What is the best leave management software for a small business in 2026?
The one that tracks PTO and holiday right for a team of 5 to 25, for less than the time your spreadsheet costs you. From $0 (Connecteam) to a full HR suite (BambooHR).
In a small business, time off usually lives in a spreadsheet the owner updates between other jobs. It works until two people book the same week, or someone's balance is wrong on their last day.
The short answer: Timetastic for a small office, at $2.50 per user on Pro with a 30-day free trial. Breathe HR if you're a UK micro business, at £24 a month for up to 10 people. Homebase if your staff work hourly shifts in the US. Connecteam if you want $0 for under 10 users.
One question narrows it fast: do your people work fixed hours or shifts? Shift teams need time off inside the schedule. Office teams just need a clean calendar.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always flagged on its listing, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best leave software by situation
6 leave management tools for small businesses compared
The payroll column tells you how approved time off reaches your pay run. Prices are the first published price for a plan that handles time off, read on each vendor's official page.
| Best for | Payroll link | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timetastic | Small office | No payroll of its own | 4.3/5 | $1.50/user/month | — | 5 to 30 people | Visit → |
| 2 | Breathe HR | UK micro business | No payroll included | 4.0/5 | £24/company/month | — | 1 to 10 (UK) | Visit → |
| 3 | Homebase | US hourly teams | Yes, payroll add-on | 4.4/5 | Free, PTO on $70 Plus | ✓ | Shops, restaurants | Visit → |
| 4 | Connecteam | Free | No payroll | 3.8/5 | Free up to 10 users | ✓ | Field teams | Visit → |
| 5 | Vacation Tracker | Slack or Teams | Integrations, no payroll | 4.1/5 | $50/month minimum | — | 25 people and up | Visit → |
| 6 | BambooHR | HR suite | Yes, payroll add-on | 4.2/5 | $250/month flat | — | 15 to 25 people | Visit → |
Prices before tax, read on official pricing pages in 2026. Breathe HR prices in pounds, excluding VAT.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
The top Google results for this question are vendor blogs, and each one ranks its own product first. Few compare prices, and none flags the monthly minimums that make some tools expensive for a team of 8. We read every vendor's pricing and product pages, the official rules on gov.uk and dol.gov, and public user reviews.
Each tool keeps the same overall score it has on our other leave and HR pages. The rank follows this page's question: Homebase has the top score, but it ranks third because its PTO controls sit on a $70-per-location plan built for shift teams.
Jibble isn't ranked here: its free plan is generous for time tracking, but its pricing page doesn't make clear that leave accruals are in the free tier.
- Accrual and policy accuracyAccruals, part-time, carryover, local holidays.30 %
- Payroll and integrationsHow approved leave reaches payroll and your calendar.20 %
- Price and transparencyPublished price, minimums, real cost for 8 people.25 %
- SetupTime to go live without help, mobile app.15 %
- SupportResponse, documentation, updates.10 %
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always flagged on its listing, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Timetastic
Timetastic does one job: people ask for time off, a manager says yes or no, and everyone sees who's out on a shared calendar. Its pricing page shows prices in US dollars. Pro costs $2.50 per user per month, so an 8-person team pays $20 a month. Business, at $1.50, covers the basics for $12.
There's no contract. You pay month to month and cancel yourself, with no notice period. The trial runs 30 days with no card, and it doesn't bill you when it ends: you add payment details only if you stay.
It's built for leave and nothing else: no payroll, no HR records. Some small-team users say hourly leave and part-time allowances take more setting up than day-based leave, so add one part-timer during the trial. If your team has fixed hours and full-time staff, you won't notice.
- $2.50 per user on Pro
- 30-day trial with no card
- Month to month, cancel anytime
- ✓The cheapest serious tool for a small office
- ✓Set up in an afternoon
- ✓Clear, public pricing
- ✗Check hourly leave during the trial
- ✗Leave only, no HR records
- ✗No payroll of its own
The default pick if you just want to retire the spreadsheet. If you run shifts or track hours, look at Homebase or Connecteam instead.
Breathe HR
Breathe HR charges per company, not per person. The Micro plan covers 1 to 10 employees for £24 a month excluding VAT, and holiday and absence management is included as standard. At 10 people that's £2.40 a head; at 4 people it's £6.
You also get the HR basics a small UK employer needs: employee records, documents and absence history in one place. Paying yearly saves about 15% on the smaller plans, and the trial runs 14 days with every feature and add-on switched on.
