Every small business hits the same wall around 10–15 people. The approvals that used to happen in a hallway conversation now happen in a WhatsApp group, a shared spreadsheet, and three different email threads. Someone takes time off and nobody remembers approving it. An expense gets reimbursed twice. A new hire's first day is a scramble. The work isn't hard — it's just scattered, and nothing keeps the record straight.
CrewBase puts all of it in one branded portal. Employees submit requests through proper forms; managers approve them in one click from their phone; every decision lands in an audit trail you can actually trust. It's the system of record for “who asked for what, who approved it, and when.”
What CrewBase is — and isn't
CrewBase is deliberately focused. It's an employee request and approval portal: leave and vacation tracking, overtime pre-approval, expense reimbursement, document requests, onboarding and offboarding checklists, policy acknowledgements, and confidential workplace concerns — sixteen request types out of the box, each with the right form fields and approval workflow.
It is not a payroll engine, a full HRIS, a recruiting platform, or a shift scheduler. We feed clean, approved data into the payroll and accounting tools you already use, rather than trying to replace them. That focus is the point: CrewBase does one layer of the stack extremely well instead of doing ten layers adequately.
Who it's for
Small businesses with roughly 5 to 150 employees that have outgrown ad-hoc approvals but aren't ready for the cost and complexity of enterprise HR suites. Restaurants and cafés, retail shops, agencies, professional services, kitchens and warehouses, small software teams — anyone whose people submit requests and whose managers approve them.
What we believe
- The record matters. Every approval should be timestamped, attributable, and impossible to quietly rewrite. An audit trail isn't a feature — it's the foundation.
- Mobile is not an afterthought. Managers approve from their phones; employees submit from theirs. The whole product is built mobile-first.
- Set up in minutes, not months. You should be able to create your portal, brand it, invite your team, and process the first request the same afternoon.
- Privacy is the default. We collect only what's needed, we never sell data, and confidential requests stay confidential. See how we protect it on our security page.
The name
To be clear, since the name is shared with a few other products: CrewBase at crewbase.app is employee request management software for small businesses. We're not a maritime recruitment service, a staffing agency, or a job marketplace. If you're here to manage your team's requests and approvals, you're in the right place.
Try it
The fastest way to understand CrewBase is to use it. Take a guided live demo with sample data, read the product guide, or start a free 60-day trial — no credit card required. Questions first? Talk to us.