Year-end carryover of remaining vacation

Year-end carryover of remaining vacation

In Germany, unused vacation days do not automatically expire. In Shiftdesk, remaining vacation is carried over into the new year as Carryover and added to the contractual entitlement.

How does the carryover work?

At the turn of the year, Shiftdesk creates a new entry in the vacation account for each employee:

• Entitlement: the contractual annual vacation for the new year.
• Carryover: the remaining days carried over from the previous year.
• Used: starts at 0.

On the card under Absences -> Vacation accounts {year}, Entitlement is then shown as the sum of Entitlement + Carryover.

How many days may be carried over?

• Statutory minimum vacation (BUrlG, 4 weeks) generally has to be taken in the current year.
• Carryover into the following year is permitted when operational or personal reasons stand in the way.
• By default, the entire remaining vacation is carried over. Different rules (e.g. a cap of 10 days) are configured in the HR master data.

Expiry deadlines

Under BAG case law, carried-over vacation expires only if the employer has informed the employee of the impending expiry in good time and verifiably. Without such notice, the entitlement remains. This reflects the employer's responsibility — please verify the applicable deadlines for your situation.

In the default Shiftdesk setup, the following applies:

• Carryover cutoff date: March 31 of the following year (the classic BUrlG deadline).
• Days not taken by then remain available, provided the employee was not given notice.

Manual corrections

If an account needs to be adjusted manually — for example after a mid-year start, an increase in contracted hours, or an expiry — an admin adjusts the Entitlement, Carryover, or Used values directly in the HR master data. Record the change in the Note so it remains traceable.