A spreadsheet leave tracker feels free until leave tracking becomes a weekly admin job.
A spreadsheet leave tracker is fine when there are three people and one manager. Once your team grows, manual leave tracking turns into formula checks, copied rows, missed clashes, stale balances, and approval trails buried in email or chat. LeaveManager replaces the spreadsheet with live balances, one-click approvals, a team calendar, sickness tracking, Bradford Factor monitoring, TOIL, and a proper audit trail.
LeaveManager
£8/user/mo
All features included. No tiers.
Spreadsheets
Free + admin time
Pricing at time of writing
14-day comparison plan
Use your own policies, real managers, and a small pilot team to check whether LeaveManager removes enough admin before you commit.
Comparison based on common manual leave tracking workflows in Excel, Google Sheets, and similar spreadsheet tools. Spreadsheet capabilities vary by template, configuration, and internal process.
| Feature | LeaveManager | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| Employee leave requests | Manual | |
| Manager approvals | Email/chat | |
| Automatic balance tracking | Formula risk | |
| Pro-rata entitlement calculations | Manual | |
| UK bank holidays built in | Manual | |
| Team leave calendar | Static view | |
| Department clash detection | ||
| Sickness absence tracking | Manual | |
| Bradford Factor monitoring | ||
| TOIL tracking | Manual | |
| Return-to-work forms | ||
| Role-based access control | ||
| Full audit trail | ||
| Employee self-service | ||
| No credit card for trial |
Buyer checklist
Feature parity matters, but conversion usually comes down to speed, clarity, and whether the tool removes work for managers on day one.
| Decision point | LeaveManager | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| Start evaluating | Self-serve trial with every core feature switched on | Often needs plan comparison, demos, or sales follow-up |
| Prove fit quickly | Set up policies, invite staff, and approve real requests in days | Implementation depends on package, modules, and admin setup |
| Control total cost | One transparent monthly price for the people-ops toolkit | Pricing can depend on tiers, add-ons, seat minimums, or contracts |
| Keep managers moving | Leave, sickness, TOIL, rotas, clock-ins, expenses, and reviews in one workflow | Core leave tracking may sit beside wider HR workflows or paid modules |
Why LeaveManager
LeaveManager is built for UK teams that want the everyday people-ops work handled cleanly without turning leave management into a long software project.
No more broken formulas. LeaveManager calculates balances, pro-rata entitlement, carry over, and deductions automatically.
Approvals stop living in inboxes and chat threads. Employees request leave in LeaveManager and managers approve in one click.
Clashes are easier to spot because everyone works from the same live team calendar instead of copied spreadsheet versions.
Sickness absence is tracked properly, with Bradford Factor monitoring and return-to-work records included.
HR records have a real audit trail. You can see who requested, approved, changed, or cancelled leave without digging through files.
Employees can check their own balances and leave history, so managers stop answering the same spreadsheet questions every week.
Trust signals
A comparison page should make the next step feel low-risk. LeaveManager keeps the buying checks visible before you start the trial.
14-day free trial with no payment card required
No fixed-term contract, minimum-seat lock-in, or module hunt
Privacy information, role-based access, and data export links are available before rollout
Stripe-hosted checkout when you decide to subscribe
Trial plan
Use the free trial to test the workflows that decide whether a comparison turns into a rollout.
Day 1
Add company details, policies, employees, managers, and public holidays before inviting the wider team.
Day 3
Ask one manager to approve holiday, sickness, TOIL, and restricted-date examples in the shared calendar.
Day 7
Review audit history, access levels, exports, billing terms, and whether the process is clear enough to roll out.
Yes. LeaveManager is a strong alternative to Spreadsheets for UK teams that want straightforward leave management, transparent pricing, employee self-service, approvals, absence tracking, TOIL, Bradford Factor monitoring, and audit history in one product.
LeaveManager costs £8/user/mo with all core features included. Spreadsheets pricing is listed here as Free + admin time, based on the comparison information available at the time of writing.
Yes. Most small teams can set up LeaveManager quickly by adding employees, choosing leave policies, and inviting managers and staff. The goal is to replace manual follow-up with live balances, one-click approvals, and a shared team calendar.
Yes. LeaveManager includes a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, so you can test the leave calendar, approvals, absence tracking, and reporting before choosing a paid plan.
Explore how LeaveManager compares to other leave management software for UK teams.