It's a UK product first. Bank holidays, the 5.6-week statutory minimum and UK terms are the natural setting. A US team will find better-fitting tools higher up this list.
- £24 a month for up to 10 people
- Holiday and absence included as standard
- Full trial with add-ons
- ✓Flat price, so no surprise as you hire
- ✓HR records come with it
- ✓Built around UK holiday rules
- ✗Poor fit for US teams
- ✗No payroll included
- ✗Price jumps to £44 at 11 people
The smartest buy for a UK micro business that wants more than a holiday chart. Count heads before you hit 11.
Homebase
Homebase is a scheduling and time clock app for US hourly teams. Time off sits inside the schedule: when someone's PTO is approved, the gap shows before you publish next week's shifts. That's what matters in a café, not a pretty wall chart.
Pricing is per location. Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees. The plan that lists PTO and time-off controls is Plus, at $70 per location per month, with unlimited employees. For a 12-person store, that's under $6 a head.
If you only need a leave calendar for an office team, Homebase is the wrong shape. It shines when time off, shifts and timesheets all feed payroll.
- PTO inside the schedule
- Free Basic for 1 location
- Priced per location
- ✓Built for hourly, shift-based work
- ✓Time clock and scheduling in the same app
- ✓Unlimited employees on paid plans
- ✗PTO controls sit on the $70 Plus plan
- ✗Overkill for a salaried office
- ✗US-centric
Our top-rated tool for US hourly teams. Office teams on fixed hours get more for less with Timetastic.
Connecteam
Connecteam's Small Business plan is free for life for up to 10 users, with every hub included. Time off lives in the HR and Skills hub, with balances and admin approval, so a 6-person crew pays nothing.
The catch is the eleventh user. Past 10, you move to a paid plan: the HR hub starts at $29 a month billed yearly for the first 30 users, or $35 monthly. That's still cheap, but plan for it if you're hiring.
Connecteam is mobile first. Your team requests leave and clocks in from their phones. It doesn't run payroll, so you pass balances to your payroll provider yourself.
- $0 for up to 10 users
- Mobile-first app
- Time off, clock-in and chat
- ✓Free for most micro teams
- ✓Staff request leave from their phone
- ✓Cheap even after the free tier
- ✗No payroll
- ✗Free plan stops at 10 users
- ✗More app than an office team needs
Hard to beat at $0 for a deskless crew under 10. Office teams get a cleaner experience from Timetastic.
Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker works inside the chat tools your team already uses, with Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations. Leave requests, approvals and balances happen where people talk.
Read the pricing carefully. Core is $2 per user per month, but with a $50 monthly minimum. Complete, the plan that includes accruals, hourly tracking and TOIL, is $4 per user with a $100 minimum. Both minimums equal 25 users, so an 8-person team pays $50 or $100, not $16 or $32.
That makes it a strong tool for a 25-person company and an expensive one for a 6-person shop.
- Slack and Teams integrations
- Accruals on Complete
- 14-day trial
- ✓Accruals, hourly tracking and TOIL on Complete
- ✓No contract or cancellation fee
- ✓Unlimited leave policies on both plans
- ✗$50 minimum hurts teams under 25
- ✗Accruals only on the $100 minimum plan
- ✗Check which plan includes Slack and Teams
Great at 25 people, overpriced at 8. Small teams should start with Timetastic and move up later.
BambooHR
BambooHR is a complete HR system, and its time-off module is one of the most capable around: unlimited custom policies and a time-off calendar. Core includes time-off management.
For a small business, the price is the issue. Up to 25 employees, BambooHR charges a flat monthly fee: $250 on Core. For an 8-person team, that's over $30 a head, against $2.50 for Timetastic Pro.
It earns its price when you also need onboarding, records, reporting and US payroll in one place. For leave alone, it's the most expensive way to do it on this page.
- Strong time-off policies
- Complete HR records
- US payroll add-on
- ✓Unlimited custom time-off policies
- ✓Grows with you well past 25 people
- ✓Highest accrual score on this page
- ✗$250 a month minimum
- ✗Payroll and time tracking cost extra
- ✗Far too much for leave alone
Buy it as an HR system, not as a leave tracker. Under 15 people, the flat fee is hard to justify.
US or UK: what your tool has to track
Leave law is very different on each side of the Atlantic. Set the tool up for the country your staff work in, and check it during the trial.
