Leave request software built for small businesses
Stop chasing approval emails and rebuilding the same spreadsheet every quarter. CrewBase gives your team a branded portal where employees submit time-off requests and managers approve them in one click — with a full audit trail and balances that actually balance.
Free 14-day trial · No credit card required · Set up in under 10 minutes
Why your current process keeps breaking
Most small businesses hit the same three walls when their leave-request system grows past five people.
Approval emails get buried
An employee asks for time off in a Slack DM, the manager forgets, payroll processes the timesheet wrong. Your audit trail is a screenshot in someone's phone.
Spreadsheets don't show conflicts
Half the team is out the same Monday in October. You only find out when nobody shows up. There's no way to enforce minimum coverage rules in a spreadsheet.
Balances drift over time
Carryover from last year, accrual this year, mid-year hires, parental leave. Balances in a spreadsheet are wrong by month four; nobody notices until someone disputes their final paycheck.
Approvals
One-click approvals from email or portal
Managers get an email when someone on their team requests leave. They click Approve or Reject without opening the app. Either way, the audit trail records who decided, when, and any notes — required for compliance and useful when memory disagrees.
- Direct manager, department manager, or admin approval workflows
- Approve from email or from your phone in seconds
- Two-step approval for senior leaders or longer-than-policy requests
- Append-only audit trail — every decision is timestamped and signed
Calendar
See who's out before approving
Approvers see the team's existing leave next to the new request — same week, same department, same role. Approve confidently, or send back with a note suggesting a different week.
- Team calendar shows approved + pending leave at a glance
- Half-day support so half-Friday isn't a whole-Friday surprise
- Department filters so a manager sees only their reports
- Mobile-first calendar — approvers on the go don't miss conflicts
Notifications
Email notifications without the Inbox Zero hangover
Tenant-branded emails (the From address shows your company name, not 'CrewBase Bot') keep the conversation in inboxes employees already check. Reply-to-the-email-thread isn't supported — replies go through the portal, which keeps the audit trail clean.
- Branded From: 'Acme Inc. via CrewBase' — not a generic noreply
- Confidential request types redact body text in emails (compliance-friendly)
- Approval status changes notify the requester immediately
- Plain-text fallback for screen readers + spam filters
Employee experience
A portal employees actually open
Most employee request software gets used twice and forgotten. CrewBase ships a branded portal at your-company.crewbase.app with your logo and brand color, a clean mobile UI (44px touch targets, no iOS auto-zoom), and a request form that takes 30 seconds to fill.
- Branded subdomain — employees see your name, not ours
- Mobile-first request flow — no zoom, no horizontal scroll
- Drag-and-drop attachments for sick notes (camera shortcut on phones)
- Drafts save automatically so a tab refresh doesn't lose 5 minutes of typing
Common questions about leave request software
How is this different from a generic HRIS like BambooHR or Gusto?
CrewBase isn't trying to replace your payroll or your benefits broker — it's the lightweight request layer that sits on top. Most teams under 150 don't need a $30/seat HRIS; they need clean approvals, an audit trail, and something employees won't avoid. CrewBase costs a fraction and ships in 10 minutes.
Does it support custom leave types — vacation, sick, parental, bereavement, jury duty?
Yes. The default install includes vacation, sick leave, half-day, and unpaid leave; admins can add custom types from the platform (parental, bereavement, jury duty, sabbatical, etc.) with their own approval workflows. Each type can have its own balance, accrual rate, and required attachment rules — for example, sick leave longer than 3 days requires a doctor's note attachment.
Can managers see their direct reports' balances?
Yes. Managers see their reports' approved balances and pending requests on their dashboard. Owners and admins see company-wide. Employees see their own balances when filing a new request, so they don't have to ask before submitting.
What happens if the requested days exceed the available balance?
The form warns the employee at submit time but doesn't block — that's a policy decision your admin makes per leave type. Some companies allow negative balances for end-of-year vacation; others reject below zero. Both are configurable.
Do half-day requests work properly with payroll integration?
Half-days are first-class in the request type. The exported CSV (manual or via API later) includes the fractional days correctly so your payroll software doesn't round to whole days. A common workflow: weekly CSV export → upload to your payroll provider.
How long does setup take?
Median setup time is 10–15 minutes for a 30-person team: create the company, invite the owner, configure leave types (or use defaults), invite employees in bulk via email or CSV. Approval workflows default to direct-manager approval; you customize only if you need something more.
Ready to retire the spreadsheet?
Free 14-day trial. No credit card. Set up your branded portal in 10 minutes.
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