# Breathe — Absence Management Breathe by Centurion Management Systems Ltd holds a panel rating of 1.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 1.5/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: UK / wider Europe; sovereignty: not determined. - Vendor: Centurion Management Systems Ltd (https://www.breathehr.com) - Category: [Absence Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management.md) - Provenance (editorial classification): UK / wider Europe - Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/breathe-hr - Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/breathe-hr/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/breathe-hr/alternatives.md)) - Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-13 **AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology ## At a glance - Vendor: Centurion Management Systems Ltd - Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026 - Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026 - Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026 - Starting price: “Starting at £24 a month per business” (vendor’s words) [S2] ## The panel's verdict Breathe, an absence management product from Centurion Management Systems Ltd of Horsham, England, is strongest where its evidence is thickest: requests and approvals and payroll handover both score 4, with the minimum and maximum equal. Employees request time off in a few clicks or from the iOS and Android apps, managers approve from a dashboard, and shared calendars add email and in-app notifications plus Outlook sync; the handover side brings four CSV files — employee, salary, benefit and additional payment details — exportable in full or changes-only, a named Xero Payroll integration and an open-source API with a sandbox. Weakest are sick leave and eAU and leave policies, both at 2, and sovereignty at 0-1: the captured pages give a UK address while hosting, ownership and subprocessors remain unknown, and we found no public information on eAU retrieval, six-week continued pay or carry-over. Score movement is small — absence data protection spans 2-3, the lower scores weighing unstated retention against health data — and no material disagreement was flagged. The pricing page names modules but no price figure appears in the captured material; persona-weighted totals span 1.8 to 2.9. **Speaks for it:** - Requests and approvals is the joint-highest score at 4, minimum and maximum alike: employees request in a few clicks or from the iOS and Android apps, managers approve from a dashboard, and shared calendars add email and in-app notifications and Outlook sync - Payroll handover matches it at 4: four CSV files — employee information, salary information, benefit information and additional payment details — with a full or changes-only download, a named Xero Payroll integration and an open-source API with a sandbox - Sickness is tracked as its own type with fit-note upload, custom Bradford Factor trigger rules and return-to-work conversations logged against the record - Automatic holiday entitlement tracking with generated tasks and email reminders replaces the spreadsheet - Employees log their own absences through the People Portal mobile app, so records stay accurate without managers chasing emails **Held against it:** - Sick leave and eAU scores 2 with its minimum and maximum equal: the terminology is UK fit notes, and we found no public information on eAU retrieval, six-week continued pay, BEM or child sick days - Leave policies also scores 2 with its minimum and maximum equal: the part-time and mid-year calculator is website content, and we found no public information on carry-over, expiry or regional public holidays - Sovereignty scores 0-1: the captured pages give a UK support address in Horsham, while hosting, ownership and subprocessors are unknown - No absence data appears among the four named payroll export files, and no German payroll system is named in the captured material - Retention is stated only as "as long as necessary", and we found no public information on restricting sickness reasons to named roles or on a data processing agreement **Best for:** - You run a team of up to 250 people and want the everyday flow: requests in a few clicks, manager approval, a shared calendar and mobile logging - Your payroll runs on Xero Payroll or accepts CSV files, and you want a documented API with a sandbox for your own integration - You want sickness handled as a tracked absence type with Bradford Factor trigger rules and logged return-to-work conversations - You want absence handling inside a broader SME HR suite of modules such as records, documents, performance and rota **Avoid if:** - Your sick-leave process depends on the eAU, six-week continued pay, BEM or child sick days — the captured material uses UK fit-note terminology throughout - You need leave rules such as carry-over, regional public holidays or part-time proration computed inside the product — only a free website calculator is evidenced - You must document EU hosting and subprocessors before moving sickness data — the captured pages give a UK address in Horsham, and hosting and subprocessors are unknown - Your payroll needs absence days mapped to payroll codes — ask the vendor: the public pages we read do not show it ## Scores by judge and criterion Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price. | Criterion | The Team Lead | The Managing Director | The Payroll Accountant | The Data Protection Officer | The HR IT Integrator | The Skeptic | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Entitlements & German leave rules | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | | Requests, approvals & team calendar | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | | Sick leave, eAU & continued pay | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | | Payroll handover, time tracking & API | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | | Health data, access & works council | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | | European