Tracking PTO and vacation time can be a real administrative burden if you don't have a simple and foolproof system. Many businesses rely on a cobbled-together approach using PTO request forms, spreadsheets, and shared calendars. While this might seem functional at first, it quickly becomes tedious, error-prone, and lacks visibility.
That's why using dedicated PTO tracking software is essential. It provides a centralized system to manage requests, track balances, and maintain an accurate record of employee absences. What we also need is a solid system based around your software to track PTO and vacations.
In this article, we'll break down how to establish a solid system in 4 simple steps!
1. Get yourself a PTO Policy
Your PTO policy shouldn’t be a complex legal document. What we are talking about is a short policy to make it clear how much paid time off your team is entitled to and how they go about arranging PTO. It gives employees something to refer to and can help avoid misunderstandings or conflict.
You can use the following free PTO policy template to get yourself started. It’s short, written in plain English and pretty much self explanatory, just fill in the blanks.
The important things to cover in a PTO policy are:
- Accrual Rate: How much PTO employees can take over time (e.g., per pay period, annually).
- Types of Leave: Specify different types of leave (vacation, sick, personal, etc.) and their respective policies.
- Eligibility: Outline eligibility criteria for PTO (e.g., length of employment).
- Request Procedures: Detail the process for requesting time off, including notice periods and approval workflows.
- Carryover: Explain any rules regarding carrying over unused PTO to the next year.
- Termination: Clarify how PTO is handled upon termination of employment.
As mentioned, this is all covered in this template policy, which you’re welcome to use.
It’s a Google doc, no signup, email address or other such shenanigans required. It's yours to download and use as you see fit.
2. Decide what different types of absences you want to track
When we talk about keeping tracking and PTO management, half the reason is so we can plan around people being off work, so we can schedule and manage workloads according to who’s working and who’s off.
Here are some of the most common types of absence to keep in mind:
- Vacation: Planned time off for leisure or personal reasons.
- Sick Leave: Time off for illness or injury.
- Personal Leave: Time off for personal matters (appointments, family events, etc.).
- Bereavement Leave: Time off for the death of a family member or loved one.
- Family Leave: Time off for family caregiving responsibilities (e.g., childbirth, adoption, or caring for a sick family member).
- Holidays: Paid time off for official holidays.
- Other: Jury duty, military leave, sabbaticals, etc.
The old-time way to keep track of PTO was using a spreadsheet, maybe a template like Microsoft provide.
Unfortunately these templates, and spreadsheets generally, are too narrow in scope to properly keep track of all the different reasons people take time off. They rely on one person, typically you, to keep them updated, they certainly don't encourage employee self service.
To keep track properly you need to record each type of absence as it’s booked, using some PTO tracking software. Using Timetastic you create all the different types of leave from the outset.
We can also decide if we want the time off to deduct from an annual PTO allowance, if it needs approving by a manager, or if it counts toward a maximum absent limitation - a limit on how many people can be off at the same time. (You don’t get any of these controls when you use a spreadsheet.)
So now you’ve setup a set of different absence reasons, when an employee is requesting time off they can select which of the reasons applies. This is the form employees use in Timetastic to request some time off work, you can see they can choose which type of absence they want.
And as the year progresses we can see a summary of the different types of reasons people took time off work. This is how it looks using the Timetastic mobile app.
And on an employees calendar. So we can get a really good picture of when people take time off and what for.
3 .Give everyone a PTO balance
Now you’ve got a policy in place and all the different reasons for taking time off, we need to set some PTO tracking in place. The important value here is how much PTO each person is allowed each year.
In most situations how much PTO an individual get's will be covered in their employment contract, but it also might be a company wide value.
By giving people an allowance of the year you can keep track of it, deducting the value of each vacation and ultimately blocking any PTO requests that exceed the full allowance.
PTO tracking software helps you:
Monitor Balances: Keep track of each employee's PTO balance in real-time.
Enforce Limits: Prevent employees from exceeding their allotted PTO.
Accurately Deduct Time: Automatically deduct time off from their balance when requests are approved.
4. Start booking, and tracking.
The booking part is where it all comes together.
If you’ve tried to keep track of PTO using spreadsheets or a shared vacation calendar you’ll know the hard part is constantly updating it with every PTO request, every change, and every cancellation.
What a PTO tracker gives you is employee self service.
So when your employees need some vacation time they can login and with a few clicks put that PTO request directly in.
This is what it looks like using Desktop version of Timetastic
And this is how it looks using the mobile app.
And as soon as the request is in, your summaries are updated.
And if you've connected Timetastic to your Outlook or Google calendar then that'll be updated too.
And their PTO balance is updated.
Literally, everything updated and instantly reconciled.
Ready to take your PTO tracking to the next level?
Managing employee time off doesn't have to be a constant struggle with spreadsheets and shared calendars. With Timetastic, you can automate the process, eliminate errors, and free up valuable time to focus on what matters most – growing your business!
Start your free trial of Timetastic today!
Say goodbye to manual updates, confusing spreadsheets, and time-consuming approvals. Timetastic empowers your employees to manage their own time off, while providing you with the tools and insights you need to ensure smooth operations and happy employees.