Best Leave Management System in India

As per state and national laws of India, employers need to adhere to the laws of minimum leave requirements. There are different rules for leave among Indian employers based on their business types, like factories, shops, IT companies, financial institutes, banks, and more. Thus, the best leave management system software requires considering all types of leaves in India. The following are the most common types of leaves offered by companies in India. 

Privilege Leave (PL) or Earned Leave (EL) – 

• PL or earned leave is popular among employees as they can encash their leave if they don’t utilize it. 
• PL is mandatory and the numbers of PL offer by the organizations are differing in different states of India according to Indian labor laws. 

Sick Leave (SL) – 

• In case of illness, accident, or severe medical condition, there is a provision for sick leave. 
• It requires a medical certificate for approval. 

Casual Leave (CL) – 

• It is granted for conditions like marriage, other social events, or emergencies. 
• It may vary based on the rules of the state and the organization located. 
• CL can be approved by the company based on the reason for leave.

Compensatory Off (Comp-off) – 

• This type of leave can be given to an employee when he/she has work extra other than office hours or holidays. 
• The company provides compensatory leave for that work.

Maternity Leave (ML) – 

• Based on the central government act, the provision of maternity leave (around 26 weeks) has been given as per the delivery date and other terms and conditions of her job duration. 

Bereavement Leave – 

• It is granted to an employee in case of the death of his/her family member or relatives. 
• The number of leave granted depends on the reason provided by the employee by considering the situation.  

Marriage Leave – 

• It is granted by some companies to the employee only the first time of legal marriage. 
• The employee must present proof, such as an invitation card or other, for leave approval.

Paternity Leave – 

• It is given to the father of a newborn child, who needs to be entitled within eight weeks of his child’s birth. 
• It is not included in the government act but given as per the company’s policy.

Loss of Pay (LOP) / Leave Without Pay (LWP) – 

• In this type of leave, the salary is deducted from the employee’s salary. 
• Normally, it is taken by employees only in case of emergency.

1. Create & Apply Custom Leave Rules

• Reduce the complexity of managing your employees’ leaves by using the best leave management system in India that facilitates creating and maintaining rules for leaves based on your organization’s policy and best meets the act of central and state government. 
• You can easily administrate your system with the best feature of custom leave rule settings for different types of leave categories. 

2. Automate Your Leave Workflow – 

• The user-friendly and automated system simplifies leave managing processes for employees and management. 
• You can track real-time leave status with the leave balance of each employee helpful to approve or reject a leave application of your employee.
• Setting the leave approval criteria helps in resolving bulk leave requests quickly in big organizations.
• Automated processes spare time for the HR department to concentrate on other important tasks.

3. Access Detailed Statistical Reports

• The feature-rich Indian leave management system helps access detailed statistical reports of their employees’ complete leave information with just a few clicks. 
• It facilitates them to generate customized reports using their desired criteria. 
• It reduces the dependencies of the top management on the HR team to identify the leave trend/status/pattern of their employees.
• This helps management to plan their future projects to balance work culture efficiently and boost workplace productivity.

4. Manage Fixed & Flexible Shifts 

• Managing the shift-based duties of employees becomes a challenging task for HR. 
• Leave management software becomes a great assistant for scheduling flexible shifts for employees. 
• Setting the work time of employees, allotting them shifts based on their working hours, and ensuring a smooth working environment among employees in case of shifting their duties becomes no more troublesome using top HR leave management software. 

5. Reminders and Notifications

• In the best leave management system software, leave request, and reminder features send notifications to the employees for upcoming leaves. 
• It also sends approval requests of employees to the manager. 
• Thus, it bridges the gap between the HR team and employees and streamlines the entire leave-handling process. 
• If an employee’s leave is not approved by the manager, he/she can send a reminder for his leave request. 

