Record an unplanned absence without pretending it is holiday waiting for approval. Employees, managers and HR get a dedicated journey from first report through return to work, while health evidence stays inside a separate permission boundary.
Sickness absence tracking software records when somebody cannot work because they are unwell, helps the right manager respond, and keeps the operational history connected to the employee record. HollyHR provides a dedicated report-sickness flow for current, retrospective and still-ongoing absence. A manager or authorised HR role can also record an absence on somebody's behalf.
The absence is recorded immediately rather than approved or declined. The assigned manager receives a content-neutral in-app notification, colleagues see neutral Away availability, and authorised HR roles can manage self-certification, fit notes and return-to-work detail behind a separate health-data decision and permission boundary.
HollyHR connects the dates, assigned manager, evidence and return-to-work follow-up without turning sickness into a holiday request or exposing health detail to everyone who can see availability.
Record whole or half days, a known end date or that somebody is still off. Employees can report for themselves, while managers and authorised HR roles can record for the people they are permitted to support. No diagnosis or free-text health note is requested.
The current case owner receives a neutral in-app notification. The sickness workspace groups people who are currently off, returns that need confirming and return-to-work follow-up, with no health evidence in the manager projection.
Once HR enables the health-data control, authorised employees and HR roles can record self-certification, upload or withdraw fit notes, and capture return-to-work notes, adjustments and phased-return dates. Day-eight guidance highlights when fit-note coverage may be needed.
Days lost, trends, department totals, a working-pattern-aware absence rate and raw Bradford views help authorised HR users understand what happened. HollyHR adds no judgement bands, disciplinary trigger or medical conclusion.
The default Sick Leave category does not consume holiday balance and is marked as unplanned absence. It now feeds a dedicated report, follow-up and return-to-work journey rather than a leave approval.
A manager action list, colleague availability, restricted health evidence and an API projection do not expose identical fields. Reporting stays permissioned because even small-team totals may enable inference.
Aggregate trends and working-pattern-aware absence rates show what happened. Named Bradford evidence is restricted to HR and System Admins, uses configured unplanned categories and stays raw—without judgement bands.
HollyHR records the absence, evidence and workplace follow-up. The employer remains responsible for its sickness policy, lawful decisions, reasonable adjustments and payroll treatment.
Open Sickness and choose Report sickness. Select the person when you are authorised to record on somebody's behalf, add the first day, choose a known end date or Still off, and select whole or half day. The absence is recorded immediately and opens as its own sickness record; it is not sent for leave approval.
Yes. When somebody other than the assigned current manager records the absence, HollyHR creates one content-neutral in-app notification linking that manager to the sickness record. The notification contains no employee name, absence dates, diagnosis, evidence type or other health detail.
No—not with HollyHR's default Sick Leave category. It is configured not to consume holiday balance and to count as unplanned absence. Administrators can change category settings, so the precise rule follows the organisation's configuration.
The employee sees their own record. Their current manager can see direct-report dates, operational status and return-to-work dates. HR and System Admin roles can manage organisation records. Restricted evidence, health notes, adjustments and review dates require a separate health capability and an enabled controller decision. Shared availability remains neutral Away.
Yes, after an authorised HR role enables the organisation's health-data capture decision. The employee or authorised HR role can add self-certification, upload or withdraw a PDF or image fit note, record its coverage and review date, and receive guidance once the absence passes seven calendar days.
Yes. Operational managers can schedule and complete return-to-work follow-up using status and dates. The employee and separately authorised HR roles can also record restricted conversation notes, agreed adjustments, phased-return dates and a review date.
Yes. HR and System Admins can see raw Bradford scores over the last quarter, six months or twelve months for configured unplanned-absence categories. HollyHR deliberately adds no traffic-light bands or automatic employment decisions.
HollyHR includes aggregate Time Off totals, days by type, month and department, average duration and a working-pattern-aware absence rate. Named top-absence and Bradford panels require the more restricted reporting access because even aggregate results can identify health absence in a small team.
No. Scoped Time Off reads may carry the neutral dated absence projection, but the dedicated sickness case, evidence and return-to-work health records are not exposed through the public API, webhook, SDK, MCP or Ask Holly. Payroll-readiness output does not calculate SSP or carry health detail.
The whole core product, no card, no trial clock — with a broad self-service organisation export if you ever want to leave.
Related: Time off & leave · Who's away · Working patterns