How to track vacation and PTO in Jira Cloud

Last updated: 12 September 2026

Short answer. Jira has no built-in leave tracking — no request and approve, no balance, no public holidays. Teams either model leave as Jira issues, keep a spreadsheet next to Jira, or install an app. Below is what each option really costs you.

1. Workaround: one Jira issue per leave request

Create a project (or an issue type) for time off. Each request is an issue with the dates in the start and due date fields, a workflow such as Requested → Approved → Declined, and a calendar or timeline view to see who is away.

It costs nothing and works for a handful of people. What it does not do:

No balance. Nobody can see how many days they have left; someone counts in a spreadsheet.
No working days. A Friday-to-Monday request is four calendar days, not two working days, and public holidays are not skipped.
No carry-over. Leftover days at the end of the year are handled by hand.
Privacy. The reason for an absence — sometimes an illness — sits on an issue that everyone with access to the project can read.
Clutter. A year of leave for a team of 20 is hundreds of issues in search results and reports.

2. Workaround: a spreadsheet or shared calendar

The balance lives in a spreadsheet, the dates in a shared calendar. It handles balances better than issues do, but it is a second place to keep up to date, approvals happen in chat or email, and the team planning work in Jira cannot see who is away while they plan.

3. What to look for in a time off app for Jira

Need	Why
Balance worked out from the requests	A stored number drifts; a calculated one cannot.
Working days only, with public holidays per country	Otherwise every request is counted by hand.
Carry-over rules, including a "use by" date	Common in Ireland and the UK (end of March).
A declined request needs a reason	"Declined" with no explanation is the top complaint about leave tools.
The reason for an absence stays private	The team sees dates, not the note.
Data stays in your Atlassian site	Leave records are personal data.
Price per user you can afford	Marketplace apps are billed for every user on the site, not only the ones who use the app.

4. Where Time Off fits

Time Off is our app, so read this part as the maker's description:

Request, approve and decline inside Jira — declining requires a reason, which the person reads next to their request.
The balance is recalculated from the requests every time, counts working days only, handles half days, and pro-rates the first year from a start date.
Public holidays for 17 countries worked out by rule for any year, with a different country per person when someone works abroad.
Carry-over: all, none, or up to a limit, with an optional "must be used by" month.
A team calendar everyone can see (dates only), and a year report you can paste into a spreadsheet.
Free for sites up to 10 users, then US$0.40 per user per month. No external servers: data stays in Atlassian's storage for your site.

What it does not do, said up front: email notifications (Atlassian does not give apps email addresses; the app shows a banner and a count instead), per-team approvers (Jira administrators approve), and regional holidays. Full detail in the documentation.

Time Off on the Atlassian Marketplace · About Time Off

Time Off is an independent app, not made by or affiliated with Atlassian. Jira is a trademark of Atlassian.