Managing employee absences is no cakewalk. Without the right tools in place, you can quickly find yourself treading water when it comes to keeping track of attendance records, approving leaves accurately, and punctually following up with staff members on their job schedules. And the bigger the team is, the more challenging the process becomes.
Fortunately, there are now online absence management systems that take the grunt work out of leave tracking for teams of every size. In this blog post, we’re sharing our hand-picked list of 11 top-notch online absence management solutions that will make your life as an HR manager much easier – check them out!
Free Online Leave Management Systems
1. actiPLANS
Key features:
- Visual timelines
- Custom leave types
- Automated PTO tracking
- Streamlined leave approval
- Email notifications
- Absence reports
- Calendar integrations
- Mobile app
actiPLANS is one of the best absence management systems due to its powerful yet user-friendly features, which enable companies of all sizes to simplify absence tracking, streamline leave approval processes, and significantly improve workforce transparency.
One of its standout features is a visual timeline, which provides everyone on the team with an intuitive and easily digestible overview of their own and their colleagues’ absences. More than that, actiPLANS lets you schedule employees’ leave time and working time alike.
Once actiPLANS is set up, scheduling days off on its visual timeline is as easy as sending an email. Besides, the system automates the leave approval and the PTO tracking processes so you can save time and avoid tedious manual time off accrual.
Moreover, absence data from actiPLANS can be integrated with any online calendar of choice + employees can use the mobile app to inform colleagues when they are running late or need to leave work earlier. This way, nobody’s time off and schedule changes remain overlooked or conflict with one another.
actiPLANS makes employee leave data available in one centralized format, through multiple handy reports. This means that data’s available to all managers and HR, ensuring that everybody’s on the same page. Even better, the online format and built-in automation mean that data only needs to be entered one time, removing the potential for inaccuracies and human error.
Best for:
actiPLANS is perfect for all kinds of companies, from small startups to large enterprises. Whether you’re in retail, healthcare, finance, or any other industry, it can help you streamline your absence scheduling process and keep everything organized. Plus, with customizable settings and easy-to-use features, you can tailor the software to your specific needs and preferences.
Say goodbye to leave management headaches and hello to a more efficient, productive workplace with actiPLANS! Sign up for a free 30-day trial here.
Easy-to-use interface, accurate data, and reports. Automatic leave requests and approval really save a great deal of time
2. Leave Dates
Key features:
- Visual absence chart
- Instant notifications
- Calendar integrations
- Reports
- Mobile app
Leave Dates is a clean and well-designed app that makes it easy to meet all of your scheduling needs. It also ensures that employees’ privacy is provided for, as only the people who need to know why you’re requesting time off are able to access the pertinent details.
Leave Dates also integrates effortlessly with other calendar software and comes with a convenient app that’s easy to use and easy to understand. Besides, Leave Dates is highly customizable: you can create bespoke leave management rules and set the beginning of your calendar year, choosing any date that’s significant for your organization.
Best for:
Leave Dates is perfect for small and medium-sized businesses that lack the HR support and resources that are available to larger companies.
3. OfficeBot
Key features:
- Custom leave types
- Easy leave approval
- Notifications
- Visual charts and reports
- Google Calendar integration
OfficeBot is an online absence management software with a little bit extra: in addition to time off, it lets you keep track of your employees’ shifts, so you know exactly where your entire team is at any point and time.
With this system in place, employees can file for time off directly through OfficeBot’s online portal, while HRs can approve or deny time off requests in just a few clicks. All of this, combined with OfficeBot’s slick, intuitive interface makes it well worth a look if you’re in need of a simple absent management solution.
Best for:
If you’re running a small business with just a few employees, OfficeBot can help streamline your day-to-day tasks and keep things organized.
4. Freshteam
Key features:
- PTO balance tracking
- Calendars
- Automated leave approval
- Out-of-office emails
Freshteam is a cloud-based absent management platform with a little bit extra. It’s a fully functioning HR software, letting you do all of your hiring, onboarding, and employee management through one central platform.
Besides managing employee absences, your HR team can use Freshteam to track job applicants, make organizational charts and develop comprehensive staff information systems. Your employees can also apply this solution as a self-service system not only when submitting leave requests but also when looking for essential work-related information, including organizational policies, payslips, etc.
Best for:
Businesses with decentralized operations or remote teams can benefit from Freshteam’s centralized data management system and easy communication channels.
5. LeaveBoard
Key features:
- Employee self-service
- Leave reports
- Attendance tracking
LeaveBoard is a comprehensive HR software that has become a top choice for many companies looking to streamline the management of leaves and absences. 
One of the standout qualities of LeaveBoard is its ability to automate the entire time off management process, from request initiation to approval and everything in between. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, reduces the likelihood of errors, and saves a significant amount of time.
The software also offers detailed reporting and analytics tools, which provide insightful data on employee leave history, trends, and patterns. This information can be used to make informed decisions about staffing, resource allocation, and scheduling.
Best for:
Any company can use LeaveBoard, but small and medium-sized businesses, remote teams, and those prioritizing efficiency in HR processes stand to gain the most from its many features and benefits.
