Leave Management Software

How We Chose the Best Leave Management Software

An absence management system should make the leave request process simple for both employees and management. A robust solution should be able to handle all the stages involved from application to analysis. Here’s what we consider to be crucial leave management system features.

Customization of Leave Policies

One size fits all doesn’t apply to the best software. A robust leave management solution should let staff customize the fields so that they can be adapted to their individual policies. This includes unique rules about accrual calculation, stop-leave policy or half-day permissions, overlaps warning, restricted holidays, and more.

Leave Balance

The best software should feature an intuitive dashboard that will allow the employees to monitor leave balance and keep up with the days their co-workers have taken off, ensuring full transparency. Management meanwhile will use the dashboard to access the employee leave balance, department schedule, holiday lists, and workforce coverage which will give them an ability to evaluate leave requests better.

Auto-Updates

It goes without saying that leave management solutions should have automation capabilities. The platform should automatically record and update the leave balance and track the leave history of the employees.

Holiday Calendar

An absence management system would be incomplete without a holiday calendar. The calendar should feature a complete list of holidays throughout the year which would ease the administration and organization of the time-offs. The employees will be able to check the upcoming holidays and plan their time-offs efficiently.

Leave Workflow

We made sure to list leave of absence tracking software solutions with robust leave workflow features as this will help the administration and HR department to maintain and manage the employees’ leave approval while gaining insight into their compliance with PTO policies.

Reporting

Effective systems include a reporting module for creating interactive and easy-to-read reports based on the analysis of the acquired data and actionable insights. The reports should show time-off balances, automated approvals and deny, and company- and employee-wide summaries, helping management reduce the admin load and increase productivity.

Seamless Integration

Any reputable employee leave management system offers integration with other HR software products for timesheet management, payroll, but also other third-party apps like calendars, payment processing apps, and more. Seamless integration is important not only for extending the system’s functionality but also for reducing repetitive tasks.

Support

Assuming something would go wrong at some point, you’ll need an efficient support team to guide through without disrupting the productivity of your organization. We make sure to evaluate the technical support the providers of leave tracking solutions offer in terms of the type of support they offer (via phone, live chat, or email), whether they are available 24/7, and how efficiently they can fix bugs. In addition to testing the support first-hand, we also check the experiences of previous clients.

Pricing

While the final price tag of such products usually depends on the number of users, when selecting our reviews, we made sure to include platforms that offer good value for money.

Reviews of the Best Leave Management Software

Cake HR

At a Glance

CakeHR is a cloud-based resource management solution that integrates core features like leave management, attendance tracking, and workflow management. The leaves management module automates the process of requesting and managing leaves and also tracks them in shared calendars and reports.

Pros

• Easy tracking of data changes
• One-click reports
• Employee self-service
• Outstanding support

Cons

• Somewhat confusing setup of unique holidays
• Tricky setup for specific employee profiles

Features

The CakeHR leave tracking system lets you create unlimited time off policies, build custom rules, and add custom fields. You can even assign specific employees to specific policies.

Cake Leave Management keeps everyone in the loop using a shared calendar. More than one user can access the same calendar data to manage resource planning, schedule team meetings, plan projects, and more. Employees can access their unique accounts to request time-off, see their balances, and access important company information.

Employees leave managers can approve time-off requests from anywhere — the CakeHR app, email, or Slack. Plus, you can control who approves requests or set up replacement persons. Reporting is another strong suit of the software. You can generate detailed time off reports or reports on the progress of an employee or team time-off information.

Creating detailed time-off reports is quick and easy. You can generate reports on the progress of the individual and team time off data. Additionally, you can automate reports and have them sent directly to the accountant.

Pricing

The CakeHR online leave management system allows you to pay only for the number of active employees. The price is $5.50 per employee per month. The leaves management module can be combined with other modules like shift scheduling, performance, expenses, and timesheets. You can try the software for free for 14 days and also cancel at any given time.

Timesheets.com

At a Glance

Timesheets.com is a cloud-based time tracking software with an employee leave management module. The system comes with integrated expense tracking, scheduling, and HR tools. It’s the perfect choice for small businesses and comes at an affordable price compared to other absence management systems.

Pros

• Simple and easy to use
• Competitively priced
• Continuous improvement
• Good reporting
• Free plan available

Cons

• Limited integrations

Features

The software’s time off and PTO module allows you to track leave, check for time-off conflict between workers, and approve requests from the calendar or the employee’s timesheet.

The Timesheet leave management system features a calendar with an at-a-glance view of the leave schedule. You can set designated supervisors to review real-time accrual balances before approving time off.

