10 Best Leave Management Software for Your Consideration
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Are you still juggling PTO requests and balancing spreadsheets to track your team’s leave? Constantly handling inquiries about vacation days, sick leave, or time-off balances? Or perhaps you’re concerned that your employees might be burning out because they’re unsure how or when to take time off?
Leave management software is here to transform those headaches into seamless workflows. With these solutions, both HR teams and employees gain control over paid time off through clear visibility, smooth tracking, and total transparency. No more confusing email threads or manual data entry—just an intuitive system that keeps everything organized.
Ready to say goodbye to spreadsheets? In this guide, we’ll explore the ten best leave management software options, highlighting the unique features and pricing of each to help you find the perfect fit for your company. Let’s get started!
What is a Leave Management System?
A leave management system is software that automates the process of tracking and managing employee time off, including vacation and sick days, and other forms of paid or unpaid leave. It helps businesses streamline leave requests, calculate PTO balances, and ensure compliance with company policies, providing full visibility to both HR and employees. This system reduces manual errors and improves overall efficiency by centralizing leave data and making the process more transparent and easier to manage.
10 Best Leave Management Software
1. Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker is the best leave management system to simplify and automate PTO tracking. This intuitive platform is meant to feel easy but designed to tackle complex PTO management needs, including accruals, accrual caps, rollovers, and more. By integrating into the tools your team already uses, onboarding is quick and effortless—your teams don’t even need an account!
“The implementation of Vacation Tracker was super easy. It is very versatile and various leave types can be customized at a fairly granular level. For the most part, simply using the Help Desk articles answered most questions I had - but the Support Team are amazing at responding and following up on any questions. Implementing Vacation Tracker was easy, at the app is very intuitive for new users. As we have integrated with Teams, sending and approving leave requests couldn’t be easier!” - Capterra Review, 2024
Best For: Companies of all sizes looking for a robust yet user-friendly PTO solution.
Key Leave Management Features:
Dashboard overview: Track requests, approvals, and time-off balances in real time.
Mobile accessibility: A mobile-friendly platform enables employees to monitor and manage PTO on the go.
Real-time reporting: Make informed decisions and maintain accurate records with insightful and exportable reports.
Scheduled notifications: Stay in the know about upcoming time off with daily or weekly notifications.
Seamless Integrations: Manage PTO without leaving your platform of choice with effortless integrations in Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Workspace, and Email.
Flexible policies: Customize your PTO policies to your heart’s content with accruals, role or seniority-based entitlements, and more!
Blackout periods: Restrict employees or specific teams from taking PTO during busy periods by automating rejections.
Easy PTO tracking, right at your fingertips.
Automate leave policies, improve visibility and plan better
No credit card required. Instant set-up.
Pricing:
Core plan: Starts at $25/month for up to 25 users and an additional $1 per user/per month for every additional user.
Complete plan: Starts at $75/month for up to 25 users and an additional $3 per user/per month for every additional user.
Add-ons: $0.50 per user per automation.
2. BambooHR
This comprehensive HR and benefits platform improves workflows and efficiently manages employee data. From onboarding new hires to managing PTO, BambooHR centralizes all the tools your HR department needs, including benefits administration and performance tracking, in one place.
“Easy to use for my employees. Smart phone compatibility is perfect. PTO requests are quick and manager approval helps.” - Capterra Review, 2024
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an all-in-one HR solution.
Key Leave Management Features:
“Who’s Out” calendar: Provides a clear overview of which employees are on leave at any given time.
User-friendly mobile app: Teams request, approve, and manage PTO anytime, from anywhere.
PTO forecasting calculator: Help employees visualize how much PTO they will have at any moment, improving planning and transparency.
Pricing: Contact for pricing.
3. Zoho People
Zoho People is an HR platform that enables teams to manage global workforce data and centralize processes. It offers tools for tracking employee attendance, shift scheduling, and job progress, all while delivering actionable insights through detailed reports. The software seamlessly integrates with other Zoho tools, making it a great choice for companies already in the Zoho ecosystem.
