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, so you need to keep track of it. But that’s not a quick and easy task if you do it manually, and it takes you away from your highest value role — growing the business.
That’s why so many small companies today use leave management software. Instead of manually updating spreadsheets and calculating leave entitlements, you can set everything up and let the system essentially run itself.
There are endless options when it comes to leave management systems though, and not all of them are right for a small business. We’ve spent the last few months testing and researching dozens of tools to bring you this shortlist of the best leave management software systems for small businesses.
How we came up with this shortlist
We know you don’t have the time to sit around reading sales pages, comparing reviews, and figuring out which software has the right combination of features for you. That’s why we’ve done the hard work for you.As part of our research process, we’ve:
- Thoroughly researched a wide range of cloud-based leave management software tools
- Compared software solutions on criteria like pricing, customer reviews, features, and ease of use
- Spoken to Charlie customers who have switched from other systems, including some of those on this list
- Asked our sales and product teams for their expert insights
Our research, combined with our industry experience, allows us to bring you this expert-backed shortlist of the best leave management systems for small businesses.
What to look for in a leave management system
Finding the right leave management software for your small business depends on what your goals and needs are. As you read through our shortlist, here are some areas to consider:
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The right features: Does the app have the leave management features you need? Are the other features useful, distracting, or unnecessary?
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Built for your needs: Is the software designed for small businesses?
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Easy to use: Is the leave management system easy to use? How is the user experience?
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Automation: Does the software use automation or AI in a smart way?
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Integrations: Can you seamlessly integrate with other HR, payroll, and business software you already use?
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Affordable: Is the tool within your budget? Is the pricing easily available?
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Excellent customer support: Is the customer service highly rated?
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Highly rated: What do real users think of the software? Does it score highly in user reviews?
Positive reviews and a helpful customer support team are a must-have for most small businesses, but there might be other areas which are essential to you or that you’re happy to settle on — like automation, budget, or integrations. Decide what’s most valuable to you so you can find the best match for your needs.
Top 8 leave management systems for small businesses
Best leave management for UK teams between 1 and 50 team members
Charlie takes leave and absence management off your plate with a system that runs itself with no supervision required — ideal for busy founders and CEOs.
If HR isn’t your main role and you’d like to return to doing more of what you do best, Charlie is the HR software for you.
Charlie makes it easy to manage time off with an easy approvals process and a clear way to see who is working and who isn’t. Get the full picture at a glance, then explore the details in the data.
Charlie isn’t just holiday management software, but an all-in-one HR platform for small businesses. Onboard new hires, manage time off, and engage your team with performance reviews, surveys, and perks — all in one place.
Employee leave management with Charlie
Simple to set up: Charlie has a quick and easy DIY setup process, with no need to engage a sales team or sit through a demo
Easy to use: enjoy a simple, user-friendly UI that’s designed with user experience in mind
No training required: onboard your team in moments, with no need to read a lengthy handbook or take part in training sessions
Self service: team members request time off on the platform and get the information they need from the team calendar
Saves time: automate time-consuming HR tasks to free up time to do your most valuable work
Approve or deny requests in one click: streamline approval workflows and spend less time managing days off
Automate pro-rata calculations and carry over leave: Charlie works out pro-rata annual leave and resets allowances when requests are approved, cancelled, amended or denied
Set custom leave types: with holidays, sick leave, maternity, get all the types of leave you need and create your own
Tailor leave and holidays to the country: group your team members by office location and add public holidays and custom holiday policies that reflect their entitlements
Report on time off: use data to identify trends and understand what’s happening with useful dashboards and reports
Stay compliant: Charlie’s features and processes make it easier for you to stay fully compliant with UK HR legislation
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You need a flexible platform to take care of your time off processes
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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
Starting at just £5 per month for teams of up to 4 members
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 medium-to-large companies with a wide range of features, including leave management. The software allows you to track time off, identify hours worked, and manage time-off requests. For teams on the go, you can use BambooHR’s mobile app to view and manage leave wherever you are.
Most of its features are specifically designed for US companies — including the payroll integration — making it the best choice for businesses with a significant presence in the States.
