Table Of Contents

Top Holiday Management Tools for Efficient Leave Tracking

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Table Of Contents

Is holiday management weighing you down? 

Let a staff holiday planner software handle the heavy lifting for you. 🏋️‍♀️ 

Manually managing requests, balancing schedules, and avoiding conflicts can feel like you’re running a marathon. But the right holiday management software will have you breezing through it all without breaking a sweat! 

Say goodbye to manual spreadsheets and hello to a simpler, more organized way to track your team’s time off. Ready to explore the best options? Let’s dive in! 

Why you need an annual leave software

Juggling time-off requests on paper or spreadsheets is time-consuming and chaotic. For growing teams, manual processes can quickly spiral out of control, leading to mistakes that cost your business both time and money. 

Did you know it takes up to 47 minutes just to calculate and update one employee’s PTO balance manually? According to EY, that can cost your business between $23.37 and $46.43 per edit!  

Meanwhile, a leave tracking solution costs as little as $1/employee per month.  

The numbers don’t lie—annual leave software not only saves time but also helps you avoid costly errors. 

Ready to make the switch? We’ll help you make the best choice!

Holiday Management Tools Comparison

Top 10 Holiday Management Software for Annual Leave Tracking 

Vacation Tracker

Vacation Tracker

Vacation Tracker is the #1 solution for effortless and effective holiday management. 

Manual errors and lack of visibility are a thing of the past. Vacation Tracker’s intuitive interface and one-click PTO approvals make managing time off feel painless. The best part? Complex calculations like accruals and rollovers are done for you, like magic! 🪄 

Key Holiday Management Features: 

Seamless Integrations: Easy integration with tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Workspace, or email means that users can manage leave without switching platforms. 

Scheduled Alerts: Receive daily or weekly notifications of upcoming time off. 

Vacation Tracker Integrations

Real-Time Dashboard: Gain total visibility of time-off requests, approvals, and balances. 

Powerful Reporting: Access up-to-date, exportable reports to maintain accurate data and make well-informed decisions. 

Vacation Tracker Dashboard

Global Reach: Available in 8 languages with custom leave policies to keep you compliant across regions

Pricing: Starts at $25/month for up to 25 users and an additional $1 per user/per month for every additional user.   

What Others Are Saying:

“I found it very easy to set up Vacation Tracker for our remote team! Since we work from three different locations, this tool has been of great help. It allowed us to completely eliminate spreadsheets and automate our time off management. Highly recommend” - Capterra Review, 2022 

Capterra Rating: 4.8 

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LeaveBoard

This comprehensive HR software simplifies holiday management while providing a wide range of HR functionalities, with a focus on employee management.  

Key Holiday Management Features:

Employee Self-Service: Employees view their time-off balance, submit time-off requests, and manage their personal HR data from a comprehensive HR dashboard. 

Streamlined Leave Management: Automate everything from tracking leave requests and approvals, to calculating leave balances, accruals, and rollovers. 

Who’s Off Calendar: Enjoy real-time visibility into employee availability. 

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $1.35 per user/month. 

Capterra Rating: 4.5 

BrightHR

BrightHR

BrightHR is a human resources platform that automates all HR processes, including employee management, holiday tracking, scheduling, and more. 

Key Holiday Management Features:

Vacation Clash Alerts: Users are notified if there is any overlap between vacation requests to prevent scheduling conflicts. 

Vacation Balance Tool: Managers get an overview of their team’s PTO balances to ensure compliance and reduce burnout. 

Mobile App: Make and approve requests on the go, right from your phone.    

Pricing: Starts at $11 per user/month. 

Capterra Rating: 4.7 

BreatheHR

Breathe HR 

Breathe is a comprehensive HR software that includes everything from recruitment to performance tracking and holiday planning. 

Key Holiday Management Features: 

Simplified Holiday Booking: Teams can book and approve holiday requests effortlessly online or through their mobile application. 

Detailed Records: All requests are saved to the cloud to keep a detailed account of your company’s leave history. 

Holiday Usage Reports: Gain insight into your team’s PTO trends with leave balance reports.  

Pricing: Starts at £18 per month for up to 10 users. 

Capterra Rating: 4.4

Timetastic

Timetastic

For small businesses with basic PTO needs, Timetastic is a super simple staff solution solely focused on holiday management. 

Key Holiday Management Features: 

Individual Calendars: Each employee receives a personal calendar and summary to track their time off, upcoming holidays, and remaining allowance for the year. 

Digital Leave Requests: Users can submit and approve time-off requests digitally, eliminating paperwork.  

Customizable Work Schedules: Tailor schedules and break times to each employee for a clear view of team calendars. 

Pricing: Starts at $1.50 per user/month 

Capterra Rating: 4.7 

LeavePlanner

LeavePlanner

LeavePlanner is an absence management software for SMEs that helps understand and manage absenteeism while doubling as a basic staff holiday planner software. 

