Sick leave tracking
A staff sickness tracker that keeps sick days private
Log a sick day in seconds, even after it happened, attach the fit note, and see each person's sickness over the year, without colleagues seeing why someone is off.
Free for up to 10 people · 11 to 50 people: $37.50 a month on Pro
A sickness tracker answers three questions a spreadsheet struggles with: who is off sick today, how much sickness has each person had this year, and where is the evidence. In Absenca, sick leave is its own leave type, so sick days never come out of the holiday allowance, the team calendar shows who's off, and each person's sick days add up over the leave year.
It's built for the manager who takes the 8 am phone call and the HR lead who has to keep the record straight. This page is about sickness alone; for every kind of absence see the absence tracker, and for the whole UK process, absence management software.
What you get
Logged in seconds
The employee books the sick day themselves, or their manager books it for them. Past dates are allowed by default, so it can wait until they're back.
No approval step if you don't want one
A leave type can skip approval, so a sick day lands on the calendar as soon as it's booked instead of waiting in a queue.
Fit notes attached
Require a document for a sick leave type and the request can't be sent without one: a PDF or photo, up to 5 files of 10 MB each.
Half days and hours
Someone who goes home at lunch or leaves for an appointment books a half day or hours, so the record matches what happened.
Fit notes and self-certification
In Great Britain, GOV.UK says nobody needs a fit note for 7 days of sickness or fewer, counting weekends and bank holidays; they confirm it themselves when they come back. After 7 days you can ask for a fit note, from a GP, hospital doctor, registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist.
Absenca's attachment rule is set per leave type and applies to every request of that type; it doesn't switch on at day 8. Most UK teams leave it off on their main sick leave type and ask for the note in the return to work meeting. If you want the app to enforce it, add a second type, such as "Sickness with fit note", that requires the attachment. The free plan has 2 leave types, so that setup needs Pro, which allows up to 20.
Who sees why someone is off
Health information is special category data under UK GDPR, so the reason someone is off shouldn't be on a shared calendar. Mark sick leave private and, in Absenca's calendar and team views, only the employee, their approvers and administrators see it's sickness; everyone else sees the person as "Away". Channel digests, calendar feeds, shared team calendars, reports and out-of-office replies still show the type for now.
Roles limit the rest. Managers see their own departments, admins see the organisation, and employees see their own record.
Spot patterns without a spreadsheet
Total sick days hide the pattern that disrupts a team most: frequent single days. The Bradford Factor, the number of separate spells squared times the days absent, brings it out. Absenca scores it per person over the leave year for the leave types you choose, bands it as medium from 50, high from 200 and critical from 500, and exports the list as CSV, Excel or PDF. Bradford scoring is on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan. Treat a score as the start of a conversation: Acas warns against review points that trigger disciplinary action on their own.
| Employee | Sick days taken | Spells (S) | Score (S × S × D) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greta Vogel | One week with flu in March | 1 | 1 × 1 × 5 = 5 |
| Felix Hartmann | 5 single Mondays across the year | 5 | 5 × 5 × 5 = 125 (medium) |
Tracking sick leave in the US
Searching for a sick leave tracker from the US? The Department of Labor notes there's no federal requirement for paid sick leave, so the rules that apply come from states and cities, and many of them give leave as hours earned per hours worked. Absenca gives a sick leave allowance per year, or accrues it monthly, quarterly, twice a year or every two weeks, and tracks it in days or hours. It doesn't record hours worked, so an hours-worked accrual needs a manual balance adjustment. Sick days still never touch the PTO balance, and the history exports as CSV.
After the sick day
When someone comes back, hold a return to work meeting with the free return to work form, which records the evidence and the support agreed. Write the reporting rules, evidence and review points down first with the sickness absence policy template. For the full UK process, from reporting to sick pay to review, see absence management software.
Last reviewed: · Absenca Team
Why teams choose Absenca
- Sick days logged by the employee or their manager, after the fact too
- Fit notes attached to the request when the leave type requires one
- Private sick leave shows "Away" in Absenca's calendar and team views
- Bradford Factor scores and bands, on Pro
- Free for up to 10 people; Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people
Frequently asked questions
- What is a staff sickness tracker?
- A record of every employee's sick days, separate from holiday, with the dates, the evidence and a running total per person. It shows who is off sick today and how much sickness each person has had in the year.
- Can a manager record a sick day for an employee?
- Yes. Anyone who can approve leave can book it for the people in their team, and the booking is approved straight away. Past dates are allowed unless you turn them off for the leave type.
- Can colleagues see that someone is off sick?
- Not in Absenca's calendar and team views if the sick leave type is private: they see "Away". The employee, their approvers and administrators see the type. Channel digests, calendar feeds, shared team calendars, reports and out-of-office replies still show it for now.
- Is sick leave tracking free?
- Recording sick leave is free for up to 10 people, with 2 leave types, such as holiday and sickness. Bradford Factor scoring is on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan. Absenca is free for up to 10 people. Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people, or $33.75 a month billed annually ($405 a year).