Keeping track of who’s off, and when, doesn’t have to be a maze of spreadsheets, email threads, and calendar chaos. A modern vacation tracking app centralizes requests, approvals, balances, holidays, and reporting so your team can plan confidently and managers can keep work humming along. This page breaks down what to look for in a vacation tracker and highlights how Day Off can streamline time‑off management for teams of any size.
What is a vacation tracking app?
A vacation tracking app (often called PTO or leave management software) is a dedicated system for submitting, approving, recording, and reporting employee time off. Instead of juggling multiple tools, everything lives in one place: employees see their balances, managers review requests with context, and administrators export accurate records for payroll and planning. The strongest apps also automate accruals, carryovers, and resets, enforce policy rules (like black‑out dates or minimum notice), and sync with calendars so visibility extends beyond HR to the rest of the organization.
Why it matters
Clarity for employees: Staff can check real‑time balances, understand how pending requests affect them, and preview future accruals. This transparency removes guesswork (“Do I still have PTO left?”) and reduces back‑and‑forth with managers or HR. Clear visibility also helps people plan responsibly around teams and deadlines.
Control for managers: Approvals happen with full context: who else is off, project deadlines, and coverage needs. Managers can set approval paths (e.g., direct manager → department head) and apply rules like maximum concurrent absences. The result is fewer conflicts and a more predictable workload.
Accuracy for HR/Finance: Properly configured rules eliminate manual math. The system logs who approved what and when, making audits easier and helping payroll reconcile paid vs. unpaid time. Consistent records also support compliance with local labor requirements.
Less overhead: Automated notifications, calendar sync, and one‑click exports replace manual updates. That means fewer interruptions, lower administrative burden, and more time for strategic work rather than chasing spreadsheets.
Meet Day Off Vacation Tracker
Day Off is a lightweight, cloud‑based vacation & PTO tracker built for real‑world teams. It focuses on the parts of leave management people touch every day—requesting time, approving it quickly, and seeing who’s out, without forcing you into a heavy HR suite. It supports multiple leave types (PTO, sick, parental, unpaid, custom) and lets you tailor policies, accruals, and approvals to match how your organization already works.
At a glance:
Simple, fast setup, no heavy implementation: Create a workspace, add your policy, invite your team, and you’re live. No consultants, no months‑long rollout.
Clear employee self‑service and manager dashboards: Employees request from desktop or mobile, while managers get a clean queue with conflict indicators and notes.
Flexible policies per team or location: Define different allowances, accrual rates, and holidays for each team, country, or union group without maintaining separate tools.
Calendar views for who’s out and when: Team and company calendars make staffing gaps visible ahead of time so project plans stay realistic.
Integrations for the tools you already use: Connect to shared calendars and chat apps so requests, approvals, and visibility live where your team is already working.
Core features you’ll actually use
Employee self-service
Employees can request time off in seconds from web or mobile, single day, multi-day, or even partial-day to keep schedules precise. Each request includes notes and a chosen leave type, and the system shows real-time entitlements: current balance, what’s already used, what’s pending, and a projected balance after the request. That clarity cuts back and forth (“How much do I have left?”) and gives people confidence before they press submit.
Approvals & workflows
Start with a simple one-step approval for most teams, then layer in a second step for sensitive roles like finance or field operations. Approvers are assigned by person, team, or location so requests always land with the right decision-maker, even as people move around the org. Email and chat notifications follow each request from submission to decision, and gentle reminders nudge overdue approvals so nothing stalls.
Policies & accruals
Track every kind of leave, PTO, sick time, volunteer days, study leave, or any custom category, with clean color-coding and quick filters. Accruals mirror your policy exactly: annual grants, monthly or biweekly accruals, and tenure-based tiers are all supported, with automatic balance calculations. Carryover rules keep liabilities in check through configurable caps, expirations, and optional grace periods. Balances can reset on the calendar year, fiscal year, or each employee’s work anniversary to match your HR calendar.
Scheduling & visibility
Team calendars make it effortless to see who’s out by day, week, or month. Filter by team, location, role, or leave type to plan coverage at a glance. Country-specific public holidays are imported so you don’t overbook or deny legitimate time off, and conflict indicators flag overlapping absences before an approver hits “approve.”
