PTO Management | HR Automation

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PTO & Leave Management System

Structured system to request, approve, and track PTO and leave across offices and time zones.

HR automation case study featuring workflow automation and integration.

-80%

HR Reconciliation Time

Eliminated

PTO Errors

Full

Leave Compliance

Overview

A company with 300+ employees needed a structured system to request, approve, and track PTO and leave across offices and time zones. The system reduced HR reconciliation time by 80% and eliminated PTO errors.

Business Context

The company operated across four countries with offices in the US, UK, Germany, and Singapore — each with different statutory leave requirements, public holidays, and cultural expectations around time off. PTO requests came through a chaotic mix of email threads, Slack messages, and sometimes verbal agreements that were never documented. HR spent an average of 15 hours per week reconciling leave balances, investigating discrepancies, and manually updating spreadsheets that frequently contained errors. The lack of visibility into team coverage had caused several critical situations where entire teams were accidentally approved for overlapping vacations, leaving projects without coverage.

How We Built It

We architected a complete leave management system with a custom rules engine at its core, capable of handling the complex accrual formulas, carryover limits, and regulatory requirements that differ by country and employment type. The Node.js backend with PostgreSQL stores leave policies, employee entitlements, request history, and approval chains with full audit trails. Each country's configuration includes local public holidays, mandatory leave types such as parental leave or sick leave, and specific calculation rules — for example, German employees accrue leave differently than US employees, and UK employees have different carryover regulations. The employee self-service portal built with Next.js allows staff to check their current balances, view their leave history, and submit requests that automatically route to the appropriate approver based on organizational hierarchy. Managers receive approval requests with full context including team coverage calendars, showing who else is already approved for time off during the requested period. Calendar synchronization with both Outlook and Google Calendar ensures approved leave automatically blocks time and shows as out-of-office. The payroll export module generates formatted files compatible with the company's payroll provider, eliminating manual data transfer and the errors that came with it. Real-time balance calculations mean employees always see accurate entitlements, even accounting for pending requests that haven't yet been approved.

Challenges

PTO requests happening via emails and spreadsheets

No centralized balance tracking

HR spending hours reconciling time off

No visibility into team coverage

Compliance risk for tracked leave categories

What We Delivered

Custom rules engine for accruals, carryovers, and country-specific regulations

Automated balance calculations with approval hierarchy

Employee self-service portal for requests

Manager approval interface

Calendar with team coverage view

Calendar sync (Outlook/Google) and payroll export

Tech Stack

Node.js, PostgreSQL, Next.js, OAuth2, Calendar APIs

Results

-80%

HR Reconciliation Time

Eliminated

PTO Errors

Full

Leave Compliance

Strategic Impact

HR reconciliation time dropped by 80%, recovering over 12 hours per week that HR staff now dedicate to employee development and strategic initiatives rather than spreadsheet maintenance. PTO calculation errors have been completely eliminated — the system handles complex scenarios like mid-year policy changes, transfers between countries, and prorated entitlements for new hires without the mistakes that plagued manual calculations. Full compliance with leave regulations across all four operating countries means the company no longer faces audit risk from improperly tracked statutory leave. The team coverage view transformed how managers approve requests, with zero incidents of inadequate coverage since implementation. Employee satisfaction scores related to HR responsiveness improved by 40% as staff no longer wait days for balance confirmations or approval status updates. The self-service portal reduced HR inquiries about leave by 65%, with employees able to find all the information they need without opening a ticket. Payroll processing time decreased by 3 hours per cycle with automated export replacing manual data entry. The historical data now available enables workforce planning — leadership can analyze leave patterns to predict busy periods and ensure adequate staffing. The system has scaled effortlessly as the company grew to 450 employees without requiring additional HR headcount for leave administration. Executive reporting now includes real-time dashboards showing leave utilization trends, helping leadership understand workforce capacity and plan for seasonal fluctuations with data-driven precision.