In the US: your policy is the rule
In the UK: 5.6 weeks minimum
Irregular hours
- Write down your PTO policy before you configure anything.
- Set the tool to your country's public holidays.
- Add one part-time employee during the trial.
- Check the carryover rule at year end.
- Export balances once, to make sure you can leave.
Per user, per company or free: what an 8-person team pays
Vendors count different things. The same team can pay $0 at one and $250 at another. Here's the math for 8 people, from published prices.
Per user
Per company or location
Free with a ceiling
- Count users, including owners who book time off.
- Price your headcount today and next year.
- Look for monthly minimums in the small print.
- Check if the trial needs a card.
- Ask what happens to your data when you cancel.
Six habits before you ditch the spreadsheet
What makes the switch stick in a small team, from user feedback and the official rules.
Write the policy first
SetupIn the US, nothing sets your PTO rules except your own policy. Write it in one page: accrual rate, cap, carryover, notice. Then configure the tool to match. A tool set up without a written policy just automates arguments.
- Length
- one page
Start at the beginning of a leave year
MigrationImport balances at the start of your leave year, when they're easy to agree on. Ask each person to confirm their starting balance in writing, and keep a dated copy of the old spreadsheet.
- Keep
- the old file, dated
Check the minimum, not the per-user price
BudgetVacation Tracker lists $2 per user, with a $50 monthly minimum. For 8 people, the real price is $50. Always multiply, then compare with the minimum.
- Real price for 8
- $50, not $16
Test one part-timer and one hourly worker
AccuracyUsers of simple trackers report that hourly leave and part-time allowances are where things go wrong. Add one of each during the trial and check the balances against your own math.
- Test cases
- 2 people
Plan for the eleventh hire
GrowthFree tiers stop at 10: Connecteam at 10 users, Homebase Basic at 10 employees, and Breathe HR Micro goes from £24 to £44 at 11. Price the next tier now so you don't switch tools in a hurry.
- Common ceiling
- 10 people
Sync the team calendar on day one
Daily useThe daily win is seeing who's out next week without opening another app. Connect the tool to Google or Outlook calendars, or to Slack or Teams, as soon as you start.
- Payoff
- fewer "are you in Monday?"
Leave is sorted, now what
These pages go further on the HR tools around time off.
The ranking for larger teams.
You want a full HR systemThe best HR software for small businessRecords, documents, time off.
You run payroll yourselfThe best small business payroll softwarePay runs without an accountant.
You track hoursThe best time and attendance softwareClock-in and overtime.
You build shift schedulesThe best employee scheduling softwareWeekly rotas online.
You bill by the hourThe best timesheet softwareTime by client and project.
Small business leave management · FAQ
Is a spreadsheet enough to track PTO for a small business?
Yes, for 2 or 3 full-time people with one simple policy and one approver. It breaks with accruals, part-timers and carryover, because every balance becomes a manual formula. The cheapest real tool on this page costs $1.50 per user a month.Is there free leave management software for small businesses?
Yes. Connecteam is free for up to 10 users, time off included. Homebase Basic is free for one location and up to 10 employees, but its PTO controls are listed on the paid Plus plan.How much does leave management software cost for 10 employees?
From $0 to $250 a month. Timetastic Pro costs $25, Breathe HR Micro £24, Vacation Tracker $50 because of its minimum, and BambooHR $250 flat. The difference is how much HR comes with it.Do US employers have to offer paid vacation?
Not under federal law. The Department of Labor says the FLSA doesn't require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays. Some states and cities have their own paid leave rules, so check where your staff work.How much holiday must UK employers give?
At least 5.6 weeks a year, which is 28 days for someone working 5 days a week. You can include bank holidays in that total. Part-time staff on regular hours get a pro-rated share.Should time off connect to payroll?
If you pay hourly staff or accrue PTO per hour worked, yes. Homebase and BambooHR both offer payroll add-ons. For salaried office teams, a monthly export to your payroll provider is usually enough.Can employees request time off from their phone?
Yes, with the mobile-first tools. Connecteam and Homebase are built for teams away from a desk, and Vacation Tracker works inside Slack and Microsoft Teams. On the others, check the phone experience during the trial.When should a small business move to a full HR system?
When you also manage onboarding, documents and reviews for 15 people or more. Before that, a leave tool costs a fraction of the price. BambooHR's flat $250 a month makes sense around 20 to 25 people.