Company Holidays

Company Holidays extends the time-off data your HRIS Integration (Add-on) already brings into ActivTrak. Your HRIS syncs approved time off (like vacation or sick leave), but most HR systems store holidays centrally by region rather than on each employee record, so company holidays don't flow into ActivTrak automatically. Company Holidays closes that gap: add holidays to the Holidays tab, assign them by Group, and ActivTrak excludes those dates from time-off calculations, productivity averages, and capacity metrics — just like HRIS-synced time off — preventing false positives in your absence reports.

Company Holidays requires the HRIS Integration (Add-on), which is available to all ActivTrak packages. The Holidays tab (Settings > Schedules > Holidays tab) appears only when you enable this add-on on your account. Only Admins can add, edit, and delete Company Holidays.

Contents

• How Company Holidays work
• Add a Company Holiday
• Edit a holiday
• Delete a holiday
• Troubleshooting
• Best practices
• Frequently asked questions
• Learn more

How Company Holidays work

The HRIS Integration (Add-on) automatically syncs approved Time Off from your HR system into ActivTrak dashboards. Your company holidays aren't part of that sync—most HR systems store holidays centrally by region, not on each employee record.

Once holidays are assigned and your HRIS Integration is properly configured, holidays automatically flow into reporting as a Time Off type:

• Absence & Time Off views: Company Holidays appear alongside PTO and sick leave; assigned holiday dates are excluded from "time off" tallies.
• Productivity metrics / Active Days: assigned holiday dates don't count as working days and don't drag down daily productivity averages.
• Capacity planning: available working days are recalculated to exclude company holidays for accurate resource planning.
• Duplicates removed: If a user is assigned overlapping holidays for the same date (e.g., "US Federal" and "Texas State" both include July 4), it's counted as a single holiday occurrence.

Requirements

• User matching: Holidays are assigned to Groups, which resolve to the individual users within them. As with the HRIS sync, email addresses or employee IDs must match exactly between your HRIS system(s) and ActivTrak user identifiers for assignments to resolve correctly. For more information about user identifiers, see Manage User Information.
• HRIS Integration configuration: The Holidays tab unlocks when the HRIS Integration (Add-on) is purchased, but company holidays only appear in your ActivTrak dashboards once your HRIS Integration is configured and syncing Time Off. For more information about connecting your HRIS system to ActivTrak, see our setup guides. If you haven't completed your HRIS integration with ActivTrak, you will see this banner at the top of the Holidays tab.

Add a Company Holiday

You can add holidays two ways: add a single holiday directly or add multiple holidays via CSV upload. 

Add a single holiday

1. Click Add Holiday and select Add Single Holiday.

2. In the Add Single Holiday panel, fill in Holiday Name (max 255 characters), Start Date (today or later, up to 3 years out), and End Date (next day or later for multi-day holidays; leave equal to Start Date for a single day).
3. Using the Groups dropdown, select the applicable group(s). Select All Groups (the default) to apply to all groups.
4. Click Submit.

Add multiple holidays

Creating holidays with a CSV upload is additive only. The system recognizes existing holidays (identified by the Holiday Name and Start Date fields). Additional uploads can add new holidays and new group assignments. You can edit or delete holidays directly in the ActivTrak App. See the Edit a holiday and Delete a holiday sections for more step-by-step instructions.

1. Click Add Holiday and select Upload CSV.
2. Click Download Template to get a blank CSV (holiday_template.csv) with the correct column headers.
3. Open the template file and add your company holiday information. The table below provides more detail on how to enter the fields within the template file.

4. Upload the holiday CSV file into the panel in the ActivTrak App. ActivTrak validates the file before saving anything and flags any problems. You can then make those changes and upload the file again.
5. Click Submit to import.

Example:

You'll need a separate row in the CSV for each holiday-group assignment. In the example below, Labor Day appears twice — once assigned to the Product group and once to the Security group — because each group needs its own row to receive that holiday. If you tried to combine multiple groups into a single row, the upload would fail.

You'll also notice that New Year's Day has no end date and no group assignment. Leaving the end date blank tells the system this is a single-day holiday — it automatically applies only to the start date. Leaving the group column blank means the holiday applies to all groups.

Edit a holiday

1. Click the holiday name or select Edit from the three-dot menu on the right of the holiday's row.
2. Update any or all of the fields: Holiday Name, Start Date, End Date, or Groups.
3. Click Submit.

Changes take effect immediately—users in added groups receive the holiday; users in removed groups no longer have it.

Note: You can make unlimited changes to a holiday that hasn't occurred yet. Once a holiday date is more than 7 days in the past, reporting for that date is locked—edits no longer change reports. See the frequently asked questions for more details.

Delete a holiday

1. Select Delete from the three-dot menu on the right of the holiday's row. To delete multiple holidays, select the checkboxes to the left and click the Delete button above the table.
2. Confirm in the dialog: Are you sure you want to delete this holiday? This cannot be undone.
3. Click Delete.

Note: Deleting a holiday removes it immediately. Once a holiday date is more than 7 days in the past, reporting for that date is locked—deleting the holiday will not change reports. See the frequently asked questions for more details.

