First published on Monday, November 18, 2024
Last updated on Thursday, November 20, 2025
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Your employees are entitled to time away from work, and as an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure the leave tracking process is managed effectively in your business.
Leave management covers a range of different types of time off work, from vacation days and PTO tracking to sick leave and job protected absences. This is an area of managing a business that can quickly become an admin nightmare, if not done well.
From making sure everyone is taking enough time off work, knowing which employees are currently at work, to accepting last minute vacation requests, and avoiding clashes in the calendar. For small businesses with limited time or resources to manage this process, outdated methods can cause significant problems.
Leave management software explained
Leave management software makes things like vacation tracking and employee leave management more efficient for businesses by automating the entire process.
By placing everything into one easily managed online calendar/planner, you'll always have a full view of who’s in, time off tracking or employees who are out on different leaves.
You can do everything from accepting or denying vacation requests, automatically calculating vacation allowance to logging long term leave, removing the risk of leave conflicts and saving yourself time in administration tasks.
Key leave management software features
The best leave management software will be able to track and enforce your way of doing everything—from the simplest vacation requests to accurate documentation for more complex long-term leave. Here are some functions you should look for:
Accurate documentation of employee leave and absences
Time off tracking
Vacation request workflows
Enforcement of vacation policies
Reporting and analytics
Calendar integration
User-friendly interface
Staff login access
Instant notifications
Integrated HR apps & software
The easier it is for your employees to log and request their own leave, the easier it is for your management to approve, deny and manage requests that fit your business needs.
The benefits of digitalized leave management
Both your business and employees greatly benefit from the extensive features of an efficient leave management system as they help to simplify, organize and properly manage your leave request and acceptance processes with ease.
Automate vacation time tracking
Approve or deny time-off requests in one click
Enjoy a single view of your entire team’s time off
Remove conflict with vacation clash alerts
Streamline HR processes
Enhance employee wellbeing and workplace culture
Avoid paper trails and spreadsheet nightmares
Reduce the risk of human error
With a centralized system, the vacation request workflow makes it easy to request, review, approve or deny paid time off in just a few clicks. A straightforward solution, allowing you to throw out your outdated employee leave management spreadsheets.
Staying legally compliant
While it’s not mandatory for Canadian employers to have a leave of absence policy, it’s best practice to have one. A leave of absence policy ensures your business has guidelines and procedures in place for when employees want to request time off work. It should align with the relevant federal, provincial, and territorial leave laws. Providing employees with information such as:
Vacation entitlements
How to request time off
Vacation and sick pay rules
Absence reporting guidelines
Processes for requesting job protected leaves
Make sure employees have access to and can frequently review this policy. By using a software solution for your leave management and absence tracking, you can keep your leave management process in line with your absence policies and minimize confusion in the workplace.
Managing job protected leave in Canada
A modern leave management system can help you stay compliant by automatically updating and reflecting relevant legislation changes, helping you avoid potential legal pitfalls. This way, you’re not only taking care of your employees but also protecting your business from unnecessary fines or disputes.
Employment standards are different depending on the province your business is in, so it’s important to consult with employment relation experts and check the employment standards of your jurisdiction.
Generally speaking, you should be aware of the legislation surrounding these types of leave:
Jury duty leave
Domestic violence leave
Personal emergency leave
Manage leave with BrightHR
With BrightHR’s suite of time saving tools and leave management software you can manage employee leave with ease!
Both our staff vacation planner and online absence management tool provide a total overview of who has time off. Whether this is for paid time off, sick leave or other job protected absences, you’ll aways have clear visibility of your employee leave. From automatically calculating annual vacation allowances, to flagging time off clashes, leave management is a breeze with BrightHR.
Book a free demo to find out how BrightHR can help you streamline your leave management processes today!
