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The Best PTO Tracking Software

Customize your PTO accrual rules, accept and approve time off requests, and automatically add PTO to timesheets and payroll with Buddy Punch.

A small business looking to move away from manually tracking PTO in Excel spreadsheets has much different needs than a corporation looking for a comprehensive HRIMS platform. So before you start shopping for PTO tracking software, it’s important to understand the three main options:

  • Apps solely for PTO and leave tracking: These apps are used only for tracking and managing PTO and do not have additional features to help with other workforce management tasks. They’re typically the cheapest of all of the different types of leave tracking software.
  • Apps that track time and PTO: These tools can be used for both employee time tracking and leave management. They can be used by your HR department for everything you need to automate payroll.
  • Combined HR and leave management software: These are more robust HRIS/HRMS platforms with features like applicant tracking systems and performance management in addition to time-off tracking.

Knowing which type of platform you need before you start shopping can help you save on costs and build a shortlist of tools to test more quickly.

We’ve curated the list of the nine best PTO tracking software below to help you navigate the maze of choices and find the perfect fit.

The 9 best PTO tracking software

1. Buddy Punch

2. Vacation Tracker

3. Day Off

4. BambooHR

5. Factorial

6. Clockify

7. Calamari

8. Replicon

9. Zoho People


1. Buddy Punch

Best overall PTO tracking software.

Buddy Punch sits at the top of our list due to its ease of use for both employers and employees, its wide range of features that make it useful for much more than just paid time off tracking, and its competitive pricing in the space.

In terms of PTO tracking, Buddy Punch has all of the core features you need.

PTO types

Buddy Punch comes with pre-set PTO leave policies (holidays, personal time, sick leave, vacation days, etc.), but you can also customize them. When you add a new time off type, you can make it either paid or unpaid.

PTO accrual rules

Set up PTO accrual rules based on:

  • Pay periods: Add a specified number of PTO hours every pay period.
  • Hours worked: Add a specified number of PTO hours depending on hours worked.
  • Anniversaries: Add a certain number of PTO hours each year.

You can also customize accrual rules per employee. This can be helpful if you have different rules for salaried employees than hourly employees, or part-time versus full-time employees.

Additionally, you can specify how carry-over/rollover PTO works (i.e., if hours are lost at the end of the year or carry-over into the next year).

On the employee side, your team can log into the employee self-service portal and see their PTO balance whenever they want.

Time off requests

Employees can submit time-off requests in just a few clicks using Buddy Punch’s self-service portal, which is accessible on both desktop and mobile devices (mobile apps available on iOS and Android).

Employees can specify how much time they’re taking and what type of PTO they’re requesting, as well as leave notes for their managers.

On the admin side, you can set up rules for which employees need to have their time off approved (versus getting approved automatically) and which specific managers need to provide that approval. HR managers can also set it up so that supervisors receive real-time notifications for vacation requests by email.

Blackout dates

If your company has specific dates when employees cannot take off, you can set those dates as blackout dates in Buddy Punch. This either prevents employees from requesting time off for those dates or automates rejections for time off during those times.

Time off reports

Buddy Punch’s PTO reports provide an overview of things like how much PTO employees have to carry over, their total holiday time accrued, how much PTO they used in a given timeframe, and how much they have left to use.

You can filter this info by date (e.g., a specific payroll period) and export the report as an Excel spreadsheet or PDF.

Time off calendar

Employees, admins, and managers can see exactly who is off when using Buddy Punch’s time-off calendar feature. See all time off per month in a calendar view, or view it as a list.

Additional features

Beyond paid time-off tracking, Buddy Punch can be used for employee time tracking, timesheets, and a variety of other workforce management needs:

GPS and Geofencing: Type and Device
Geofencing Map

Finally, Buddy Punch is one of the highest-rated time card apps on Capterra, with nearly 1,000 reviews praising the platform’s great customer support, ease of use, seamless payroll software integrations, and flexible costs.

Pricing

Buddy Punch has a free 14-day trial — no credit card required. Its paid plans start at $4.49 per user per month, plus a $19 per month base fee.