You can customize accruable and non-accruable time off categories and vacation time. Additionally, Timesheets.com offers the possibility to set PTO by hours worked. Roll-overs can be allowed year to year.

The reporting function of this leave management software is customizable so you can always get the information you need to manage your business more efficiently.

Pricing

Timesheet.com is fairly affordable. Freelancers can use it for free, forever. Also, there is an annual discount where you get one month free. The standard price is $4.50/user/month. Non-profit organizations get a 20% discount with a monthly price starting at $3.60/user.

Kissflow HR

At a Glance

Kissflow HR is one of the employee and absence management systems that keep the HR processes simple, giving businesses unprecedented flexibility and scalability. Trusted by industry leaders like Domino’s, Casio, and The Telegraph, Kissflow handles applicant tracking, employee onboarding, and offboarding, attendance and performance management, and leaves management.

Pros

• Flexible & customizable
• Rule-based workflows
• Insightful reports
• Seamless API integration

Cons

• Slow response to technical issues
• The interface could be better

Features

Leave management is a module of Kissflow HR Cloud software. The leave management system offers effective handling of all time-off related processes from a centralized hub, while the dashboard gives you a single overview of the time-off requests so you can manage them in real-time using automated approval workflows. Employees can cancel or withdraw leave requests at any time without messing with the leave balances.

Leave policies can be customized and you can adjust the time-off process to meet your business needs. Kissflow also offers progress tracking of time-off requests and cancellations. The real-time calculation feature provides an accurate count of accruals and leave balance.

The reporting feature of the leave management software is interactive and contains actionable insights that highlight employee leave trends. This employee leave management platform works well with third-party systems like payroll software.

Pricing

Kissflow’s Standard plan costs $690/month for up to 100 users. It includes onboarding and offboarding, performance management, time and attendance tracking, employee database, and integrations.

The Enterprise plan starts at $1,290/month if billed annually. The price is custom and will depend on the number of users. Enterprise further features applicant tracking, HR help desk, training management, collaboration, and 360° feedback.

Resource Guru

At a Glance

Used by the likes of NASA, Tommy Hilfiger, and Apple, Resource Guru transforms the way businesses schedule their resources. Its leave management system allows efficient management of PTO requests without hurting the workflow.

Pros

• Time off planner
• System customization
• Great reporting

Cons

• It could be more user friendly
• Limited in terms of functionality

Features

Resource Guru comes with a time-off planner where you can track vacation and sick leave in a separate calendar. The entire team’s workload is in one place, so you can stay in the know and book time off, resting assured that the workflow won’t be interrupted.

The absence management software has a separate holiday planner which gives you information about all upcoming public holidays. Resource Guru lets you record when employees take time off due to sickness or other reasons like maternity leave.

The system’s powerful reporting enables you to see a breakdown of all time off by employees so you can plan capacity, see which projects take the most time, and report on time. Reports can be filtered using the custom fields and you can download them as .csv files.

Pricing

You pay only for what you’re using. The Grasshopper plan of this leave management system comes packed with all features except reports and it costs $2.50/person/month. Blackbelt is the most popular plan which includes all features and reports for 4.16/user/month. The Master plan comes in at $6.65/user/month and adds data import and phone support to the mix of features.

GoCo

At a Glance

GoCo is a cloud-based HR software with a great leave management system. The software is built for small and medium-sized businesses to help them streamline HR processes like onboarding, benefits, payroll, and time off.

Pros

• Affordable
• Custom reporting and fields
• Free version
• Good support

Cons

• Limited integration
• Vacation tracking might lag

Features

GoCo has everything a team needs to track time and manage time off. This software allows you to create custom policies for team members working from home, vacation, and more.

With GoCo, holiday working hours can be also added to the timesheets so you can forget about entering this data manually. The leave tracking software automatically calculates overtime leaving no room for complications due to overtime regulations.

Additionally, each team member can request time off and have it appear on their timesheet. There is also an emergency paid sick leave in compliance with 2020 regulations.

GoCo has robust reporting too, letting you keep up with time spent working on a certain project or during a specific time span. Also, you will stay informed about the team’s leave balances.

Pricing

GoCo’s pricing is custom, starting at $5/employee/month.

Deputy

At a Glance

Deputy is a scheduling and time management tool that helps businesses increase productivity by seamlessly running day-to-day tasks. This solution further features a leave management system that offers one clear platform for managing time-off requests and balances.

Pros

• Friendly user interface
• Affordable
• Great support

Cons

• Lack of advanced HR functionalities
• English-only website & mobile apps

Features

Deputy allows you to customize the leave rights for the employees, from types of leave management, accrual rates, to balances. All calculations can be automated, saving you time and effort.

