The 8 best leave management systems for small businesses
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When you work in a small business, time is your most precious resource. However, managing your team’s annual leave is so time consuming that you can fail to focus on the most important thing: growing your business.
That’s why so many small companies today use a leave management software — so that they can drastically cut the time they spend on repetitive manual tasks.
If you're also looking for a way to automate your time off processes, you're in the right place.
We spent the last few months testing and researching dozens of time-off tools — comparing their features, pros and cons, pricing and customer reviews. The result? A shortlist of the 8 best leave management software for small businesses.
(Guess what? We're one of them 😇. You can click here below to take
Charlie out for a spin — your first 7 days are free).
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Top 8 leave management systems for small businesses
Best leave management for UK teams between 1 and 50 team members
CharlieHR takes annual leave off your plate with a time-off management system that runs itself, no supervision required.
If you’re a small business leader, operations manager, or someone handling HR tasks without the job title, Charlie is the leave management system you need (and don’t be shy if your team has less than 30 members, we’ll be the perfect fit).
Charlie not only offers a holiday management system but also provides HR software to run all your HR tasks in one place. This helps you stay fully compliant, on top of admin and frees up more time to focus on more impactful work.
Employee leave management with Charlie
Get your team to self-serve: team members request time off on the platform and get the information they need from the team calendar.
Approve or deny requests in one click: no need to make time to review queries during the day, approve or deny straight away and carry on with your tasks.
Flag holiday clashes: time off overlaps are highlighted during the holiday review process.
Automate your pro-rata calculations for part-timers and carry over leave: Charlie works out pro-rata annual leave and resets allowances when requests are approved, cancelled, amended or denied.
Customised leave types: with holidays, sick leave, maternity, get all the leave types you need and create your own.
Have teams based in different countries: group your teams into different offices and add bank holidays and holiday policies depending on where they’re based.
Report on time off: visualise time off data in helpful dashboards or download a report
Use a simple and intuitive UI: set it up in no time, no training needed for your team.
👍
You need a flexible platform to take care of your time off processes
❌
Your team works in shifts and you need to build rotations
👍
You operate with several offices and with different holiday policies
❌
You need a mobile app to take care of time off on the go
👍
You want an easy leave management system that is also an HR software to have everything in one place
❌
You need more complex reporting features
James Gill, GoSquared
"With Charlie, I know I've got one place to check who's going to be away, when and for how long. It has a real impact on the work we commit to as a company week by week"
Pricing
1-4 team members
£5 per month
5-14 team members
£40 per month
15-29 team members
£100 per month
30-49 team members
£170 per month
50-99 team members
£300 per month
100-149 team members
£400 per month
150-199 team members
£500 per month
200-249 team members
£600 per month
250+ team members
£700 per month
Inclusive of all features
Pay monthly, cancel anytime
No hidden fees or setup costs
Best for US-based teams
BambooHR is an HR platform for companies with 150+ employees, offering a range of key features on top of leave management (onboarding, performance management, payroll, etc). They also have a mobile app (iOS and Android) to manage HR tasks on the go.
Most of its features are specifically designed for US companies, making it the best choice for businesses that have a significant presence in the States.
Employee leave management with BambooHR
BambooHR sends instant time-off request notifications via email and mobile.
US date formats and public holidays are already built in, so you don’t have to add them manually.
The built-in company calendar helps you spot conflicts and holiday overlaps.
Leave balance is updated automatically in your BambooHR dashboard.
Annual leave reports help you spot anomalies in time off booking.
Use Bamboo’s employee time tracking software to keep an eye on time and attendance.
👍
You are based in the US and most of your team is
❌
You’re based in the UK
👍
You want a support team that’s available on US time and within the continent
❌
You need the support team to be on hand a lot
Anna - US-based CFO - Capterra review
"Overall we have really benefited from Bamboo. I think the next big thing for Bamboo would be to offer a scheduling tool within the software."
Pricing
Contact their sales team for a quote.
Best to combine with payroll
Namely offers everything a company needs to run its HR across the employee life cycle. From payroll, to benefits administration and HR analytics.
Its leave management system is a bit old-fashioned, but it compensates with the breadth of its other features, especially if you’re looking to integrate it with your payroll.
Employee leave management with Namely
Online payroll system integrated with benefits and time off
Employee self-service for time off and payroll
Includes meal break rules, web punch and physical and biometric time clocks
Simple, online timesheets allow you to track shifts and attendance for hourly workers
You can centralise all holiday requests and approval workflows in one place
Access attendance management reports to keep track of effective hours worked
The systems supports US tax laws and date formats too
👍
You want to combine time off management with payroll
❌
You already have a payroll management system that you want to integrate with your time off management system
👍
You need timesheets for your employees to track hours
❌
You only have employees that do the same amount of hours or you just need part time
Melissa D. – G2 review
“Having time off separate from HRIS was a slight learning curve however employees can easily use the system and it provides much more visibility into hour details and reporting so overall, we are happy with this!”
Pricing
Contact their sales team for a quote.
Best for hourly contracts
Zoho is ideal for companies whose team members work irregular hours, shifts or part-time. Its leave management system allows you to process attendance tracking and hours worked, so you can easily manage payroll too. It also works as an absence management software.
Employee leave management with Zoho
Easily create and update your timesheets online using the templates.
Log your team’s working hours in Zoho and the system will work out the rest.
Run reports to track time spent on particular projects, so you can allocate resources where they’re most needed.
Create a personalised approval process for line managers to approve working hours and time off, based on your preferences.
