Absence
Note: Screenshots in this article use data from our internal demo organisation. Any organisation IDs or user IDs visible in the screenshots reference our demo dataset, not your or any other customer's data.
🎯 Overview
Find all of your absence information in one place. Track who's off, why, and for how long, and surface patterns across your organisation.
This report:
- Surfaces every absence period (holiday, sickness, and other types) with start/end dates, durations, and notes
- Lets you switch between days, hours, whole days, or Sona's logical mix for duration reporting
- Includes a Bradford Factor view to score absence patterns and surface suggested actions
Use this dashboard to:
- See who is currently absent and what's been logged across a selected period
- Spot employees with low time-off usage, frequent short absences, or unusual patterns
- Compare rostered vs actual vs sickness hours by location for workforce planning
- Calculate and review Bradford Factor scores against your organisation's configured thresholds
➕ Benefits
- One place for every absence, with full employee and location context
- Flexible duration units so the data matches how your team thinks about time off
- Configurable Bradford Factor scoring aligned to your organisation's policy
🗂️ Dashboard Tabs
| Tab | What it shows | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics and data | Raw absence records, instance counts, sickness share, and a rolling 12-month trend | Day-to-day absence tracking and individual record review |
| Absence Summaries | Aggregated views by location, low time-off lookups, and rostered vs actual vs sickness hours | Comparing locations and spotting workforce-planning issues |
| Bradford Factor | Score-banded Bradford Factor results with your organisation's configuration and quick date presets | Reviewing absence patterns against policy thresholds |
Statistics and data
This tab is the working view for absence records — use it to see who is currently off, browse individual absence periods, and review type and sickness breakdowns. Scalar tiles for Latest Data Sync, Dates Showing, and a date-selection warning sit at the top.
- Employees Currently Absent — live list of employees whose absence period covers today, with a link through to Absence Management for each person.
- Absence Records — full table of absences in the selected period, including start/end date and time, duration, missed shifts and shift hours, type, subtype, notes, and whether a document was uploaded.
- Consecutive Absence Records — records grouped to highlight back-to-back absences for the same employee.
- # Of Absence Instances and Days By Absence Type — per-employee table breaking absence instances and days down by absence type, with missed shifts during the selected dates.
- % Absence Instances By Type/Subtype — pie chart of how absence instances split across types or subtypes (toggle inside the card).
- % of Sickness Instances — gauge showing the share of all absence instances that are classified as sickness.
- Days Of Absence Over The Last 12 Months — rolling area chart of total absence days by month; always shows the most recent 12 months regardless of the date filter.
- # of Absence Instances — scalar count of distinct absence periods in the selected window.
"Instances" on this tab always means a single absence period, not a count of days.
Absence Summaries
Aggregated and comparison views designed for managers reviewing absence at a location or workforce-planning level. Latest Data Sync and Dates Showing indicators sit at the top.
- Absence Summary — aggregated summary of absence across the filter selection.
- % Headcount Of People Absent By Location — table showing absence days and the percentage of headcount absent, grouped by location, parent location, or grandparent location (controlled by the Group By parameter).
- Employees With Less Than X Time Off — table of employees whose total time off in the selected period falls below a threshold you set inside the card. Useful for spotting people who may need to take leave.
- Rostered vs Actual vs Sickness hours — comparison of rostered hours, actual paid hours, sickness hours, and the variance between rostered and actual, grouped by location.
Bradford Factor
Calculates a Bradford Factor score per employee using either your organisation's saved configuration or the dashboard's filter selections, and matches each score to the appropriate band and suggested action. Latest Data Sync and Dates Showing indicators sit at the top.
- Bradford Factor — score table per employee, showing absence instances, days of absence, the Bradford Factor score, score band, and suggested action.
- Bradford Config Summary — shows the active configuration (counting mode, location filter, working days, pro-rating, rolling period). Appears when at least one configuration is enabled; hidden otherwise.
- Use Systems Bradford Factor Configuration Settings — toggle indicator showing whether the dashboard is reading from the system configuration or from the dashboard's own filters.
- Quick Date Selection — reference table of common date ranges (last 12, 6, 3, 1 months, current month) to help you pick a consistent window.
