Isn’t it fantastic when someone creates clever new technology for SMEs that’s really useful, saves businesses time and is free to use.
Timetastic is a new and easy way for companies with between five and 50 employees to manage staff leave over the internet or via a mobile phone app.
Extremely simple and free to use, holiday requests are made online or via the app (using the book time off tab) and the system automatically emails ‘the boss’. When the request has been approved it automatically updates the system and emails employees back. It’s that simple.
Because it’s all online and automatic – requests and communication are handled by email – there’s no paper work, no hanging around and no confusion, it’s all in one place and real-time!
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So goodbye unnecessary paperwork, spreadsheets and filling in and passing paper forms around; hello Timetastic that you can access any time, anywhere, and get quick responses to holiday requests.
The dashboard is very simple: Authorised staff holidays are displayed on an online wall chart so administrators can view days booked and avoid holiday clashes.
Employees viewing their own calendar can toggle between a wall chart, list and calendar view to review days booked and see how many days they have left to take. An ICS feed can also link it to Outlook, iCal or Google Calendars.
The system can be tailored to each company’s needs – including company name, holiday allowance allocation per employee and the days of the week each employee works.
You can group people in departments and allocate a different or additional administrator who will approve requests for leave.
And it’s not just holidays that people can book in. There are different categories for different types of days off – such as maternity, paternity and sick leave (or add in new categories). Bank holidays are automatically added.
The site is currently free to use for a limited time. It will then continue to be free for the first three employees, and each additional employee added to the system will cost 50p per month.
Users can cancel anytime and there’s a handy support tab on that links to the help desk system.
Gary Bury, managing director of Mediaburst who created the system, said: “
“Our decision to create Timetastic was simple: ‘in the digital age, why on earth isn’t there an easy to use system like this out there already?’
“As managing director at Mediaburst, I was put in charge of managing and recording everyone’s annual leave. What an unbelievable amount of messing around, passing papers from person to person, waiting for a decision, scrabbling around to see who was also off on that day – just to take a day off. But I knew this was normal for small businesses.
“But we’re in an age when we want and can do things on our smartphones.
“Most of the time I book my holidays at home, often a late deal where you have to make a quick decision before it gets snapped up, or in a travel agent so I’d just like to be able to look on my phone if I can go and book time off.”
He continued: “I looked around to see what systems were out there and found a handful of applications, but I found them
complex, expensive, poorly designed and littered with unnecessary functionality. Aimed more towards helping you manage your entire HR department, none of them felt like they were for “us”, a small business.
“We wanted something simple and well designed, no frills, quick to get running, easy to use, inexpensive. So we built Timetastic.”
