Leave in your Outlook calendar
Outlook calendar sync that keeps time off visible
Approved leave lands in Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars on its own — as all-day events, with out-of-office and auto-decline set for the days someone is away.
The reason booked leave gets double-booked is simple: it lives in a leave tool nobody opens, while the rest of the company plans meetings in Outlook. So a manager schedules a review for a day the employee is already off, because the calendar they were looking at didn't know. Absenca closes that gap by syncing approved leave straight into people's Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars.
When a request is approved, it appears as an all-day event in the employee's own calendar, the company can see it on a shared team calendar, and — if you switch it on — Outlook automatically sets the person's out-of-office reply and declines invitations for the days they're away. The leave tool and the calendar finally agree.
Approved leave, in Outlook automatically
Each approved request becomes an all-day event in the employee's Microsoft 365 calendar — no copying dates across by hand, no forgotten bookings.
Out-of-office set for you
Optionally have Outlook's automatic reply turn on for the dates someone is away and switch off when they're back, so senders know without anyone remembering to set it.
Auto-decline while away
Meeting invites that fall on leave days can be declined automatically, so nobody schedules a call into someone's holiday and wonders why they didn't show.
Shared team leave calendar
Publish a read-only team or company leave calendar that anyone can add in Outlook, so coverage is visible to the whole organisation.
How the Outlook sync works
Connect each person's Microsoft 365 account once, or have admins enable it across an office. From then on, every approved leave request writes an all-day event to that employee's Outlook calendar, and any change — a cancellation, a shortened trip, a half-day — updates the event to match. The leave tracker stays the system of record; the calendar just mirrors it.
Out-of-office and auto-decline are opt-in per person, so people who want their automatic reply and declines handled get them, and people who'd rather manage their own can leave that off. Either way, the booking itself is always on the calendar.
OOO and auto-decline, without the manual steps
The small jobs around taking leave are the ones people forget: setting the out-of-office message, declining the meetings that were already booked, telling colleagues you're out. With the Microsoft 365 connection on, Absenca can set the automatic reply for the exact dates of approved leave and decline invitations that land on those days — then clear it all when the person returns.
It means a clean handover with no follow-up from anyone, and senders get a reply that says when the person is back rather than silence.
One shared calendar the whole company can see
Beyond individual calendars, Absenca can publish a shared leave calendar for a team, an office or the whole organisation. People subscribe to it in Outlook once and see who's off alongside their own meetings — useful for planning around half-terms, busy periods and overlapping trips. If you also run Microsoft Teams, leave requests and approvals can happen right inside Teams, while the calendar side keeps everything in sync.
Why teams choose Absenca
- Approved leave syncs to Outlook and Microsoft 365 as all-day events
- Optional auto out-of-office for the exact dates someone is away
- Auto-decline meeting invites that fall on leave days
- Shared team or company leave calendar to subscribe to in Outlook
- Free for up to 15 people, then $0.75/user/month
Frequently asked questions
- Does Absenca sync leave to my Outlook calendar?
- Yes. Once you connect a Microsoft 365 account, every approved leave request is written to that person's Outlook calendar as an all-day event, and updates automatically if the leave changes or is cancelled.
- Can it set my out-of-office automatically?
- Yes — it's optional per person. When enabled, Absenca sets Outlook's automatic reply for the dates of approved leave and turns it off when you're back, so you don't have to remember.
- Will it decline meetings while I'm on leave?
- If you turn auto-decline on, invitations that fall on your approved leave days can be declined automatically, so colleagues don't book calls into your time off.
- Can the whole team see a shared leave calendar in Outlook?
- Yes. You can publish a read-only team, office or company leave calendar that people subscribe to in Outlook, so absences show up next to everyone's normal meetings.
- Is the Outlook integration free?
- Yes — it's included, and Absenca is free for up to 15 people, then a flat $0.75 per user per month.