Short answer
You track salon staff holiday entitlement by calculating the statutory allowance, which is 5.6 weeks of paid leave, and adjusting it pro-rata for part-time workers. You then record booked time off in your roster and subtract that leave from their total, so you'll always have an accurate record of remaining days.
Statutory entitlement in the UK
UK employment law states that full-time staff must receive at least 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year. This entitlement is calculated based on their working patterns:
If you track holiday on a spreadsheet, someone can easily overwrite the file during the busy December rush. Writing holiday totals on paper or using manual spreadsheets makes it easy to lose track of who has taken which days.
- Full-time staff. You must provide 28 days of paid leave for someone working five days a week, which includes bank holidays if your salon is closed.
- Part-time stylists. Their holiday allowance is calculated pro-rata. A stylist who works three days a week receives 16.8 days of paid holiday, which you get by multiplying three days by 5.6 weeks.
- Staff with irregular hours. You calculate holiday based on the actual hours they work. Under standard UK practices, holiday accrues at 12.07% of the hours worked, though you should verify the latest legal requirements with a professional adviser.
Recording leave and updating the roster
Once you've calculated this holiday allowance, you need a reliable way to record when staff take time off. When a stylist books a week off, that holiday leave must be recorded in your salon roster. Recording this leave prevents online bookings from landing in their column while they're away, and it ensures your team knows who's on the salon floor.
Luminate includes leave management and hours tracking as part of its staff features. You can record holiday leave directly in the roster, which automatically blocks that staff member's column from online bookings. Using the digital roster means you don't have to manually edit their schedule or worry about double-bookings. Keeping your leave records updated in your software means you'll always see the remaining holiday balance for every employee.
Staff costs and software pricing
As your team grows, keeping track of holiday becomes more complex, and you shouldn't be penalised for hiring more people. Software that charges per user can get expensive very quickly. If your software charges £30 per user and you have eight stylists, that comes to £240 every month.
Luminate costs £69 per month with unlimited staff accounts, meaning you're never charged per user and your software costs don't rise as your team expands. You can use the leave management, rostering, and hours tracking features for everyone without worrying about extra fees.
What this means for your salon
To keep your salon running smoothly, you need to calculate every employee's statutory allowance and log their requested time off in a single roster. Using software like Luminate lets you track leave and manage your diary without paying extra fees for each new staff member you hire. If you're unsure about specific holiday contracts, check with a professional HR adviser to ensure you stay compliant.