2. Vacation Tracker

Best simple PTO tracker.

Most of the apps on this list do much more than just PTO tracking. Some are built for time and PTO tracking; some are fully-fledged HR suites with PTO tracking, hiring, and engagement monitoring tools; and some are complete workforce management suites.

But if all you’re looking for is simple time-off management and none of the other bells and whistles, Vacation Tracker might be right for you. It’s solely a PTO tracking app with only the features needed for PTO tracking, such as PTO accrual and carry-over rules, customizable PTO policies, and report generation and exporting.

Vacation Tracker also integrates with tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack that let your employees request time off directly through your preferred chat app and let their managers approve or deny those requests via chat app notifications.

In addition to team chat integrations, Vacation Tracker can also integrate with Google Calendar to show all employee PTO on the same calendar you use to work, making it easy to see who’s working and who’s out of the office.

Key features

  • Calendar integration
  • PTO accruals
  • Time off in lieu (TOIL)
  • Single sign-on

Key integrations

  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Google Workspace
  • API

Pros

  • Allows for full PTO and leave administration directly within Slack
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Pricing is lower than many other tools on this list

Cons

  • Only allows for half-day and full-day time off requests
  • Does not have the option to accrue PTO based on the number of hours worked

Pricing

Vacation Tracker’s plans start at $1 per user per month with a 25-user minimum and include PTO management, customizable leave types, PTO notifications, and calendar integrations.

3. Day Off

Best free option for small businesses.

Like Vacation Tracker, Day Off is another simple PTO tracking system that is solely for time-off tracking — and it also has direct integrations with Google, Teams, Outlook, and Slack. The big difference between the two is that Day Off has a free-forever plan that’s great for small businesses looking to save on costs.

On Day Off’s free plan, you can track employee PTO requests, see all of your team’s PTO on a calendar, and run reports — all for an unlimited number of employees. However, you are restricted to one PTO policy and approver, so it’s only practical for small businesses with simple approval processes.

Key features

  • Approval workflows
  • Balance resets
  • Carryovers
  • Blackout dates

Key integrations

  • Google Calendar
  • Outlook Calendar
  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams

Pros

  • Free plan offers a lot of features
  • Easy for employees to use
  • Nicely designed interface and helpful mobile app

Cons

  • Lack of customization can cause issues for companies with international employees
  • Customers report that setting up leave and sick time rules is not intuitive

Pricing

Day off offers a free plan that can be used for unlimited employees and includes a single approver, team, location, and policy. Its paid plan starts at $1 per employee per month and allows you to create multiple policies for leave requests (e.g. vacation, sick leave, parental).

4. BambooHR

Best human resources platform with PTO management.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Vacation Tracker and Day Off is BambooHR, a complete human resources management tool.

HR teams can use BambooHR for literally everything they need to do, from payroll and benefits administration to hiring and improving the employee experience.

In addition to vacation time tracking, BambooHR comes with an applicant tracking system, onboarding and offboarding systems with templates and checklists, and employee engagement and performance monitoring tools.

In terms of PTO tracking, BambooHR has all of the features you’d expect. Set up multiple policies for unlimited PTO, accruals, or leave requests; visualize who’s off with a full-company PTO calendar; run reports to track trends in time-off requests; set up detailed PTO approval workflows; and more.

Key features

  • Applicant tracking system
  • Onboarding and offboarding tools
  • Benefits administration
  • Time tracking and payroll
  • Employee satisfaction surveys
  • Total rewards

Key integrations

  • Culture Amp
  • Talent LMS
  • Oyster
  • Checkr
  • Greenhouse
  • Cronofy

Pros

  • All-in-one HRIMS system
  • Highly customizable permission sets
  • Easy to use even for less tech-savvy individuals

Cons

  • Pricing can be confusing because many features are only available as add-on packages
  • Default reports require a lot of customization

Pricing

BambooHR’s pricing is not publicly available. To get a quote, you have to request a demo with its sales team.

5. Factorial

Best low-cost HRIS platform.

