Transforming the way small & mid-market companies approach absence
Simplify absence and leave processes with a smarter solution.
FEATURES
Slash the admin burden
Easy holiday booking & sickness tracking
Swap manual and error-prone processes, like spreadsheets and long email chains, for a simplified, one-stop solution.
Here’s what edays can do:
- Employees can easily request time off via desktop or mobile app
- Managers are alerted to new leave requests, and can respond in seconds
- Leave entitlements can be viewed anytime
- Custom leave types can be created, from volunteering days to birthdays off
- Group calendars make it simple to check who’s off and when
Unmatched flexibility that can adapt as your organisation does
Flexibility is one of edays’ biggest benefits. No matter how your organisation offers and handles leave, our system will adapt. And, as your business grows, it’s easy to expand edays’ capabilities to handle new users and requirements.
Here’s some customer favourite features:
- Define employees into user groups for easy management, and easily add new user licenses
- Book leave in days or hours, with support for full-time and part-time leave entitlements
- Easily log sickness along with a reason
- Set absence triggers and alerts
- Report on the data you need
TESTIMONIALS
A better experience for manager & employees
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Small & mid-market capabilities in one absence management system
Like short-term sickness absence, long-term sickness absence differs from organisation to organisation. If an employee has been absent from work for a lengthy amount of time, or they have a recurring illness that requires them to be off sick regularly, these situations will be discussed with the individual.
Reasonable working adjustments may be necessary, and the employer can seek medical guidance and certification from the appropriate healthcare providers to determine what is best for the employee and their role.
There is no set length of time that is considered to constitute short-term sickness absence. In the UK for example, ACAS considers short-term sickness absence to be less than a week, whereas the CIPD considers it to be less than four weeks.
For HR, it is largely up to the preference of an organisation as set out in its absence management policy, as to what is deemed to be short- or long-term sickness absence.
In the UK, statutory sick pay is a legal entitlement that employees have, paid for by their employer, for up to 28 weeks. Some organisations elect to provide full pay to an employee for a certain amount of time (for example for the first few days of sickness leave), before starting statutory sick pay.
Sickness tracking is important because it provides HR teams with an overall picture of how often absence is occurring in the workplace.
Sickness leave can affect productivity and output, add extra strain on individuals or teams that are having to cover, and be an expensive cost to an organisation. Therefore knowing exactly how sickness absence is impacting an organisation can help to empower HR and people managers to address any issues and provide additional employee support and ensure better resource planning.
Sick leave software such as edays is a system designed to quickly record and view all absences in an organisation as they occur, providing clarity on who is off work and when.
With edays, managers can use the Bradford Factor scoring system to calculate an absence rate on a individual, team or company-wide level.
Triggers can also be set up to alert managers when that trigger is met. For example, if an employee is absent on three occasions over a set period of time.
Sickness management refers to the process of managing sickness absences as they occur in the workplace.
Sickness absences should always be logged, along with a reason for the absence. By doing so, recurring absences can be quickly identified and proactive steps can be taken to offer additional support to the employee.
A clear absence management policy should also be in place as part of managing sickness. This will detail who an employee should inform if they are sick, the statutory sick pay they are entitled to, and what happens if they are sick for a longer period of time.
Sickness management also means people managers regularly checking in with an absent employee. It may be that reasonable adjustments can be made by the employer to facilitate the employee’s return to work, or their working environment or schedule going forward if they have a recurring health issue.
edays exports absence and leave data directly to payroll, including approved leave taken, sickness days recorded, any SSP calculations and remaining entitlements. This removes the manual reconciliation step at month end, reduces payroll errors and ensures HR and payroll are always working from the same data. edays integrates with major payroll providers via pre-built connectors or the edays API.
Yes. edays is used by 1,400+ organisations across 120 countries and supports 25 languages. The platform applies localised absence rules, statutory entitlements and public holidays for each country or user group automatically. EU Working Time Directive compliance is built in, and separate configurations can be set for different countries, sites or teams, all managed from a single platform instance.
Yes. From 6 April 2026, SSP became payable from day one of sickness in the UK and the lower earnings limit was removed. edays records sickness absence from day one and feeds that data accurately to payroll, ensuring organisations meet the updated statutory requirements. The system updates automatically when UK employment law changes, so you’re not reliant on manual configuration to stay compliant.
When an employee returns from sickness absence, edays automatically sends a return to work form for completion. The form, along with any fit notes or medical certificates, is stored directly in the employee’s record, so managers have everything they need before the return to work interview. For UK employees, relevant NHS guidance can also be sent automatically to support recovery. The whole process runs without HR having to chase manually.
If enabled, edays automatically calculates a running Bradford Factor score for every employee based on their sickness absence history. Scores are visible on individual employee profiles in real time and update automatically each time a new sickness absence is logged. You can configure absence triggers to alert managers when a Bradford Factor score exceeds a set threshold, prompting early intervention before absence patterns escalate. If your organisation doesn’t use the Bradford Factor, it can be turned off entirely at the click of a button.
edays can track any type of planned or unplanned absence. That includes sickness absence (short and long term), annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, shared parental leave, compassionate leave, TOIL, medical appointments, emergency time off, lateness, unauthorised absence and custom absence types specific to your organisation. You can create unlimited absence types and define rules for how each is recorded, approved and reported on.
Absence management software focuses on recording and managing all employee time away from work, including both planned leave (annual leave, parental leave, TOIL) and unplanned absence (sickness, lateness, emergency time off). A leave management system typically refers to the planned leave side only. edays manages both in one platform, so there’s no separation between leave and absence data, HR teams get a complete picture of all time off from a single system.
The best way to track employee absence is by ensuring that all absences are logged and recorded in a centralised system. Where possible, the reason for the absence should also be logged.
