Salisbury Foodbank
At The Holiday Tracker, we work with organisations of all shapes and sizes. In this Powered By story, we’re sharing how a charity supporting the local community uses The Holiday Tracker to keep holiday and sickness admin clear, simple and under control.
Managing holidays and sickness can quickly become time-consuming when everything relies on a spreadsheet and one person keeping it up to date. For this team, it had become increasingly difficult to manage.
About Salisbury Foodbank
Salisbury Foodbank supports the local community with a small, dedicated team. They use The Holiday Tracker to manage holidays and absences for six people, including five staff members and a very active operational trustee.
Maria manages holiday and sickness tracking for the team alongside her wider responsibilities.
Before using The Holiday Tracker, everything was logged in an Excel spreadsheet.
As Maria explained:
“When I say we logged everything, I meant I logged everything as the team either forgot to or thought they had.”
Over time, records became messy. People were expected to be in when they were actually on holiday, formulas were overwritten, and it became difficult to keep holiday entitlement accurate.
On a few occasions, services even had to close because there was not enough cover.
A clearer way to manage holidays and sickness
Since introducing The Holiday Tracker, all holiday and sickness records now sit in one clear, visual system.
Maria describes it as:
“So simple to set up – but also very simple to use.”
What mattered most was having something practical that worked for a small charity.
“It’s affordable, it’s visual, it works on mobile devices and it’s not over complicated for the sake of it.”
The team can now see where everyone is, how much leave they have left, and any time off that has already been logged. Sickness trends, overtime and TOIL are all easy to track too.
Helping the team plan with confidence
One of Maria’s most used features is the Team Calendar, which gives a clear overview of who is off and when.
She also makes regular use of the weekly Who’s Off email and the calendar sync with Google and Outlook.
As Maria explained:
“When I look at my diary and am planning my week or month, I know where I need to be. Can I go to that off-site meeting? Do we have enough office cover?”
She also finds it helpful being able to add notes when booking time off, which makes it easier to remember why time was booked, whether for a school sports day or a concert.
Small touches like the birthday cake icon next to staff birthdays have also proved to be a useful reminder.
Less admin, less confusion
Moving away from Excel has removed much of the stress around tracking holidays and sickness.
Start dates, changes to working patterns and historical records are now easy to find in one place, without searching through files, folders or old emails.
There is also now a clear approval process, avoiding the familiar situation of:
“Do you remember, I told you about that holiday. I thought you had approved it.”
Maria’s advice to others
For anyone considering The Holiday Tracker, Maria’s advice is straightforward.
“If you are looking for a simple solution to tracking holiday, sickness, overtime and TOIL, and a simple HR tool, look no further than The Holiday Tracker.”
She also shared a word of warning for anyone still relying on spreadsheets.
“Don’t get caught out again with someone overtyping your Excel formulas in an archaic spreadsheet that no one likes to use.”
If you’d like to see how The Holiday Tracker could work for your organisation, you can start a free 7-day trial and explore the system for yourself.
👉 Start your 7-day free trial today
We’ve shared similar stories from other organisations in our Powered By The Holiday Tracker series, showing how different teams manage holiday and sickness tracking in a way that works for them.