Reporting
Generate date-bounded exports for payroll or leadership in a couple of clicks, by person, team, or leave type—so pay runs and quarterly reviews stay tight. Built-in insights surface patterns like frequent Friday/Monday absences, under-used entitlements, and teams operating near minimum staffing, helping managers take action rather than guess.
Integrations
Approved time flows automatically to Google Calendar and Outlook so meetings and deadlines reflect reality. Slack and Teams integrations let people submit, approve, and check status right where they already work, trimming inbox clutter and speeding up decisions.
Pricing at a glance
Startup
- 10 Employees
- Single Approver
- Single Policy
- SingleTeam
- SingleLocation
Startup
- Unlimited
- Multi Approvers
- Multi Teams
- +5 Integrations
- 24/7 support
Day Off keeps pricing straightforward so teams can start fast and scale without surprises. Basic (Free) is perfect for small teams piloting a structured PTO process: request and approve time off, run a single policy per team or location, view team calendars, and export what payroll needs. It’s everything you need to move off spreadsheets, without spending a cent.
Pro (Paid) adds the muscle for growing organizations. You get multi-step approvals for sensitive roles, support for multiple teams and locations, richer reporting that surfaces trends and exceptions, and deeper integrations that plug into your existing tools. The emphasis is governance and cross-team visibility while staying lightweight and affordable.
Smart path to value: Start on Free to validate policy settings and drive adoption. When you’re ready for multi-team policies, tighter auditability, or integrations that automate the busywork, upgrade to Pro in place, no data migrations, no reset for your users.
Integrations & calendar sync
A great vacation tracker meets people where they already work. Day Off pushes approved leave to shared calendars so project managers, recruiters, and stakeholders plan around real availability, not guesswork. Chat integrations bring the workflow into Slack and Microsoft Teams, so managers can review requests from a notification, approve in seconds, and keep queues moving. For distributed companies, spread across time zones and functions, this shared visibility turns potential surprise gaps into smooth, predictable coverage.
Mobile access
With iOS and Android apps, PTO becomes truly self-service. Employees can submit requests in seconds, include context like travel dates or handoff notes, and check real-time balances from anywhere. Managers get push notifications and can approve with a tap, handy in meetings, on-site visits, or while traveling. The result is a faster loop, fewer inbox pileups, and a time-off process that keeps pace with how your team actually works.
How to set up Day Off in under an hour
Create your workspace
Go to day-off.app and spin up your workspace with the company name and default timezone/first day of week. Don’t stress over perfection here; you can refine later. The goal is to get a working shell so the rest of the setup has a place to live.
Define leave types
Add the few categories you’ll truly use (e.g., PTO, Sick, Unpaid). For each, decide whether it accrues over time or is a fixed grant. Keep names short and unambiguous, and set visibility so employees only see what applies to them.
Set accrual rules
Choose grant vs. accrual, then lock in frequency (annual, monthly, or biweekly) and any tenure tiers. Add carryover caps (how much can roll forward) and expiration windows (when rolled days expire). The system will handle the math; your job is to reflect your policy exactly as written.
Import public holidays
Select the countries/regions where your teams work so non-working days land on the calendar automatically. This prevents accidental denials on public holidays and gives managers realistic views of coverage.
Create teams/locations & assign approvers
Mirror your org: define teams and locations, then assign a primary approver to each. Add a backup approver for resilience, vacations and out-of-office shouldn’t stall decisions. If some roles need tighter control, you can layer in multi-step approvals later.
Add employees
Invite people by email or import a CSV that includes start dates, locations, and initial balances. This ensures everyone starts with accurate entitlements and prevents “My balance looks off” on day one.
Connect integrations
Turn on calendar sync (Google/Outlook) so approved leave appears where everyone already plans their week. Enable chat approvals (Slack/Teams) and set notification preferences so reminders go to the right channels, fewer emails, and faster responses.
Test end-to-end, then launch
Run a dry run: submit a request, approve it, confirm it appears on calendars, and verify it shows up in reports/exports. When everything checks out, announce the rollout with a simple one-pager that explains how to request, how approvals work, and who to contact for balance questions.
Who benefits most
Large companies & distributed enterprises
Standardize policy without flattening local nuance. Use multi-step approvals and clear audit trails to balance governance with speed, apply team/location-specific rules to handle complexity, and rely on calendar/chat integrations to keep decisions moving across time zones. Reporting at scale surfaces coverage hotspots and entitlement trends so leaders can act before issues escalate, all while working alongside your existing HR and payroll systems, not replacing them.
