5 questions businesses ask me about recording sick leave

October 6, 2026 • 6 min read •

By Kate Vodopian

Who should record sickness? What should colleagues see? Can different employees have different allowances?

These are some of the questions I hear during TimeOff demos and while helping new customers set up their leave policies.

These questions can help you decide what to record, who should record it and who should be able to see it—whether you use a spreadsheet or dedicated software.

This is about making the recording process work, rather than explaining legal entitlements or compliance.

1. Can sick leave have its own allowance, with different limits for different employees?

Yes. In TimeOff, sick leave can have its own annual leave-type limit, with individual overrides for employees whose policy differs. This is separate from the employee’s main leave allowance.

That means employees can use the same sickness category for recording and reporting while having different individual limits.

My advice is to decide what the figure represents before entering it. Are you tracking an allowance under your company sick-pay policy, or do you simply need to record how much sickness absence someone has had?

Recording actual absence and tracking an allowance are different jobs.

Also decide how further sickness will be recorded once the limit is reached. Changing an individual limit and allowing someone to exceed it are separate settings. A software cap should not leave a genuine absence missing from the record.

See how to set individual limits for leave types.

2. Can sick leave and medical appointments use different recording increments?

Yes. A Leave increment policy can apply to selected leave types, so sickness and medical appointments do not have to use the same minimum recording unit.

For example, a business might want to record sickness in half-day increments but allow medical appointments in blocks of 30 minutes. These are examples of the setups people ask about, rather than a recommendation that every company should use those units.

The next decision is how each category affects the figures you track. Does it need its own annual limit? Should recording it reduce the main leave allowance, or leave that allowance unchanged?

Choosing a recording increment does not decide how the absence affects an allowance.

TimeOff distinguishes the main allowance from limits attached to individual leave types. Treat those as separate settings; do not assume that two categories automatically share a dedicated balance.

Read about Leave increment policies and leave-type allowance settings.

3. Can colleagues see that someone is unavailable without seeing that they are sick?

Yes. TimeOff can show a sensitive leave type as “Away” to non-supervisor colleagues, or hide that leave type from their Team View altogether.

Those options serve different purposes. Obfuscate on Team View keeps the absence visible but masks its name. Hide from Team View removes that type of absence from the colleague-facing view.

Choose whether colleagues need to know that the person is away, without seeing the reason. Managers and administrators can still see details where their permissions allow it.

My advice is to test the employee-facing view, not just the administrator’s screen. Look at the calendar label, colour and any details available when the entry is opened.

Check notifications and connected calendars too. Calendar feeds have separate visibility settings, so do not assume that a Team View setting determines what appears in Google Calendar or Outlook.

Knowing that someone is unavailable is not the same as needing to know why.

Read about Team View privacy modes.

4. Can a sick note be attached to the absence record?

Yes. You can attach a sick note or another supporting document to the relevant absence record in TimeOff.

The reason people ask is straightforward: keeping supporting information connected to the absence makes it easier to find later than searching separate emails.

But where a document is stored is only half the question. The other half is who can read it.

Leave-attachment permissions follow access to the detailed leave record. That includes the employee concerned, administrators, people authorised to manage their leave, and an authorised reviewer while the request is awaiting their decision. The audience is not chosen independently for each attachment.

Seeing an absence on Team View is different from having permission to open its detailed record and attachments.

Before storing a medical document, establish who needs access and what information needs to be kept. A comment box or attachment option is not a reason to collect more medical detail than your process requires.

The ICO’s guidance on sickness and injury records explains the distinction between basic absence information and more detailed medical records.

5. Can managers record sickness while employees still request their own holiday?

Yes. Sickness can be restricted from employee self-service while authorised managers or administrators record it on the employee’s behalf. Other leave types can remain available for employees to request themselves.

This suits businesses where employees phone in sick and a manager makes the entry. Others prefer employees to record sickness themselves. The setup should reflect the reporting process the business actually uses.

There are two settings to check—not just one.

Restricting a leave type from employee booking does not automatically give a manager permission to use it. The manager also needs permission to record that disabled leave type on the employee’s behalf.

Test the complete workflow: the employee cannot select sickness, but the responsible manager can record it for them.

Then decide who handles the entry when the usual manager is away. An employee may have reported their absence correctly while the shared record is still waiting to be updated.

Read about recording leave on behalf of an employee.

Another useful check: what happens when the return date changes?

Beyond those five questions, there is a practical scenario I recommend testing.

Imagine an employee phones in sick on Monday but does not yet know when they will return. How will the absence be recorded initially, and who will update it?

Walk through an absence that lasts longer than expected, then one where the employee returns earlier. Make sure the person responsible knows how to correct the record and check the resulting dates and duration.

Do not assume every system handles an ongoing absence in the same way. Understand the process you will use, rather than leaving conflicting dates in the calendar, emails and reports.

Also check whether your records still show one continuous absence when it is extended, rather than accidentally making it look like several separate episodes.

Think about what the records should tell you later

Four days of sickness in one continuous period are different from four separate one-day absences. A total of “four days” does not show that distinction.

Keep enough information to review both the time absent and the individual absence periods. Acas guidance on recording sickness absence recommends recording the number of absences and the length of each.

This preserves useful context. It is not a reason to make assumptions about an employee from a total alone.

Before you finish: test one complete absence

Using a test employee and dummy information, record a sickness absence and extend it. Where attachments are available, add a sample document—not a real employee’s medical information.

Then check the record from the perspectives of the employee, a colleague and the person responsible for managing it.

These checks are useful whether you are reviewing a spreadsheet-based process or setting up dedicated software.

The aim is not to make sickness recording more complicated. It is to make sure each person knows what to do, the record stays accurate and information is only visible where it is needed.

Working through similar questions?

During a TimeOff demo, we can talk through how you currently record sickness and explore the setup options that matter to your business.

Book a demo

By Kate, TimeOff.Management

Kate works directly with TimeOff customers during demos and policy setup, helping businesses translate their everyday leave processes into a workable system.