“The best thing is that we can track employee records from onboarding to exit. It is easy to use and allows me to access employee’s personal information whenever needed.” - Capterra Review, 2022
Best For: Companies already using Zoho solutions, seeking a customizable HR system.
Key Leave Management Features:
Automatic PTO balances: Tracks different types of leave, such as sick days and vacations, while complying with local laws.
Timesheet management: Track employee hours for accurate PTO accruals.
Zoho app integration: Integrates with other Zoho applications for a seamless experience across your HR, sales, and marketing teams.
Pricing: Free for up to 5 users, paid plans start at $1.25/month/user.
4. Gusto
This payroll-centric HR software helps businesses organize benefits, compliance, and leave management. Gusto offers automated tools to simplify tracking employee work hours and time off. By integrating with time-tracking software, Gusto ensures compliance with labor laws and company policies.
“Gusto is so easy! My business uses Gusto and managing payroll and benefits is so simple” - Capterra Review, 2024
Best For: Small businesses or startups looking for a payroll and leave management solution.
Key Leave Management Features:
Automatic sync with payroll: PTO information automatically syncs with payroll, ensuring accurate compensation and balances.
Mobile app for quick leave requests: Employees can request and approve leave easily on their phones, no matter where they are.
Time tracking integration: Accurate tracking of working hours ensures precise records of employee PTO balances.
Pricing: Starts at $40/month plus $6 per user.
5. Spock
Spock is a leave management system designed for teams that want basic PTO tracking without the complexity of a full HR suite. It integrates seamlessly into Slack, which means your team can handle leave requests and approvals without needing to leave their chat interface.
“It was really easy to setup and use. It does exactly what we needed - to track leaves, keep the team informed and managers happy.” - Capterra Review, 2020
Best For: Small teams who use Slack and need a simple PTO tracking solution.
Key Leave Management Features:
PTO Calendar: Keep track of who’s on leave in real time.
Attendance tracking dashboard: Track employee attendance and leave at a glance, all within a simple, intuitive dashboard
Leave notifications: Get notified instantly when requests or approvals are made, ensuring smooth communication within the team.
Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans start at $19.90/month + $1 per user.
6. KissflowHR Cloud
KissflowHR Cloud is a comprehensive HR platform with robust leave management capabilities. This software features powerful workflow automation capabilities, making it a versatile tool for businesses that want to streamline not only PTO tracking but also broader HR processes.
“Kissflow help us to digitalize the decision making and testing process in our company. The software has transformed our working way and as well as saved us lots of paperwork.” - Capterra Review, 2019
Best For: Businesses of all sizes seeking a comprehensive HR solution with integrated leave management.
Key Leave Management Features:
PTO dashboard: Enjoy a real-time overview of your company’s PTO with a visual calendar.
Interactive reports: Gain valuable insights through reporting and analytics, enabling data-driven decisions about workforce planning, resource optimization, and time-off allocation.
Easy Compliance: Customize leave policies as needed to meet your company’s needs and country’s regulations.
Pricing: Free for up to 25 employees.
7. Deputy
Deputy is a good choice for companies with shift-based workers, offering a scheduling platform with built-in leave management features. It helps managers handle leave requests while covering staffing gaps and ensuring labor law compliance. Deputy also simplifies accurate timesheet recording, helping businesses avoid costly payroll errors.
“Other scheduling tools I’ve tried were either impractical or too difficult to learn and utilize. Deputy is the best scheduling software I have used, and I have tried a few. It’s easy to get the hang of, navigate, and succeed in.” - Capterra Review, 2023
Best For: Companies with shift-based workers needing a scheduling and time-tracking tool.
Key Leave Management Features:
Customizable leave policies: Set up custom leave policies for different teams and automate the accrual calculations.
