Vacation and PTO tracking can be your worst nightmare when you have more than a dozen employees. It is hard to keep track of all the PTO requests you receive, but also, some 43% of hourly workers admit they've committed time theft. If you are unsure what that is, some people clock more hours on their job than their actual attendance and lie to get more PTO.
This is why you must have decent time-tracking software that can track the absence or vacations of your employees. Manual inputting can be time-consuming, and the more employees you have, the harder it gets to track productivity.
So in this article, we will cover the five most popular time-tracking software, what we love about them, and what we don't.
A list of Popular PTO Tracking Software
Youbelee (built-in VACATION TRACKING and PTO TRACKER)
Youbelee is our first choice for a vast myriad of reasons. First of all, onboarding is a piece of cake and fast. Second, Youbelee is a people and process management software that is easily scalable and customizable regarding your company's specific needs. For example, you can input vacation days, sick leave, and special region-specific holidays. Which means you can input leave policies that fit your own needs.
Your manager is always in the loop; every time an employee gets approval for their PTO, it is recorded in the calendar. And if your employee doesn't show up, the software notifies the management immediately.
What we loved:
- Simple to use UX and UI
- Leave Tracking software with customizable calendar tracking employee PTO,
- Time Attendance which will automatically follow the current status and location of your employee, informing their manager
- Cloud-based, have access whenever you want for all your essential HR needs wherever you have a computer/smartphone and an internet connection.
- The mobile app lets you clock in or take out PTO with ease.
- Price, there are free plans before you are ready to scale up.
- Detailed reports on all activities
BambooHR (built-in VACATION TRACKING and PTO TRACKER)
BambooHR is a great HR management software that has attendance built into it. Vacation time is automatically calculated and is excellent for tracking small to mid-level business. It is very intuitive and straightforward to use. If you are in a company slowly moving away from spreadsheet-based PTO tracking, then bamboo has you covered. It is also cloud-based and has a mobile app.
What we loved:
- Simple UI, simple to use and understand, handling of time off requests
- Good with small to mid-level business
- Cloud-based
- Mobile app
What we didn't love:
- Measuring workflow balance doesn't scale up
- The authentication aspect in the login can be a pain when the timer runs out
- A lot less functional when you scale up, offers no customization or extra features
- No free plan
CakeHR
A simple-to-use software with a friendly HR system in mind, primarily targeted to small to mid-level businesses. It is highly customizable with employee self-service and leaves management. It also offers a variety of functionalities, such as scheduling and timesheets.
What we loved:
- Its UX is simple and gorgeous, a true joy to use, especially for time off requests
- Functionality is excellent as long as you use it only as PTO-tracking software
- Customizable business fields
- Detailed reports
What we didn't love:
- Dealing with historical data can be a pain as it is primarily a manual process
- Only deals with PTO tracking
- Difficulty scaling
UltiPro
Ulti Pro has everything a business needs regarding PTO tracking software. You can customize it in any way your organization sees fit, and it will do wonders for your productivity with its ease-of-use UI. For example, have a specific time your employees leave for vacation; you can just input whatever you want and apply it to your entire company or just a portion of your employees or teams.
What we loved:
- Incredible amounts of PTO functionality
- Price is competitive with similar software
- Customer Service
- Simple to use UI and UX
What we didn't love:
- Almost no customization makes it hard to scale up
- Limited functionality outside of PTO tracking
Calamari
Incredibly intuitive and straightforward to use, navigating Calamari is simply a joy. It is the number one that all the users praise when reviewing it. It is made for smaller businesses, and it's easy to set up and customize any attendance rules and time off requests you might have.
What we loved:
- UX and UI might be the best on this list, intuitive
- Onboarding is easy
- Customizable forms are just easy to adapt
What we didn't love:
- The mobile application is quite bare, and leave requests don't have all the functionality of the desktop version, which limits any user working on the go
- No scalability
In Conclusion
When you invest in great PTO tracking software, you also invest in your HR department. You give them the much-needed breathing room to do more important things like working on professional employee development. Your best bet is to get software ideal for your company and its current stage of development.
It would be best if you automated as much as you can, things like PTO requests and employee vacation management. Whether you want to get a do-all great HR software like Youbelee or a specific one like CakeHR, unburdening your HR is the way to go.