The best employee holiday booking system (3 key benefits)

David Klose -

Thousands of businesses use Timetastic as their employee holiday booking system. And it’s enlightening to speak to them and get a feel for how their business runs and where Timetastic fits into that mix.

Here are just a few examples, highlighting the feature they love the most:

  • An easy time off request process. Jasmin French, owner of a beauty salon in Edinburgh, loves how Timetastic makes it easy for her team to submit new holiday requests. All time off requests go through the Timetastic app (available on both your desktop and Android/iOS mobile devices). Jasmin can easily see who submitted their request first (in case of clashing requests) and can approve or decline a request with one click from her email.

    Plus, you can get time off requests sent to you via Slack or Microsoft Teams.

  • Accurate and automatic leave tracking. Jetstack, a fully remote company, loves how simple it is to track and record everyone’s leave with Timetastic. They can see how much time off someone has taken with just a click, and this includes a clear breakdown of whether it was holiday leave, sick leave, parental/maternity leave, etc.

    Plus, Timetastic can pull in public holidays from over 250 countries and 3,000 different regions, making it perfect for companies around the globe.

  • Easily see who needs a holiday. Format, an online portfolio platform, loves how Timetastic will tell them who may need a holiday. Timetastic has a Burnout Board, which lists staff members who haven’t had a holiday recently, and who don’t have a holiday scheduled in the near future.

    Plus, Timetastic will send this information to you at the end of every quarter, just to make sure you’re up-to-date.

In this post, we cover these and other core features of our employee holiday booking system, so you can decide if it’s the right option for your company.

Are you more of a learn-by-doing kind of person? Sign up for a free one-month trial of Timetastic.

Benefit #1: An easy way to book leave requests

Our employee holiday booking system makes it easy for your team to submit new requests, and for you to approve or decline those requests.

First, a team member logs into their account, which takes them to their Wallchart.

FYI: You and your team can use Timetastic as both a web app and a mobile app. For this post, we look at images from the web app experience, though the overall time off request process remains relatively the same across Timetastic’s mobile and web app versions.

Your team’s Wallchart shows them a calendar view where they can see:

  • Who has time off booked. Everyone on your team can see when someone has leave booked. But as a manager, you can also see what type of leave someone is taking. For example, a manager can tell if someone is out sick or on holiday (we cover this and other additional features for managers/admins in more detail below).
  • Locked dates. A locked date — represented by a lock icon — is a date that can’t be requested off. This prevents your team from trying to book a holiday when it’ll just get rejected.
  • Their remaining annual leave entitlement. Every employee gets their own profile (they can even upload a profile picture). Next to their name on the Wallchart, they can see exactly how much paid time off they have left to take for the year. Plus, if they click on their name, they get a detailed breakdown of how much time off they’ve used over the year, including both deductible leave and non-deductible leave (like taking a sick day).

From their Wallchart, your team can select the dates they want off. They can either click and drag the dates they want on the Wallchart, or they can click the green button on the top right.

They pick their leave type (such as holiday, sick leave, etc.*). They can also provide optional notes or even attach a photo, which is perfect if they need to provide a doctor’s note for sick leave. The request is then automatically routed to you (or whoever is responsible for approving/declining requests).

*Note: You can edit the leave types you offer in your settings.

You can get your team’s time off request sent to you via:

  • Email
  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams

You get all the information you need in their request — you don’t need to worry about whether or not they have enough holiday pay to use, as Timetastic will handle that.

How to automate your team’s time off request process (fastest approval process)

You can set it up so Timetastic will automatically approve or decline someone’s request when they try to book a holiday. We do this at Timetastic HQ — it saves us time, and it also makes it easier for our team to plan their holidays.

Here’s how we do it:

  • First, we lock any important dates where we can’t afford to have someone take off. As we mentioned above, you can lock specific dates. You can lock a date for the entire team, by department, or down to specific individuals. Ideally, this feature is used sparingly, so you don’t limit the calendar too much for your team.
  • Second, we set maximum absent levels. You can set levels across your entire company or by specific departments. For example, we have set it up so our customer service department will always have two agents at work. This way we don’t run into the problem of having too many people on holiday at the same time.

Once those two parameters are set, we know that Timetatsic will only approve holidays that work for our company.

Benefit #2: Accurate leave tracking (that’s easy to share with the whole team)

When you use Timetastic, all of your team’s leave records are tracked and easily accessible.

1. First, admins (managers/supervisors) get their own Wallchart.

The manager/admin Wallchart is similar to the Wallchart your employees will use but with two key differences:

  • Everyone’s time off is colour-coded with descriptive icons. You can easily see when and why someone is off.
  • You can see everyone’s remaining annual leave balance. Next to each employee’s name, you’ll see how much annual leave they have left to take. Plus, when you click on an employee’s name, you get a full breakdown of their leave history.

So right from your main screen, you can see all the critical information you need to stay up-to-date on your team’s leave record.

2. Second, you can use calendar and app integrations.

You and your team can sync Timetastic with your preferred work calendar, such as Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and iCal.

You can export your time off to your work calendar, which your team can quickly reference.

Plus, you can set up an integration with Slack and MS Teams, which gives your management team the following:

  • Daily/weekly updates on who is off of work
  • A fast way to respond to new time off requests

You can also get these absence summaries sent directly to your email.

Benefit #3: See who is overdue for a holiday (and other insights)

When you use Timetastic, you get access to a Burnout Board.

Your Burnout Board tells you who may be overdue for a holiday. It tells you who hasn’t taken a holiday recently and who doesn’t have a holiday coming up.

FYI: We also send this to you at the end of every quarter, so you’re up-to-date on who may need a holiday.

You also get other Absence Insights with Timetastic, specifically:

  • Who has an outstanding holiday request
  • Which type of leave your team is taking the most
  • When your team is taking their leave

Next steps: Set up your employee holiday booking system within minutes (for free)

When you sign up for Timetastic, you get a one-month free trial. You can quickly set up your entire account (most companies can do this in a few minutes) and give your company a way to:

  • Book new leave requests and respond to them
  • See everyone’s annual leave balances
  • See when people are on leave
  • See who hasn’t had holiday recently (and is at risk of burning out)

Start your free trial today.


For more information on holiday management, check out our posts on: