Sickness & absence

Sickness and absence, in the same place as leave

Log sickness the moment it's reported, route it through the same approval as holiday, and see it on the shared calendar — without a separate spreadsheet.

What is sickness and absence tracking software?

Sickness and absence tracking software records when your people are off sick or otherwise absent, keeps a running total of days taken, and shows it alongside booked leave so managers know who is available. In HollyHR, sickness is a built-in time-off category: it uses the same request and approval flow as holiday, appears on the shared who's-away calendar, and counts towards each person's sickness total, separate from their annual leave allowance.

Because absence sits next to leave rather than in a spreadsheet, the person's record, their manager and HR all see one consistent picture — and the days feed straight into your payroll export and your full data export.

One workflow for leave and sickness

Sickness is recorded through the same booking dialog as annual leave, with half-day options and a note. Requests route to the person's manager for approval, or are auto-approved when there's no assigned approver — the same path your team already knows. There's nothing new to learn and no second system to keep in sync.

Sickness counts separately, not against holiday

Sick days are tracked on their own, so time off sick never eats into someone's annual leave allowance. Each person's record shows sickness taken and pending at a glance, and managers can see it when approving. You set your own categories in settings, so unpaid leave, appointments or compassionate leave can each be tracked in the way that suits your organisation.

Health records stay properly private

Sickness is special-category data under UK GDPR, and HollyHR treats it that way. Within your organisation, a person's sickness sits with them, their manager and HR — the same visibility model as their leave. Crucially, HollyHR's own platform and support staff are walled off from it: health-related leave records are redacted from read-only support views by default and only reachable through a logged, break-glass access path.

Absence you can see and hand on

Sickness shows on the shared who's-away calendar and in the iCal feed, so who's off is obvious to the whole team. When it comes to payroll, leave and sickness records are part of your clean payroll export for your bureau or software. And it's all included in your full data export, so nothing is trapped if you ever leave.

What you get today

  • Record sickness through the same request-and-approve flow as annual leave, with half-day options and notes
  • Sickness tracked on its own total — days off sick don't reduce anyone's holiday allowance
  • Manager approval routing, or auto-approval where no approver is assigned
  • Configurable time-off categories, so you define the absence types your organisation uses
  • Sickness and leave shown together on the shared who's-away calendar, with filtering
  • Overlap detection so you can see who else is already off
  • Health-related leave records redacted from HollyHR platform/support views by default
  • Sickness included in the payroll export and in your full organisation data export

On the roadmap coming soon

  • Absence report viewsBuilt-in views for absence trends and totals over time. Today you can pull the same data via CSV export and the API; on-page report views are planned.
  • Bradford Factor scoringOptional Bradford Factor scores to flag frequent short absences. Not shipped today — you can calculate it from exported data in the meantime.
  • Return-to-work and self-certificationStructured return-to-work notes and self-certification steps attached to a sickness record, beyond the free-text note available now.

Questions people ask

How do you track staff sickness in HollyHR?

Sickness is a built-in time-off category, so it's recorded through the same booking flow as holiday — pick the date range, add a note, and it goes to the manager for approval or is auto-approved where no approver is set. Each person's sickness total updates automatically and shows on the shared who's-away calendar.

Does sick leave come out of someone's holiday allowance?

No. In HollyHR sickness is tracked on its own, separate from annual leave, so time off sick never reduces a person's holiday balance. You'll see sickness taken and pending alongside their leave, but as a distinct figure.

Who can see an employee's sickness records?

Within your organisation, sickness follows the same visibility as leave: the person, their manager and HR admins. Sickness is special-category data under UK GDPR, so HollyHR's own platform and support staff are kept out of it by default — health-related leave records are redacted from support views and only reachable through a logged break-glass path.

Can managers approve or record absence for their team?

Yes. Sickness and leave requests route to the person's assigned manager, who can approve or decline from their notifications. HR and system admins can manage absence across everyone. Where no approver is assigned, requests are auto-approved so nothing gets stuck.

Can I set up our own absence types?

Yes. Time-off categories are configurable in settings, so beyond sickness you can define unpaid leave, appointments, compassionate leave or any other absence type your organisation uses, each with its own rules.

Does HollyHR calculate the Bradford Factor?

Not today. HollyHR records sickness in full and lets you export it via CSV or the API, so you can calculate a Bradford Factor externally. Built-in Bradford Factor scoring is on the roadmap rather than shipped, and we won't claim it before it's real.

Is sickness included when I export my data or run payroll?

Yes to both. Leave and sickness records are part of the clean payroll export you hand to your bureau or payroll software, and they're included in your full organisation data export — so your absence history is always yours to take with you.

Is sickness and absence tracking free?

It's part of HollyHR's core product, which is free for up to 10 active people on the Free plan (Standard is £2 per active person per month, and every active person counts). There's no separate absence add-on to buy.

Free for your first 10 people

The whole core product, no card, no trial clock — and everything exports if you ever want to leave.

Related: Time off & leave · Who's away · Working patterns