Timetastic Alternative – Pause
Timetastic has built a robust staff planner tool that helps teams manage their time off. In fact, we used Timetastic for a good few years, too.
Timetastic’s free trial is great, but costs can pile up, and you don’t get access to all their features on a basic package. If all that sounds like a roadblock, why not try Pause?
Pause is a lightweight Timetastic alternative that’s easy to use and great for small businesses, start-ups and remote teams.
💆 Easy leave application
Pause
Timetastic
Apply for half-day to multi-day
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Apply for self or others
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Apply from any device
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Lock dates
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Book overtime
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See remaining leave days
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Apply from Slack
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Auto approve pending requests
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See time-off overlaps with teammates
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🚌 Organise teams
Pause
Timetastic
Import users from Slack or G-Suite
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Assign an approver
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Give prorated leave to new users
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Custom working days per team
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Multiple approvers
Coming soon
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🌴 Leave policy
Pause
Timetastic
Deductible leave types
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Non-deductible leave types
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Turn-off approval process
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Multiple public holiday calendars
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Multiple approvers
Coming soon
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Credit leaves monthly or yearly
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Custom allowance per leave type
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🤝 Slack integration
Pause
Timetastic
Apply for time-off from Slack
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See overlaps with teammates
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Check available balance
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Approve time off
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Leave summary notifications per team
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Upcoming public holiday notifications
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Birthday and work anniversary reminders
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Auto-update Slack status
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🗓 Calendar integration
Pause
Timetastic
Leave booking calendar feed by teams
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Public holidays calendar feed
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Birthdays and anniversary calendar feed
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Auto-decline meetings when on leave
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So then, what's Pause's USP?
We sweat the details, so we can talk about our designs, features and integrations until the cows come home. But here’s Pause’s mission in a nutshell:
Pause is focused on building healthy, happy, and engaged teams and fighting burnout.
Pause is more than just a leave tracking tool. It’s a capacity planner, employee directory, and team communication enabler rolled into one.
Pause keeps employee health and small businesses front and centre, always. It’s flexible for agile remote working teams, but structured enough that confusion is out of the question. It makes every process a breeze, because nobody wants to stress while taking a break; neither does anyone like crap hitting the fan when someone’s on leave.
Pause is also integrated with Intercom to give you instant chat support. No more waiting for a reply back while your company catches on fire.
All of this is why you’ll find Pause to be a flexible, transparent and easy-to-use leave management tool.
Spot leave overlaps so plans don’t take a hit
See if other teammates are on leave at the same time as your potential dates even before you click ‘apply’. Plan with teammates, not against them.


Cater to teams with all sorts of work weeks
Customise fixed working days of the week for teams if they need to be available for longer or shorter time periods. It’s your ticket to keeping things spinning even when workdays vary.
Always know who’s on leave on any day
Learn who’s going on leave a week in advance and on the day of — for any team, in any channel. Admins, set this up in the Settings page to keep everyone in the loop.


Let teammates make their own decisions
Help teammates take time off at their discretion, without any approval processes, by ticking a checkbox. High-trust teams decide for themselves, and you have one less thing to do.
Send requests without switching tabs or tools
To book time off on Pause directly in Slack, enter /pause in any channel or chat and click on “Apply for a leave”. The bot will tell you whether it’s approved or declined. Easy peasy.


Say ‘no’ to meetings until you can say ‘yes’
If meetings are scheduled during a teammate’s leave period, they’ll be auto-declined. No frantic messages on first days of leave, and no delayed plans for the team.
Prepare for every reason under the sun
Create as many deductible leave types as you want for your team. Assign leave days at the beginning of each month or in annually, in one fell swoop.


Get instant support from a caring team
We work with Intercom to give you instant support through chat, whether that’s fixing a minor bug or taking Pause above and beyond to build a healthy work culture. Regardless of the size of your team or the plan you’re on, you’ll get the best customer support right when you need it.
Ring in special days on the right days
See everyone’s birthdays and work anniversaries right alongside their planned leave days and holidays. With all the special days in one jumbo list, you can’t miss ‘em.
