Annual leave accrual calculator for Australian employers.
Work out how much annual leave an employee has accrued under the National Employment Standards, then see what accrued and unrecorded leave adds up to across your whole company.
How much annual leave accrues?
Full-time and part-time employees accrue 4 weeks of paid annual leave a year, based on their ordinary hours. It builds up each week from day one at ordinary weekly hours × 4 ÷ 52. On 38 hours a week that is about 2.92 hours a week, or 152 hours a year. Part-time staff accrue pro rata, so 20 hours a week gives 80 hours a year. Casual employees don't get paid annual leave.
Muster calculator · Updated 28 October 2026 · Based on Fair Work Ombudsman annual leave guidance
How much annual leave has your employee accrued?
Enter their ordinary hours and how long they have worked. The calculator applies the National Employment Standards rule of 4 weeks a year, accruing weekly.
Exclude periods of unpaid leave from weeks worked. A full year is 52 weeks.
20 days · 4 weeks of their ordinary hours
38 hrs × 4 weeks ÷ 52 = 2.923 hrs a week, over 52 weeks.
Now scale it to your whole company.
Every accrued hour is money you owe until it is taken or paid out. See your estimated leave liability, and what leave that was taken but never recorded could be adding to it.
Average leave balance is linked to the employee result above. Type a figure to use your own.
500 employees × 20 days at $365 a day. Includes $0 leave loading and $438,462 super.
$613,846 a year, based on 3 unrecorded leave days per employee per year: 15% of four weeks of annual leave. Luxury Escapes found around 15% of its leave was going unbooked before using Muster.
Illustrative estimates, not financial or accounting advice. Leave loading depends on the applicable award or agreement. Super generally applies to annual leave pay; whether you include super in a leave provision depends on your accounting policy. Excludes pay rises and payroll tax. See the full breakdown on our annual leave liability page.
Check your real numbersHow the calculator works.
Every figure on this page comes from four simple formulas. Here they are, with the sources behind them.
Annual leave accrued
Under the National Employment Standards, full-time and part-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave a year, based on ordinary hours. Leave accrues each week at ordinary weekly hours × 4 ÷ 52, from the first day of employment. Qualifying shiftworkers use 5 weeks instead of 4.
Part-time staff, pro rata
Because accrual follows ordinary hours, part-time employees accrue automatically on a pro rata basis. Enter their real ordinary hours. Days are their hours divided by the days they work each week.
Company leave liability
Employees × average leave balance in days × daily pay, where daily pay is average salary ÷ 260 working days. Leave loading is added on base leave pay, and super on base pay plus loading.
Estimated cost of unrecorded leave
The same valuation applied to 3 days per employee per year: 15% of 20 days of annual leave, the share of leave Luxury Escapes found was going unbooked. It is the same calculation as our annual leave liability exposure calculator, shown monthly.
| Employee | Ordinary hours | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time | 38 hrs | 2.92 hrs | 152 hrs · 4 weeks |
| Part-time | 20 hrs | 1.54 hrs | 80 hrs · 4 weeks |
| Shiftworker | 38 hrs | 3.65 hrs | 190 hrs · 5 weeks |
| Casual | 25 hrs | None | No paid annual leave |
15% of leave was going unbooked. Muster closed the gap.
About $480,000 a year in leave liability and cash payouts that Luxury Escapes was never getting back.
Read the Luxury Escapes storyAnnual leave accrual questions, answered.
Short answers for Australian payroll, HR and finance teams, checked against Fair Work Ombudsman guidance.
How much annual leave do employees accrue per year in Australia?
Under the National Employment Standards (NES), full-time and part-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service, based on their ordinary hours of work. A full-time employee on 38 ordinary hours a week accrues 152 hours a year. Shiftworkers who meet their award or agreement's definition get 5 weeks. Casual employees don't get paid annual leave.
How is annual leave accrual calculated?
Annual leave accrues progressively through the year. Each week, an employee accrues their ordinary weekly hours multiplied by 4, divided by 52. On 38 ordinary hours that is about 2.92 hours of leave per week, which adds up to 152 hours over a full year. Unused leave rolls over from year to year.
How does annual leave accrue for part-time employees?
Part-time employees accrue pro rata, using the same 4 weeks a year applied to their own ordinary hours. The Fair Work Ombudsman's example is an employee on 20 hours a week, who accumulates 80 hours of annual leave over the year. If an award-free part-time employee works irregular hours, Fair Work says to work out ordinary hours by totalling the hours worked in the last 4 weeks and dividing by 4.
Does annual leave accrue during probation or while on leave?
Annual leave accumulates from the first day of employment, including during probation. It keeps accruing during paid leave, such as paid annual leave, paid sick and carer's leave and long service leave. It doesn't accrue during unpaid leave, including unpaid parental leave.
What happens to accrued annual leave when employment ends?
Unused annual leave must be paid out in the employee's final pay. The payment must be the same amount the employee would have received had they taken the leave during employment, including annual leave loading if they would have been paid it.
What is annual leave liability?
Annual leave liability is the value of all the annual leave your employees have accrued but not yet taken. Because unused leave is paid out when people leave, it sits on the balance sheet as a provision. This calculator estimates it as headcount multiplied by the average leave balance, valued at salary divided by 260 working days, plus any leave loading and super.
How does unrecorded leave affect leave accruals?
When leave is taken but never lodged, payroll treats the day as worked, so the balance stays higher than it should be. That overstates the leave liability, and leave that was already taken can be paid out a second time when the employee leaves. Luxury Escapes found around 15% of its leave was going unbooked, worth about $40,000 a month in leave liability and payouts, and used Muster to close the gap.
See your leave liability — and what it's costing you.
In 20 minutes, we'll show you the unrecorded leave hiding in your balances, the cash you're on the hook to pay out, and the monthly saving Muster delivers — using anonymised data from your own org.