Holiday records for 6 years
Since 6 April 2026, you must keep records of the holiday your staff take and the holiday pay you give them for at least 6 years, and if you can’t show them, it can be a criminal offence.
- When it started
- 6 April 2026
- Who it affects
- Every employer
- Status
- In force
What’s changing
Staff are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year, pro rata for part-timers. What’s new is that you must keep a record of it. Since 6 April 2026, your records must show:
- the holiday each person has taken
- holiday carried over from previous years
- holiday pay, with details of what it included, such as bonuses or commission
- any pay in lieu of holiday, such as pay for untaken holiday when someone leaves
You must keep each record for at least 6 years from the date it was made. It can be in any format that’s reasonable, as long as you keep it in line with UK GDPR, the data protection law.
If you can’t show your holiday records, it can be a criminal offence. The Fair Work Agency, set up on 7 April 2026, is due to start enforcing holiday pay, from April 2027 at the earliest.
What it means for a small employer
A diary of who’s off when isn’t enough on its own. For each person, the record needs to show what they took, what carried over and what you paid them.
For staff on irregular hours, or who work only part of the year, holiday builds up at 12.07% of the hours they work, so you need their hours on record too.
A record made in October 2026 has to be kept until at least October 2032.
An example, with made-up names. Ola, a part-time stylist, leaves in March 2027 with 3 days’ holiday untaken. You pay her for those days in her final pay. That pay in lieu goes in her holiday record, with the holiday she took and carried over, and you keep it until at least March 2033.
What to do now
-
Check what you hold
For each person: holiday taken, holiday carried over, holiday pay and any pay in lieu.
-
Record what holiday pay included
Such as bonuses or commission, so you can show how you worked it out.
-
Keep leavers’ records
The 6 years runs from when each record was made, so don’t delete them when someone leaves.
-
Store them safely
In a format you can still find and read in 6 years, kept in line with UK GDPR.
How Maravier handles it
- Staff book holiday in the app, and you or your managers approve it there.
- Balances follow the law: 5.6 weeks a year pro rata, 12.07% of hours worked for irregular-hours and part-year staff, and bank holidays by nation.
- We keep holiday records for the 6 years the law requires, and work out final holiday pay for leavers.
- Everything we’ve issued, records included, stays yours to download as PDFs, even after you leave.
Your requests
- Mon 24 to Fri 28 May5 daysApproved
- Fri 13 Aug1 dayWaiting
All names are made up for the demo.
Sources
- Keeping records: holiday entitlement, Acas
- Employment Rights Act 2025, Acas
- Fair Work Agency, business.gov.uk
- Holiday entitlement, gov.uk
- Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024, gov.uk
Checked against the law on 8 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.
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