6. OfficeTimer
Key features:
- Custom leave types
- Time tracking
- Integrations
- Reports
OfficeTimer is a free online leave management system with additional functionality for time tracking, project costing, and attendance monitoring.
You can adjust OfficeTimer in line with your internal policies so it accrues time off balances automatically and just the way you want. Moreover, it allows you to set individual absence management rules for different employees.
The system has a mobile version, which makes it convenient to submit and approve leave requests wherever you are. And for even higher efficiency, all the OfficeTime reports can be downloaded and exported to third-party tools that you prefer to use for payroll and other accounting works.
Best for:
OfficeTimer is most advantageous for companies with a remote workforce, multiple projects, and a focus on accountability.
Paid Online Absence Management Systems
1. HRnest
Key features:
- Holiday planning
- Easy request approval
- Bespoke leave types
- Reports
- Work scheduling
HRnest is a top-tier HR software solution that has been specifically designed to streamline and automate essential HR functions. It facilitates the management of employee leave requests, absence tracking, and leave approvals to a large degree.
HRnest allows administrators to set up customized leave policies, including the ability to configure leave limits, carryover rules, and holiday entitlements. It ensures compliance with legal requirements, such as family medical leave and sickness absence management, which reduces the risks associated with noncompliance.
Another noteworthy feature of HRnest is its reporting capability. With its help, you can generate accurate reports to track leave usage, leave balances, and leave accruals. This data can be used in workforce planning, budgeting, and forecasting, as well as to monitor employee attendance and ensure that employees take leave within the company’s guidelines.
Best for:
HRnest is best suitable for companies with a relatively large employee base and those who want to maintain a standardized and consistent HR process across all departments.
2. absence.io
Key features:
- Absence calendar
- Employee substitution
- Flexible settings
- Notifications
This digital solution has everything you need to track different types of time off, approve leave requests, and analyze team absence data.
absence.io lets you create multiple custom leave types, which employees may schedule using an intuitive calendar interface in a web version of the tool or a mobile app. The system promptly notifies managers of new leave requests and, thus, speeds app the leave approval process a great deal.
Besides that, absence.io has functionality for employee data management and time tracking. Therefore, it allows you to handle pretty much all team-related information in a centralized way.
Best for:
absence.io is particularly suitable for small and medium-sized businesses that have outgrown manual HR processes and need a scalable solution for managing their workforce.
3. Pause
Key features:
- Automated approvals
- Slack integration
- Calendar integrations
- Custom leave policies
Pause is a perfect leave management solution for teams with tight budgets. It doesn’t contain any extraordinary features and is fairly simple to use. However, it still can improve your entire absence management process to a large degree.
You may configure this system in line with your leave management policies and preferable rules to promote team compliance. With the help of Pause, you can also accrue employees’ time off balances in an error-free way, monitor staff availability, detect overworking team members on the verge of burnout, and track their birthdays and work anniversaries.
In other words, Pause has it all to help you promote better work-life balance in employees, calculate payroll, plan workloads, and whatnot! A truly helpful solution, indeed.
Best for:
Pause is best suitable for small and medium-sized teams that use Slack as the primary communication tool.
4. Evolia
Key features:
- Absence & shift scheduling
- Request priorities
- Employee swaps
Evolia is a comprehensive workforce management solution with functionality for shift scheduling, staff budgeting, attendance monitoring, and vacation tracking.
One of the most prominent features of this system is automated replacement management. Here’s how it works: when an employee calls in sick and their leave request gets approved, Evolia automatically searches for a person who could cover the sick employee during their previously scheduled shifts. This feature lets you save some time on the process of shift reassignment and make it more effortless.
Best for:
Evolia is most effective for small and medium-sized businesses in the service, retail, and hospitality sectors.
5. Personio
Key features:
- Fast absence processing
- Visual reports
- Attendance tracking
This is an automated HR management software with some handy features for absence and attendance tracking. It helps to build a fully digitalized and very efficient leave management process and reduce time off calculation errors to zero.
You can create multiple leave types in the system, set any preferable time off accrual rules, monitor employee absences in real time, or analyze them in greater depth via informative reports. Using Personio, employees can access their vital absence-related information whenever they want and submit leave requests in a convenient way in a matter of seconds.
Personio’s absence management module works in sync with the one for attendance tracking. Thereby, this solution provides you with all the data you need for accurate payroll.
Best for:
Personio streamlines HR processes, automates workflows, and eliminates manual tasks with ease, providing small and medium-sized businesses with a cost-effective solution for managing their HR activities.
Get Yourself the Perfect Online Absence Management System
Ultimately, having the best absence management system in place can make all the difference for businesses. Not only does it keep track of employee leave time, but it also helps to ensure that company policies are being followed and paid time off is accrued without mistakes.
Finding the right system will give you peace of mind and energy to focus on other aspects of running your business. Not to mention, the key benefit of a successful absence management system is improved organizational efficiency, which helps your business achieve greater success overall.
If you’re ready to find out how an effective online absence management system can facilitate and streamline your business processes, consider actiPLANS. This intuitive platform makes absence management more transparent and streamlined and ensures that your employees’ leave requests are handled fairly and efficiently.
Sign up for a free actiPLANS trial today and try it out firsthand.