If you’re looking for a platform like BambooHR but with lower costs, Factorial is a good option to consider. Like Bamboo, Factorial offers many HR software features to help with employee recruitment, onboarding, offboarding, and performance management, as well as employee vacation tracking. You can also run payroll using Cimplix.

Factorial also has a robust document management system that lets you build fillable PDFs for things like W-9s and send contracts and offers out for e-signatures.

In terms of PTO tracking features, Factorial has everything you’d expect, including unlimited time-off policies, custom absence types, PTO accruals, and customizable PTO calendar views. However, some PTO features, such as multi-level PTO approvals and blackout timeframes, are only available on higher-cost plans.

Key features

  • Expense management
  • Goal and OKR tracking
  • Project management
  • Time and time off tracking
  • Applicant tracking system
  • Employee scheduling

Key integrations

  • Indeed
  • Figures
  • Sage 200
  • Okta
  • LinkedIn
  • Cobee

Pros

  • Intuitive and easy to use
  • Helpful admin dashboard that consolidates all tasks and updates
  • Priced lower than other HRIS platforms

Cons

  • Not as customizable for businesses that have employees who are paid variable rates
  • Employee survey and performance review features lack customizability 

Pricing

Factorial’s plans start at $4.50 per user/month. No free trial is available; to view and test the tool, you must request a demo with its sales team.

6. Clockify

Best for agencies and consulting companies.

Similar to Buddy Punch, Clockify offers both attendance and employee leave tracking in one cloud-based solution. Employees can use it to clock in and out, request time off, see their schedules, and log time to different clients and projects. On the employer side, you can track employee absences and create an unlimited number of time off and holiday policies.

However, Clockify is better suited for agencies and consulting companies that do mostly online client work. It comes with a built-in timer that can be used to start and stop time tracking when working on projects for specific clients, allowing you to invoice clients down to the minute.

You can also use Clockify to create projects, estimate project hours, and assign specific project tasks to specific employees. From there, you can combine that data with your time-tracking data to monitor projects and predict project hours in visual reports.

Key features

  • Custom PTO policies
  • PTO accruals
  • Color-coded policies and holidays
  • Approval workflows
  • Request time off in days, hours, or minutes

Key integrations

  • QuickBooks
  • Trello
  • Asana
  • Jira
  • Salesforce

Pros

  • All-in-one tool for time tracking, leave management, and project management
  • Simple to use with an intuitive interface

Cons

  • Confusing pricing with many different features split across six different plans
  • Customers report occasional syncing issues between the desktop and mobile apps

Pricing

While Clockify does have a free plan for basic employee time tracking, that plan does not include paid time off tracking. Its plans that include PTO tracking start at $5.49 per user/month.

7. Calamari

Best for companies that are planning to scale.

If you know you need time-off tracking software but aren’t yet sure if you could also benefit from some of the time tracking and HR features of some of the other apps on this list, Calamari might be a good option for you. Unlike the other tools, it siloes these different features into different plans, giving you more flexibility as you scale.

As far as PTO tracking, you’ll get all of the typical features you’d expect, plus some advanced features like an overlapping requests report that lets you quickly identify staffing concerns caused by having multiple team members off during the same time periods.

If down the line you decide you want to do more than just track PTO, you can also add on Calamari’s time and attendance or core HR plans.

Time and attendance give you all of the traditional time tracking features, while core HR gives you org charts and searchable document storage with detailed visibility permissions.

Key features

  • Built-in time off calendar
  • Multi-language translations
  • Holiday calendars for 110+ countries
  • Custom time-off policies
  • Request restriction rules

Key integrations

  • Slack
  • Google
  • Jira
  • Microsoft 365
  • Basecamp

Pros

  • Separate plans for different feature suites allow for lower costs initially while leaving room to grow as your business scales
  • App text translates into five different languages: English, Polish, French, Spanish, and German

Cons

  • Customers report that setup is difficult and the UI is not super intuitive
  • Time off requests cannot be edited after they’re submitted and approved

Pricing

Calamari’s PTO tracking plan starts at $2 per employee per month with a $20 per month minimum.

8. Replicon

Best for companies that employ knowledge workers.

