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How to Manage Staff Leave and Holiday Scheduling in Microsoft Planner

WPS Content Manager Sep 28, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants to know how to handle staff leave and statutory holidays when assigning and scheduling tasks in Microsoft Planner.

Managing Staff Leave and Holiday Scheduling in Microsoft Planner

Product: Microsoft Planner
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Planning project timelines, setting due dates, and assigning tasks while attempting to account for employee time off and public holidays.
Observed behavior: Microsoft Planner does not automatically adjust task dates or provide working-time calendars for staff leave or holidays, requiring users to rely on manual adjustments or external automation tools.

Before you start

Ensure you have access to Microsoft Power Automate and an active Microsoft 365 subscription if you plan to create automated workflows for leave tracking.

Solution 1Recommended

Automate Leave Synchronization with Power Automate

Use Microsoft Power Automate to detect scheduling conflicts between assigned tasks and staff leave, and automatically notify relevant team members.

Since Microsoft Planner lacks native automatic scheduling controls for holidays, Power Automate can bridge the gap by connecting Planner with Outlook calendars or other Microsoft services.

Create a new cloud flow

Set the Planner trigger

Search for Planner and choose the trigger 'When a new task is created' or 'When a task is assigned to me'.

Retrieve calendar events

Add a new action step to 'Get calendar view of events' from the assigned user's Outlook calendar to check for scheduled time off or holidays.

Add a conflict condition

Insert a 'Condition' control to check if the new task's start and due dates overlap with any retrieved 'Out of Office' calendar events.

Set the notification action

Under the 'If yes' branch, add an action to 'Send an email (V2)' to notify the project manager or the assignee about the scheduling conflict so dates can be manually adjusted.

Automate Leave Synchronization with Power Automate

Automation Limits: Power Automate can notify you of conflicts and even move tasks to different buckets, but it cannot natively force Planner to skip weekends and holidays during date selection.

Solution 2

Track Leave in Microsoft Dynamics

Record statutory holidays and employee leave in Microsoft Dynamics to automatically adjust expected task effort hours.

Solution 3

Organize Leave Using Planner Labels and Buckets

Manually track affected tasks by utilizing Planner's built-in categorization tools to keep the team informed of delays.

Easy Leave Tracking Alternative

Manage Team Schedules and Leave with WPS Spreadsheet

Since Microsoft Planner lacks native automatic date adjustments for holidays and leave, managing project timelines is often much easier using a customizable Gantt chart or leave tracker in WPS Spreadsheet. You can automate date calculations skipping weekends and holidays with simple formulas.

1. Launch WPS Spreadsheet: Open WPS Office on your computer and create a new Spreadsheet document.
2. Find a template: Click on 'Templates' and search for 'Leave Tracker' or 'Gantt Chart' to use a pre-formatted professional layout.
3. List your holidays: Create a new sheet tab named 'Holidays' and list all statutory holidays and staff leave dates in a single column.
4. Input project tasks: On your main tracker sheet, enter your team's project tasks, start dates, and assigned members.
5. Automate due dates: Use the formula =WORKDAY(Start_Date, Duration, Holidays) to automatically calculate accurate due dates that completely skip weekends and staff leave.

Create highly customizable Gantt charts for accurate project tracking.Fully compatible with Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) formats for easy sharing.Use built-in WORKDAY and NETWORKDAYS formulas to automatically calculate task dates excluding holidays.Free, lightweight, and easy to use for comprehensive team scheduling.

microsoft office alternative - wps office

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't Microsoft Planner automatically change task dates when someone is on leave?

Microsoft Planner is designed as a lightweight task management tool and uses a Fixed Duration task type by default. It lacks the advanced working-time calendar controls found in Microsoft Project, meaning it cannot automatically shift due dates around holidays.

Can I change task types to Fixed Units or Fixed Work in Microsoft Planner?

No. Unlike Microsoft Project, Planner does not currently support switching between Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, or Fixed Work task types. Tasks are always treated as Fixed Duration.

Does integrating Planner with Microsoft Dynamics fix the holiday scheduling issue?

Partially. Integrating with Dynamics allows the system to adjust the expected task effort (total working hours) based on recorded leave. However, it still will not automatically extend the task's start and due dates on the calendar.

How can my team easily see who is on leave in Microsoft Planner?

The most effective native workaround is to create a dedicated 'On Leave' bucket or use brightly colored labels named 'Out of Office'. Applying these to tasks ensures team members can visually identify scheduling conflicts and delays at a glance.

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