What you see
Open Reports, pick Burnout tracking and you get this. Highest first, filter by department if you want to, and no maths to do yourself:
An example list with made-up people. Red is High, amber is Watch.
We built it this way on purpose. A score on its own tells you nothing you can act on, so every person gets a sentence you could more or less read out to them - how long since their last holiday, when their next one is and how many days they've still got to take. If it isn't obvious why someone is on the list, we haven't done our job.
How it decides who to flag
Four things, all from the leave you already record, nothing anyone has to fill in:
How long since their last holiday of a full day or more. A half day here and there is nice, but it isn't a break.
Something approved or waiting for approval in the next month or so counts in their favour. Nothing in the next three months counts against them.
How far behind they are on where you'd expect them to be by now, pro-rated for anyone who joined part way through the year.
In the last few months of the leave year, anyone still sitting on a lot of days moves up, while there's still time to do something about it.
New starters in their first couple of months, archived people and anyone who's off today are left out, so the list stays about the people you can actually help right now.
Only leave that comes off someone's allowance counts as a break. Sick leave, unpaid leave, compassionate leave and anything else you record without deducting is ignored completely, and nobody's sickness shows up anywhere in the list or the email.
A nudge for you, once a quarter
You won't remember to check it, honestly, so we send it to you. At the start of each quarter of your leave year, every owner and admin gets a short email listing who's flagged and why, with a button straight to the list. The last one lands about three months before year end, which is exactly when you want to know someone is sitting on 15 days.
If nobody's flagged you don't get an email. Each admin can switch it off from the email itself, and it goes out in your company's language.
It's already switched on. Open Reports and pick Burnout tracking at the top. There's a step-by-step in the help centre: Reports and Burnout tracking.
Why we built this bit
Holiday tracking tells you who's off. What it doesn't tell you is who should be and isn't, and in a small team that person is usually doing the work of two and the last to complain. We wanted something that put them in front of us before December, not after a resignation.
To be straight about what it isn't: it doesn't diagnose burnout and can't see workload, hours or how anyone is feeling. It won't book leave for anyone either, sadly. It spots the holiday pattern and leaves the conversation to you, which is where it belongs. Staff can't see the list and aren't told they're on it.
How the price compares
Timetastic has a version of this too and it's a good one, but it sits on the Pro plan. Ours comes with everything else in the flat £1:
| Book Time Off | Timetastic | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £1 / user / month (flat) | £1.20 Basic / £2 Pro |
| Flags staff not taking holiday | Included | Pro plan (£2) |
| Admin reports with charts and CSV export | Included | Pro plan (£2) |
| Deeper absence insights | No | Pro plan (£2) |
One honest difference: Timetastic Pro's absence insights go further than ours, so if deeper absence analytics are what you're after it's worth the extra. If what you want is to see who needs a break and get a nudge about it, you don't need to pay £2 for it. Our full side-by-side is in Book Time Off vs Timetastic.
Frequently asked questions
No. Only holiday counts, meaning leave that comes off someone's allowance. Sick leave, unpaid, compassionate, birthday leave and any other type you record without deducting are ignored completely, and nothing about anyone's sickness shows up in the list or the email. Being off sick isn't a rest and we didn't want to rank anyone on their health.
Owners and admins only, on the Reports page. Staff can't see the list, aren't told they're on it and don't get an email about it. It's there so you can have a quiet word, not so anyone feels watched.
It's live. It works off today's date and the current leave year every time you open it, so the moment someone books a week off they drop down the list or off it. The summary email goes to owners and admins once a quarter, timed to the start of each quarter of your leave year, and only if someone is flagged.
No, and it doesn't pretend to. It can't see workload, hours or how anyone is feeling. What it does is spot the holiday pattern that tends to come before it: a long stretch without a proper break, nothing booked and a pile of days still to take. What you do with that is a conversation, not a diagnosis.
Nothing extra. Burnout tracking is included in the flat £1 per user per month along with everything else, with a 30-day free trial and no card required. There's no Pro plan to unlock it.