The Mistakes That Recur
What goes wrong in small business attendance, each visible early, each with a specific correction.
What not to do
Attendance goes wrong in a small number of recognisable ways, and the diagnosis matters more than any system.
Nobody owns the record
The symptom: three versions of the truth and an argument about a balance.
The correction: one person maintains it, others have read access.
Updated from memory at month end
The symptom: the record and people's recollection disagree, and the record loses.
The correction: same-day updating, which is the whole difference between a record and a reconstruction.
Balances invisible to the team
The symptom: a December surprise and a dispute.
The correction: publish balances. It removes most of the questions and catches errors while they are small.
Approving on entitlement rather than coverage
The symptom: three people off in the same week, all legitimately.
The correction: check the calendar before the balance, and set a limit per period in advance.
Selective application
The symptom: a grievance, and it is the hardest one to defend.
The correction: the same process for everyone, especially the parts that feel unnecessary for the reliable people.
Sickness detail in the attendance record
The symptom: health data in a shared sheet, and an access request that is awkward to answer.
The correction: dates and a broad reason in the record; evidence held separately by one person.
Counting protected absence toward triggers
The symptom: a claim.
The correction: exclude it, and have a person review every trigger with authority to set it aside.
Rotas published late
The symptom: absences and lateness that the rota caused, then treated as conduct.
The correction: a stated notice period, honoured.
Assuming nobody will be absent
The symptom: every absence is a crisis.
The correction: cross-training and a realistic minimum, so a short day is a planned state.
The pattern behind them
Most are a process that exists in someone's head rather than on paper, which works until there are two people making decisions or one dispute.
A page of policy and a maintained record fix the majority, and neither requires buying anything.
Connect policy to configuration
The practical choices behind this note can be compared with review the sector example. Keep the written purpose in control of the setup, enable only data needed for that purpose and review the result with affected employees.