With edays, you can set up absence triggers which will send you an alert when that trigger is met – for example, if an employee takes three absences during a set time period. Having this data will enable people managers to proactively reach out to an employee who has been absent more than once in a short space of time.
Without automated processes like these, absence tracking can be much more challenging if done manually – for example by using spreadsheets. This approach can lead to errors, inaccuracy and a lack of overall visibility of absences occurring in a team or whole organisation.
Yes. edays allows you to track any type of planned (e.g. holidays, maternity leave, medical appointments, business trips, time off in lieu (TOIL), etc.) or unplanned absence (e.g. sickness, compassionate leave, unpaid leave, etc.) in a single system. You can also create custom absence types specific to your organisation, such as wellbeing leave, and define rules for how these are to be used and recorded.
Learn more about our absence management software.
The return to work process is made faster and more efficient with edays. A reason can be logged alongside an individual’s sickness absence, and for UK employees, relevant NHS guidance can be forwarded on to them to aid in their recovery (see more on our NHS Portal here).
You can automatically send a return to work form to an employee who is returning from sickness absence. This is then stored in the employee’s details in edays, alongside any doctor’s fit notes or medical certificates that may be required.
Before conducting return to work interviews, managers and HR can review the employee’s records and view any previous absences to be fully equipped ahead of the individual’s return.
Yes. You can configure system alerts to trigger if specific absence conditions are exceeded and automatically notify specified individuals via email immediately.
Find out more about the edays sickness tracker.
Yes. edays allows you to configure all absence types to be recorded in hours, days or half-days, with customisable settings for different working patterns (i.e. shift work, part-time employees, etc.)
Find out more about our staff holiday management features.
Absence management software is a cloud-based platform that helps organisations record, track and manage all types of employee absence – including sickness, annual leave, parental leave and unplanned time off. It replaces manual spreadsheets and email chains with automated workflows, real-time reporting and compliance tools, giving HR teams a single system of record for all absence data. Good absence management software should automate leave requests and approvals, calculate Bradford Factor scores, trigger alerts when thresholds are met, support return to work processes and integrate with payroll.
Absenteeism in the workplace refers to reocurring absences over a period of time. The causes of absenteeism are varied and are sometimes difficult to identify. And without robust absence tracking methods in place, it becomes more challenging to spot too.
Having a clear absence management policy, coupled with efficient absence tracking will provide more visibility and a better understanding of absenteeism in the workplace, empowering people managers to take the next steps in addressing the issue.
Find out more about the causes of absenteeism and how to reduce it here.
When selecting absence management software, it’s important to consider the following features:
User-Friendly Interface: The software should be intuitive and easy to use for both employees and managers.
Customisation and Flexibility: Look for software that can be tailored to your organisation’s specific needs, including custom leave types, policies, and reporting.
Integration Capabilities: Ensure the software can seamlessly integrate with your existing HR systems and processes, like payroll and time tracking tools.
Comprehensive Reporting: It should offer detailed reporting capabilities to analyse absence trends and support your organisations strategic decision-making. Take a look at People Insights
Mobile Accessibility: A mobile-friendly or app-based platform allows employees and managers to manage leave requests and approvals on the go. edays’ employee holiday app has this covered.
Compliance Management: The absence system should help you adhere to local and international labour regulations to avoid legal issues.
Reliable Support and Training: Good customer support and training resources are essential for smooth implementation and ongoing usage. Our system was voted Software Advice’s “Best Customer Support” 2023.
Data Security and Privacy: Ensure the software provides robust data security measures to protect sensitive employee information. edays’ is ISO 27001 certified.
Leave management is the process of managing all types of employee leave within an organisation. This is includes annual leave, or holiday entitlement, whereby employees are entitled to take a certain number of days off per year. In the UK, almost all employees are legally entitled to statutory leave which is 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year. This varies in other countries.
In addition to statutory leave, organisations may also choose to offer additional holiday entitlement to employees – such as wellbeing days and birthdays off.
Leave management also refers to managing other types of leave that employees are legally entitled to, which includes maternity leave, paternity leave, and other types of leave.
Absence management software is a cloud-based platform that helps organisations record, track and manage all types of employee absence – including sickness, annual leave, parental leave and unplanned time off. It replaces manual spreadsheets and email chains with automated workflows, real-time reporting and compliance tools, giving HR teams a single system of record for all absence data. Good absence management software should automate leave requests and approvals, calculate Bradford Factor scores, trigger alerts when thresholds are met, support return to work processes and integrate with payroll.
edays supports more than 25 languages, including English (UK/US), Français, Español, Nederlands, Deutsch, Italiano, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Thai, Arabic, Serbian and more.
Please get in touch to discuss which languages you need.
As well as absence management edays offers a complete workforce management software platform; absence management is the foundation, but the platform extends well beyond it. Alongside absence tracking, Bradford Factor management and return to work workflows, edays includes time and attendance management (clocking in and out, online timesheets, project time tracking and EU Working Time Directive compliance), workforce scheduling (drag-and-drop rota management, skills-based shift assignment and fatigue management rules), leave management, core HR tools (employee directory, document management and workflow automation), a mobile app and People Insights analytics. Everything connects in one platform so absence, leave and time data are always in sync, and payroll always receives accurate, reconciled figures without manual intervention.
We focus on providing the best absence management, leave management and time and attendance solutions for your organisation. We’ll listen to your requirements and offer a best-in-class solution with more functionality compared to any other HR system providers. Our system is packed with features you won’t find anywhere else – helping you to manage absence, leave and time in more detailed, customisable ways that suit your organisation.
Don’t just take our word for it…
Thanks to customers reviews, we’re consistently voted as the market leader.
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