6. Online Leave Application

• Employees need not meet HR for any leave-related matter just like in the manual process. 
• The employee can send an online leave application/email from his work desk which saves time for employees and HR.
• This will instantly notify the HR manager to take the necessary action for further approval and pass it on to the concerned department about leave sanction.

7. Real-time leave balance

• In the manual system, employees have to keep personal records of their total leave details which sometimes creates conflicts between employees and the HR team, if not maintained properly.
• Using the real-time leave balance feature of the Indian Leave Management App, HR can view the employee’s leave status with a few clicks. 

1. Zimyo

Zimyo manages leave requests & attendance, tracks employee time, efficient shift handling, creates complete reports & analytics, and other features essential to enhance the organization's productivity.

Features –

• Accurate & Advanced Attendance and Time Tracking 
• Visualize Attendance Trends and Breaktime Tracking 
• Admin Dashboard and efficient Leave Management
• Integration with HRMS & Payroll Software
• Shift Management and Overtime Rules
• HR Analytics
• Recruitment Management
• Multi-level Leave Approval

Pros 

• Easy to operate and administrate
• Advanced functionality and user-friendly interface
• Simple dashboard
• Highly beneficial with several helpful features
• Efficient HR Management

Cons

• Average customer support
• Speed problem while using some interface
• Need to improve the functionality of the mobile app
• No customized reports option
• The new user onboarding process is slightly complicated

Pricing 

• Basic - Rs 80/user per month [Up to 50 users, minimum billing of ₹4,000/-]
• Standard – Rs 120/user per month [Up to 50 users, minimum billing of ₹6,000/-]
• Enterprise – Rs 160/user per month [ Up to 50 users, minimum billing of ₹8,000/-]

2.  PocketHRMS

Pocket HRMS is an advanced cloud-based AI-enabled HRMS software system ideal for all sizes and types of businesses. It offers customizable and highly scalable HR solutions.  

Features –

• Leave administration with rich features. 
• Holiday calendar and annual leave summary view/annual summary view
• Simple to use Employee Self-Service Portal 
• Dedicated Mobile App 
• Custom template-based reporting
• Customizable leave policies
• Multi-level leave approval [ Email & WhatsApp Approval] 
• Software Integration
• Automated leave credits
• Intuitive dashboard
• Real-time data visibility
• Custom leave workflow

Pros

• An automated leave management system software reduces manual paper-based work and streamlines the process.
• Automated processes perform accurate calculations and leave details 
• Real-time information of employees’ attendance eases the HR team to get real-time productivity of the organization.
• Increases transparency through real-time data updates of employees, which improves the relationship between the HR team and employees and smothers the organization's operational efficiency.
• Make HR operations trouble-free and fast.

Cons

• Poor customer support
• Implementation problems and not customizable
• Need to improve user interface
• Report and analytics functionality needs to improve

Pricing

• Standard - Rs 2499/- per month for 50 employees [ Rs 40 per month for additional employee.]
• Professional – Rs 4999/- per Month for 100 employees [ Rs 40 per month for additional employee.]

Premium – Custom Billing

3. Spine HR

Features –

• Spine HR, one of the best leave management system software comprises rich features including the integration of organizational and human capital development aspects that help in increasing the performance of employees. 
• Efficient management of Leave, Claims & Reimbursement, Performance, Account, Document, Access Request, Benefits, Cost, visitor, and more
• Payroll Management
• Compensation Assessment
• Employee Self Service
• Candidate Comparison
• Employee Lifecycle 
• Help Desk & Request Desk
• Other features include Workflow, Expense, Recruitment, Timesheet, Time & Attendance, and many others.

Pros 

• Industry Specialization
• Integrated solution to incorporate with any ERP system
• Enable HR to administrate using a single dashboard
• Complete HR Solution – From hiring to retirement of employees
• Scalable Solution for organizational growth
• Cost-effective solution as no need to update your system or additional infrastructure

Cons - 

• Training and recruitment modules require amendments
• Medium Customer Support
• Unfriendly User interface
• Data migration to other HRMS tools is not possible
• Time-consuming process for new user creation

Pricing –  Spine HR provides pricing information according to your package choice and specific requirements. You need to submit a form to know the pricing plans. 

