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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Compare HR software
- You want one tool to take all HR admin off your plate
- UK small businesses/ startups
- £4 per employee per month, cancel anytime
- You're based in the US
- 150+ team members
- Only available on quote request
- You need to calculate time off for hourly workers
- 100+ team members
- Only available on quote request
- You want to track clock-in and out hours
- Multinationals
- £1.5 per employee per month, billed annually
- You need to record actual hours worked
- Companies with legal requirements around minimum staff attendance
- Only available on quote request
- You only want a time off tool, not an HR software
- Small businesses
- £1 per user per month
- You need a tool to manage shifts and rotas
- Hospitality, healthcare and retail
- Only available on quote request
- You can only afford a free tool
- Up to 5 team members
- Free for up to 5 users
Top 8 leave management systems for small businesses
Best all-in-one HR software for UK startups
CharlieHR takes annual leave off your plate with a time-off management system that runs itself, no supervision required.
Included in the same plan, you also get a complete HR software to help you run your business smoothly and professionally. Get all your documents in one place, where you'll always find them and store your employee data securely.
Automate all your admin and save yourself hours on HR tasks, every week.
Employee leave management with Charlie
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Stop being the bottleneck: let line managers approve or deny time off requests with a single click.
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Say goodbye to complex calculations: Charlie automatically works out pro-rata annual leave for everyone in your team.
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No more micromanaging: holiday clashes are flagged during the approval process.
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Fewer pointless questions: let your team find all the answers on Charlie's annual leave calendar, updated automatically, public holidays included.
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Make it yours: pick from our standard leave types (sick, holiday, parental, etc) or create custom ones.
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Keep your finger on the pulse: easily pull annual leave and absence tracking reports.
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Clean, simple and intuitive UI: CharlieHR’s great user experience makes it the best solution for ambitious startups and small businesses.
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✅ No credit card needed
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Choose Charlie if:
Don’t choose Charlie if:
James Gill, CEO of 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"
James Gill, CEO of 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"
Reviews
Pricing
£4 per employee per month:
- Inclusive of all features
- Pay monthly, cancel anytime
- No added fees
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
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BambooHR sends instant time-off request notifications via email and mobile.
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US date formats and public holidays are already built in, so you don’t have to add them manually.
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The built-in company calendar helps you spot conflicts and holiday overlaps.
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Leave balance is updated automatically in your BambooHR dashboard.
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Annual leave reports help you spot anomalies in time off booking.
Choose BambooHR if:
Don’t choose BambooHR if:
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."
Reviews
Pricing
On quote, with different packages available.
Best for medium-sized companies with complex HR needs
Namely is an HR platform for mid-sized companies with 100 - 1000 employees. It 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.
Employee leave management with Namely
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Simple, online timesheets allow you to track shifts and attendance for hourly workers.
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You can centralise all holiday requests and approval workflows in one place.
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Access attendance management reports to keep track of effective hours worked.
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The systems supports US tax laws and date formats too.
Choose Namely if:
Don’t choose Namely if:
Melissa - US-based Employee Experience Manager - Capterra review
"Namely is a good system. It has helped us to make our candidate and employee experience easier and more efficient."
Reviews
Pricing
On 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
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Easily create and update your timesheets online using the templates.
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Log your team’s working hours in Zoho and the system will work out the rest.
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Run reports to track time spent on particular projects, so you can allocate resources where they’re most needed.
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Create a personalised approval process for line managers to approve working hours and time off, based on your preferences.
Choose Zoho if:
Don’t choose Zoho if:
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.”
Reviews
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
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Compatible with most work patterns: permanent, fixed-term, part-time, temporary workers, etc.
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Monitor real-time clock-in-and-out attendance and hours worked on the dashboard.
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Kelio integrates with any clocking hardware, so you don’t have to manually copy information and data.
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Works out and tracks break time and absences.
Choose Zoho if:
Don’t choose Zoho if:
Mileage Count - Support Assistant - Capterra review
“If you have forgotten to clock in on a morning you can do this manually on Kelio.”
Reviews
Pricing
On quote.
Best for holiday management, with nothing else included
Timetastic offers essential time-tracking functionalities to manage employees’ annual leave at small businesses.
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
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Use Timetastic’s company calendar to get an overview of time off across the team.
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Easy annual leave request system to streamline your processes and calculate holiday accrual.
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Automated email updates to keep you in the loop.
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Choose what leave types to have according to your time off policy.
Choose Zoho if:
Don’t choose Zoho if:
Seamus - IT Manager - Capterra review
“Timetastic is easy for employees to use to request holidays and track leave days remaining, days in lieu, etc.”
Reviews
Pricing
£1/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
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One dashboard to create and manage all your rotas.
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Optimised for tablet and mobile, so your team can use it on the go.
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Self-service annual leave management and absence tracking.
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Shift swaps managed through the system.
Choose Zoho if:
Don’t choose Zoho if:
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.”
Reviews
Pricing
On quote.
Best for <5-people teams
Leave Dates is a simple and effective planner to manage staff holiday and sick days. It is a good option for small teams looking for a free tool (Leave Dates is free for companies under 5 employees).
Employee leave management with Leave Dates
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User-friendly chart to check your staff’s availability.
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Automatic annual leave allowance calculations.
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Create the leave types you need or pick from the existing options.
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Available on laptop, phone and tablet.
Choose Zoho if:
Don’t choose Zoho if:
Ana - People Generalist - Capterra review
“I think it is great for smaller companies but we are growing and our needs are higher and more complex at the moment.”
Reviews
Pricing
Free for companies with up to 5 employees.
£0.80/user/month for larger teams.
Leave management systems FAQs
A leave management system is a digital HR solution that helps companies manage their team’s time off (holidays, sick leave, parental leave, etc).
There are many different names to indicate this type of tool, including leave management software, annual leave software, annual leave tracker and employee time off tracker software. They’re all the same thing!
Most companies now choose to get HR software (also called HRIS) which combines time-off management with other essential features like onboarding, performance reviews and employee data storage. This is a very convenient option as it allows you to have all your HR workflows in one place and at a lower cost than if you used different tools for each of your Human Resources tasks.
Most leave management software providers will help you with this set of features:
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Self-service annual leave management: With employee self-service, direct reports and their line managers can respectively submit and approve leave requests via the platform.
- Automatic annual leave calculations: the system calculates PTO (paid time off) allowance for each team member, keeping track of past and future leave.
- Types of leave: most leave management software will allow you to create different types of time off (sick days, holiday, jury duty, etc.) and decide which ones are deductible from people’s allowance based on your company policy.
- Team calendar: the time off data is synched into a calendar that people can use to get an overview of who’s off on any given day.
On top of these essential features, some HRMS software like CharlieHR also offer:
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Real-time slack notifications to keep your team in the loop
- Alerts when multiple people are requesting the same period off
- Customisable working locations to flag who is working from the office and who from home
- Reports to check if anyone in the team is not taking enough time off and may need a break
- Ability to set an automatic carry over leave limit
It’s surprising how many small businesses still use Excel spreadsheets and manual HR processes to manage time off. But the benefits of switching to a leave management system are clear:
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You’re not a bottleneck for all time-off admin anymore: With leave management software, your employees can manage their time off independently, without needing to pass through you.
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Human error is out of the question: 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.
- All your time-off information is 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.
Leave management systems FAQs
We hope this guide was useful to choose the right time tracking software for your business.
Keen on more content about time off? Head to our 'What is annual leave guide' or learn more about how to automate time off management.
Automate time off management at your small business with CharlieHR
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