👍
You have a company that operates with timesheets as it will be the most efficient system
❌
You don’t need timesheets and don’t have hourly workers
👍
You want to combine all of your HR, sales, marketing, etc suite with your time off management software
❌
You only need one software to handle all your time off, and eventually extras for HR
Ana - Spain-based Security Architecture Leader - Capterra review
“The system makes it easy to see how many vacation days each team member has left. It also shows which team members are out because of sickness.”
Pricing
£1.5 per employee per month, billed annually.
Best for attendance management
Kelio is an employee absence management tool designed for companies that need to track their team’s work attendance (such as warehouses, for example).
The system ensures that the legal attendance requirements are always met to guarantee the security and compliance of your workplace.
Employee leave management with Kelio
Compatible with most work patterns: permanent, fixed-term, part-time, temporary workers, etc.
Monitor real-time clock-in-and-out attendance and hours worked on the dashboard.
Kelio integrates with any clocking hardware, so you don’t have to manually copy information and data.
Works out and tracks break time and absences.
Ensures you have all the legal requirements you need when it comes to staff attendance.
👍
You have many different working patterns
❌
You just have one or two working patterns
👍
You need the legal requirements for security, compliance and hours for warehouse workers
❌
You’re a startup or small business with no warehouse workers of fulfilment team
Anonymous user – Capterra
“This software is great, it allows you to track your attendance and holidays, not just for you but for your whole team/ business should you need to.”
Pricing
Contact their sales team for a quote.
Best for very basic time off management
Timetastic offers essential time-tracking functionalities to manage employees’ annual leave.
Its features only cover annual leave management, so you will need additional tools to look after other aspects of HR.
Employee leave management with Timetastic
Use Timetastic’s company calendar to get an overview of time off across the team.
Easy annual leave request system to streamline your processes and calculate holiday accrual.
Automated email updates to keep you in the loop.
Choose what leave types to have according to your time off policy.
👍
You want a software that does the very minimum for time off management
❌
You’re planning on growing and scaling
👍
You don’t want to automate the rest of your HR yet
❌
You want to do all of your HR in one place for peace of mind
Seamus - IT Manager - Capterra review
“Timetastic is easy for employees to use to request holidays and track leave days remaining, days in lieu, etc.”
Pricing
£1.20/user/month. They also offer a 50% discount for charities and Certified B corporations.
Best for employee scheduling
Rotageek is a workforce management platform mainly used in retail, healthcare and hospitality to plan and track shifts.
Its cloud-based functionalities allow you to manage staff work patterns and time off easily and in real time.
Employee leave management with Rotageek
One dashboard to create and manage all your rotas.
Optimised for tablet and mobile, so your team can use it on the go.
Self-service annual leave management and absence tracking.
Shift swaps managed through the system.
👍
Your business operations in the hospitality sector and you need to plan and track shifts
❌
You are an office or a factory for which it wouldn’t be suitable
👍
You need a very flexible tool available on mobile
❌
You have no need for a mobile app
Gary - UK-based Area Manager - Capterra review
“I like the fact that I can see multi-site rotas, making it easier to plan my weeks so that I can visit stores when the right people are working.”
Pricing
Contact their sales team for a quote.
Best for Slack integration
LeaveBoard is a pretty simple tool that people can use to automate their time off management, regardless of the size of their company.
Employees can add their time off request into the software, but the best feature people can use when using LeaveBoard is their Slack integrations which allows businesses to create a channel for all the requests to come through.
Employee leave software with LeaveBoard
Integrated with Slack, Outlook and Google calendar
Automatic email notifications when a request is put through
Access to roles and permissions
Reports in XLS format for payroll
Access to a company-wide calendar to visualise time off
👍
You need a very basic tool to handle your time off
❌
You want an easy to use and intuitive UI that your employees will like
👍
You don’t need to integrate with your payroll or other software
❌
You need a lot of integrations
Maryam A.
“It's very easy to use, usability in approving and requesting leaves, have an overview of the team leave balance in a calendar view.”
Pricing
Can be used for free for a maximum of 9 employees and then $1.35 per employee per month for unlimited usage.
Leave management systems FAQs
A leave management system is a cloud-based tool that helps companies manage their team’s time off (holidays, sick leave, parental leave, etc).
It often goes by a lot of different names such as annual leave software, staff holiday planner, annual leave tracker and holiday management system – remember that they’re all the same thing!
Most companies now choose to get HR software (also called HRIS) instead, as it includes a time off management system as well as other essential features needed by a small business: onboarding, employee data, historical records, performance reviews, etc. Getting HR software is usually cheaper and easier as you’ll host all of your HR processes under one roof.
The benefits of having a leave management system for your small business are quote clear:
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You’re not a bottleneck for all the leave admin anymore: with leave management software, your employees can manage their time off independently.
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You remove the risk of human error: complex and time-consuming holiday calculations happen automatically in the background, including holiday rollover, new starter leave allowance and pro-rated holiday for part-time workers. – no need to use an annual leave outlook calendar or an Excel leave tracker.
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You get all your time off data in one place: all the important data is accessible in one click on your platform, whether you are an employee, line manager, the CEO or work in the HR team (and you can control permissions to make sure not everyone sees it).
Choosing your leave management system should be easy and not take you hours of research – which is why you can use this guide to help you make your decision.
But before you do, make sure you have:
- A list of the features you absolutely need for your team (for example, and if you have offices spread across Europe, can you apply different holiday policies to each?)
- Your price range
- Anything else you might need to optimise in your HR processes on top of your time off management process
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