# flair — Absence Management

flair by flair.hr GmbH holds a panel rating of 2.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 1.5/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: flair.hr GmbH (https://flair.hr)
- Category: [Absence Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-01

**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: flair.hr GmbH
- 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: “Ab 2,50 € pro Mitarbeitendem und Monat.” (vendor’s words) [S2]

## The panel's verdict

flair, an absence management suite from flair.hr GmbH of Munich built natively on Salesforce, drew a consistent picture from the judges: strong everyday absence operations, thin public proof on data protection, sovereignty and price. Requests and approvals scored highest at 7-8, on multi-step chains routed by department, location or legal entity, quorum and parallel modes, Slack and mobile approval, and manager transfers kept in an audit history. Leave policies, sick leave and eAU, and payroll handover cluster at 6-7, resting on working-day and FTE proration with Germany, Austria and Switzerland settings, carry-over offsets up to four years, eAU retrieval from the statutory health insurer through the DATEV connection, and handover to LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt. Absence data protection clusters at 4 — granular permissions, but we found no public information on retention, access logging for health data, a data-processing agreement or works-council material. Sovereignty and pricing transparency sit lowest: we found no public information on hosting, the contracting entity, subprocessors or any price figure, with the pages offering a free, non-binding demo. No notable disagreement was recorded.

**Speaks for it:**
- Multi-step approval chains with first-response, quorum, all-required or parallel modes, routed by department, position, location, entity or a custom field, handled in Slack and on iOS and Android apps.
- eAU retrieval runs end to end through the DATEV connection — auto-send with a configurable delay, insurer answers written back in plain words, invalid fields flagged.
- Accrual prorates by working days per week or FTE share with Germany, Austria and Switzerland settings, and carry-over offsets run to four years.
- DATEV handover names both target systems, LODAS and Lohn und Gehalt, with accountant authorization, employee and payroll sync actions, payslip retrieval and lockable payroll runs.
- Access control uses named Salesforce permission sets and visibility scopes by department, location or entity, with manager-hierarchy sharing that excludes absences and documents.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on hosting location, the contracting entity's jurisdiction or any subprocessor, while the product runs natively on Salesforce — a US platform layer for absence and sickness data.
- The pricing pages name modules and optional add-ons, but we found no public price on them — no per-employee figure, no pricing basis, no minimum users, no term; the offer is a free, non-binding demo.
- We found no public information on retention or deletion settings for absence records, on logging access to health-related records, on a data-processing agreement, or on material for a works council.
- We found no public information on counting sick days towards the six-week continued-pay limit, on BEM thresholds, or on child-sick days as a separate type.
- We found no public information on mapping absence types to payroll codes, on webhooks, or on a documented API with published limits — a developer portal is only mentioned among support resources.

**Best for:**
- You run German payroll through DATEV (LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt) and want the eAU retrieved from the statutory health insurer and recorded against each absence.
- Your managers approve leave in Slack and on their phones and need multi-step chains routed by department, location or legal entity.
- You already govern HR access through Salesforce permission sets and want absence data under the same visibility scopes.
- You pay staff in Germany and Switzerland and want a second named payroll connection, MSBC (SwissSalary), alongside DATEV.

**Avoid if:**
- You must document where absence and sickness data is hosted and which subprocessors touch it before signing — the platform layer is US (Salesforce) and we found no public information on hosting or subprocessors.
- You need to put retention rules, access logging and a data-processing agreement in front of a works council — the captured privacy statements cover website and applicant data only.
- You must compute an annual invoice from published prices before shortlisting — the pricing pages show modules and add-ons, and we found no public price on them.
- Your leave setup needs special and parental leave types, statutory and contractual entitlement kept apart where they expire differently, or public holidays per German federal state rather than per location.

## 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 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 |
| Requests, approvals & team calendar | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Sick leave, eAU & continued pay | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Payroll handover, time tracking & API | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 |
| Health data, access & works council | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **3/5** | **2.5/5** | **3/5** | **2/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** |

