Where to Start
A first month for a business that currently tracks attendance in someone's head, in an order that produces something usable immediately.
Basics
If there is no system at all, the first month matters more than the eventual choice of tool.
Week one: find out what you have
List everyone and their working pattern, including the irregular ones.
Write down the leave year dates if they exist, or decide them.
Work out everyone's entitlement from first principles.
Find out what people believe their balance is and compare. The gaps are the first finding and they are usually substantial.
No software required for any of this.
Week two: write the page
The ten items from the policy note, on one page.
Show it to the team and ask what is missing.
Set a start date.
This is the largest single improvement available and it costs an afternoon.
Week three: build the sheet
One row per person, one column per day, a code in each cell.
Entitlement, taken, remaining, calculated.
Shared read-only so people can see their own.
Enter the current year's history as well as you can, and mark where it is an estimate rather than a record.
Week four: start the habits
Leave requests in one place.
Update the sheet the same day.
Check the calendar before approving anything.
Return-to-work conversation after every absence, for everyone.
Those four habits do most of the work. The sheet is just where they are written down.
After six months
You will know: how much absence you actually have, which reasons you actually use, which questions keep arising, and whether the sheet is coping.
That is your requirements document if you decide to buy something, and it will be shorter and more accurate than anything written up front.
And if the sheet is still coping, you have saved a subscription.
What to avoid in the first month
Buying software before you know your own patterns.
Introducing a scoring system.
Backdating a new policy, which is unenforceable and resented.
Trying to reconstruct three years of history. Start from a stated date and say so.
The measure of whether it worked
Can you answer, in a minute: who is off next Tuesday, how many days does this person have left, and how much absence did we have last quarter?
If yes, the system works, whatever it is built in.
What not to do in month one
Four moves that make everything afterwards harder.
Buying software before you know your own patterns.
Introducing a scoring system.
Backdating a new policy, which is unenforceable and resented in equal measure.
Trying to reconstruct three years of history.
Start from a stated date, say so, and mark anything earlier as an estimate rather than presenting a reconstruction as a record.
Turn the principle into a test
For an example that can make this requirement testable, consult the official Monitask website. Treat the page as a starting point rather than proof: reproduce the workflow with real roles, exceptions and permissions.