Holiday and absence management without a spreadsheet war

Absence management is not an HR formality in hospitality — it decides whether Saturday service is covered. When requests live in messages, the rota and the balances drift apart within weeks.

What a working process looks like

1. One place to request, for everyone, including managers.
2. The balance is shown at request time, not calculated later.
3. Approval checks coverage for the affected shifts before it is granted.
4. The approved absence appears on the rota automatically.

Plan the peaks, not just the requests

Set a cap on simultaneous absences per role and per site, and open the busy periods for requests early. A rule announced in March is accepted; the same rule announced in July is a conflict.

Unplanned absence is a separate problem

Sick leave needs a fast cover path: who is available today, who is already close to their weekly hour limit, and who cannot be called because they finished at 1am. That question is answerable in seconds only if availability and hours already live in the same system as the rota.