4. KEKA

• KEKA comprises useful features for managing various HR functions like the hiring process and onboarding, employee attendance, leave, time, performance management, and many more.

Features - 

• Simple to operate interface
• Leave and Attendance Management
• Intuitive Employee Self-Service Portal
• Efficient Time Tracking
• Expense and Payroll Module 
• The most suitable for small to medium-sized companies

Pros 

• User-friendly Interface
• Automation of leave management, attendance, and payroll
• Enable integration with other tools, payroll
• Highly scalable for different sizes of organizations

Cons

• The Mobile App needs improvement in data synchronization
• Need to improve user interface and overall performance
• Limited customization option for reports

Pricing

HRMS + Payroll 

• Foundation – Rs 9,999/- Month – (Upto 100 employees, Rs.90/- per additional employee)
• Strength – Rs 12,999/- Month – (Upto 100 employees, Rs.120/- per additional employee)
• Growth – Rs 15,999/- Month – (Upto 100 employees, Rs.150/- per additional employee)

5. sumHR 

• The best leave management app sumHR is a cloud-based, simple-to-use HR solution beneficial for startup companies and SMEs to simplify their complex HR and Payroll processes. 

Features –

• Employee Database
• Onboarding & Exit
• Web Attendance, Time-off/Leaves tracking
• HR and MIS Reports
• Payroll Management
• Biometric Devices
• Leave Management
• HR Letters & Documents
• HR Helpdesk & Asset Manager
• 360° Performance Reviews
• Performance Management

Pros 

• Easy to Understand, Operate and Administrate
• Cost-effective plan option, use and pay as per your requirements
• No large spreadsheets or formulas
• Assurance of data safety and privacy
• Easy Payroll
• Productive and need fewer emails 
• Best support from expert

Cons 

• Difficult Navigation
• Improper Reporting and Tracking
• Less user-friendly
• Not enough information

Pricing

• Startup – Rs.49/- Month per user 
• Basic – Rs 69/- Month per user
• Advanced – Rs 119/- Month per user

According to one market survey report, the market size of the leave management system was approx. USD 933.27 million in the year 2023 and by 2030 it is expected to grow around USD 1621.85 million. 

The reason for this growth is that the best leave management system software helps businesses enhance proficiency, and productivity by getting rid of tedious manual paperwork and automating and easing their employee’s leave management process.  

1. Eliminates paperwork

• It eliminates the tedious paperwork and saves stationery costs and extra hours for manual tasks. 
• It streamlines time-consuming HR operations, like complete details of employees from hiring to leaving job or retirement [employees’ history], leave details, wages, new recruitment, shift rotations, and many more. 

2. Removes manual interventions

• Buying the top leave management system in India helps you simplify all your complex human resource tasks. 
• The HR team and management can check all the statuses related to employees' leave and other necessary information with a few clicks, thus removing manual intervention and saving time. 

3. Offers real-time visibility of data

• In case of an employee’s leave request approval, management or HR can check the real-time leave status of employees that display the complete leave history including balance leaves. 

4. Authorization to Leave

• It becomes easy and quick for HR to sanction the leave by checking the real-time leave balance. 

5. Transparency

• Employees and HR can view the complete leave history including all his leave balance (CL, SL, PL, and other), and work-related information; it creates a transparent and productive work environment.

6. Accurate and Precise Information

• The top leave management software maintains accurate information for all employees that allows the HR team to identify the leave trends, history, balance, vacation, and other data at a glance to take necessary actions vital to increase the organization’s productivity and proficiency.

1. Security Risk

• Access to the leave management software system from multiple devices creates a security risk of data hacking or cyber-attacks especially when the device is not antivirus protected. 

