Changing HR system sounds daunting, and it puts a lot of businesses off far longer than it should. In practice the software part takes an afternoon. The part that needs planning is the contract: when your term ends, how much notice you owe, and getting your data out while you still have admin access. This guide covers all three, with a step-by-step migration plan and a checklist you can print.
We speak to businesses every week who are looking for a different HR software option. The reasons fall into a few consistent patterns:
Plenty of HR suites bundle software with services — a 24/7 employment-law advice line, an employee assistance programme, sometimes payroll. Those services are genuinely valuable to the businesses that use them. The problem is that you pay for them every month whether you call or not, and a lot of teams discover they are funding an advice line they have never rung in order to get the leave tracker underneath it.
Per-employee headline rates are easy to compare. Seat minimums, package tiers and term length are what actually decide the bill. If a product bills a minimum headcount and you are below it, your real per-head cost is higher than advertised — and multiplying the monthly figure by the term is usually a much bigger number than anyone quotes on the call. Our guide to HR software pricing walks through the arithmetic.
Some teams start on a system built for a much larger organisation and never use most of it. Others start on something too basic and hit its ceiling. Either way, the tool stops matching the business, and the annual renewal is the natural moment to reassess.
This is the big one, and it is the reason to read your agreement before you do anything else. Where a fixed term applies, HR platforms are commonly sold on 24, 36 or 60-month terms, and these agreements frequently require written notice three to six months before the end of the term to stop them renewing automatically into another full term. Miss the window on a 36-month contract and you can be looking at another 36 months. See our full guides to HR software contract lengths and how to cancel HR software.
Before you cancel anything, take a step back and plan. A smooth switch comes down to three things:
Your employee records, leave balances, absence history and documents all live inside your current system. You need to get that data out before you leave. Most HR platforms let admins export employee data as CSV from the admin panel. Do this first — and save multiple copies.
Key data to export:
Check your current agreement for:
Give your team advance notice. Nobody likes logging in on Monday to find a completely different system with no warning. A simple email or team message works: "We're switching our leave management system next week. Here's your login link. It takes 2 minutes to get set up."
Here's how to move to LeaveApprovein seven steps. The whole process takes 1–2 hours for most businesses.
Log into your current system as an admin. Navigate to the employee list and export all employee data as a CSV file. Then export current leave balances. If you use document storage, download all files. Save everything to a folder on your computer — you'll need it in step 3.
Go to leaveapprove.com/registerand create your account. The 14-day free trial starts immediately — no credit card required. Enter your company name, pick a URL slug, and you're in. Setup takes under 2 minutes.
Upload the CSV you exported in step 1 — LeaveApprove auto-detects the usual column names: names, emails, start dates and remaining allowances. If your headers differ, rename the header row to match our template, or send us your export and we'll import it for you. Here's how the fields you'll typically find in an export map onto the LeaveApprove template:
Most HR-system staff exports contain the same handful of fields. Here’s where each one goes in the LeaveApprove import template — the importer auto-detects the usual header names. If yours differ, rename the header row to match the template, or send us your export and we’ll import it for you.
| Common export field | LeaveApprove template column |
|---|---|
| First name / forename | First name |
| Last name / surname | Last name |
| Email address | |
| Department / team | Department |
| Job title / role | Role |
| Start date / employment start | Start date |
| Holiday entitlement / annual allowance | Annual leave entitlement |
| Line manager / reports to | Manager email |
Column names look different in your export? Rename the header row to match the template — or send us your export and we’ll import it for you.
Download the templateLeaveApprove comes with UK bank holidays pre-loaded for England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland — just pick your region. Then set up your leave policies: annual leave allowance, sick leave, TOIL, compassionate leave, and any custom types your business uses. Set the current year's starting balances to match what employees have remaining in your old system.
If you run shift patterns, recreate them in LeaveApprove. Define your shift types, assign employees, and set the schedule. LeaveApprove's rota view shows the whole team at a glance, making it easy to spot coverage gaps.