Troubleshooting

Error: "This file type isn't supported"

Only .csv files are accepted. Check the file extension and re-upload.

Error: "Your file is missing required columns"

The template requires holiday_name, start_date, end_date (optional), and group_name. Match the headers exactly. You can always download a fresh template.

Error: "Group doesn't exist"

The group_name in that row doesn't match a Group in ActivTrak. Verify the exact spelling and capitalization, fix the row, and re-submit.

Error: "isn't a valid date"

Use date format MM/DD/YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY. Fix the flagged rows and re-submit.

Error: "may contain unsupported characters"

Remove restricted characters (such as backslash, caret, tab, or quotation marks) from the field and re-submit.

My holiday isn't showing up in reports

Confirm the HRIS Integration (Add-on) is configured and syncing—holidays flow into reports through the same Time Off pipeline. Also confirm the assigned users match your HRIS by email or employee ID.

A new hire didn't get an existing holiday

Confirm the user is a member of a Group that's assigned to the holiday, and that the user identifiers in ActivTrak match your HRIS by email or employee ID. Membership is dynamic; once they're in the group, they automatically receive the group's upcoming holidays. Reports for holiday dates that already passed before they joined aren't recalculated.

Best practices

• Manage coverage through Groups. Keeping your groups accurate ensures correct holiday assignments.
• Bulk import for volume; use the ActivTrak App for edits. Use CSV for annual setup; use the App to edit or delete a holiday.
• Use consistent naming. Use clear names like "Independence Day 2026" and regional prefixes when applicable (e.g., "US – Independence Day," "UK – Bank Holiday").
• Add holidays ahead of time. Enter holidays before their dates so reporting is accurate from day one.
• Do an annual audit. Import or update holidays at the beginning of each year.

Frequently asked questions

Do new hires automatically get holidays if I add them to a group?

Yes. Adding a new employee to a group with assigned holidays means they automatically receive all of that group's holidays, including ones created before they joined. This follows the same 7-day reporting lock as any other holiday change: it updates reporting for holiday dates within the last 7 days or in the future, but won't change reports for a holiday dated 8 or more days ago.

What if an employee changes Groups (e.g., transfers from Sales to Support)?

Their assigned holidays automatically change to match their Group membership. As with other holiday changes, this updates reporting for any affected holiday dated within the last 7 days or upcoming—but won't change reports for a holiday dated 8 or more days ago.

Will changing Group membership affect past reports?

It depends. ActivTrak locks reporting for any date more than 7 days old. So if you move someone into or out of a group today, holidays dated within the last 7 days (or upcoming) will reflect the change, but a holiday from 8+ days ago won't. For example: if you add someone to a group today and that group has a holiday dated 5 days ago, that report updates. If the holiday is dated 10 days ago, it doesn't.

Can I exclude specific users from a company-wide holiday?

No. Holiday assignments are inclusive only; all users in an assigned Group receive the holiday.

Can I edit a holiday's name or date after creating it?

Yes. See Edit a holiday for step-by-step instructions. You can make unlimited edits to holidays that haven't occurred yet. Once a holiday date is more than 7 days in the past, reporting for that date is locked, so edits no longer change reports.

Can I upload recurring holidays like New Year's Day (January 1st)?

No. We suggest a CSV bulk upload or adding each dated instance through the single-holiday form.

What happens if I upload the same holiday twice?

A holiday is uniquely identified by Holiday Name and Start Date. When uploading holidays via CSV import, ActivTrak recognizes an existing holiday and skips it. If the CSV includes an existing holiday with a new group assignment, the holiday updates to include that group.

Can two groups have the same holiday name with different dates?

Yes. "Summer Break" on July 4 and "Summer Break" on August 25 are separate holidays because uniqueness is enforced by the combination of Holiday Name and Start Date. To keep same-named holidays clearly distinct, we suggest you add more information to the title (e.g., "Summer Break – US," "Summer Break – UK").

What happens if my CSV has errors?

ActivTrak validates the file before importing. File-level problems (wrong file type, missing or duplicate column headers, an unreadable file) will result in an error. Row-level problems (missing name or date, wrong date format, a group that doesn't exist, unsupported characters) are listed per row so you can fix them. Nothing is saved until you correct the file and click Submit. See Troubleshooting for more information.

Will adding, editing, or deleting a holiday impact reports for dates that have already passed?

It depends on when the holiday occurred. ActivTrak locks reporting for any date more than 7 days old:

• You can make unlimited changes to holidays dated today or in the future; none of those have reporting history to lock yet.
• If the holiday date is within the last 7 days, adding, editing, or deleting it will update related reports.
• If the holiday date is 8 or more days in the past, reports are locked—adding, editing, or deleting the holiday won't change reports that already included that date.

For example, if you delete a holiday dated 3 days ago, reports update to remove it. If you delete a holiday dated 8 days ago, reports keep reflecting it as it was.

Learn more

• HRIS Integration (Add-on)
• Creating Schedules
• Groups (Teams)