Replicon is a time management and PTO tracking tool that also includes productivity tracking features that are helpful for companies that employ knowledge workers. Its AI technology automatically places the time employees work into the right project buckets, eliminating the need for employees to track time manually.

This can help with identifying what types of tasks or applications account for the biggest loss in productivity across the organization, and it also ensures that if you’re doing project work for clients, all minutes spent on client work are properly attributed so you can invoice for that work.

As far as PTO tracking goes, Replicon offers portals for both employees and employers to request and administer time off. Set time off policies, establish accrual rules, create overdraw limits, and build workflows to automatically increase time off allowances at specific times like on employee anniversaries.

Key features

  • Time off policies
  • PTO overdraw limits
  • Accruals
  • Approval workflows
  • Built-in time off calendar

Key integrations

  • Salesforce
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Oracle
  • SAP
  • Ceridian

Pros

  • Great, fast customer support
  • Highly customizable to fit different types of needs and business models

Cons

  • Setting up new users is difficult
  • Unintuitive, so it can take a while to remember how to perform tasks you don’t do frequently

Pricing

Replicon’s pricing is somewhat complex because it offers a variety of different plans for tracking things like PTO, employee time, and projects. The lowest-priced plan that offers time off bookings is its TimeOff Plus plan, which is $6 per user per month.

For more advanced features like PTO accruals and custom accrual rules, you’ll have to upgrade to the TimeOff Enterprise plan, which is $8 per user per month.

9. Zoho People

Best for multi-lingual teams.

Zoho People is an HRMS suite that includes robust functionality for absolutely everything a people team might need.

In addition to basic attendance and PTO tracking, you get tools for course management and 360-degree feedback, an applicant tracking system, and an employee CRM, as well as payroll, expense, and case management features.

The big standout feature for teams looking for PTO tracking specifically is Zoho People’s muti-language feature. If your team is spread out across multiple continents, you can cater to everyone with a platform that’s available in more than 20 languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, French, and Portuguese.

Key features

  • Employee onboarding
  • Attendance tracking
  • Leave tracking
  • Time tracking
  • Shift scheduling
  • Learning management system

Key integrations

  • All Zoho apps
  • Docusign
  • Microsoft Teams
  • QuickBooks
  • Google Workspace
  • Zapier

Pros

  • Integrates seamlessly with Zoho’s entire suite of products
  • One of the lowest-cost HRMS systems on the market

Cons

  • Customers report that setting up the app is confusing and time-consuming
  • Some features only work if you combine them with other Zoho products

Pricing

Zoho People’s plans that include paid time-off tracking start at $1.25 per user per month.

Choosing the right PTO tracker for your business

When you’re looking to streamline PTO tracking, some must-have features will make your life easier, such as:

  • Accurate PTO balances for your team.
  • A management system that lets you edit PTO balances.
  • Custom leave rules (i.e., when and how PTO is earned).
  • A way to receive and respond to time off requests.
  • A way to restrict dates on your company calendar (i.e., blackout dates).
  • A simple way to reconcile your team’s PTO with your payroll provider.

Beyond these features, it’s also helpful to find a tool that’s user-friendly. It should be available on the apps and devices your employees use most often, should integrate with the other software your HR department uses, and shouldn’t have a huge learning curve for employees.

Finally, consider the cost of the software and the potential ROI it can provide. While price is certainly a factor, it’s important to weigh the cost against the value and benefits the software can deliver in terms of time savings, efficiency gains, and improved compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions

PTO tracking software is a digital system that helps employers manage their time-off benefits. Most include features that let HR teams and business owners automate PTO accruals and manage and approve/deny time-off requests. Employees are also able to view their accrued time off and submit PTO requests.

PTO tracking software may be more than a very small business needs. In that case, you can build your own PTO tracker using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. In this article, we share four great Excel PTO tracking templates you can use to get started.

The way you’ll build our spreadsheet will depend on how your employees accrue PTO. If they simply get a certain number of hours a year, the spreadsheet can be simple, listing only the hours they get and any time off they take. You can set up automatic calculations in the spreadsheet to subtract time off taken from the total amount earned for the year.