🎛️ Filters
Standard Filters
These filters appear across all Reporting Suite dashboards:
- Location / Parent Location / Grandparent Location — filter by organisational hierarchy
- Job Title — filter by employee role
- Contract Type — filter by employment contract
- Full Name / Employee ID — find a specific employee
- Status — employee status (Active, Leaver, Left, Starting Soon, Deactivated). Defaults to Active and Leaver.
- Employment Period Group — filter by employment period grouping for employees with multiple employment periods
Report-Specific Filters
| Filter | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Duration unit | Days | Switches absence durations between Days, Whole days, Hours, or Logical mix (the unit logged in Sona) |
| Absence type | -- | Narrows to one or more absence types (e.g. Sickness, Holiday) |
| Absence subtype | -- | Narrows to one or more absence subtypes |
| Is holiday | -- | Filters to absences classified as holiday |
| Is sickness | -- | Filters to absences classified as sickness |
| Is open ended | -- | Filters to absences with no end date set |
| Document Uploaded | -- | Filters to absences with or without a supporting document |
| Absences Shorter Than (Days) | -- | Keeps only absences shorter than the specified number of days |
| Absences Longer Than (Days) | -- | Keeps only absences longer than the specified number of days |
| # Instances During Period Over | -- | Keeps employees with more than this many absence instances in the period |
| Include Breaks? | Yes | Whether break time is included when calculating absence hours against missed shifts |
| Use Config | No | On the Bradford Factor tab, switches between your saved system configuration and the dashboard's own filter selections |
Three additional per-card dropdowns let you change behaviour inside specific cards: Less than ... time off (inside Employees With Less Than X Time Off on the Absence Summaries tab), Absence Type/Subtype (inside % Absence Instances By Type/Subtype on the Statistics and data tab), and Calculate Days Of Absence By (inside Bradford Factor on the Bradford Factor tab).
Dynamic Parameters
The Absence dashboard has three structural switchers that change how the cards are aggregated or calculated:
- Summarise By — Default: Employee. Changes the level the summary charts break down by.
- Group By — Default: Location. Sets the location level used by % Headcount Of People Absent By Location and similar grouped views (Location, Parent location, or Grandparent location).
- Calculation — Default: Absence duration. Switches the metric used in summary charts between absence duration and related calculations.
📅 Date Filtering
Use Start date and End date to set the reporting window. When nothing is selected, the dashboard defaults to last month.
A few cards intentionally ignore this window: Employees Currently Absent always shows live absences happening today, and Days Of Absence Over The Last 12 Months always shows a rolling 12-month trend. If you set a start date later than the end date, a warning appears at the top of the tab and durations will show as zero — pick a new end date to clear it.
❗️ Important Definitions
- Bradford Factor — a workforce-management score that weights short, frequent absences more heavily than single longer absences (Score = Instances² × Days). The dashboard calculates this against your configured rolling period, counting mode (all absences, absences with missed shifts, or missed shifts only), and absence type filters, then matches each score to your organisation's bands and suggested actions. Set Use Config to Yes to use your saved settings or No to score against the dashboard's current filter selections.
- Duration unit — Days and Hours convert the absence period into the requested unit, Whole days rounds part-days up to a full day, and Logical mix uses whichever unit the absence was originally logged in on Sona (typically days for full-day absences and hours for part-day absences).
❓ Common Questions
Why does the % Headcount Of People Absent By Location number look low?
The percentage is calculated against everyone in the selected location who has an employment period overlapping the reporting window, not just the people who were rostered. Narrow the Status, Contract Type, or Job Title filters to compare against a more specific population.
Why don't the numbers match the Absence Map dashboard?
Absence Map plots one row per absence day across a calendar, so a five-day absence appears as five cells; this dashboard reports each absence as one instance with a duration in the unit you select. The two will always look different even when they're describing the same absences.
🗓️ Data Coverage
- Data freshness: Refreshes every 30 minutes via the automated data pipeline. Check the Latest Data Sync indicator on the dashboard for the exact timestamp.
⬇️ Downloading Data
- To download the current view as a PDF, click the download button in the top-right corner of the dashboard.
- To download an individual chart or table as CSV or Excel, click the download button in the top-right corner of that chart.