Leave management software for small businesses
Holiday tracking without an HR department
Leavepad is the staff holiday tracker for small businesses. Your team books time off in seconds, you approve it in one click, and allowances, public holidays and the leave calendar take care of themselves.
Get startedSound familiar?
The spreadsheet only one person understands
Formulas break, tabs multiply and nobody is sure which version is right, least of all when that person is on holiday.
Requests lost in chat and email
A quick message about Friday off becomes a forgotten approval and two people out on the same day.
Year-end maths by hand
Working out who has days left, what carries over and which public holidays fell on working days takes an afternoon you don't have.
Staff holiday tracker
A staff holiday tracker that keeps its own balances
Set a yearly allowance for each leave type and Leavepad does the rest. Every approved request comes off the right balance, and each employee can see exactly what they have left.
- Separate balances for holiday, sick leave, training and more
- Only working days are counted, public holidays are skipped
- No more "how much holiday do I have left?" messages
Holiday requests
Holiday requests and approvals in one place
Replace paper holiday request forms and chat messages with one simple request. It goes straight to the right manager, who approves or declines it with a note in one click.
- Employees request leave in seconds from any device
- Managers approve their own team, admins approve anyone
- Choose which leave types need approval at all
Sick leave tracker
Track sick days, even for staff who never log in
When someone phones in sick, log it for them in a few clicks. It's approved straight away, comes off the right balance and shows on the calendar, so your absence records are always complete.
- Book sick leave or holiday on someone's behalf
- Ideal for shop floor, kitchen and field staff
- A complete record of every absence, in one place
More ways Leavepad helps small businesses
Public holidays done for you
Import your country's public holidays for the year. They're never taken from anyone's allowance.
Your leave policy, not ours
Holiday, sick leave, parental leave, unpaid leave: set an allowance and approval rule for each.
Part-time allowances
Adjust any person's balance for part-time hours, long service or days agreed in their contract.
Automatic carry-over
Set a carry-over limit and unused days roll into the new year on their own.
Set up in minutes
A short setup wizard, an invite for the team and you're running. No implementation project.
Secure by design
Row-level security keeps your company's data separate from everyone else's.
What Leavepad replaces
One leave management system for small businesses, instead of the spreadsheets, messages and wall charts you use today.
- Holiday requestsPaper holiday request forms
- ApprovalsTexts and emails to the owner
- Holiday balancesThe shared spreadsheet
- Sick day recordsA notebook in the office
- Who's offThe wall calendar in the kitchen
- Year-end carry-overAn afternoon with a calculator
Guide
How to manage staff holidays in a small business
You don't need an HR department to run leave well. A few clear rules and one shared place to track them cover most small businesses.
- 1
Write a one-page leave policy
Say how much holiday people get, when the leave year starts, how much notice you need and who approves requests. Keep it short enough that people actually read it.
- 2
Set allowances in days, per leave type
Start from the legal minimum where you are, then add anything extra you offer. Keep holiday, sick leave and other leave separate so each balance means something.
- 3
Use one place for every request
Requests that arrive by text, email and in person get lost. Ask everyone to use the same form or tool, so approvals and balances never drift apart.
- 4
Keep a calendar everyone can see
When the team can see who's already off, people plan around each other and you stop having to say no to clashing requests.
- 5
Check balances before the year ends
A few months before the leave year ends, remind people with lots of days left to book them, and agree in advance how much can carry over.
Free leave calculators for small businesses
Holiday Entitlement Calculator
Work out UK statutory annual leave for full-time, part-time and irregular-hours workers, including part-year starters, extra company leave and bank holidays.
Open the calculatorPro Rata Holiday Calculator
Work out annual leave for part-time staff and for anyone who starts or leaves part-way through the leave year, with rounding and leave owed.
Open the calculatorPublic Holidays 2027
Every public and bank holiday in 2027 for over 200 countries, with weekdays, regional holidays and long weekends.
See the holidays
Leave management software for small businesses: FAQ
Do small businesses need leave management software?
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Once more than a handful of people share a holiday spreadsheet, it starts to cost time: chasing approvals, fixing formulas and working out balances at year end. Leave management software keeps requests, approvals, balances and the calendar in one place, so the owner or office manager no longer has to.
Is Leavepad simple enough without an HR team?
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Yes. Leavepad is built for companies without an HR department. Setup asks for your country, working week and holiday allowance, and everything else has sensible defaults you can change later.
How much annual leave are employees entitled to?
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It depends on the country. In the UK most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week and can include bank holidays. EU countries guarantee at least four weeks. The US has no federal minimum, so paid time off is set by the employer and some state laws.
Can I give someone a different holiday allowance?
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Yes. Allowances are set per leave type for the whole company, and admins can adjust any person's balance, for example for a part-time employee, a long-service bonus or days carried over by agreement.
Can we track sick days as well as holidays?
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Yes. Sick leave is its own leave type with its own allowance (or no limit), and you decide whether it needs approval. Admins can log sick days for people who phone in.
What should a small business leave policy include?
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At minimum: the holiday allowance and leave year, how to request leave and how much notice to give, who approves it, rules for busy periods, how sick leave is reported and how much unused leave can be carried over.
Can we move over from our holiday spreadsheet?
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Yes. Set your allowance, invite your team, then adjust each person's balance to match what they have left this year. From then on Leavepad keeps it up to date with every approved request.
Built for every kind of team
Agencies
Plan project staffing around annual leave and see clashes before a deadline does.
Accounting firms
Keep the team in the office through busy season and spread holidays across the quiet months.
Remote teams
One team leave calendar across time zones, so nobody is surprised by an empty chat channel.
Four-day week companies
Count leave in your working days, not someone else's, with no manual conversions.
Retire the holiday spreadsheet
Set up Leavepad for your team in a few minutes. Invite your people and they can book time off today.
Get started