Leave Management Software for Egypt and the Gulf: Entitlements, Balances and Approvals

Leave management software runs the whole leave cycle for you: it applies each employee's statutory and policy entitlement, calculates balances automatically, takes requests from a phone, routes them to the right approvers and then updates attendance and payroll without anyone retyping data. This guide is written for HR managers, finance teams and owners running companies in Egypt and the Gulf. It covers what Egypt's Labour Law 14/2025 requires, how Saudi and UAE rules differ, how balances should be calculated, and what to check before you buy.

Key takeaways

• Egypt annual leave: 15 days in year one (after 6 months), 21 days from year two, 30 days after 10 years or age 50, 45 days for persons with disabilities.
• Casual leave: 7 days a year, max 2 at a time, deducted from annual leave.
• Public holidays and weekly rest days never count as leave in Egypt, and accrued leave must be settled at least every three years.
• A trustworthy balance is not a number someone edits. It is the sum of recorded movements: accruals, usage, adjustments, carry-over and expiry.

Legal information here is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the official text or your adviser before applying it.

Why spreadsheets stop working

Most growing companies in Cairo, Riyadh or Dubai start with paper forms, WhatsApp messages to managers and an Excel file that HR updates at month end. That holds up for ten people. Past that, three things break: balances are edited by several people with no audit trail, requests get lost in chats, and nobody can see who will be out next week.

A proper leave tracking system fixes this with four connected parts:

1. A configurable policy: leave types, entitlement by service and age, accrual method, carry-over and expiry rules.
2. A balance ledger: every accrual, usage or adjustment is a dated movement with a reason and an author.
3. An approval workflow: employee requests, manager approves, HR reviews, with reminders and escalation.
4. Integration: approved leave stops false absences in attendance, and unpaid leave flows into payroll.

For the wider picture of what an HR platform should cover, see our guide to HR software in Egypt and the Gulf.

Statutory leave in Egypt under Labour Law 14/2025

Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 came into force on 1 September 2025, replacing Law 12/2003. The full Arabic text is available on Manshurat, and EY and Deloitte publish English summaries. The leave types your system must handle:

Rules that catch people out

• Holidays are excluded. Official holidays and weekly rest days are not counted as annual leave.
• One continuous week. Employees must take at least one continuous week, and the employer sets timing based on business needs.
• Settle every three years. Accrued leave must be taken or paid out at least every three years. It is paid in cash on termination.
• No waiver. Leave cannot be signed away by agreement.
• Sick pay sits in another law. The labour law grants the right; the Social Insurance Law sets the compensation rates.

How leave balances should be calculated

A clean formula: balance = entitlement − approved usage ± adjustments + carry-over − expired days. To make that reliable, your system must answer three questions.

When does entitlement start? In Egypt, a new hire becomes entitled to annual leave after six months. Some companies grant the full 15 days at that point and others pro-rate them. Choose one approach and apply it to everyone.

Upfront or monthly? Common options are:

• Annual upfront: the full allowance on 1 January or on the hire anniversary.
• Monthly accrual: for example 21 ÷ 12 = 1.75 days a month.
• Per worked day: useful for seasonal or part-time staff.

When does it step up? The system should watch hire date, birth date and prior service, and move employees to 21 days in year two and to 30 days at 10 years of service or age 50 without anyone having to remember.

Worked example. An employee hired on 1 March 2025 reaches six months on 1 September 2025 and receives her first allowance. She takes two casual days in November, which come off the annual balance. In year two her entitlement rises to 21 days. Each step is a separate ledger entry, so an auditor can see exactly how the balance got to where it is.

Casual leave vs. permissions. Casual leave is a full day (or two) for an emergency. A permission (izn) is a few hours for arriving late or leaving early, governed by your internal policy with monthly limits. A permission should cover only the excused minutes, not wipe the whole day's lateness. If lateness is your main pain point, read our guide to biometric attendance systems.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: what changes

If you run branches in KSA or the UAE, don't copy the Egyptian policy across. The Saudi Labor Law (with amendments in force since 19 February 2025) and UAE Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 differ on several points:

Sources: the Saudi MHRSD labor law text (Art. 109 for annual leave) and the UAE legislation portal.

In Saudi Arabia, Muslim employees work 6 hours a day in Ramadan, which matters if your policy allows hourly leave. Unused leave is paid out at exit, so balances must be accurate before end-of-service is calculated in your payroll software.

