Leave Management System Introduction
With the advancement of technologies and integrations in day-to-day business, an effective leave management system has taken its importance in low, midcap, and higher enterprises.
No organization that aims to rise high by eliminating time-killers would want to deal with the daily hassle of manual leave management.
Therefore, it becomes important to know the significant problems solved by leave management system modules.
What is Leave Management Software?
Leave management software is a tool that is meant for a smooth leave approval workflow.
It enables employees to submit their leave requests to their respective managers when required and also enables the managers to approve or decline leave requests as required.
The entire workflow is designed in a way that complies with the company’s leave policy.
An efficient leave application software saves a lot of time and energy for HR and managers.
Conventionally, time offs used to be managed through paperwork, emails, or Excel sheets
Additionally, the best employee monitoring software always comes up with a centralized system for managers to track the leave patterns of their team members which also provides insights into their work behavior.
Hence, such metrics help managers improve the productivity of their team members and keep a check on their absence patterns.
Why do companies require a Leave Management System?
Companies that struggle to solve this problem “How to manage leave of employees?’ require a leave management system.
Besides, other reasons for the same are:
- To Centralize leave tracking
- Simplify leave approvals
- Process payroll accurately
- To maintain a complete record of employee leave data
- Comprehensive checks by managers and seamless integration
Features of Leave Management Software
The best leave management software would never be without these below-mentioned features:
1. All-in-One Dashboard
An all-in-one dashboard means that employees have access to view their leave balances,
know their colleagues’ days-off status while applying for leave, Managers/supervisors/HR staff have access to all the details related to employees’ attendance, leave balance, holiday lists, department schedules, and insights on employees’ leave patterns or behavior.
2. Configurable Fields
Since policies and procedures for leaving vary from one organization to another, therefore one size fit systems may not work for your organization.
So, you should look for a product that is more customizable and fits your organization’s policies.
3. Cloud-Based
A cloud-based online leave management system is a boon for employees where no software installation and updates are required.
Therefore, with multichannel, on-the-go access, your employees can apply, approve, or reject leave requests from anywhere.
4. Auto-Update Leave Balance
There is no use of a leave management system if your HR needs to fill in the updates of the remaining leave balance of your employees.
Your attendance management system should be able to track the employees’ history of leaves and display it to both employees and managers.
5. Customizable Approval Workflow
Your software for the leave management system should be customizable in a way that you can create a customizable workflow.
Also, it should be easy to create a department-wise hierarchy to ensure a streamlined process in such a way that as your employee selects his/her department, the predefined workflow should auto-populate.
6. Seamless Integration
Nowadays, no organization prefers to create data silos due to archaic and outdated legacy software.
Therefore your leave management software offers seamless integration with HRMS software for payrolls and employee time tracking software. Then definitely it will enable cross-functional reporting and save time.
7. At-a-Glance Reporting
Your leave management tools should be able to provide interactive reports based on acquired data.
This helps your organization to analyze patterns and seek actionable insights.
Benefits of Leave Management Software
The 6 biggest benefits of the leave management system are:
1. Elimination of Paperwork
The conventional method of applying for and approving leave through paperwork is eliminated. This not only saves time and energy but also the operational cost of the organization in the form of stationary expenses.
2. Removal of Manual Intervention
Now, neither employees have to plan to ask for leave from their respective managers or supervisors nor does the latter have to plan up a discussion to ask for reasons for the leave or if he chooses to reject the applied leave.
3. Accuracy in Tracking
Since each staff member has a different number of leave balances with them, therefore tracking those all becomes a separate task itself.
Besides, such tracking also includes repetitive adjustments of leave balance.
4. Offers real-time Visibility of Data
Leave management tools are also equipped with providing real-time attendance tracking wherein this data can also be fed to automated payroll data.
5. Ensures Legal Compliance
An effective leave application software is always designed in a way that none of its features or policies mentioned breaches the legal compliance of the company.
6. Reflection of your Organizational Value
Company’s leave types, flexibility in approving leave, etc give a reflection of your organizational values.
Comparison List of Top 8 Leave Management Software
Here, we are going to learn about some of the best leave management software online
Calamari
It is a 5-star rated leave management software by Forbes Advisor.
This tool has users in over 100 countries globally, serving different time zones.
This is possible as the software provides customizing features as per countries’ different paid time off (PTO), leave policies and holiday calendars.
The interface provided by this leave management software is in English, Spanish, French, German, and Polish.
Besides, it is compliant with European Union-wide privacy and data protection.
The features of this leave management module are
- Absence calendar
- Leave entitlement
- Accrual rules
- Notifications
- Approval flow
- Integrations
- Attachments
- Remote workforce management system
- Mobile app
Right users for this tool – It is best for companies that are more into scheduling employees’ schedules and leaves across the globe.
Pros & Cons
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros of Calamari
- 14-day free trial
- Multilingual interface
- Discounts for nonprofits are available
- GDPR-compliant
- HR & time clocks module available
- Available in over 100 countries
Cons of Calamari
- No free version
- Very minimum monthly fee
- Only exists in 5 languages despite having availability in over 100 countries
Timetastic
It is a 5-star rated tool by Forbes Advisor.
Besides being one of the best software in tracking time-off requests of employees, this leave application software is known for providing a 50% discount to all charities and certified B-corps.
It not only provides a 30-day free trial but is also dedicated to helping unemployed women to bring them to work by providing interview coaching and other necessities related to it.