If your employees accrue PTO based on the number of hours or weeks worked, the spreadsheet needs to be more complex. You’ll need to determine the total PTO they should earn for the year, divide that by the number of hours or weeks you expect them to work, and then set up calculations to add that increment each week. This will allow you to see the total accrued PTO at any given time and subtract used PTO from that total.

The upside of creating your own spreadsheet-based PTO tracker is that it doesn’t cost you any money; the downside is that it will cost you time. Even using spreadsheet automation and calculations, managing the spreadsheet will still require a lot of manual work, and you’ll also need to remember to account for paid time off in your timesheets so employees are paid correctly.

The primary benefits of PTO tracking software are time savings, accuracy, and automation.

PTO tracking software saves teams time by automating the process of calculating PTO accruals. Instead of working with complex calculations that can vary week-by-week depending on how many hours employees work, these systems use the rules you establish to do those calculations for you. Admins, managers, and employees can all view earned PTO in the app at any time.

Another big benefit is accuracy. These systems won’t make typos when calculating accrued PTO, and if you use a system that has both PTO and time-tracking, it will also make sure that any PTO taken will be automatically added to employees’ timesheets so that they’re paid properly.

PTO tracking software also creates a better experience for employees. Employees can see how much PTO they’ve earned at any time, making it easier for them to plan their time off. They can also request time off using the app, which managers can then approve or deny, and see any blackout dates you’ve established where taking time off is prohibited.

The first decision you need to make is if you just need PTO tracking or if you need something more robust, such as a system that includes PTO and time tracking or one that includes other HR features.

In our opinion, PTO tracking software that doesn’t also include time tracking takes away a lot of the benefits of automating PTO tracking. Since you still have to manually add any PTO taken to employees’ timesheets, you’re really only automating one part of the PTO puzzle.

HR features like an applicant tracking system and onboarding/offboarding are less crucial and should be considered only if you need those tools too. Not having those features won’t impede your ability to track time off, but having them in your PTO tracker can be useful if it helps you consolidate functions in one tool.

The software you choose should also integrate with any other systems that are core to PTO tracking. That might include your time-tracking software if your PTO tracker doesn’t include that feature, as well as any systems your company uses heavily for work — like Slack or Gmail.

Finally, you’ll want to make sure that the system you choose is easy to use. If employees can’t understand how to access their time-off accruals or make time-off requests, you’ll still spend a lot of time managing these things for them.

Generally, yes. Most systems let you set up all of the different types of leave you offer, including paid time off, unpaid time off, parental leave, FMLA, bereavement, holidays, and more.

You can set the system up to automatically list holidays as paid time off, and you can set time off as paid or unpaid on either the employee side when making the request or the employer side when approving it.

Before you start using PTO tracking software, it’s good to have a PTO policy in place. Here are some of the things you’ll need to consider in order to define how PTO works for your company.

Laws and regulations: Make sure you understand the federal and state laws that apply to time off in the areas where your team works. Depending on your company size, you may be required to offer FMLA, and depending on the states where your employees work, you may need to offer a minimum number of days off per year.

Types of time off: Next, determine what types of time off you’ll offer. Some businesses only have one PTO bucket that’s used for everything, while others separate PTO into different types, like vacation days, sick days, and personal days. You’ll also need to decide if you’ll include paid holidays and benefits like parental leave.

PTO accrual rules: You’ll also want to decide how employees will accrue time off. Some businesses offer unlimited PTO, some give employees a lump sum of PTO hours for every year worked, and some let employees accrue time off incrementally based on the number of hours or weeks worked.

Buyout rules: If you aren’t offering unlimited PTO, you’ll need to decide if employees can cash in unused PTO at the end of a year or upon termination. Some employers will pay employees for unused time off, and some require employees to use it or lose it at the end of the year or when leaving the company.

Usage policies: Once you have established all of the above, create a policy outlining those items and specifying things like how to request time off, how it will be approved, and how much time employees need to give in advance before taking time off. Additionally, if there are days when employees can’t take off, list those.

When you’re finished, you can distribute the new PTO policy document to your employees. Add it to your employee handbook, knowledge base, or wherever your employment policies are available.

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