Shift scheduling integration: Coordinate leave requests with shift schedules to prevent staffing gaps.
Real-time attendance tracking: Monitor attendance in real-time, allowing you to find replacements quickly within the system rather than making a series of calls.
Pricing: Starts at $4.50 per user/month.
8. Paycom
Paycom delivers a comprehensive HR and payroll platform with a strong emphasis on automation. It streamlines HR processes and empowers employees to manage their own information through a self-service app. Through its cloud-based platform, Paycom enhances convenience and allows HR teams to analyze key metrics like headcount, turnover, and overtime.
“Paycom is the one-stop shop for HRIS systems. From posting job opportunities, tracking applicants through the interview process, onboarding, and the entire employee life cycle, Paycom has it all.” - Capterra Review, 2018
Best For: Mid-sized companies looking to automate most HR and payroll processes.
Key Leave Management Features:
Automated decision-making: Set up customized leave policies and let the system handle decision-making based on predefined criteria.
Seamless payroll integration: Leave accruals and requests are automatically synced with payroll for accurate and timely payments.
Mobile application: Employees can view leave balances, request PTO, and sync approved PTO with their device calendars for real-time updates.
Pricing: Contact for pricing.
9. Rippling
This flexible HR solution offers broad capabilities, including Finance, IT Management, and Global HR. It’s ideal for companies that want to centralize and automate the management of an entire employee lifecycle into one system.
“Across HR, IT, and FP&A, Rippling provides a unified platform for efficient administration. It’s a fantastic resource for bringing together disparate areas of an organization’s operations, such as payroll, costs, benefits, and IT hardware” - Capterra Review, 2023
Best For: Large or fast-growing companies that want robust and feature-rich HRIS.
Key Features:
Attendance enforcement tools: Geolocation restrictions and selfie clock-ins prevent time fraud, validating employees’ hours and, consequentially, accruals.
Custom workflows: Set up workflows that send notifications for upcoming PTO, automatically block off time in calendars when PTO is approved and enforce work-life balance policies by ensuring employees take enough time off.
Flexible leave policies: Create leave policies that scale with your organization’s growth, ensuring that you’re always aligned with your team’s needs.
Pricing: Starts at $8 per user/month.
10. BreatheHR
A simple HR platform tailored for small businesses with easy-to-use leave management features. In addition to PTO tracking, HR executives enjoy features like secure document storage, sickness and absence tracking, and performance management.
“Great - have used a few online HR systems in SaaS businesses with teams deployed both at home and in office; this is great for managing all we need to, easily and quickly” - Capterra Review, 2022
Best For: Small businesses with limited HR needs, looking for a budget-friendly, simple solution.
Key Leave Management Features:
Departmental leave limits: Set limits on how many employees can take time off in the same department, and automatically approve requests up to the limit.
Mobile app: Employees can manage leave requests and approvals via the mobile app, making the process accessible and easy.
User-friendly interface: The platform offers a simple, intuitive interface that makes leave management straightforward for small businesses with limited HR needs.
Pricing: Starts at £18 per month for up to 10 employees.
Manually managing PTO can quickly spiral into a mess of confusion, missed deadlines, and frustrated employees. But finding the best leave management system for your organization can turn those challenges into opportunities for smoother processes, better team morale, and accurate time tracking.
As you evaluate which solution is best for your team, keep in mind the unique needs of your business. Whether you’re looking for powerful integrations, real-time reporting, or an easy-to-use platform, there’s a tool out there that’s perfect for your team
Searching for a simple yet powerful solution to elevate your leave management?
Vacation Tracker offers a streamlined and flexible system perfect for growing teams. With tiered pricing and customizable add-ons, you can scale your software as your company grows and policies become more complex.
Experience how Vacation Tracker can simplify your PTO management—schedule a demo today!
Claudia
Claudia is an experienced marketer with a passion for writing and creating engaging content that connects with readers.
