PTODesk

Time off tracking software

Built for the company that has outgrown a shared spreadsheet but does not want a full HRIS.

Free for teams up to 5 · No credit card

Reports payroll can import

Time off · pay period 17

1–15 Sep
Vacation 58%
Sick 27%
Personal 15%
Export CSV Aligned to your actual pay cycle — including semi-monthly.

Move off the spreadsheet in one import

Upload the sheet you already have. Map your column names to ours — no template to match — then run a dry pass that reports every row as valid, warning or error before anything is written. Every competitor's importer is bad; making ours good is a genuine differentiator.

Off the spreadsheet in one import

Map your columns — no template to match

Full Name First + last name
Work Email Email
Start Date Hire date
Dept Department

Dry run before anything is written

28 valid 2 warning 0 error

Row 14: date reads as 03/04 — confirm US or EU order.

Six accrual methods, not a rules engine

Frontloaded, per pay period, per hours worked, monthly, unlimited or manual, plus tenure tiers. Enough to express real policies, few enough that setup does not become a project.

Six methods, mixed across the company

Policies in use

Standard vacation Per pay period · semi-monthly 15 days/yr Engineering, Sales
California sick Per hours worked · 1 per 30 cap 80 h All CA staff
Contractor unpaid Manual no quota Contractors

Tenure tiers step up on the service anniversary

0–2 yrs

10 days

3–5 yrs

15 days

6+ yrs

20 days

Reports aligned to your actual pay periods

Semi-monthly included, which is twenty-four periods a year rather than twelve. Pay-period misalignment is the single most repeated complaint in this category, and exported cells beginning with = or + are escaped so a CSV cannot carry a formula into your spreadsheet.

Reports payroll can import

Time off · pay period 17

1–15 Sep
Vacation 58%
Sick 27%
Personal 15%
Export CSV Aligned to your actual pay cycle — including semi-monthly.

Compliance that keeps itself current

The state sick-leave table carries effective dates and statute links, and is versioned when a legislature changes something. Maintaining it is a product cost rather than a marketing one, which is why it actually gets maintained.

State rules, encoded and dated

California

effective 1 Jan 2026

Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act

1 hr / 30 worked cap 80 h · use 40 h/yr carryover allowed

Washington

effective 1 Jan 2026

RCW 49.46.200

1 hr / 40 worked no annual cap carryover allowed

Five different accrual denominators, one engine

1:30 14 states 1:35 RI 1:37 DC 1:40 WA 1:52 VT

How this compares

The honest version. We are not the simplest tool in this category and we do not try to be.

Time off tracking softwareTypicalPTODesk
CSV import Rigid template Map your own columns
Import safety Writes immediately Dry run with a per-row report
Semi-monthly pay periods Frequently wrong Twenty-four correct periods
CSV formula injection Usually unescaped Escaped on export
Statutory rules Blog posts at best In the accrual engine

Questions

We track time off in Google Sheets. Is that a problem?

It works until someone is hired mid-year, an employee reads a projected total as earned, or a state changes its accrual rules. The sheet has no audit trail and no approval path, which is usually what forces the move rather than the tracking itself.

What does the importer do differently?

It maps your column names rather than demanding a template, strips the BOM Excel adds, handles Windows line endings, validates dates against a chosen order so 03/04 is not silently misread, and shows you the outcome before committing anything.

Will the export open cleanly in Excel?

Yes, and any cell beginning with =, +, - or @ is prefixed so Excel treats it as text. An export that carries a live formula into your finance team's spreadsheet is a security bug, not a feature.

Plans

Free

$0 /mo

Up to 5 employees

Start free

Starter

$29 /mo

Up to 25 employees

Start free trial

Team

$59 /mo

Up to 75 employees

Start free trial

Business

$99 /mo

Up to 200 employees

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Retire the PTO spreadsheet this week

Import your team from a CSV and go live in under an hour.

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