Built for distributed teams
Leave management for remote and multi-country teams
When your team is spread across countries and time zones, "who's off this week?" gets hard fast. Absenca puts every absence on one shared calendar, handles approvals asynchronously, and gives each office its own work week and holidays.
Free for up to 10 people · 11 to 50 people: $37.50 a month on Pro
Managing leave across a remote, distributed team means one shared, always-current view of who's off, approvals that happen asynchronously, and per-office holidays, work weeks and leave years — not one head-office calendar forced on everyone. Remote and distributed teams break the assumptions most leave tools are built on: there's no office wall to glance at, no single national holiday calendar, no 9-to-5 everyone shares, and no chance of catching a manager at their desk to approve a request. Absenca is built for exactly that, with the policy and timezone differences handled per office instead of forced into one mould.
Requests and approvals happen in the web app on any device, or in Slack on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan, so nobody waits a full day across timezones for a yes. And because each office has its own leave year, work days and public holidays, a colleague in Berlin, one in São Paulo and one in Manila each see their own correct allowance, not a head-office approximation.
What you get
One shared calendar, every timezone
See who's off across the whole team on a single calendar, with each person's leave shown against their own office's work week — not one head-office schedule.
Async approvals
Requests reach the right manager by email and in the app, or as an interactive Slack message on Pro, and approve in one tap — so a request raised overnight isn't stuck waiting for the office to open.
Per-office holidays & work days
Each location gets its own public-holiday calendar (190+ countries), work-day pattern and leave year, so a national holiday in one country doesn't wrongly apply to another.
Daily who's-out summary
An optional Slack post on Pro tells the team who's away today, so distributed colleagues plan handovers and meetings without asking around.
Why distributed teams need timezone-aware leave
A single national holiday calendar quietly goes wrong the moment your team crosses a border: someone in the US loses a day for a UK bank holiday, or a public holiday in India isn't counted at all. In Absenca, every office location is its own unit — its own country and holidays, its own Monday-to-Friday (or Sunday-to-Thursday) work week, its own leave-year start month and timezone.
That means a request is always measured against the rules where that person actually works. A four-day trip booked by a teammate in Dubai counts the right working days for Dubai, while their colleague in Toronto sees their own calendar untouched.
Per-office rules vs one-size-fits-all
Most leave tools assume one company means one set of rules. Absenca treats each office as its own unit: the logic for allowances, accrual and carry-over stays the same everywhere, and only what genuinely differs by place is allowed to differ.
| One-size-fits-all | Per office in Absenca | |
|---|---|---|
| Public holidays | One shared list | Each office's own country |
| Working days | Monday to Friday for everyone | Set per office and per work schedule |
| Timezone | One, assumed | Each office's own |
| Leave-year start | One date for all | Set per office |
| Leave types and policies | The same everywhere | Set per office |
Approvals that don't wait for the timezone to wake up
The slowest part of remote leave is usually the approval itself — a request sits in an inbox until a manager eight hours behind logs on. In Absenca a manager approves from their phone whenever they next pick it up, in the web app or, on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan, from the Slack message, and the employee hears back the moment it's decided.
Each department can name a backup approver who decides when every manager of that department is on leave themselves, and automatic reminders nudge an approver after a set number of days, so requests don't rot. You can also let an unanswered request expire after a set time. Every decision updates the shared calendar, the balance and the reports, and records who made it.
Worked example: one trip, two countries
NovaTech has an office in Berlin and one in Toronto. Felix Hartmann in Berlin and Greta Vogel in Toronto both book Monday 29 June to Friday 3 July 2026. Each request is counted against the person's own office:
| Felix Hartmann, Berlin | Greta Vogel, Toronto | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays booked | 5 | 5 |
| Public holidays that week | None | Canada Day, Wednesday 1 July |
| Days deducted | 5 | 4 |
| Canada Day on the calendar | A normal working day | A public holiday, not leave |
See coverage before you say yes
For a distributed team, coverage isn't about a room being empty — it's about whether the right people are reachable during the hours that matter. The shared calendar and wallchart show overlapping absences at a glance, and you can cap how many people in a department are off at once so a key timezone never goes dark.
Connect Google Calendar or Outlook and approved leave flows into everyone's personal calendars too, so a teammate's time off shows up next to your meetings without anyone copying dates by hand.
Remote team or multiple offices?
Remote means people spread out, often one or two per country. If your company instead runs several established offices or entities, each with its own location admins, see leave management for global teams, and our guide to running leave across two offices. For how holidays are set up, see public holidays.
Statutory leave, public holidays and notice rules vary by country, and remote employment can raise questions about which country's rules apply. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Why teams choose Absenca
- One shared calendar of who's off, across every timezone
- Async approvals, with Slack on Pro
- Per-office holidays, work days and leave year for 190+ countries
- Backup approvers, and approval reminders on every plan
- Google and Outlook calendar sync for personal calendars
- Free for up to 10 people; Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people
Frequently asked questions
- How does Absenca handle different timezones and countries?
- Each office location is set up independently with its own country, public holidays, work-day pattern, timezone and leave-year start. Every leave request is counted against the rules where that person works, so a holiday or work week in one country never wrongly affects another.
- Can remote employees request and approve leave without a video call or email?
- Yes. Employees request time off from the web app, or from Slack on Pro, and managers approve asynchronously with one tap — no waiting for an overlap in working hours or chasing an email thread.
- How does the team see who's off when nobody shares an office?
- A shared calendar and wallchart show every booked and pending absence across the team, and on Pro an optional daily Slack summary posts who's away today. Approved leave can also sync to Google and Outlook calendars.
- Does it stop too many people in one timezone being off at once?
- Yes — you can set a maximum number of people allowed off at the same time per department, and a request that would exceed it is refused when it's submitted.
- Is it free for a small remote team?
- Yes. Absenca is free for up to 10 people, with the shared calendar, holidays and reports. The free plan's office limit is 1, so teams that need several countries' rules use Pro, with up to 2 offices, or a Custom Pack for more. Slack approvals are on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan. Absenca is free for up to 10 people. Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people, or $33.75 a month billed annually ($405 a year).