PeopleMuster

Replacing a leave spreadsheet

Leave spreadsheets work until the second person edits one. Then a formula drags, a row sorts out of line, and two balances disagree with nobody able to say which was right.

Your leave tracker started as one sheet: a row per person, a column per month. Somebody added a tab for sick days, another for the public holidays, and a colour code only its author understands.

Every request is a message, a lookup and an edit. You check the remaining days, reply, then remember to subtract them. Miss that last step once and the balance is fiction from that day on.

PeopleMuster replaces the sheet with a quota. Each of your leave types carries an annual allocation per person. Requests draw it down as they're approved, and everyone reads the same remaining number on their own screen.

Moving across is the part people fear, so we do it with you. During setup we load your people, your leave types and this year's balances. Your existing sheet goes through the CSV importer, one row per person, and the quota grid shows used against allocated the moment it lands.

Why one record instead of two

A leave sheet lives on its own, so your capacity plan learns about a week off when somebody remembers to mention it. In PeopleMuster the leave record and the resourcing record describe the same person. Approve five days in March and those days show on the capacity grid at once, marked as leave. Nobody copies dates from one file to another. A spreadsheet never had a second reader. A quota does.

What is switched on

Leave
Types with an annual quota, paid or unpaid, encashable or not, and a per-person allocation grid showing used against allocated.
Leave
Your people read days used, allocated and remaining by type, with a percentage used, without asking you.
Holidays
A company calendar sits beside the quota, so a public holiday is a holiday and not a leave day spent.
Resource allocation
Approved leave appears as an overlay on the capacity plan, so your planners see it without opening the leave screen.
Notifications
A scheduled Slack reminder goes to approvers at a set time, so pending requests stop waiting on memory.
Activity log
Every approval and every quota edit is recorded, so you can see who changed a balance, when, and from what to what.

What the week looks like

  1. Setup

    We load your people and leave types with you, and the CSV importer brings this year's balances across from the sheet, one row per person.

  2. First request

    An employee picks a type and dates, sees what they have left, and submits. Their request lands in a pending queue rather than an inbox.

  3. Approval

    A manager approves or rejects. Their balance moves in the same moment, and the days appear on the capacity plan as leave.

  4. Any morning

    Today's view shows you who is on leave now, who is pending and who is out in the next seven days. No tab to open, no formula to trust.

  5. Month end

    Month-over-month comparison and the breakdown by leave type show where the allowance went, exported when your finance lead wants a copy.

  6. Year start

    You set new allocations per person and per type on the quota grid, with totals for allocated, used and average usage.

Questions people ask

Can I import my existing leave balances from Excel?

Yes. Give the CSV importer one row per person and a column per leave type. Used against allocated appears on the quota grid as soon as it lands. During setup we load your people and leave types with you, and there's no setup fee: $3 per person per month is the whole bill.

Do I have to use your leave types or can I keep mine?

Keep yours. Each type carries an annual quota, a paid or unpaid flag and an encashable flag. Annual, sick, casual and unpaid move across with the numbers you already use.

Does the export match what the sheet used to give finance?

Yes. Your leave register exports filtered by employee, status, type and date range. Finance takes the month-end copy from the same screen everyone else reads.

Where to go next