2. Scalability

• Leave management software without scalability features creates problems in unexpected situations like sudden growth or downfall.

3. Cost

• Even the most affordable HR leave management software system fails to fulfill the goal of small businesses as they sometimes can’t afford to invest time and resources to implement the new system from their old manual system.

4. Staffing

• Even easy-to-operate leave management systems require professionals to have good computer literacy and thus, it becomes expensive for organizations to recruit new employees to administrate the new system.

1. Worse business performance

• Improper HR leave management software will not deliver accurate reports regarding the real-time leave status of employees, which creates a problem for HR in making decisions for leave approval. 
• Wrongly approved leave affects the project work with deadlines that in turn affects productivity.

2. Overtime and burnout

• In many organizations, employees work under tremendous pressure even having sufficient staff. 
• This is because of the lack of efficient leave management and knowledge of vacation leave benefits among employees.

3. Increasing costs

• Overtime and unscheduled workload due to inefficient leave management app can badly affect the performance, health, and efficiency of employees.
• This results in inadequate work and dissatisfaction among customers, which might be a costly matter for the organization. 

4. Legal risks

• The leave management system that does not accurately implement central and state government labor laws policy [or is not updated regularly with changes in govt./state policy] may create disputes among employees and the HR team.
• It might create legal risks for the organization regarding employee rights or other such matters. 

5. Lack of flexibility

• The faulty leave management system creates problems during situations, like sudden business growth that forces major hiring or employee layoff in bulk due to business loss. 
• In such cases, the leave management system requires adequate features to tackle such situations, otherwise, it becomes a worse condition for the organization in handling the matter. 
• This might create circumstances of overstaffing or understaffing impacting the organization’s bottom line.

1. Customisation - 

• The user-friendly and customizable Leave Management System offers the best solutions from scheduling leaves to approval and reminders that streamline the complex HR processes.
• Ensuring the availability of all customizable features like setting custom leave types, automated leave approval using custom settings, generating custom reports, reminders, and alerts of leave balance to employees, and many more is important to consider when choosing the best HR leave management software.

2. Visibility

• In big organizations, maintaining staffing becomes difficult for the HR team, hence, visibility of employees' leave status at a glance with short & long-term leaves helps them efficiently manage the leave system. 
• Precise leave details and group calendars are helpful for HR to manage employees’ shifts, freelancers, part-time employees, and other contractors easily and efficiently. 

3. Functionality

• Automation is necessary when selecting a feature-rich leave management system that reduces the burden of the HR team.
• Fast-track of high volume leave requests saves time with automated processes, reduces the possibility of errors, and saves time.
• Functionality like employee self-services, email alerts, user-friendly mobile app, user-access control, and others enhance work efficiency on both sides. 

4. Mobile App

• The leave management app is the most convenient way for the management and HR team to check the leave request and approve it on the way or from anywhere if not present in the office. 
• It also reduces the time it takes to log in to the networks and start the system, thus saving time and improving working abilities.

5. Reporting

• Check for the best report features in your chosen system. 
• Reports comprise information about employees on leave, out-of-station, adequate shift management, and other useful details that help HR make important decisions.
• Identifying employees’ performance using out-of-balance leaves, no leaves, attendance, overtime, and more using the reports feature is essential to consider in the leave management system. 

In this digital era, the leave management system is necessary for every organization due to its unmatched features and benefits. It not only reduces the tedious manual paper-based tasks, but also spares productive time of the HR department, and enhances workplace transparency between management and employees. The best leave management software comprises advanced features and functionality for empowering workplace capability and the organization's growth. 

Choose the top HR leave management software system that provides comprehensive solutions to simplify and streamline the complex processes of all sizes and types of organizations. Also ensure its pros and cons, features, implemented central and state government’s leave policy, and cost-effectiveness that it best meets your organization's needs and future growth aspects.

• The Best Leave Management System for a Modern Workplace in 2024