Employee leave management with BambooHR
Get instant time-off request notifications via email and mobile
Automatically use US date formats and public holidays
Spot conflicts and overlap with the built-in company calendar
Identify anomalies and trends with annual leave reports
Keep an eye on time and attendance with built-in time tracking software
👍
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
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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
Available on request
Best for managing remote teams
Calamari is an absence management software tool for teams of any size that offers core HR and time management features. The system claims to help you replace spreadsheets and emails with a central place to track time and manage leave.
With multi-lingual support and the ability to set custom time-off policies, Calamari presents as a useful contender for small businesses with team members distributed around the world.
Employee leave management with Calamari
See what’s happening with a shared time off calendar
Create custom or flexible time-off policies and workflows
Choose between manual or automatic leave approvals
Enable time and attendance tracking through 7 different tracking methods
Offer Calamari in multiple languages with native time zone support for team calendars
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You have a worldwide team
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Most (or all) of your team works from the UK
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You only need leave management features
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You want access to a full range of HR management features including onboarding, performance management, and surveys
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You want a managed onboarding experience
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You want instant access
Verified User - G2 Review
“Having an easy to use online platform, with fair per user pricing plans that is available to all our employees cross border was crucial. Our teams use it daily, we rely on its data to issue our service invoices. We track entitlements, vacation trends and much more.”
Pricing
Time off, time & attendance, and core HR are all billed separately. Starting at $2 per employee per month (per module), with a $20-25 minimum monthly commitment
Best for hourly contracts
Zoho gives larger companies and human resources teams access to core HR, employee engagement and development, and time & attendance. The attendance management software includes check-ins, time tracking, absence scheduling, and data collection for payroll calculations.
One of the platform’s core features is shift scheduling, making it ideal for companies with team members that work on shifts or irregular patterns. Team leaders can easily create shifts, assign team members, and track breaks and allowances.
Employee leave management with Zoho
Use a range of options to allow in-person and remote employees to check in
Easily convert absences into different leave types
Create reports using leave and time off data
Create and manage shifts
Get real-time notifications about shift changes
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You have a company that operates with timesheets as it will be the most efficient system
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You don’t need timesheets and don’t have hourly workers
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You want to combine all of your HR, sales, marketing, etc suite with your time off management software
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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
Starting at £1 per user per month for the Essential HR plan. To unlock leave management features, upgrade to the Professional plan starting at £2 per user per month
Best for attendance management
Kelio is an employee absence management tool designed for companies that need to track their team’s work attendance in physical locations like warehouses and project sites. The platform combines time and attendance management with staff administration, with the ability to link seamlessly with physical security hardware like access readers and barriers.
With a focus on security and physical access, Kelio is a good choice of leave management solution for companies that have a high level of compliance requirements to meet.
Employee leave management with Kelio
Manage a range of schedule types including weekly, variable, and annualised hours
Track estimated and completed working time in real time
Enable self-service time-off requests
Manage time and attendance across multiple companies within one or multiple sites
Ensure regulatory conformity and manage risks
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You have many different working patterns
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You just have one or two working patterns
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You need the legal requirements for security, compliance and hours for warehouse workers
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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
Available on request
Best for highly visual time-off management
Timetastic is a UK-based HR software company that specialises in time-off management. Teams can use the platform to oversee absences and leave on a centralised holiday tracker, giving greater clarity to everyone.
At the heart of Timetastic is the clean and colourful holiday tracker. It’s a useful tool to add to your shortlist if you want a visual way to plan and manage time off and nothing else.
Employee leave management with Timetastic
Get an overview of time off and planned leave for the whole team or company with the holiday tracker
Save time with self-service holiday requests and approvals
Give employees a greater insight into their leave entitlement and remaining days off
Enable your own custom leave types
Highlight clashes before managers approve leave requests
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You want a software that does the very minimum for time off management
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You’re planning on growing and scaling
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You don’t want to automate the rest of your HR yet
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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
Starting at £1.20 per user per month for the Timetastic plan. Timetastic Pro offers extra functionality, including advanced reports
Best for employee scheduling
Rotageek is a workforce management platform and rota management software. The software combines scheduling with forecasting, to make it easier for team leaders to identify what resources they’ll need and when.
The platform offers rota scheduling, shift planning, leave management, clocking in and out, and timesheet tracking, and is designed for large businesses in industries like retail, hospitality, and healthcare.
