Managing employee time off in a big company can sometimes be unnecessarily complex. At an operational level, you’ve got to keep track of paid and unpaid leave, sync it with payroll, and ensure there are always enough people on deck.
But, when you’re doing this manually, all that back-and-forth can lead to mistakes and wasted time.
The solution? Implementing a leave management system.
It automates everything, giving you a real-time view of who’s available when, simplifying handling payroll and leave.
Are you looking for an employee self-service leave management system that takes over your leave management responsibility?
Based on my years of experience as a manager and team leader, I’ve compiled a definitive list of the top 10 leave management systems that are reliable and efficient. Let’s begin. 👇
10 Best Leave Management Systems in 2024
- What Should You Look for In a Leave Management System?
- The 10 Best Leave Management Systems to Use in 2024
- 1. ClickUp – Best for all-around leave management
- 2. Rippling – Best for tracking past, present, and upcoming leaves at once
- 3. Paychex – Best for time off and absence summaries
- 4. Gusto – Best for streamlining reporting
- 5. OnPay – Best for customizable accrual policies
- 6. Pause – Best for checking employee leave clash
- 7. Kissflow – Best for visual reports
- 8. Timetastic – Best for providing personal leave calendars to employees
- 9. PlanMyLeave – Best for mobile app integration
- 10. Dayforce – Best for absence management at a glance
- Optimize Leave Management Effortlessly with ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for In a Leave Management System?
According to Facts and Factors, the leave request management software market will grow by 9.3% from 2021 to 2026. With so many tools, it can be hard to pick the right one.
The perfect leave management system should address all HR needs, from leave approvals to payment processing. These are the key factors I prioritize when looking for one:
- Powerful automation: A leave management system should offer automated annual leave carry-ons and auto-increment options. This simplifies reporting and enhances leave management by ensuring the leave applications reach the right person
- Customizations: The leave management software must provide customization options for types of leaves and company leave policies, such as half-day leave and sick leave options
- Integration: Integrate the leave management software in your current functioning so you and your employees do not have to keep track of additional tools outside the regular functioning
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface: A leave management system with an intuitive, user-friendly interface reduces the time spent on tutorials and navigation
- Maximum visibility: Employees and management should be aware of leave approvals and availability. Group calendars in the leave management system help teams see who’s unavailable on specific dates
- Mobile accessibility: Applying for leaves and approving them on the go makes leave management convenient
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe 10 Best Leave Management Systems to Use in 2024
After thorough research, the ClickUp team and I have compiled a comprehensive list of the best leave management systems.
I’ll guide you through the standout features of each, provide insight into their pricing structures, and share ratings and reviews to help you make a well-informed decision.
1. ClickUp – Best for all-around leave management
Meet ClickUp, the all-in-one HR management software that streamlines your employee management needs, from leave approvals to calendar views, scheduling, and payroll adjustments.
Tools like the ClickUp Time Off Request Template can help you consolidate all employee leave records in one place. It provides a calendar view for easy scheduling and offers customization options to identify the type and duration of leave.
Using the Board View, you can see the status of the leave approvals, track leaves with a filtered list, and minimize the administrative burden.
When you want a high-level overview, The ClickUp Calendar View comes in handy. It helps you keep track of team availability, while Custom Fields enable you to monitor leave types and duration.
But monitoring isn’t enough, I know! I, too, struggle to keep track of those pesky leave approval requests that get lost in the inbox. Use automation to notify you of pending leave requests and speed up the approval process.
The next big thing on the list is policy compliance. To keep the leave requesting/approval process transparent and easy, use employee handbook templates to help define your company’s leave policy.
The ClickUp Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures Template is your all-in-one solution, covering everything from payroll to vacation policy. With this template, you can:
- Set clear guidelines for your team
- Avoid confusion in tricky situations
- Cut down on costly mistakes
💡 Pro tip: ClickUp HR Management simplifies hiring, onboarding, and people management. The employee dashboard provides insights into approved and pending leave requests. With ClickUp Docs, you can centralize leave policies and use comments for seamless communication with employees.
ClickUp best features
- Make use of multiple templates to manage your specific leave management requirements easily
- Monitor when employees are unavailable to work with ClickUp Calendar View
- Mark the status of the leave requested with Approved, In-review, and Rejected
- Organize leave management with custom views, including Time Off Request Form, Rejected, Requests, and Approval Process
ClickUp limitations
- There are limited features in the ClickUp mobile application compared with competitors
- There is a learning curve, but ClickUp University has all the answers
ClickUp pricing
- Free: Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $5/month per user
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
2. Rippling – Best for tracking past, present, and upcoming leaves at once
Rippling’s new Tilt integration is a leave management software that consolidates past and upcoming leaves in one place.
