How to Track PTO When Your Company Runs on Microsoft Teams

To track PTO properly when your company runs on Microsoft Teams, pair Teams with a real leave system: people request time off in its web app, the right manager approves it there, from a link in the email notification, approved leave lands in Outlook calendars, and balances and public holidays stay correct automatically — a manual channel or Outlook out-of-office only shows that someone is away, not how much leave they have or whether it was approved. Here are the three realistic options and where each one breaks (pricing and behaviour described as of 2026).

Option 1: A PTO channel (free, until it isn't)

The no-software version: make a channel called PTO or Time off, have people post "off next Thursday–Friday", and let a manager react to approve. Bolt on a shared Excel file or a List if you want a ledger.

It costs nothing, but it fails the way every chat-plus-spreadsheet system fails:

• No balances. Nobody knows how many days anyone has left — the sheet says whatever it was last edited to say.
• No real approvals. A reaction is not an audit trail. "Who approved this?" has no answer six months later.
• No clash detection. Two people booking the same week is discovered when a project stalls.
• No public holidays. Cross-office holiday maths is done by hand, badly.
• Scroll-away memory. Channels move on; next month's absences are buried under today's chatter.

For a team of three it limps along. Past ten people it's a liability with a chat interface.

Option 2: Outlook out-of-office and Shifts

The Microsoft 365 built-ins get you part-way. People set an Outlook / Teams out-of-office so meetings reflect their absence, and frontline teams sometimes track time off inside Shifts. This is genuinely useful visibility.

But it is visibility, not management:

• It records that someone is away, not how much PTO they have left or whether it was approved.
• There is no real request/approve step — anyone can mark any days.
• There are no accruals, carry-over, pro-rata, TOIL, or reports for payroll.
• Shifts is built for rota scheduling, not leave balances and entitlement rules.

Out-of-office is the right output of a PTO process. It just isn't the process.

Option 3: A leave system alongside Teams

The third option keeps Teams for conversation and runs PTO in a real leave system alongside it, one that plugs into the Microsoft 365 tools your team already uses: people sign in with their Microsoft account, the email notification links managers to their approval queue, and approved leave appears in Outlook. The system keeps balances, accruals and holidays correct, and since nobody needs a new password or a separate calendar, it's the option that both stays used and stays accurate.

Here's how that works in Absenca:

• Request in the web app — people pick the leave type and dates, see their live remaining balance and submit in Absenca's web app (or from Slack, if your company also uses it). Half-days (AM/PM) and multiple leave types (vacation, sick, parental) included.
• Approve from anywhere — the right manager gets an email for each request that links to the approval queue in the web app, where one click approves it, from any device.
• See who's out — the shared leave calendar and wallchart show who's away today and this week, so nobody has to ask in a channel.
• A real system underneath — automatic balances, accrual schedules, carry-over caps and expiry, pro-rata for joiners and part-timers, TOIL, blackout periods, public holidays for 190+ countries, multi-office support and exportable reports (CSV/XLSX/PDF).
• Fits the rest of Microsoft 365 — sign in with your Microsoft account, and approved leave syncs to Outlook / Microsoft 365 calendars, so option 2's visibility happens automatically as the output of a real process.

Absenca is free for up to 10 people (no credit card, no trial countdown), with requests, approvals, balances and Outlook sync in the web app. Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people, or $33.75 a month billed annually ($405 a year): it bills 50 seats at $0.75 a month each, whatever your headcount, and adds the Slack bot. See pricing for the full picture.

Which one should you pick?

• You're 3–5 people and rarely away at the same time: the manual channel is fine. Revisit when the first balance dispute happens.
• You only need visibility and trust everyone to self-report: Outlook out-of-office covers you.
• You want requests, approvals and balances that are actually correct, with approved leave showing in Outlook: you want a leave system alongside Teams.

Common questions

Is there a free PTO tracker for companies on Microsoft Teams? Yes. Absenca's free Starter plan covers up to 10 people, with requests, approvals, balances and public holidays in the web app and approved leave on Outlook calendars; it works alongside Teams rather than inside it. Above 15 people, Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people.

Can people request leave from inside Teams? Not with Absenca, which doesn't run inside Teams. People request leave in its web app (or in Slack, if your company also uses it), and managers approve there, from a link in the email notification.

Do people need another login? No. They sign in to the web app with their existing Microsoft account — no new password to set or forget.

Does approved leave show in Outlook? Yes — approved leave can sync to Outlook and Microsoft 365 calendars, so scheduling reflects who's actually away.

A quick legal note: statutory leave entitlements and record-keeping rules vary by country. Software helps you apply your policy consistently, but this is general guidance, not legal advice — check the rules in your jurisdiction.

---

Run on Microsoft 365? Start free with Absenca — free for up to 10 people, no credit card, with Microsoft sign-in and Outlook sync. See how Absenca fits Microsoft 365, or the Outlook calendar sync in detail.