HRPortal is a web-based HR management system built for UK businesses. It replaces spreadsheet-based holiday trackers with a proper, multi-user portal that handles leave requests, sickness records, Bradford Factor, team calendars and absence reporting.
It runs entirely in the browser — no software to install, no servers to manage.
HRPortal is designed for UK SMEs — typically businesses with between 5 and 200 employees — who are managing HR from spreadsheets and need something more reliable, accessible and auditable.
It works particularly well for businesses with shift workers, multiple departments, or high sickness absence that needs careful tracking.
We offer a 14-day free trial on all plans. No credit card required to start. Get in touch and we'll set up a demo portal for your business so you can see how it works with your own data before committing.
Yes. On Business and Enterprise plans, we include a data migration service to help you import existing employee records, entitlement history and absence data from Excel or CSV files.
On Starter, we provide a CSV import template so you can load your employees yourself — it takes around 30 minutes for most businesses.
HRPortal supports 11 leave types out of the box:
- H — Full day holiday
- H1 / H2 — Half day (morning / afternoon)
- S — Sickness
- M — Maternity / Paternity
- C — Compassionate leave
- L / L1 — Time off in lieu (taken / gained)
- W — Training
- X — Agency off
- T — Long-term sick / medical condition
- SX — Suspension (standalone, no entitlement impact)
All are colour-coded in the team calendar to match common spreadsheet conventions.
Employees log in and submit a leave request specifying the type, dates and an optional note. The request appears in the admin panel for a manager to approve or reject with one click.
When approved, the leave is automatically added to the team calendar, the employee's leave history and their holiday entitlement total. The employee sees the status update immediately on their dashboard.
Sickness is recorded by an admin directly. Each sick day captures:
- The reason for absence (e.g. flu, back pain)
- Certificate type — self-certificate or doctor's note
- Whether the certificate has been physically received
- Any additional notes
The absence report flags any outstanding certificates automatically. Consecutive sick days are grouped into spells for Bradford Factor calculation.
The absence report is run by an admin for a selected employee over any date range. It shows:
- Total absence days, sick days, LTS days and spells in the period
- Bradford Factor score as of today
- Each sickness spell grouped together with full details (reason, certificate status)
- All other absence types in the period
- A complete leave record table
Reports are print-ready — use the browser print function to produce a PDF for disciplinary or review meetings.
Staff can see the team calendar showing who is off and what type of leave it is (holiday, training etc.) but they cannot see sensitive details such as sickness reasons, certificate status, suspension notes or Bradford scores of their colleagues.
Full details are only accessible to administrators.
Every plan — including Starter — includes all features: all leave types, Bradford Factor, team calendar, sickness management with certificates, absence reports, employee dossiers, leave request approval, and both admin and staff roles.
The plans differ by employee headcount limit and the level of support and onboarding included.
No setup fees on any plan. You pay only the monthly subscription. We configure and deploy your portal as part of getting you started.
Yes. You can upgrade your plan at any time — just get in touch and we'll update your subscription from the next billing date. There's no penalty for upgrading and no data migration required.
All prices shown are exclusive of VAT. VAT at the prevailing UK rate will be added to invoices for UK businesses.
Yes. There are no long-term contracts. You can cancel with 30 days' notice. Your data will be exported to CSV for you before the portal is closed.
No. HRPortal requires no server installation, no software deployment and no IT involvement. It runs entirely in the browser and is hosted on Cloudflare's global network.
The only thing your staff need is a modern web browser and an internet connection.
For most businesses, we have the portal live within one business day of receiving your details. Adding your employees and configuring groups, shifts and entitlements typically takes 1–2 hours depending on headcount.
Yes. HRPortal is fully responsive and works on smartphones and tablets. Staff can check their leave balance and submit requests from their phone. The team calendar is best viewed on a desktop or landscape tablet due to the number of columns.
HRPortal works on all modern browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. We recommend keeping your browser up to date. Internet Explorer is not supported.
Each employee has a base entitlement (default 25 days). This is adjusted by:
- Lieu days gained (L1 entries add to the pot)
- Manual adjustments — for pro-rata starters, leavers or one-off corrections
- Days taken (H = 1 day, H1/H2 = 0.5 days each)
The formula is: Remaining = Base + Lieu + Adjustments − Taken
The leave year runs April to March by default.
Admin can apply a manual entitlement adjustment to pro-rata the allowance. For example, if someone starts on 1 October in a 25-day April–March leave year, an adjustment of −12.5 would be applied to reflect the half-year entitlement. The adjustment is stored with a reason for audit purposes.
Yes. When a leave request spanning multiple days is approved, only Monday–Friday are written as leave days. Saturdays and Sundays are skipped automatically.
If your business uses shift patterns that include weekend working, we can configure this during setup.
SX (Suspension) is a standalone leave type that records a period when an employee is suspended. It has no impact on holiday entitlement and is not included in Bradford Factor calculations. It appears in the team calendar and absence report but is only visible to administrators.
The Bradford Factor uses the formula S² × D where:
- S = number of separate sickness spells in the rolling 12-month period
- D = total number of sick days in the same period
For example: 3 spells × 3 spells × 5 total days = a Bradford score of 45.
The score updates automatically whenever a sickness record is added or changed.
A new spell begins each time an employee returns from sickness and then goes sick again. Consecutive sick days (including across a weekend — Friday absence followed by Monday absence) are treated as the same spell.
No. Spells that reach 20 consecutive sick days are automatically flagged as Long Term Sick (LTS) and are excluded from Bradford Factor calculations. This is the standard HR practice — LTS is typically a medical management situation rather than an attendance pattern issue.
LTS spells are clearly labelled in reports and the employee dossier.
HRPortal uses three traffic light levels:
- Under 50 — Green: Normal attendance, no action required
- 50–199 — Amber: Monitor — consider an informal conversation
- 200+ — Red: Action required — formal review recommended
These are widely used thresholds in UK HR practice, but you should always apply your own disciplinary policy and take individual circumstances into account.
Your data is stored in Supabase, which runs on AWS infrastructure in the EU (West region by default). The portal itself is served via Cloudflare's global network. Both providers comply with GDPR requirements.
HRPortal is built with GDPR in mind. Data is stored in the EU, access is controlled by role-based permissions, and sensitive data such as sickness reasons is only accessible to administrators.
As the data controller, you remain responsible for your own GDPR compliance. We act as a data processor and can provide a Data Processing Agreement on request.
Before your portal is closed, we export all your data to CSV files and provide them to you. After 30 days from cancellation, all data is permanently deleted from our systems. We can provide written confirmation of deletion on request.
Yes, on Business and Enterprise plans we can deploy the portal to your own subdomain (e.g. hr.yourcompany.co.uk). You'll need to add a DNS record — we'll provide exact instructions. There's no additional charge for custom domains.
Still have questions?
We're happy to walk you through anything. Drop us an email and we'll get back to you within one business day.
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