Everyone from the team can ask for time off directly from the app, which also lets them keep track of their leave balance and receive alerts when their leave balance runs low. Deputy provides a full view of booked time off to avoid clashing holidays. Employees leave managers also get an overview of leave types and balances, and booked time off, so they can quickly make the decision to approve/decline a request.

With Deputy, you’ll be creating error-free schedules because you’ll always know who is away and who is available. If a team member isn’t available you can find someone to cover for them with just one click. Plus, you get to automatically block time off requests for the dates that are important and you need all hands on deck.

Pricing

The Deputy leave management software has a flexible payment plan. You can make a custom package and only pay for the features you want. The scheduling and time & attendance modules each come at $2.50/user/month.

The Premium plan costs $4.50/user/month and covers scheduling, time & attendance, as well as reporting. Enterprise is a custom plan for larger and more complex businesses. Its price is available upon request.

Leave Dates

At a Glance

Leave Dates helps small and mid-sized businesses track time off and ensure their processes keep running when certain employees are not available. This leave management system is also one of the few on the market that can manage schedules coming in from different time zones.

Pros

• Management of schedules from different time zones
• Seamless integration with calendars
• Great collaboration capability
• High reporting modules

Cons

• It could be more intuitive
• More options with leave types could be beneficial
• No wall chart print option

Features

Leave Dates is an intuitive planner that helps you keep track of staff leave while reducing the administration involved. The calendars are available on laptop, tablet, and phone, enabling you to manage the staff leave anywhere and anytime.

The wall chart allows you to see who is available and who is on leave so you can plan ahead. Everyone in the team can view the annual leave booked and check their remaining balance. Though Leave Dates is all about transparency, users can opt to keep their leave private.

The leave management system can be easily customized — can configure leave types, approvals, departments, working schedules, and also decide whether the employees take leave in hours or days. You can modify the company’s guidelines and leave policies as you wish.

All reports about leaves can be found in the dashboard and exported into Excel. Additionally, you can set to receive daily reports in Slack. Leave Dates supports integration with over 1,000 apps through Zapier, and enables synchronization with Google and Outlook calendars or write custom integration using open APIs.

Pricing

Leave Dates offers a free plan forever for up to five users. The Monthly plan costs $1 per user while the Yearly plan costs $9 per user.

Vacation Tracker

At a Glance

Trusted by brands like Nike, H&M, Dell, and McDonalds, Vacation Tracker is a top management platform for vacation requests in Slack. Users can request a day off, plan their vacation, and easily add a reason if required. It works perfectly for startups and large enterprises alike, providing excellent features at a fraction of the cost.

Pros

• Built-in Slack integration
• Option to set a variety of leave types
• User-centric interface

Cons

• Lack of ability to block leave dates
• Could use more features

Vacation Tracker is an intuitive software that simplifies workflow management by helping you manage the team’s time off. Setting this software up is simple and it can be done within minutes. Vacation Tracker will pick up all the information from Slack and it will be updated as you make changes to your team. You can customize the leave policy and types ranging from Working Remotely to Sick Day and the team members can request different types of leave according to it. They can request multiple days, single days, or half-days. Moreover, the software allows you to set the working days depending on whether your employees work full-time or part-time.

Through the intuitive dashboard which enables you to manage requests and notifications, and has an overview of the team’s leave days. You can also create reports and export them as CSV files. You can also keep up with the organizational changes through the weekly summaries and reminders of pending requests. Vacation Tracker is an excellent choice for companies with multiple locations. It allows setting up different admins for each office and setup holidays globally or separately for each team.

Pricing

Vacation Tracker’s pricing is affordable, starting at $25 per month for up to five teams and 50 users. If the team has more than 50 people, the pricing is $1 per user, per month. You can easily calculate the exact price directly on Vacation Tracker’s website. They also offer custom plans for large teams of more than 250 people. To get a custom quote, you should contact them.

Choosing the Top Leave Management System for Your Organization

While our reviews have probably given you an idea which platform might be a decent option for you, the following tips will help you determine not just the good, but the best fit for your organization.

Filter Based on Business Size

The first thing you need to do is to weed out the products that don’t cater to your business size. If you’re a small team, there’s no need for you to pay for a more elaborate product. A large organization meanwhile needs more features and can benefit from a more robust leave management system.

Set a List of Features

Next, make sure to know what you’re looking for. While some platforms offer a broad set of features, others are more limited. Consider what you need and shortlist based on that.

Set a Budget

Think about the amount you’re ready to pay for employee leave management software. Think about the number of employees, types of leaves, reports, integrations, and number of administration users — all this will affect the final price. The leave management system that falls within your budget frame and checks the above-mentioned boxes, is the right one for you.