sovereignty | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | | Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | | **Weighted verdict** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1/5** | **1.5/5** | **1/5** | ### The judges - **The Team Lead** (v1.0): Approves leave for twelve people across two shifts and finds out about clashes too late. Wants requests and approvals on the phone, a named substitute on every request, minimum-staffing warnings before approval, and a team calendar that shows who is away without showing why. - **The Managing Director** (v1.0): Runs a forty-person company in two federal states without an HR department and is liable when leave is calculated wrong. Wants part-time entitlements prorated correctly, the right public holidays per site, carry-over that lapses only after employees were told, and the eAU handled without a phone call to every health insurer. - **The Payroll Accountant** (v1.0): Closes payroll in DATEV every month and corrects whatever arrived late. Wants absences exported with the right payroll codes, the eAU result attached to the sick day, the six-week continued-pay limit counted per illness, and past months locked once they are paid. - **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Treats every sick day as special-category data, because the law does. Asks who can see a reason or a certificate, how long absence records are kept and deleted, whether access is logged, where the data is hosted, and which subprocessors send the push notification that says someone is ill. - **The HR IT Integrator** (v1.0): Wires the absence tool to payroll, time tracking, the identity provider and the calendar. Wants a documented API and webhooks, maintained connectors for the named German payroll systems rather than a CSV, SSO, and balances that agree with the time-tracking system on both sides. - **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Knows "eAU supported" can mean a photo upload, "DATEV integration" can mean a CSV, and "GDPR-compliant" can mean every manager sees every diagnosis-adjacent note. Reads for who actually retrieves the certificate, which leave rules are computed rather than typed in, and whether the carry-over expiry notice exists at all. ## European sovereignty — proven facts Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined. | Dimension | Finding | Points | Source | |---|---|---|---| | Legal entity | Not determined | — | — | | Ownership | Not determined | — | — | | Data residency | Not determined | — | — | | Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — | ## Key facts Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources). **Compliance** - Breach notification: yes [S4] - GDPR basis: GDPR (EU) 2016/679 · Data Protection Act 2018 · UK GDPR [S4] - Ico complaints: ICO [S4] - SSO no third party sharing: no [S4] - SSO scopes: openid · profile · email · openid · profile · email · User.Read [S4] **Data** - Marketing opt out: yes [S4] - No third party disclosure: no [S5] - Payment card storage: no [S4] - Retention: yes · no [S4] - Rights: access · correction · erasure · objection · restriction · portability · withdraw consent [S4] - SSO no profile retention: no [S4] - Storage security: yes [S5] - Withdraw consent: email support@breathehr.com · yes [S5] **Integrations** - Custom applications: API allows building custom applications [S8] - Marketplace: yes [S1] - Named integrations: Xero Payroll · hireful ATS · Breathe calendar sync [S8] - Outlook: Outlook calendar sync · yes [S8] - Payroll export CSV: Employee information · Salary information · Benefit information · Additional payment details [S7] **Legal** - Address: Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S1] - Address: Breathe · Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S3] - Address: Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S2] - Address: Breathe, Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S6] - Company number: England · 3020608 [S3] - Company number: England · 3020608 [S2] - Company number: 3020608 · England [S8] - Company registration: England · 3020608 [S7] - Copyright holder: 2026 · Centurion [S8] - Entity: Centurion Management Systems Limited · Breathe · England and Wales · 03020608 [S4] - Governing law: England [S5] - Policy updated: 2026-01-16 [S4] - Registered address: Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S7] - Registered address: Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, United Kingdom [S8] - Registered office: Preston Park House, South Road Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB [S5] - Trading entity: Centurion Management Systems Ltd · Breathe [S5] **Pricing** - Annual billing: yes · yes [S2] - Base plan price: business · GBP · 24 [S2] - Charity donation: yes [S2] - Expenses addon price: GBP · 14 [S2] - Free trial: yes · no [S1] - Free trial: yes [S6] - Free trial: free trial · yes [S7] - Free trial: free trial · 14 [S8] - Free trial: yes [S9] - Health safety addon price: GBP · 12 [S2] - Learn addon price: GBP · 15 [S2] - No long term contracts: yes · no [S1] - Polls surveys plan requirement: regular [S1] - Recruitment addon price: GBP · 16 [S2] - Rota addon price: GBP · 11 [S2] - Starting price: business · GBP · 24 [S2] - VAT exclusive: yes [S2] **Product** - Absence monitoring: Absence and sickness monitoring via manager dashboard, central calendar, reports [S7] - Absence monitoring: Absence & sickness monitoring via manager dashboard, calendar and reports [S8] - Absence tracking: Tracks sickness, holiday and unplanned absence in one place [S3] - Additional products: HR Software · Rota, Time & Attendance [S8] - API available: open-source API · yes [S8] - API data sync: API keeps employee data up to date across systems [S8] - Automated tasks reminders: Automatically generated tasks and email reminders [S7] - Bradford factor: Custom sickness trigger rules with Bradford Factor thresholds and alerts [S3] - Breathe AI: early access · yes [S1] - Cloud access: Online access to HR and personnel data [S7] - Company scale: 