The features of this leave management module are: Instant time-off request
- Company Calendar
- Weekly Schedule Notification
- Daily time-off request
- Employee birthday notification
- Time-off dashboard
- Mobile-app
- Manage PTO
- Vacation
- Sick leave
- Maternity leave
- Paternity leave
- Unpaid leave
- Bereavement and compassionate leave
- Personal day-off requests
Right users for this tool – Companies that are on tight budgets, charities, and B-corps can consider using this software for the leave management system.
Pros & Cons Timetastic
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros
- Free 30-day trial
- 50% discount for nonprofits
- Open to extending the trial
- No penalties for cancellation
- 50% off for charities, B-corps, and fair tax Mark holders
Cons
- Few integrations available
- Customizing leave types is challenging
- Approved leaves cannot be canceled
Absence.io
It is a 4.7-rated leave management software by Forbes Advisor.
This tool is exceptional in providing leave management tools in 7 languages, i.e. English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, Portuguese & Turkish.
Organizations having more than 200 employees receive discount offers.
This leave application software is exclusively designed to serve midsize and large companies.
The features of this leave management module are:
- Vacation planner and absence management package – Absence request and approvals, Dashboards and reports, an overview of leave time by type.
- Time tracking package – Work-time recording, time tracking, automatic reports, notifications, Digital clock option.
- Digital personnel management package – Overview of personnel data, questionnaire, drag-and-drop file insertion.
- Right users for this tool – It is more favorable for mid-sized to large companies with multilingual employees like warehouses, grocery stores, restaurant chains, local hospitals, etc.
Pros & Cons
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros
- Software availability in 7 languages
- Free setup assistance
- Combination of packages available
- 14-day free trial
- Discount for companies with more than 200 employees
Cons
- No free version
- No public pricing transparency
- Short duration free trial compared to other competitors
Kissflow
It is rated 4.4 by Forbes Advisor.
The tool is more pro towards large workforces when it comes to managing and tracking the latter.
This leave application software comes up with integrations with other business tools like the payroll system, streamlining leave requests across functions.
The Features of this Leave Management Module are:
- Automatic validation
- Enterprise-grade calculation of accruals and leave balances
- Leave balance update & reporting
- One-click visual report
- Customizable leave policy
- Automated approval workflow & tracking
- Real-time calculation
- Payroll Integration
- Leave Cancellation
Right users for this tool – This tool is most suitable for enterprise-level organizations that are more in need of streamlining their leave-approval & tracking processes.
Pros & Cons Kissflow
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros Kissflow
- Payroll Integration
- In-depth reporting
- On request Free-trial
- Automated approval process
Cons Kissflow
- Low pricing transparency
- Complex & buggy upgrades
- Expensive compared to other competitors
Vacation Tracker
It is rated 4.3 stars by Forbes.
It stands out exceptionally due to its environment-friendly goals. For every 100 leave requests, the Vacation tracker plants one tree.
Also, for every answered survey, the vacation tracker plants a tree.
Besides, when you sign up for an annual subscription, a vacation tracker plants a tree.
The Features of this Leave Management Module are:
- 25 custom leaves can be created
- Time zones for employees working in countries like France, the US, Japan, and Australia can be set up
- Generate custom reports
- Create custom location and department
- Leave notification
- Group labels
- Schedule reports
- Hourly leave request
Right users for this tool – The leave management system module is perfect for companies looking for a full-featured and customizable leave management system that also serves their green initiative agenda.
Pros & Cons
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros
- Affordable plans
- Two-month free trial when billed annually
- 7-day free trial with month-to-month billing
- Customizable leave management and reporting
- No accrual tracking in the first-tier plan
- Custom quote required for enterprise-level plan
Cons
- No free plan
- Minimum 25 users in the first-tier plan
- No dedicated support in small to midsized business plans
LeaveBoard
It is rated 4.2 by Forbes Advisor.
It stands out because of its full-featured free plan.
Its free plan has the following features:
- Dashboard with time-off tracking
- Employee directory
- Slack integration
- HR reporting
- Absence Calendar
- Leave policy
- MS office 365
- Google Calendar
- Apple iCal Integration
Right users for this tool – For companies that are thinking of starting with a nonexistent budget, LeaveBoard is best for such startups.
Pros & Cons of LeaveBoard
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros
- Employee directory
- Employee self-serve portal
- Affordable paid plans
- Free plan for up to nine users
- 17% discount when paid annually
- Time-off overlap warnings
Cons
- Limited integration capabilities compared to some competitors
- No dedicated support in free or small-business plans
- Only basic leave policies in the free plan
PlanMyLeave
It is rated 4.1 by Forbes Advisor.
PlanMyLeave stands out due to its custom leave management requests and policies.
Employees can apply for half-day, and full-day, request overtime, and edit leave requests after approval.
They can also upload supporting documents to share reasons for applying for leave.
Besides, the company also gets to configure custom restrictions in the leave application software. For example – the company can set prior notice restrictions, minimum & maximum leave durations, create gender-based leaves, etc.
The Features of this Leave Management Module are:
- Free project management & HR tools
- Custom leave management
- Employee & Manager Calendar
- Overtime Management
- Multilingual Support
- Scheduled Reports
- API for custom integration
- Option to integrate 750 applications via Zapier
Right users for this tool`- Midsize to large companies can consider using this tool that employs workers on a mix of traditional & typical work schedules.
Pros & Cons
Below are the stated pros and cons of this leave management application:
Pros
- 30-day free trial
- Free HR tools
- Free included project management software
- Custom leave management capabilities
- Discounts for nonprofits, educational institutions, and large companies
- Free setup and support
Cons
- $30 minimum price per month
- An overwhelming number of features for some companies
- Companies with less than 100 users must pay annually or semi-annually