What I like about this system is its ability to filter leaves by type, employee, and duration, making it a reliable capacity planning tool. It lets you plan and schedule accurately, knowing your team’s availability on different days.
It automatically adjusts payroll based on the selected leave type, ensuring accurate payments and efficient management.
Rippling best features
- Gain deeper insights into leave patterns with the reporting feature
- Enhance the accuracy of work management and payrolls with automated leave tracking
- Improve workforce planning with access to upcoming employee leaves and duration
- Leverage transparent processes to manage leave requests
- Connect with more than 600 third-party applications, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and GitHub
Rippling limitations
- The pricing model keeps revising from time to time, making the software comparatively expensive
- Rippling has numerous features that make it difficult to navigate through them
Rippling pricing
- Custom pricing (starts at $8/month per user)
Rippling ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.9/5 (2,300+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.9/5 (3,000+ reviews)
3. Paychex – Best for time off and absence summaries
Paychex simplifies time tracking and leave management and manages employee leave seamlessly so that you can focus on more critical tasks. It comes with its built-in cloud-based Paid Time Off (PTO) platform to let you record and track employee absences or time off efficiently.
With the Display Requests feature, you can view all the new leave requests at once and get a Time Off Calendar that showcases all the employees’ leaves and absences at a glance.
Want all the time off-related details of your teams in one place? This leave management software has your back. It provides a time off summary detailing the time off, time off balance, and accrual.
Paychex best features
- Obtain details about description, balance, and accruals with time off summary and absence tables
- Record PTO for payroll purposes and tracking
- Accurately track employee time, attendance, and scheduling
- Connect Paychex Flex with ERP tools like SAP and more through API integrations
Paychex limitations
- Paychex offers so many features that it can be overwhelming at times.
Paychex pricing
- Custom pricing (starts at $39 per month plus $5 per employee)
Paychex ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (1,500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.2/5 (1,500+ reviews)
4. Gusto – Best for streamlining reporting
Gusto, a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and human resource management software, enables employees to track time accurately while simplifying leave approval and automatic payroll preparation.
It streamlines PTO tracking to align with company policies, reducing the time spent managing leaves and freeing you up to assist employees.
Gusto’s robust customization options allow employees to select time-off types that comply with company policies. My favorite feature? This PTO tracking software seamlessly streamlines my reporting and compliance needs with its wide range of integrations. If I want a remote background check done quickly, I can use Gusto Checkr.
It tracks overtime and converts timesheets into payroll and reports, reducing errors in leave management and the payroll system.
Gusto best features
- Prevent errors and inaccuracies with automated leave management and payroll processes
- Track employee availability and optimize schedule and workforce management
- Enhance PTO management with automated updates in the payroll and calendars
- Send alerts about PTO accruals to the accounting team automatically
Gusto limitations
- There is inadequate customer support to address problems in the software’s functioning
Gusto pricing
- Simple: $40/month
- Plus: $60/month
- Premium: Custom pricing
Gusto ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (1,900+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (3,800+ reviews)
5. OnPay – Best for customizable accrual policies
OnPay simplifies PTO management by tracking employee leave requests. This leave management software lets you build customizable accrual policies and lets employees apply for time off from within the app.
Additionally, it automatically updates the payroll to minimize time spent on this task. You can manage the staffing requirements on different days with its calendar view.
Plus, it syncs with the company’s compliance requirements, such as the leave and accrual policies, and frees up your to-do list.
OnPay best features
- Manage employee leave requests in one place with PTO management
- Customize accrual policies, time off requirements, and duration
- Sync with the company compliance requirements and eliminate all manual processes
- Integrate with several HR and payrolls apps such as Bench and Deputy
OnPay limitations
- The employee leave management system does not offer an Android application and does not allow easy accessibility across devices
- There are no volume discounts offered
OnPay pricing
- $40 /month base fee + $6 /month per person
OnPay ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.8/5 (200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (400+ reviews)
6. Pause – Best for checking employee leave clash
Pause claims to be the simplest leave management system, and employees can apply for casual, earned, or sick leave from anywhere. Leaves can be requested directly via the tool’s Slack integration and can be customized to be full, half, or multi-day.
You can also check if the employee leaves clash with the calendar and make informed approval decisions.
I like how it lets you add emojis based on the type of leave and makes the mundane leave-requesting process more fun.
Your employees can also track their leave balances and history in one place. Lastly, all the approved leave requests are automatically updated on the calendar for quick viewing.