Employee leave management with Rotageek
Create and manage all rotas from one simple dashboard
Add custom leave types and allowances
Set rules for minimum staffing and highlight potential clashes
See who is working in real-time
Quickly find replacements to cover or swap shifts from within the app
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Your business operates in the hospitality or retail sector and you need to plan and track shifts
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You have no need to create or manage rotas
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
Available on request
Best for integrating with Slack or Microsoft Teams
Vacation Tracker is an app designed to make tracking paid time off (PTO) easier. The platform includes core leave management, leave tracking and accruals, time off in lieu calculations, and advanced leave policies.
One of the main reasons to choose Vacation Tracker is that it integrates with communication apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack seamlessly. This allows busy HR teams and founders to manage leave approvals in one click.
Employee leave software with Vacation Tracker
Allow employees to submit time off requests and see their remaining leave balance
Track the progress of existing leave requests until they are approved or declined
Customise time-off management to meet your country’s legal requirements
Identify and report on time-off trends
Coordinate leave seamlessly with calendar integrations
👍
You want flexibility to manage advanced leave settings like accruals and TOIL
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Your leave policies and types of absence are relatively simple and standardised
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You’re looking for a tool that only offers absence management
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You need a wider range of core HR and employee engagement features
David M. - Chief Revenue Officer - G2 review
“The Slack integration is so clean, and none of our employees ever have any trouble requesting time off. Everything is very intuitive, which we found difficult to find in this space before finding Vacation Tracker”
Pricing
Starting at $1 per user per month, with a minimum commitment of $25 per month. Upgrade to the Complete plan at $3 per user per month to unlock features like hourly leave tracking, TOIL, and shared calendar integrations
The best leave management software for small businesses
We’ve researched and tested various absence management tools that say they’re suitable for small businesses, but the reality is that they’re often better suited to big companies with dedicated HR teams. For your small business, we highly recommend choosing software that was designed with your needs in mind — like Charlie.
As a fellow small business, we know exactly what’s important to you and what’s not. Charlie has all the leave management features you need, and none of the ones you don’t. Simplify time-off management, get an overview of who’s working, and streamline your approvals process in one place.
And Charlie doesn’t just offer you a way to manage time-off and leave. It’s also an all-in-one
HR software platform for small business, with bonus features like onboarding, performance management, and employee engagement. There’s also the typical core HR features like a centralised employee database and document management too.
Charlie has everything that a modern small business needs to manage not just time off but HR operations in general. Take a free trial of Charlie today to explore the system for yourself.
Leave management systems FAQs
A leave management system is software that makes it easier for team leaders or founders to manage employees’ time off including holidays, sick leave, and parental leave. It might also include features like time tracking, timesheets, or clocking in and out.
Leave management systems may also be described as annual leave software, staff holiday planners, or holiday management systems. They’re typically all very similar, although some software has a particular focus — for example leave management for distributed teams, or rota scheduling for the hospitality industry.
While you can choose a standalone leave management system, many companies choose to invest in a HR information system (HRIS) software (like Charlie!) instead. This brings all your HR operations and functionality under one platform, making it easier to use — especially for busy founders.
Leave management software enables employees and managers to navigate the time off approvals and recording process. An employee requests time off, this is approved or denied, and the change is then updated on the system. Managers can also record unexpected time off, like sickness, and manage other aspects of employee time and scheduling.
Introducing a leave management system has clear benefits over a traditional manual process. This includes:
- Removing bottlenecks by simplifying or automating time off requests and approvals
- Reducing human error by allowing automation to take care of the essentials
- Identifying clashes and reducing the impact on remaining team members
- Moving all your time-off data to one place instead of across spreadsheets and emails
It might seem like you can get away with manually recording time off, but it’ll reach a point where it simply takes up too much of your valuable time. Invest in HR software that simplifies the process early on means you benefit even more from the time you get back.
It’s a big decision, but finding the right software can be made easier by following this process:
- Decide what’s most important to you
- Write down all the features you need and any that you don’t need
- Consider your budget
- Read user reviews
The best way to choose the right leave management system for your small business is to use this guide. We’ve carefully researched every app on this list to bring you a comprehensive guide to the best leave management software for small businesses.
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