Employee request management that fits how your team actually works
Vacation, sick leave, overtime, expenses, equipment, document requests, attendance corrections, payroll inquiries, onboarding, offboarding, policy acknowledgements — all in one branded portal with role-based visibility and an audit trail you can export.
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Why one tool, not five
Most small businesses end up with a different process per request type. Vacation in a spreadsheet, expenses in email, overtime on paper. Each lives in someone's head.
Five processes = five places to forget
An employee asks for vacation in Slack, expenses by email, equipment in a Google Form. The same employee can't remember where they filed last month's request. Neither can their manager.
No single audit trail
Auditors and lawyers want one record per employee, not five. Building a quarterly report requires copy-pasting from email, Slack, paper. Errors propagate. Trust erodes.
Workflows can't differ per type
Vacation needs manager approval. Expenses need manager + admin. Onboarding needs an HR checklist. A general 'approval tool' forces every type into the same flow, so you outgrow it.
16 types, ready to use
Sick leave to severance — already built
The default install ships with 16 request types covering 90% of small-business needs: sick leave, vacation, overtime, expense reimbursement, equipment requests, document requests, attendance corrections, payroll inquiries, work-from-home, schedule changes, info updates, general HR, resignation, onboarding (checklist engine), offboarding (checklist engine), and confidential workplace concerns.
- 13 standard approval-based types + 3 specialized engines
- Each type has its own fields, attachments, approval workflow
- Confidential type for HR concerns — redacted in emails, role-gated
- Disable types you don't want; admins control visibility per role
Custom workflows
Different request types, different approval paths
A simple sick day shouldn't require admin sign-off. A $5,000 expense should. CrewBase ships three approval strategies — direct manager, admin/owner, manager-then-admin — and lets you pick per request type. For more complex needs, configure department-manager or specific-user steps.
- Strategy per request type, not per company
- Direct manager / admin / two-step workflows out of the box
- Department-manager and specific-user routing for fine control
- Reassignment + 'request more info' status without losing audit trail
Visibility
Confidential by default for sensitive requests
Workplace concerns, harassment reports, salary inquiries — these need stronger gates than 'whoever has the URL.' Confidential request types redact sensitive content from emails (only a link), restrict viewing to designated approvers, and surface in a separate UI block from regular requests.
- isConfidential flag per request type
- Email subjects + bodies redacted to 'workplace concern submitted'
- Viewing restricted to admins + the requester
- Separate audit log so HR can review without seeing routine requests
Custom request types
Build your own when the defaults don't fit
A tech startup wants 'access request' for a new tool. A restaurant wants 'shift swap' with two-employee approval. A retail chain wants 'stock damage report' with photo evidence. Admins build custom request types from the platform — fields, validation, attachments, workflow — without touching code.
- Custom fields: text, date, dropdown, file, employee picker, etc.
- Required vs optional, default values, help text
- Custom approval workflow per type
- Per-type attachment requirements (e.g. receipt mandatory for expenses)
Common questions about employee request systems
How is this different from a ticketing system like Jira or Zendesk?
Ticketing tools are built for IT or customer support — they treat every request as a free-form text + status. Employee requests have structure: vacation has dates, expenses have amounts, overtime has sessions. CrewBase is built around that structure, so the form gives the right fields and the audit trail captures what actually matters per type. Plus, employees actually open it (they don't open Jira).
Can we disable request types we don't use?
Yes. Admins toggle each request type on or off. The disabled types still exist (so historical data isn't broken) but they don't show up in the new-request picker. You can also restrict visibility — show 'overtime' only to hourly employees, not salaried.
What's the difference between a request and a ticket?
In CrewBase, requests are structured employee-to-company workflows (vacation, expense, overtime). Tickets are free-form questions employees ask the SaaS team — billing, technical issues, sales inquiries — through the built-in support ticketing system. Different audiences, different schemas.
How does role-based access work?
Four roles: Owner, Admin, Manager, Employee. Employees see their own requests. Managers see their direct reports' requests. Admins and Owners see company-wide. Confidential request types restrict visibility further (admin-only). Per-request-type visibility lets you hide types from specific roles, departments, or named employees.
Is there an API for integrating with our other tools?
Not yet. The architecture supports it (Prisma + Next.js Server Actions are easy to expose) but a public API is on the roadmap. Today: CSV export covers most needs, and the database schema is documented enough that a custom integration is straightforward.
What about workplace concerns and harassment reports?
These ship as a confidential request type by default. The submitter writes the concern; only admins and owners can view. Email notifications redact the body (just a link to the case). Audit-trail rules are stricter — comments are append-only, attachments can't be deleted by anyone after submission.
Stop running 5 processes for the same employee
One branded portal. 16 request types. Free 14-day trial.
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