Tracking Time Off in Lieu (TOIL)

Tracking time off in lieu (TOIL) for your employees can be tricky. The process is completely different than it is for calculating holiday accrual, and there’s other factors to consider as well, like expiration dates.

In this article, we’ll explain the differences between tracking time off in lieu and holiday accrual, and how an online staff planner like Team Planner can help you to do both simultaneously with minimal effort.

How Is Time In Lieu Tracked Differently From Holiday Hours?

TOIL and holiday hours are completely different. For this reason, each one requires its own unique tracking method.

For example, in most cases, a set number of holiday hours are granted to employees at the end of every pay period (or annually). The business owner can decide whether these hours will expire at the end of a certain period or if they will roll over into the next year.

Holiday hours are easy to keep track of since they are only used when the staff member goes on holiday. After the employee uses part or all their holiday hours, they immediately start accruing them again at the end of the pay period.

Time off in lieu is technically considered holiday hours, but they are only accrued when an employee works overtime. Instead of taking extra pay, they are given additional holiday entitlement    for the number of hours they worked outside of their normal schedule.

As with holiday hours, some employers choose to let TOIL expire. This means that the employee - and their boss - must stay on top of the number of time in lieu hours they’ve accrued, how many of them they’ve spent, and when their remaining hours will no longer be useable.

How Does Team Planner Help You Track TOIL?

The most efficient way to manage TOIL for your employees is to use an online staff planner like Team Planner.

Team Planner comes with software that allows you to set custom rules for how each staff member’s TOIL will accrue. For example, if one of your staff members is scheduled to work an eight-hour day, you can enter it as a rule in Team Planner that after 8 hours, the software will start tracking the minutes or hours they worked overtime.

In addition to tracking your staff members’ time off in lieu, Team Planner will track these hours separately from their holiday hours. This allows you to see how much TOIL they have left unspent, so they can use that first when they decide to take a holiday.

Finally, you can also choose to set an expiration date for your employees’ TOIL hours. Whichever you choose, Team Planner will keep track of it for you. This way, you can remind your staff members that they need to use their TOIL.

Conclusion

Time off in lieu can be complicated if you don’t have an online staff planner doing all the heavy lifting for you. Start your free trial of Team Planner today to see how effortless tracking TOIL is with this helpful software.

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