Love Brightwheel. Keep it. Staff time off is the one thing it wasn't built for.
Brightwheel runs your parent side beautifully. But it records time off as a calendar entry — not a request, approval, and accrual workflow. That's the gap we fill.
No credit card · Sits alongside Brightwheel · Cancel anytime
This isn't a "replace Brightwheel" pitch
If your centre runs on Brightwheel, you should keep it. Parent messaging, daily reports, check-in/check-out, billing, timecards, payroll, ratio monitoring — it does all of that, and we don't.
But here's what happens with time off: a teacher tells you she needs next Thursday, and you log into Brightwheel and add it. Paid or unpaid, pick a reason, done. It shows on the schedule. That's the whole feature — an admin recording an event so the calendar and payroll are right.
What it doesn't do is run the process: the staff member submitting the request, you approving or denying it, the balance updating, the doctor's note attaching, the coverage rule stopping a third person from booking the same day. That process is the entire reason this tool exists.
Staff time off, side by side
Based on Brightwheel's public help documentation, June 2026. We only compare the staff time-off workflow — not the parts of Brightwheel we don't try to replace.
| Staff time-off workflow | Brightwheel | Time Off Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Staff submit & track their own requests | Admin enters it | Yes, from their phone |
| Approve or deny with a tap (with a note) | – | ✓ |
| Approve by SMS — no app or password for staff | – | ✓ |
| Cancellation requests, also approved/denied | – | ✓ |
| Accrual balances & "days remaining" | – | ✓ |
| Require a physician note on a category | – | ✓ |
| Coverage rules (cap per day, no day-before-holiday) | – | ✓ |
| Custom categories with their own rules | Fixed reasons | Unlimited |
| Timestamped approval trail for licensing | Event log only | Full request history |
| Shows time off on a shared calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing | Per enrolled child (quote) | $99/mo flat |
– = not offered as a staff time-off feature, to our knowledge. We'd rather under-claim than overstate what Brightwheel does.
Use both. Here's the split.
Keep Brightwheel for
- ✓Parent messaging, photos & daily reports
- ✓Child check-in / check-out & attendance
- ✓Tuition billing & payment processing
- ✓Staff timecards & payroll (Gusto)
- ✓Real-time staff-to-child ratio monitoring
Add Time Off Schedule for
- ✓Staff requesting time off from their phone
- ✓One-tap SMS approvals & denials, with notes
- ✓Accrual balances that update themselves
- ✓Physician notes & per-category rules
- ✓Coverage limits & a clean approval trail
On Lillio instead? See the Lillio comparison →
Two honest notes
Brightwheel changes fast — if they've deepened their time-off workflow since this page was written, tell us and we'll fix it. And we're English-only for now, where Brightwheel is bilingual. We'd rather you know up front.
Keep Brightwheel. Fix the time-off part.
$99/month flat. Unlimited staff. Set up alongside Brightwheel in an afternoon.
Built by a daycare director who runs 37 staff on it every day.
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Brightwheel is a trademark of its respective owner. Time Off Schedule is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Brightwheel. Comparison reflects publicly available Brightwheel documentation as of June 2026 and our reading of it; capabilities change. Verify current features with Brightwheel directly.