HR & People
Record sick days separately from annual leave, track fit notes and return-to-work interviews, and let a configurable Bradford Factor score flag which employees are worth a conversation - before a pattern becomes a bigger problem.
Genuine sickness absence gets its own record, distinct from booked holiday - the usual UK HR and legal reason for keeping the two apart, and one less thing to untangle later.
Every active employee's rolling 12-month score (episodes squared, times total days) is calculated for you, and ranked against a concern and trigger threshold you set.
The Dashboard surfaces every active employee past your concern or trigger threshold, highest score first - a ready-made starting point for a return-to-work conversation.
Any absence past your fit-note threshold (7 consecutive days by default, matching UK self-certification rules) is flagged until you mark a fit note as received.
Log the date and notes from a return-to-work conversation against any absence, so there's a record of what was discussed, not just that the employee was off.
Concern threshold, trigger threshold and fit-note threshold all ship with sensible defaults but are fully adjustable in Settings to match your own absence policy.
Full employee and absence lists export to CSV for payroll, a wider HR system, or your own record-keeping.
Light/dark theme remembers your choice, matching the rest of the Metre2 portfolio.
Breathe HR is a well-established UK cloud HR platform whose holiday and absence module includes Bradford Factor scoring alongside a much wider set of HR tools - onboarding, performance reviews, expenses, document storage and more. Here's how a focused, offline sickness-and-Bradford-Factor tracker compares for a business that just needs absence patterns flagged.
| Feature | Sick Leave & Absence Pattern Tracker | Breathe HR |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-off after trial - no per-employee fee | Banded monthly subscription - from around £24/month for 1-10 employees, up to £579/month for 151-200, plus VAT |
| Cost scales with headcount | ✕ | ✓ |
| Works fully offline | ✓ | ✕ |
| Bradford Factor scoring with configurable thresholds | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fit note and return-to-work tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Onboarding, performance reviews, expenses, document storage | ✕ | ✓ |
| Focused single-purpose tool, nothing else to configure | ✓ | ✕ |
| One account across a whole app portfolio | ✓ | ✕ |
Comparison based on Breathe HR's publicly listed pricing as of August 2026 (breathehr.com and third-party review sites) - exact rates vary by employee band, billing cycle and add-ons, and pricing/features change over time, so check breathehr.com for current details. Breathe HR is a trademark of its respective owner; this comparison is for informational purposes and isn't sponsored by or affiliated with Breathe HR.
The Dashboard overview, the Employees list, and the Absence Log.
Dashboard: employee count, absence stats, and who to check in with
Employees: every person's Bradford Factor band at a glance
Absence Log: fit note and return-to-work status per absence
Sick Leave & Absence Pattern Tracker is a Windows desktop app, free to try from the Microsoft Store.
Yes - it uses the same shared Metre2 account as Vector, Forma and every other Keystone app. Sign in once and it works everywhere.
The Bradford Factor is a widely used absence-management metric: score = episodes squared, multiplied by total days absent, over a rolling 12 months. More frequent short absences push the score up faster than one long absence with the same total days. The app calculates it automatically per employee and flags anyone past your concern or trigger threshold.
Staff Holiday & Absence Tracker handles planned annual leave - booking, approval and team calendars. Sick Leave & Absence Pattern Tracker is a separate record for genuine sickness absence, with fit-note tracking, return-to-work interviews and Bradford Factor pattern flagging, kept apart for the usual UK HR and legal reasons for treating the two record types separately.
No - the app ships with commonly used starting points (a concern threshold of 51 and a trigger threshold of 125), but both are fully configurable in Settings to match your own absence management policy, along with the fit-note threshold (7 calendar days by default, matching UK self-certification rules).
No. It flags absence patterns for you to review and keeps a record of fit notes and return-to-work interviews - it is not medical, legal or HR advice and does not replace occupational health guidance or your own absence management policy.