Attendance and leave management is not just about whether people can clock in. Time tracking, shifts, overtime, leave requests, approvals, work-hour totals, and the handoff to payroll all matter — and how far they connect end to end decides how much manual work remains. When time tracking lives in a separate tool, spreadsheets tend to reappear between attendance totals and payroll at month end.
This guide compares the options for attendance and leave management — spreadsheets, dedicated time-tracking SaaS, all-in-one HR/payroll, and Sanka — assuming you want attendance, leave, approvals, and totals connected to payroll and back-office work.
Decide these first
| Decision | What to confirm |
|---|---|
| Clock-in method | PC, mobile, IC card, or biometric |
| Calculation rules | Where overtime, night, holiday, and flex calculations live |
| Requests and approvals | Which screen handles leave, overtime, and time-edit requests |
| Payroll handoff | How work totals reach payroll (manual entry or data sync) |
Comparison summary
| Option | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheets | Small teams with simple work patterns | Totals, requests, and approvals depend on people |
| Dedicated time-tracking SaaS | Teams needing accurate clock-in, shifts, totals | Needs integration with payroll and HR data |
| All-in-one HR/payroll | Teams running attendance through payroll together | Broad scope; setup is heavy |
| Sanka | Teams connecting attendance, requests, and approvals to back-office work | Overkill if you only need clock-in |
1. Spreadsheets
With few people and stable work patterns, spreadsheets can work — no setup cost and flexible. But people must keep overtime, leave, time-edit requests, approvals, and monthly totals consistent, and it breaks down as headcount grows.
2. Dedicated time-tracking SaaS
When accurate clock-in, shifts, and overtime/leave totals are the priority, dedicated SaaS is a candidate, supporting varied clock-in methods and calculation rules. The thing to watch is the connection to payroll and HR data afterward, and who owns the source of truth.
3. All-in-one HR/payroll
To run attendance through payroll and HR records on one base, an all-in-one platform is an option. Attendance-to-payroll consistency is easier to hold, but scope is broad and setup and operating load are high.
4. Sanka
Sanka fits teams that want to manage attendance, leave, and overtime requests and approvals, plus work-hour totals, connected to employee data, payroll, and other back-office work. It centralizes the request-and-approval workflow and lets you review work totals before handing them to payroll.
Related pages:
Which one to choose
If clock-in accuracy comes first, dedicated SaaS fits; for attendance-through-payroll, all-in-one works; with few people, spreadsheets get you started. If the gap is connecting attendance, leave, and approvals to payroll and back-office work, Sanka is practical because it can own requests, approvals, and totals as an operation.
