the minimum is one week. This rises by one week for each complete year of employment, up to a maximum of 12 weeks after 12 or more years of service. Employees resigning must give at least one week's notice once they have been employed for one month or more. These are legal minimums — your employment contract may require longer notice on either side.
Yes, but only in cases of gross misconduct. If an employee commits gross misconduct — such as theft, violence, serious breach of health and safety, or serious insubordination — the employer may be entitled to dismiss them summarily (without notice or pay in lieu of notice). Outside of gross misconduct, an employer who dismisses someone without the correct notice will be liable for wrongful dismissal, entitling the employee to damages equal to the pay they would have received during the notice period.
Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) is when an employer pays an employee the equivalent of their notice period salary instead of requiring them to work out their notice. Whether PILON can be made depends on the employment contract — some contracts include a PILON clause. If there is no PILON clause and the employer makes a PILON payment, it is treated as damages for breach of contract. Since April 2018, all PILON payments are subject to income tax and National Insurance, regardless of whether the contract includes a PILON clause.
Statutory minimum notice only applies once an employee has been employed for one month or more. During the first month of employment (or during a probationary period shorter than one month), there is no statutory minimum notice entitlement — the employer can dismiss without notice unless the contract says otherwise. Many contracts specify notice during probation (commonly one week), so always check what the contract says.
Yes. Both parties can agree to waive the notice period entirely or shorten it. This is common when an employee finds a new job that needs them to start sooner, and the employer agrees to release them early. The agreement should be confirmed in writing. Neither party can unilaterally waive the other party's notice entitlement — it must be mutually agreed. Note that a statutory minimum notice period exists to protect the employee, so an employee cannot be pressured into waiving it.
If an employer fails to give the correct statutory or contractual notice, the employee has a claim for wrongful dismissal in an Employment Tribunal or civil court. The remedy is compensation equal to the pay the employee would have received during the notice period they were owed. This is different from unfair dismissal, which is a separate claim that currently needs at least two years of qualifying service in most cases (the Employment Rights Act 2025 is due to cut this to six months from January 2027). Wrongful dismissal claims can be made from day one of employment.
Yes. Pay received during a notice period — whether the employee works it out or receives PILON — is fully subject to income tax and National Insurance contributions in the same way as regular wages. This applies whether the payment arises from a contractual PILON clause or is treated as damages. The first £30,000 of certain termination payments unrelated to notice (such as an ex gratia payment) may be tax-free, but pay specifically in respect of the notice period is always taxable.
Still have a question? See all FAQs →
Book a DemoCalculate statutory redundancy pay based on age and service length
Check National Minimum Wage rates for your age group
Track and calculate weekly working hours and overtime
Work out time and a half and double time rates for UK employees
Calculate annual leave for full-time and part-time workers
Track employee hours, leave, and absences automatically
Last checked against GOV.UK: 2 October 2026
Statutory minimums for England, Scotland and Wales. This calculator is a guide, not legal advice.
TimeTally handles time tracking, leave, and absence tracking automatically — from £3/employee/month.
14-day free trial · No credit card needed · Cancel anytime