Small & midsize businesses
Roll out structured PTO in minutes, not months. Day Off gives lean People teams a clean approval flow, accurate balances, and team calendars without buying a full HR suite or retraining the whole company. Managers get the signal they need; employees get self-service clarity.
Agencies & consultancies
Protect delivery timelines with real visibility. Conflict alerts and partial-day requests help you staff around client deadlines, while calendar sync keeps project leads and account managers aligned. Reporting surfaces patterns early so you can rebalance before it hurts a milestone.
Nonprofits & schools
Support varied contracts and regional realities. Handle part-time and seasonal schedules, respect local public holidays, and track unique categories like volunteer or study leave. Approvals can mirror campuses or programs, keeping governance tight without adding admin overhead.
Retail, hospitality, & field teams
Built for shift work and on-the-floor operations. Mobile requests and tap-to-approve keep lines moving, location-specific policies prevent mistakes, and backup approvers keep coverage decisions from stalling when a manager is off duty.
How Day Off compares to spreadsheets and heavy HR suites
Versus spreadsheets
Spreadsheets work, until they don’t. As headcount and policies grow, versions drift, formulas break, and no one is sure which tab is “the truth.” Day Off gives you a single, reliable source of data: accruals, carryovers, and balance resets calculate automatically; reminders keep approvals moving; and every action is time-stamped for auditability. Employees see real-time balances before they submit, managers approve in context, and admins stop firefighting formula errors.
Versus all-in-one HR suites
Big suites do everything, which often makes simple PTO feel slow and complicated. Day Off focuses on time off, so setup is fast, training is minimal, and adoption sticks. You keep your current HR/payroll stack, pay only for what you use, and still get the flexibility enterprises need, policies by team or location, multi-step approvals for sensitive roles, and native calendar/chat integrations, without a months-long implementation.
Bottom line: Day Off replaces your spreadsheet without replacing your HR system, delivering speed, accuracy, and control where they matter most.
FAQs
Can employees submit partial-day requests from mobile?
Yes, on iOS, Android, and web, employees can request single-, multi-, or partial-day leave (by hours or start/end time), add notes, choose a leave type, and preview their balance impact before submitting. They receive status updates and notifications after submission, so they always know where the request stands.
How do approvals work across different teams and locations?
Requests can be routed by person, team, or location. Use one-step approvals for most cases, or enable multi-step flows for sensitive roles or departments. Add delegate/backup approvers to prevent bottlenecks when someone is away; every decision is recorded with an audit trail for transparency.
Will managers get notified automatically?
Yes. Managers receive email and chat notifications for requests in their approval scope, plus automatic reminders for overdue items. To ensure the right people are notified, include the manager in the approval path; you can optionally add an admin as a second step for oversight and escalation.
What leave types can we track?
You can track PTO, Sick, Unpaid, Volunteer, Study, and any custom leave type you define. Color-coding and filters keep calendars and reports easy to read. Each leave type can have its own accrual, carryover, and approval rules to match your policy.
Can we mirror our accrual policy exactly?
Yes. Configure annual grants or monthly/biweekly accruals, add tenure-based tiers, and apply proration and rounding rules so balances calculate precisely. You can also allow or prevent negative balances and make the calculation visible to employees for full transparency.
Do you support carryover limits and expirations?
Yes, set carryover caps, define use-by dates, and add optional grace periods. The system enforces these rules automatically at reset, updates balances for you, and can warn employees when time is close to expiring to encourage timely use.
When do balances reset?
You can reset on the calendar year, fiscal year, or each employee’s work anniversary. First-year employees can be prorated automatically, and midyear policy changes can be applied with adjustments recorded in the audit log for clarity.
Can we import public holidays?
Yes. Import country- or region-specific public holidays per location so calendars reflect non-working days automatically. You can also add company-wide holidays and location-specific custom days, helping teams avoid conflicts and plan staffing across time zones.
Conclusion
A well-chosen vacation tracking app removes the friction from time-off management by centralizing requests, approvals, balances, and reporting in one place. With automated accruals and carryover rules, calendar sync, and mobile access, teams get real-time visibility while HR and finance gain clean, audit-ready records. The result is fewer scheduling surprises, stronger compliance, and happier employees, without the spreadsheet chaos.