The FLA is gone. Your obligations are not.
The Federal Learning Account disappeared. Your five obligations around the individual training account remained, and you now manage them entirely yourself.
January 2026: the Federal Learning Account (FLA) is gone. For many employers that came as a relief, because this public tool required a lot of administration, and that burden now falls away.
At the same time, there is an understandable misunderstanding: the idea that the FLA also removed the duty to keep track of training. That is not the case, and it is good to get this clear together. The obligations around the individual right to training, stemming from the Belgian “Deal for Jobs” (Arbeidsdeal), already existed before. What changes is that you now fulfil them under your own management, without a public tool. No reason to worry: it is very easy to organise. With a module like Popay Learn, the training data behind these obligations is captured as part of your daily operations.
The 5 obligations that remain
These are the obligations you meet, whether the FLA exists or not. They stem from the “Deal for Jobs”, supplemented by sector agreements.
01. Granting the right to training
Companies with 20+ employees grant at least 5 training days per full-time employee per year. Between 10 and 19 employees: 1 day on average, calculated over the cycle.
5 days · 20+ employees
02. Managing the 5-year cycle
Unused days are not lost. They are carried over to the following year, until the cycle ends. The counter only resets at the end of 2028. Until then, all unused days count.
Reset end 2028
03. Informing proactively
At least once a year, you inform every employee in writing or digitally: days granted, days taken, remaining balance and carry-over. New employees receive this information when they join.
1× per year · in writing
04. Offering a permanent right of access
Employees can consult their training account at any time: balance, training completed, days taken. And they must be able to contest errors.
Always consultable
05. The annual training plan
Companies with 20+ employees submit a formal training plan before 31 March: which training, for which target groups, linked to company objectives, with monitoring. The plan is submitted for advice to the works council.
Before 31 March
Where a spreadsheet quickly hits its limits
Many companies start with an Excel, which is entirely understandable, because it is what you have on hand. But as your organisation grows, a spreadsheet reaches its limits on three fronts.
The administrative side
Per employee: starting position, allocation, hours taken, carry-over, balance and cycle phase. With 100+ employees and several training types, that adds up quickly. And the pro rata for part-timers makes it even more laborious.
The legal side
Without an audit trail or read receipts, it is hard to prove that employees have actually seen their data. During an inspection by the social inspectorate, you want to be able to put that proof clearly on the table.
The operational side
It does not stop at a single entry: you keep it up to date continuously and you communicate about it. And employees rightly want to know: “How many days do I have left?” That deserves a smoother answer than a spreadsheet can give.
Keeping track of everything per employee: starting position, allocation, hours taken, carry-over, balance and cycle phase. And copying all of that manually from one system to another: that is double work. The good news? It can be a lot simpler.
Our approach: Popay HR
Good news: you do not have to face this alone. Within Popay HR, the different modules work together seamlessly. The data is managed and kept up to date in Popay Learn. Via Popay Docs, that data is automatically converted into a correct training account per employee.
01. The data lives in Popay Learn
Who follows which training, how many hours, full-time/part-time, start and end date, type (formal/informal, internal/external, classroom or e-learning). Everything is managed and kept up to date in Popay Learn, simply as part of your daily operations, without double entry.
02. Popay Docs: your central document management
From Popay Docs, the data from Popay Learn is converted automatically: balance, carry-over and pro rata are calculated and cast into an individual training account (PDF) per employee, with room for a digital read receipt, and automatically archived with a timestamp.
03. Your annual communication is ready
You have the proof that you have properly met your duty to inform: employees have seen and confirmed their document. Obligations 1 to 4 are fully covered, without stress.
The difference between the two ways of working
| Aspect | Manual (Excel) | With Popay HR |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping training accounts | All records manually in Excel | Automatically from Popay Learn |
| Balance & carry-over | Calculated by hand, error-prone | Calculated, incl. pro rata & cycle |
| Read receipt | Followed up manually | Digital, with timestamp |
| Annual turnaround | 2–3 weeks of work | In one click |
| Legal proof | No audit trail | Watertight & archived |
Practice case: 2,500 employees
A situation that is more common than you would think, and precisely there a good approach makes the difference.
PRACTICE CASE · MANUFACTURING COMPANY
2,500 employees, 450 part-timers, constant turnover
Internal and external training, pro rata calculations, people joining and leaving mid-year. Manually, that is 2 to 3 weeks of work, and still without solid proof.
- 2,500 training accounts in a single export
- 1 click instead of 2–3 weeks of work
- 100% digitally confirmed & archived
The work: one click. From Popay Docs, the up-to-date training account rolls out as a PDF from the data in Popay Learn, and you can send a read receipt for it. And the right of access is fully decentralised: every employee can consult their updated training account themselves at any time.
Practical points of attention
Pro rata for part-timers
Someone working 4/5 receives 4 days instead of 5, calculated over the cycle. Popay HR calculates this automatically based on the work regime in the personnel file.
Mid-year joiners and leavers
Someone starting in September receives a reduced credit for the remaining months. Quick and correct to calculate, without manual work.
The 5-year cycle
Runs from 2024 to the end of 2028. The system remembers, for each employee, the cycle phase and how many days carry over from the previous year.
Archiving
Keep training accounts carefully with secure HR archiving. In the event of a possible labour dispute, you have everything traceable at hand.
Getting started with Popay HR
You do not need to set up a complex process. Activation happens in two steps.
01. Discuss your wishes
Together with your Popay consultant, you go through the details of the training account template and your specific wishes. You look together at which information is needed to create a training account.
02. Popay configures, and you are ready
Popay prepares your configuration. From then on, the training account rolls along with your daily operations.
Beyond the training account, Popay Docs works seamlessly together with all other Popay Learn documents, and with other document types that you, as HR, can configure entirely to your own liking.
The FLA is gone. Your obligations are not.
Your five obligations are now entirely in your own hands, and that does not have to be a burden. For larger organisations, manual management remains hard to scale, so it helps enormously when training, balances, communication and archiving simply fall into place by themselves.
With Popay HR, you handle obligations 1 to 4 fully automatically today, and you immediately gather the training data you need for your annual training plan (#5). And the best part: it simply grows along with how you already work today.
“Compliance does not have to be an administrative monster. With the right integration, it becomes a by-product of how you work every day.”
— Popay HR · Boost HR
Ask us for advice
Many employers with 100+ employees are currently finding their way through this question. We are happy to think along with you about how to use Popay HR optimally for worry-free compliance.