Absences
Overview
Holiday, sickness and other absences come together here — from request through approval to the effect on the leave account and on capacity.
The list shows employee, type, period, working days, status and proof. Working days are counted, not calendar days: weekends and public holidays drop out, otherwise two weeks of holiday would be fourteen days instead of ten.
Core tasks
Request. Request captures type and period; whether half days are possible depends on the absence type.
Approve or reject. Approvers decide per request. Whether approval is needed at all is likewise governed by the type — sickness usually requires none.
Record proof. Some types require proof, often only from a certain number of days onwards. The list marks proof as provided or pending — the column regularly needed in sickness cases.
Cancel. Cancel withdraws an absence. Importantly: balance and calendar are recalculated. A cancelled stretch of holiday really does give the days back — the confirmation says so.
Retention. Absences are payroll records and are kept 6 years after the employee leaves (rule hr_absence in GDPR administration, adjustable there). After that the system deletes nothing on its own, it proposes the deletion: the row shows Deletion proposed, the Retention filter shows only those rows. Confirm deletion proposal removes the absence for good, Extend retention keeps it until a new date. A GDPR erasure request does not remove absences at once either — it freezes the period (from the exit date, without one from the day of erasure). Reason and decision note, on the other hand, it blanks at once: payroll needs period, type and duration, not the free texts. A calendar entry mirrored from the absence is deleted at the same time — it carries the reason as text.
Fields in detail
The What it does column answers what changes in the system — not what the field is called. The grey name behind the label is the API field: the same thing runs under that name through automation, import and AI tools.
Requesting and editing an absence
| Field | Required | Values / format | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
Type typeCode | yes | master data "absence types" | The most important entry: it decides whether the request needs approval, whether proof is required, whether holiday days are deducted and whether the time is paid. Everything else follows from it — see HR settings. |
Employee employeeId | yes | an employee | Who for. Left empty, your own person is taken. Without a linked employee record no request is possible at all — the connection between account and personnel file is missing then. |
From startDate / To endDate | yes | date | The period. Public holidays and non-working days are taken out according to the employee's calendar, not counted. |
Half day at the start halfDayStart | no | yes/no | The first day counts as half. Only selectable if the absence type allows half days. |
Half day at the end halfDayEnd | no | yes/no | The same for the last day. |
Reason reason | no | text, max. 1000 characters | What you want to tell the approver. For types without approval, a plain note. |
Substitute substituteId | no | an employee | Who stands in during the absence. Appears in team availability and is proposed on assignments. |
Proof proofDocumentId | for types requiring proof | an uploaded file | The certificate. When it is due is set on the absence type; until then the request stays visibly outstanding. |
Deciding
| Field | Values / format | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Decision note decisionNote | text, max. 1000 characters | The approver's reasoning. On rejection this is what the requester gets to see — which is why a full sentence beats "no". |
Retention
| Field | Values / format | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Keep until retentionUntil | date | Until when the absence is kept. Required when extending and must lie in the future — otherwise the next run would propose the same row again. |
Deletion proposed retentionDueAt | timestamp, read-only | When the retention run proposed the deletion. Set means: waiting for confirmation. |
Settings & permissions
- Module
module.hr. - Finely cut permissions:
hr.absence.request_ownto request,hr.absence.view_ownfor your own
and hr.absence.view_team for the team's; hr.absence.approve to decide and hr.absence.cancel to cancel.
- Retention deletion proposals are confirmed or extended with
hr.document.manage(manage
personnel files).
- The absence type determines the effect. Whether an absence counts against the leave account,
requires approval, is paid, reduces capacity or allows half days is set per type in HR settings.
- Approved absence reduces capacity in team availability — where the type
provides for it.
FAQ & troubleshooting
The request does not deduct holiday days. Then the type does not count against the leave account. That is the normal case for sickness and unpaid leave.
The working days are wrong. Counting runs against the working-time schedule and the public holidays. Check both in HR settings.
Proof is demanded although it was only one day. Check proof from day on the type — if it says 1, that is the setting.
I only see my own absences. Then hr.absence.view_team is missing.