The leave and absence software you approve in one click from the calendar
Holiday requests over email, leave tracked in spreadsheets, and nobody knows who's in tomorrow. With Onwork every absence follows a clear flow — draft, submitted, approved — and lands straight on the shift calendar and resource planning. You approve with one click on the chip; the team always knows who's available.
Who uses it
HR, team leaders, finance & admin, employees
Approvals without chasing emails
Pending requests show ✓/✗ right on the calendar chip. Approvers get notified and find everything in the "Awaiting approval" section on their homepage.
Calendar and planning always in sync
An approved absence instantly shows as a coloured block on the shift calendar and as an unavailable slot in resource planning. No double entry.
Automatic counts, zero spreadsheets
Absence hours flow into the monthly reports, broken down by type. Multi-day requests automatically exclude public holidays from the count.
Everything Absences handles for you.
Operational detail, not marketing fog — every capability below is in the product today.
01
Calendar view with inline actions
"My absences" and the administrative page open in Calendar view: the whole month at a glance, actions right where you need them.
- One row per calendar day, weekends shaded and today highlighted; absences rendered as status-coloured chips
- Month KPIs: absence days, approved hours, pending requests and drafts (personal view); requests, to approve, approved, rejected (administrative view)
- Inline ✓/✗ on pending requests and quick submit on your drafts — actions appear only when the server authorises them on that row
02
Configurable approval flow
Turn approval on or off in Company Settings > Absence Approval, without touching absences already on record.
- OFF mode (default): a new absence is approved automatically and visible on the calendar — built for small teams
- ON mode: the request starts as Submitted and a notification reaches everyone holding the approval permission
- Rejection requires a mandatory reason; both decisions automatically notify the requester
03
Custom absence types and the convention gap
Each company defines its own absence types; long absences line up with the conventional working day on their own.
- Types customisable in Company Settings > Absence types: holiday, ROL (contractual reduced-hours leave), paid and unpaid leave, sickness, parental leave, time-off in lieu, bereavement, study — each with its own colour
- Past the configurable threshold (default 4 hours) the absence is stretched to the conventional day with a transparent gap (default 13:00–14:00): one single row, no duplicates
- Duration records the worked hours — computed server-side as end − start − gap — and is recalculated whenever the times change
How it flows
How Absences flows, step by step.
- 1
Draft
Create the request from the calendar ("+ Add absence" with the date pre-filled) or from the table. It stays a draft until you submit it, and you can track drafts in the month KPIs.
- 2
Submitted
Quick submit right from the chip. A notification reaches the approvers, who find the request in the "Awaiting approval" section on their homepage.
- 3
Approved
The approver confirms with the inline ✓ or from the detail view. The absence shows up on the shift calendar and in resource planning; the requester is notified automatically.
- 4
Rejected
Rejection requires a mandatory reason and notifies the requester. The calendar stays clean: no unapproved absences on it.
- 5
Reopened
A rejected or cancelled request can go back to draft, be fixed and resubmitted. Every step stays in the history for auditing.
Works better together.
Absences shares data live with the rest of Onwork — one source of truth, nothing re-typed.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about Absences: what it does and how it fits your workflow.
How does leave approval work in Onwork?
You enable the flow in Company Settings > Absence Approval. With approval on, a request starts as Submitted and notifies the approvers; the approver approves or rejects it (with a mandatory reason) and the requester is notified. With the flow off, the absence is approved automatically.
Do absences show on the shift calendar?
Yes. Approved absences appear as coloured blocks on the shift calendar, covering the whole day or the specified time slot, and as unavailable slots on the resource planning timeline.
Can I customise absence types for my company?
Yes. Types are managed per company in Company Settings > Absence types: you can add, remove and reorder them, and give each one a colour so it's recognisable at a glance on the calendar.