Leave that shows up in Google Calendar
Approved leave, automatically in Google Calendar
When leave is approved in Absenca, it lands in Google Calendar — as an out-of-office block that auto-declines meetings, plus a shared team calendar of who's away.
A leave tracker that nobody sees on the day someone's off isn't doing half its job. People still get booked into meetings while they're on vacation, and colleagues still ask "wait, is Sara out today?" in the calendar they actually live in. Absenca closes that gap by syncing approved leave straight into Google Calendar.
Each person's time off appears on their own Google Calendar as an out-of-office event, so meeting invites during their leave are declined automatically and their working hours reflect reality. A shared team calendar shows everyone's absences in one place — and the leave year, balances and accruals keep running accurately in Absenca underneath.
Out-of-office in Google Calendar
Approved leave is written to the employee's Google Calendar as an out-of-office event, so anyone checking their availability sees they're away.
Auto-decline meetings
Because it's a real out-of-office block, Google Calendar declines meeting invites that fall during someone's leave and tells the organiser why — no double-booking holidays.
Shared team calendar
A single Google Calendar of who's off across the team or office, that colleagues can subscribe to and see alongside their own events.
Calendar feeds (.ics)
Prefer a read-only link? Subscribe any calendar app to a personal or team leave feed, so absences show up without a full Google connection.
How the Google Calendar sync works
An admin connects the organisation's Google Calendar once, and employees authorise their own calendar in a couple of clicks. From then on, every leave request that's approved in Absenca is pushed to the right calendars automatically — and edits or cancellations sync too, so a shortened or withdrawn booking doesn't leave a stale event behind.
Half-days and hourly leave carry across as the correct partial block rather than a full day, so the calendar reflects exactly when someone is and isn't available.
Stop booking people during their time off
The point of an out-of-office event is that Google Calendar acts on it: invites during the period are declined automatically, and schedulers see the person is away before they send. That's the difference between leave being recorded and leave being respected.
You decide how visible it is — a full out-of-office block on personal calendars, a busy/free marker, or just an entry on the shared team calendar — to match how open your organisation keeps its calendars.
Accurate balances stay in Absenca
The Google Calendar sync is a view onto the truth, not the system of record. Accruals, carry-over, seniority entitlements, public holidays per office and approval workflows all run in Absenca, so the numbers stay right whether someone books from the web, from Slack or from Microsoft Teams. Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars sync the same way for mixed environments.
Why teams choose Absenca
- Approved leave written to Google Calendar automatically
- Out-of-office events that auto-decline meeting invites
- Shared team calendar of who's away
- Half-day and hourly leave sync as partial blocks
- Calendar feeds (.ics) for any calendar app
- Free for up to 15 people, then $0.75/user/month
Frequently asked questions
- Does Absenca sync leave to Google Calendar?
- Yes. When a leave request is approved, Absenca writes it to the connected Google Calendars automatically — to the employee's own calendar as an out-of-office event and to a shared team calendar of who's away.
- Will it auto-decline meetings during someone's leave?
- Yes. Because leave is written as a Google Calendar out-of-office event, Google declines meeting invites that fall during the period and notifies the organiser, so people aren't booked into meetings while they're off.
- Does it handle half-days and hourly leave?
- Yes — partial leave syncs as the correct partial block rather than a full day, so the calendar shows exactly when someone is available.
- What if I'd rather not connect a full Google account?
- You can subscribe to a calendar feed (.ics) instead — a read-only link that shows personal or team absences in any calendar app, including Google Calendar, without a full account connection.
- Does it also work with Outlook or Microsoft 365?
- Yes. Absenca syncs to Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars as well, so mixed teams get the same out-of-office and shared-calendar behaviour.
- Is the Google Calendar integration free?
- Yes — it's included, and Absenca is free for up to 15 people, then a flat $0.75 per user per month.