The ideal leave request workflow

1. The employee opens the app and picks the leave type and dates (full day, half day or hours if allowed).
2. The system previews the balance impact and automatically skips holidays and rest days.
3. It blocks overlaps, too-short notice and requests over the maximum consecutive days.
4. It asks for mandatory attachments, such as a medical certificate for sick leave.
5. Approval runs through the line manager, department head and HR, with conditional rules such as "more than 5 days needs an extra approver".
6. Delegation and escalation keep requests moving when a manager is away.
7. The decision is pushed to the employee, the team calendar updates, attendance is corrected and unpaid leave goes to payroll.
8. Cancelling approved leave restores the balance and the attendance record.

Spreadsheet vs. leave management software

Buyer's checklist

• Ready-made Egypt, KSA and UAE templates that you can adjust
• Automatic step-ups by service years and age
• Working-day counting against a per-country holiday calendar
• Ledger-based balances, not editable numbers
• Carry-over caps, expiry dates and encashment
• Half-day and hourly units where policy allows
• Multi-step approvals with delegation and escalation
• Native link to attendance and payroll
• A bilingual employee app that shows balances
• Exportable balance and usage reports

Hourly and part-time staff need their own rules too; see our guide to hourly employee management, and for rosters see shift scheduling software.

How BashKatib helps with leave management

BashKatib's leave module is built around the rules above:

• Full leave policies: paid percentage, accrual (upfront, monthly, per worked day or none), service and age-based entitlement, first-year rules, carry-over and expiry, encashment, half-day and hourly units, minimum notice, maximum consecutive days, required attachments and eligibility rules such as maternity or Hajj once after five years.
• Country templates for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE that you adjust to your handbook.
• A balance ledger: every accrual, usage, adjustment, carry-over, expiry and encashment is recorded, so the balance is always their sum.
• Bulk allocation plus per-employee overrides.
• Smart requests with overlap checks, balance preview, flexible approval chains and cancellations that restore attendance.
• Team and company calendars with per-country public holidays and CSV import.
• An employee app: staff see annual, casual and permission-hour balances and request leave from the employee app, installable on iPhone and Android as a web app.
• Native integration with time and attendance and payroll, plus balance and usage reports in the reports centre.

The AI voice daily briefing

Something no other HR platform in the region offers: the AI voice daily briefing gives owners a 45 to 90-second spoken summary in Egyptian or Gulf Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic or English. It covers who is on leave today and why, who is absent without approval, which requests are waiting for you and who is off tomorrow. The system computes every number from real data and the AI only phrases it. Branch managers hear only their own branch.

Leave management is included in every plan, including the free plan for up to five employees. The owner's voice briefing comes with the Growth plan. See pricing for details (prices at the time of writing).

Frequently asked questions

How many days of annual leave does Egypt's new labour law give?

Under Labour Law No. 14 of 2025: 15 days in the first year after six months of service, 21 days from the second year, 30 days after 10 years of service or from age 50, and 45 days for persons with disabilities.

Is casual leave deducted from annual leave in Egypt?

Yes. Casual leave is up to 7 days a year, no more than 2 days at a time, and it is deducted from the annual leave balance, so your system must link the two balances.

Do public holidays count against annual leave?

Not in Egypt. Official holidays and weekly rest days are excluded from annual leave, so leave should be counted in working days against an up-to-date holiday calendar.

What happens to unused leave?

Egyptian employers must settle accrued leave, or pay it out, at least every three years, and unused leave is paid in cash when employment ends. In Saudi Arabia, unused leave is also paid out on exit.

How does annual leave differ between Egypt and Saudi Arabia?

Egypt starts at 15 days, moves to 21, and reaches 30 after 10 years or at 50. Saudi Arabia gives at least 21 days, rising to 30 after five consecutive years with the same employer.

Can employees request leave from their phone?

Yes. In BashKatib employees submit requests from the employee app, see their remaining balance before sending, track approval status and get notified of the decision.

Get leave right from day one

Leave is a legal obligation, a financial liability and something every employee deals with personally. When balances are right, approvals are quick and the calendar is visible, most disputes disappear.

Start your free 14-day trial with every Pro feature unlocked, or book a demo and we'll help you set up your Egypt or Saudi leave policy in a day.