Send invite emails to your employees. When they log in, they'll see their leave balance, team calendar, and a button to request time off. There's no training manual needed — the interface is self-explanatory. Most teams are fully up and running within 5 minutes of receiving their invite.
Once you're confident everything is working in LeaveApprove (we recommend running both systems for a week as a safety net), give notice on your old subscription. Check whether your agreement requires written notice expiring at the end of your term — use the template notice letter and keep proof of sending. Keep your exported data backups for at least 6 months. There's also a printable switching checklist covering all of this.
On day-to-day leave and absence features, most products are closer than the marketing suggests — nearly all of them handle requests, approvals, balances, calendars and UK bank holidays well. The differences that actually change your experience are mostly commercial. Here is what LeaveApprove commits to, and the questions worth asking of anyone else on your shortlist:
| LeaveApprove | Ask your shortlist | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | Monthly rolling, cancel anytime | Is there a fixed term, and how long? |
| Cancelling | Two clicks, in-app | How much notice, and when must it land? |
| Price at renewal | Stays the same | Can the fee be reviewed? Is the increase capped? |
| Minimum seats | None | Is there a billed minimum headcount? |
| Pricing | £8/user/mo, everything included | What is the per-employee rate, in writing? |
| Leave, absence & calendar | Included | Included in the tier you are quoted? |
| TOIL, Bradford Factor, audit trail | Included | Included, or a higher tier? |
| Rotas, clock-ins, expenses | Included | Included, add-on, or a separate app? |
| Employment-law advice line | Not offered | Do you need one? It is worth paying for if you do. |
| Data export on exit | Anytime, self-serve | How long is data accessible after termination? |
| Trial | 14 days, no card | Can you try it before a sales call? |
LeaveApprove is £8 per user per month, everything included, billed monthly with no minimum. That makes the sums straightforward — and easy to hold up against whatever you are quoted elsewhere. To compare properly, multiply any quoted per-employee rate by your billed headcount and then by the number of months in the term.
| Team size | LeaveApprove monthly | LeaveApprove annual | Over 36 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 employees | £80 | £960 | £2,880 |
| 25 employees | £200 | £2,400 | £7,200 |
| 50 employees | £400 | £4,800 | £14,400 |
The 36-month column is shown only so you can compare like with like against a fixed-term quote. LeaveApprove has no fixed term — nothing commits you to those months, and you can stop paying at any point.
Use this checklist to make sure you don't miss anything. Print it out or save it — tick off each item as you go.
Before you start
Set up LeaveApprove
Go live
Almost certainly. Most HR platforms allow admins to export employee data, leave records and absence history as CSV files — log into the admin panel, go to the relevant section, and use the export or download option. Export everything before you cancel: once an account is closed you may lose access to historical data. If you cannot find an export option, ask your provider in writing; you also have data protection rights over your own records.
For most businesses with 10–50 employees, the entire migration takes 1–2 hours. The bulk of the time is spent adding employees and configuring leave policies. If you have a large team (50+), allow half a day and contact our support team for help with bulk import.
Not if you export them first. Once you've imported your team into LeaveApprove, all records are stored securely in your new account. We recommend keeping your original exports as a backup for at least 6 months.
When you set up LeaveApprove, you enter each employee's current remaining balance. This automatically accounts for any leave already taken or approved. For future-dated approved requests, simply re-enter them in LeaveApprove — it takes a few seconds each.
Absolutely. You can switch at any point in the leave year. Just make sure you export accurate current balances from your old system and enter them as starting balances in LeaveApprove. The system will track everything from that point forward.
Yes. One plan, one price. Leave management, absence tracking, Bradford Factor, document storage, onboarding checklists, team calendar, reporting, and audit trail — all included. No tiers, no add-ons, no hidden fees. See our pricing page for full details.
You can set up LeaveApprove and run it alongside your current system for the remainder of your term. This gives you time to test everything and train your team before you fully switch. Since LeaveApprove's free trial is 14 days and there's no lock-in, you can start whenever you're ready. And so you don't miss your notice window, you can set a free renewal reminder— we'll email you one month before it closes.