Key Holiday Management Features:

Bradford Factor Reports: Built-in Bradford Factor calculators help HRs understand their team’s absence trends.  

Customization Features: Admins enjoy total control over their organization with the ability to customize employee working hours, working patterns, and establish blackout periods. 

Minimum Attendance Levels: Ensure you’re always adequately staffed by setting a minimum number of employees who need to be available or a maximum number of employees who can be absent at the same time. 

Pricing: Starts at £20.70 per user/year 

Capterra Rating: N/A

CharlieHR

CharlieHR

CharlieHR is an all-in-one HR solution to automate everything from onboarding to performance, benefits, and holiday planning. 

Key Holiday Management Features:

Assign Approvers: Delegate responsibility by assigning managers to approve time off for their teams. 

Smart Notifications: Approvers get notified if someone is due to take time off.  

Prorated PTO: Automate holiday allowance calculations for part-time workers.  

Pricing: Starts at £5 per user/month 

Capterra Rating: 4.7 

BambooHR

BambooHR

BambooHR centralizes all your HR tasks in one software to completely overhaul your HR workflow. 

Key Holiday Management Features:

Leave Balance Calculator: Employees can access their current PTO balances, view their upcoming time off, and visualize how much holiday leave they’ll have accrued by a future date.  

Unlimited PTO Policies: Create as many leave policies as needed, and customize them based on department, team, location, or even employee. 

Who’s Out Calendar: Gain visibility over who’s on holiday and who’s working to make workforce planning easier than ever.  

Pricing: Contact for pricing.   

Capterra Rating: 4.6 

Factorial 

FactorialHR

FactorialHR is an all-in-one HRIS that offers a complete suite of tools, including talent management, payroll, and expense management. 

Key Holiday Management Features:

Endless Integrations: With over 80 integrations, connect FactorialHR with all of your favorite software from Slack to Quickbooks.  

Customizable Policies: Customize leave policies as needed, based on anything from location to employment type.

Employee Leave Insights: With centralized data and instant reporting, managers can easily track employee leave patterns, providing actionable insights to optimize workforce planning and enhance performance.

Pricing: Starts at $4.50 per user/month 

Capterra Rating: 4.4 

Calamari 

Calamari

Calamari is built for global teams, with features designed to simplify holiday management no matter where your employees are based.  

Key Holiday Management Features:

Software Integrations: Manage your team’s PTO through your software of choice thanks to easy integration with Slack, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. 

Automate Calculations: Everything from accruals to rollovers is automatically calculated for you.  

Support for Global Teams: Multiple languages, calendars, and time zones make it easy to manage teams spread throughout the globe. 

Pricing: Starting at $2 per month per user ($20 minimum) 

Capterra Rating: 4.7 

Key Features to Look for in an Annual Leave Solution

Local compliance with labor laws

With growing companies spread across the globe, compliance can become a challenge. Your annual leave software should support global teams with features to help you adhere to leave laws across several regions. This includes ensuring calendars account for different regional holidays and accrual calculations. 

Employee self-service options and automation

Empower your team to manage their own PTO with a user-friendly, self-service solution. When teams can access their own balances, manage their PTO requests, and track approvals, it minimizes errors and the amount of time spent on admin work

Customizable reporting and analytics

Effective workforce planning requires data-driven insights. Holiday management software helps HRs understand leave trends, monitor usage, and ensure their team is properly staffed.  

Integration with Other Tools

Automation works best when all your tools can talk to one another. Seamless integration with  Slack or Teams, email, and calendar of choice makes it easy to make and manage requests without switching platforms. Choose a solution with an Open API for connecting to other systems, like HRIS or payroll, or one that offers pre-built integrations. 

Choosing the Right Holiday Management Tool for Your Business

Why let holiday management be an uphill battle when, with the right software, it can smooth stroll? 

With powerful automation and easy-to-use features, you can turn the chaos of tracking time-off requests into a seamless process. No more juggling schedules or scrambling to avoid conflicts—these tools do the heavy lifting for you, ensuring everything runs smoothly. 

Vacation Tracker offers a streamlined solution to managing PTO while ensuring compliance, making it a top choice for HR professionals. 

“Our company is delighted with Vacation Tracker. The app’s seamless implementation and user-friendly interface made it a breeze to set up. From request to approval, the process is intuitive and efficient. With automated notifications and insightful analytics, Vacation Tracker has significantly improved our vacation management process. Highly recommended for its ease of use and effectiveness.” - Capterra Review, 2023 

Ready to take the stress out of holiday management? Start your 7-day free trial today.  

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Claudia
Claudia

Claudia is an experienced marketer with a passion for writing and creating engaging content that connects with readers.

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