17000 [S8] - Company size limit: 250 · 40+ [S3] - Content topics: Key insights: sickness patterns, remote work wellbeing, wellbeing supports [S9] - Core features: Holiday & absence management, Dashboard & reporting, Document & policy management, Performance management included as standard [S2] - Customer base: 17000 [S3] - Customer count: 17000 · >= [S1] - Document upload: Employees can upload supporting documents like fit notes [S3] - Entitlement tracking: Automatic reminders and holiday entitlement tracking [S3] - Expenses features: Expenses: claim upload and tracking, single view of submissions [S2] - Faq payroll integration: Page FAQ asks whether the software integrates with HR or payroll systems [S3] - Health safety features: Health and Safety: risk assessments, accident logging, safety roles, training tracking [S2] - Holiday calculator: 0 · yes [S1] - Learn features: Learn: bite-size courses, onboarding, tailored training, compliance [S2] - Leave approval: Employee absence requests, manager dashboard approval, shared calendars [S3] - Leave management: holiday/leave management with employee time-off requests [S1] - Mobile app: yes [S2] - Mobile app: yes · yes · view calendars, receive and make changes to schedules, share company calendar on the go [S6] - Mobile app logging: Employees log absences via People Portal mobile app [S3] - Modular addons: additional modules including recruitment and expenses [S1] - Module HR records: HR & employee records module [S3] - Module list: HR & employee records · Holiday & absence management · Performance management · Rota, time & attendance · Recruitment & onboarding · HR tasks & workflows · Documents & policies · Reporting & insights [S3] - Notifications: yes · yes · yes [S6] - Payroll full or changes export: Can export full payroll report or only employee information changes [S7] - Performance polls surveys: Performance Management · yes [S1] - Recruitment features: Recruitment: job posting performance, applicant journey tracking [S2] - Reporting dashboards: Dashboards surface trends in short-term, long-term and unplanned absence [S3] - Return to work logging: Return-to-work conversations can be logged alongside absence records [S3] - Rota features: Rota, Time & Attendance: weekly rotas, timesheets, overtime tracking, shift swap, clock in/clock out [S2] - Rota views: Weekly rota view, daily shift view, and hourly breakdown [S6] - Sandbox environment: test API consuming code · yes [S8] - Site scope: breatheHR.com [S5] - SSO providers: identity verification · Google · Microsoft [S4] - Survey sample size: SME employees across the UK · 1264 [S9] - Task reminders: Automatically generated tasks and email reminders [S8] - Team calendar: Intuitive shared business team calendar with visibility of who's working and when [S6] **Support** - Address: Unit 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, RH13 5PY, United Kingdom [S5] - Articles: status page · support articles · FAQs · contact form [S6] - Dedicated support: yes · yes · yes [S1] - Resources: status page · support articles · FAQs · contact form [S8] - Resources channels: Status page · Support articles · FAQs · Contact us [S7] - Status page: yes [S1] - Trial support: yes [S2] ## Questions ### Is Breathe European? Yes, though not from the EU. whats-best.ai classifies Breathe as UK / wider Europe. ### Where does Breathe store data? Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026. ### Does Breathe have a free plan? Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026. ### What are the best alternatives to Breathe? As of 15 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Kenjo (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/kenjo), [flair (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr) and [HRlab (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/hrlab) highest among the other 16 Absence Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Kenjo](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/kenjo) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Breathe alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/breathe-hr/alternatives). ## What this page leaves out - 6 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 6 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 4 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 2 data facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 compliance fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 hosting fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 subprocessors fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 support fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. - 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown. - 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement. ## Sources - [S1] Vendor homepage: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/ (checked 2026-10-13) - [S2] Pricing page: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/hr-software/hr-software-prices (checked 2026-10-13) - [S3] Absence management: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/hr-software/absence-management (checked 2026-10-13) - [S4] Privacy policy: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/privacy-policy (checked 2026-10-13) - [S5] Terms of use: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/terms-of-use (checked 2026-10-13) - [S6] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/rota/team-calendar (checked 2026-10-13) - [S7] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/hr-software/payroll-export (checked 2026-10-13) - [S8] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/hr-software/online-hr-system-api (checked 2026-10-13) - [S9] Sick leave, eAU & continued pay — found from sitemap: https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/sick-report-2019 (checked 2026-10-13) --- Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Breathe — Absence Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/breathe-hr Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/546?target=page