NABOCADO · Development NGO · 2026

Leave balances nobody has to dispute

0paper forms in the approval chain

Context

The same organisation ran annual leave on a paper form: filled in, walked between offices for signatures, then filed. Balances were counted by hand, and disagreements about who had how many days left were routine.

What we built

A leave portal that follows the same approval route the paper form did — request, supervisor, HR — with each role seeing exactly what it needs to act on.

Balances update themselves as requests are approved, so the number on screen is the number that counts. No ledger book, no recounting.

Staff heading off on leave attach handover notes, so cover arrangements are part of the record rather than a hallway conversation.

Built with Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL, and Prisma, deployed on Azure — and designed from day one to be offered to other NGOs with the same paper problem.

Leave request form with date range, leave type, and balance summary — A request takes a minute — the balance is right there.

Supervisor approval view listing pending requests with balances — The approval queue, with every balance already computed.

How it went

The paper form is retired; requests, approvals, and balances live in one place.
Each approval is timestamped and attributable — the kind of trail donor audits ask for.
The portal was built as a product, not a one-off: the next NGO that needs it configures it rather than commissions it.