Pause best features
- Integrate with Google Calendar and Slack to see the different employee unavailability at a glance
- Customize PTO and FTO types and public holidays based on different locations
- Automate data export for calculating the payrolls
- Receive email notifications and leave summaries to keep you updated
Pause limitations
- There are occasional glitches in the application that slow down its functioning
Pause pricing
- $1/month per user (free 30-day trial)
Pause ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (80+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (300+ reviews)
7. Kissflow – Best for visual reports
Kissflow is a leave management software that allows you to create, approve, reject, and manage employee leaves quickly.
Its extensive reporting and analytics caught my eye, as this resource scheduling software lets you record and monitor leave requests in real-time with automated validations and visual reports. You can customize your leave policies and processes on digital forms to fit your specific needs.
At the same time, its automated approval workflows enable you to approve or reject leaves from any device, anywhere. The work schedule template also helps you organize tasks more effectively.
Kissflow best features
- Customize leave policies to set up your business’s custom work days and holidays
- Track leaves from anywhere and any device for employees and management
- Analyze insights and patterns of employee leaves with interactive reports
- Make accruals and leave balances error-free with real-time calculators
- Integrate with payroll software like Quickbooks to export data, marketing, finance, and more
Kissflow limitations
- There is limited API support
Kissflow pricing
- Basic: Starts at $1,500/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Kissflow ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.1/5 (50+ reviews)
8. Timetastic – Best for providing personal leave calendars to employees
Timetastic offers a personal leave calendar for all your employees, helping them plan their year and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
With this employee leave management system, holiday forms and spreadsheets are a thing of the past. Employees can simply mark their absences on their calendars for the team to see. Their pre-loaded holiday calendar feature stood out to me, catering to over 3000 regions.
You’ll receive an email notification when a leave request is submitted, allowing you to approve or reject it via email from any device. Timetastic lets you easily see who’s off and when, streamlining leave management across your organization.
Timetastic best features
- Group staff into departments and set up minimum staffing levels for better workforce management
- Track holidays with a personal leave calendar for all employees
- Approve leaves in real time with email notifications
- Create work schedules to better manage your shift-based workflows
Timetastic limitations
- It usually takes a day for the approved leaves to sync with Google Calendar, which can be inconvenient
Timetastic pricing
- Timetastic: $1.50/month per user (free 30-day trial)
- Timetastic Pro: $2.50/month per user (free 30-day trial)
Timetastic ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (20+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (500+ reviews)
9. PlanMyLeave – Best for mobile app integration
PlanMyLeave is an employee leave management system designed to meet global business needs. It offers data access across any device.
Free training, data import, and setup are ideal for small and medium companies while remaining scalable for larger teams.
The leave management software simplifies calendar access, leave applications, balance checks, status tracking, and approvals, making leave management hassle-free.
PlanMyLeave best features
- Free training and setup to help you adapt to the software smoothly
- Access to leave balances and leave approval status for employees
- Accessibility through web and mobile devices alike
- Integrate with Jira, Slack, Asana, Trello, Google Sheets, Zapier, Office 365, and more
PlanMyLeave limitations
- The leave management software does not provide email notifications to the managers and HRs to stay updated with leave requests
PlanMyLeave pricing
- $1 per month per user (free 60-day trial)
PlanMyLeave ratings and reviews
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: Not enough reviews
10. Dayforce – Best for absence management at a glance
Dayforce absence management software simplifies managing time off by reducing paperwork and back-and-forth communication.
This comprehensive leave management system integrates leaves, scheduling, and payroll, enabling you to handle all employee operations from a single platform.
With this tool, employees can also gain insight into their leave balances and accruals while you monitor their absences. I found the reporting features quite comprehensive as they can reveal absence patterns over the year, and help me develop effective staffing plans.
Dayforce best features
- Study employee absence patterns with reports and analytics
- Identify and address absence patterns to mitigate unplanned overtime
- Simplify accessibility of leave requests, updates, and approvals with mobile-first employee experience
- Enable your team to review balances, select reasons, add comments, and submit requests to managers at their convenience
Dayforce limitations
- The reporting features are limited
Dayforce pricing
- Custom pricing
Dayforce ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (700+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (250+ reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseOptimize Leave Management Effortlessly with ClickUp
We cannot overstate the importance of tracking leaves, managing staffing requirements, and adjusting payrolls.
However, you no longer need to spend hours manually executing these operations. The leave management software I’ve listed above can help simplify the process and make it error-free.
With ClickUp leave management, you can get insights into leave management at a glance with a board view and a calendar view. Customize ClickUp’s time off request templates based on your unique requirements and streamline leave management like never before.
Join ClickUp today and embrace hassle-free, automated leave management!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