### 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**
- DPA art28: Art. 28 DSGVO Auftragsverarbeitungsverträge [S5]
- DPA with processors: yes · Art. 28 DSGVO [S5]
- Flexible: flexible data privacy compliance [S1]
- GDPR controller: hello@flair.hr · flair.hr GmbH [S5]
- GDPR data subject rights: Auskunft Art. 15 · Berichtigung Art. 16 · Löschung Art. 17 · Einschränkung Art. 18 · Widerspruch Art. 21 · Datenübertragbarkeit Art. 20 [S5]
- GDPR legal bases: Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. b DSGVO - Vertragserfüllung · Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. f DSGVO - berechtigtes Interesse [S5]
- GDPR rights: Auskunft Art. 15 · Berichtigung Art. 16 · Löschung Art. 17 · Einschränkung Art. 18 · Widerspruch Art. 21 · Datenübertragbarkeit Art. 20 [S5]
- Legal basis processing: Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. b DSGVO · Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. f DSGVO [S5]
- Scc third country transfers: Standarddatenschutzklauseln Art. 46 Abs. 2 lit. c DSGVO · yes [S4]
- Security: Enterprise-wide security on Salesforce platform; easier data protection compliance [S1]

**Data**
- Application form fields: Vorname · Nachname · E-Mail-Adresse · Gehaltsvorstellungen · Lebenslauf · Salesforce-Kenntnisse, LinkedIn-Profil [S4]
- Application retention: 6 [S4]
- Automatic collection: IP-Adresse · Datum und Uhrzeit des Zugriffs · Browsertyp und -version · Betriebssystem · Referrer-URL [S5]
- Collected on visit: IP-Adresse · Datum und Uhrzeit des Zugriffs · Browsertyp und -version · Betriebssystem · Referrer-URL [S5]
- Cookies used: yes [S5]
- Logfile retention: 7 · yes [S4]
- Newsletter data: E-Mail-Adresse · Nachname · Vorname · Telefon-/Mobiltelefonnummer · Datum und Uhrzeit der Registrierung [S4]
- Privacy contact: privacy@flair.hr [S4]

**Hosting**
- Residency: regional adaptation options [S1]

**Integrations**
- Count: 4000 [S2]
- Datev accountant link: yes · 7 [S10]
- Datev overview: German Payroll Territory DATEV integration for exchanging employee and payroll data and retrieving payroll documents [S10]
- Datev purpose: exchange employee and payroll data and retrieve payroll documents for German Payroll Territory [S10]
- Datev required: eAU requires a payroll integration with a payroll territory ID; error message 'Payroll territory ID is missing' [S9]
- Datev required inputs: Consultant Number · Client Number [S10]
- Datev target systems: LODAS · Lohn und Gehalt [S10]
- Datev use cases: HR Payroll Reports · eAU · HR Files · HR Exchange · sandbox only [S10]
- List: DATEV · Sales Cloud · Service Cloud · Employee Hub · Mobile App · JOIN · Slack · flair AI [S1]
- Listed: DATEV · Sales Cloud · Service Cloud · Employee Hub · Mobile App · JOIN · Slack · flair AI [S1]
- Listed: DATEV · Sales Cloud · Service Cloud · Employee Hub · Mobile App · JOIN · Slack · flair AI [S5]
- Named: DATEV · Sales Cloud · Service Cloud · Employee Hub · Mobile App · JOIN · Slack · flair AI [S2]
- Named: DATEV · Sales Cloud · Service Cloud · Employee Hub · Mobile App · JOIN · Slack · flair AI [S2]
- Third party: integrates with Salesforce tools and third-party apps [S1]

**Legal**
- Address: München · Müllerstraße 27 · Deutschland · 80469 [S5]
- Commercial register: Amtsgericht München · HRB 248644 [S5]
- Commercial register: Amtsgericht München · HRB 248644 [S5]
- Content responsible: § 18 Abs. 2 MStV · Evgenii Pavlov · Romain Le Quéré [S5]
- Content responsible: Evgenii Pavlov · Romain Le Quéré · § 18 Abs. 2 MStV [S5]
- Controller: flair.hr GmbH · Müllerstrasse 27, 80469 München, Deutschland [S4]
- Entity name: flair.hr GmbH [S5]
- Entity name: flair.hr GmbH [S5]
- Registered office: München · Deutschland [S5]
- Registered seat: München, Deutschland [S5]

**Pricing**
- Starting price: employee/month · 2.5 · EUR [S2]

**Product**
- Absence calendar features: Absence notifications, overlapping absence detection, return dates [S3]
- Absence compliance: Configure leave policies to comply with local working laws across locations [S3]
- Absence modules: Time-Tracking Software · Abwesenheitsrichtlinien · Genehmigungs-Workflows · Abwesenheitskalender · Abwesenheitsberichte · Schichtplanung [S3]
- Absence overview: Overview of all absences and absence trends [S3]
- Absence types: vacation, sick leave, business trips, working-from-home periods, and other configured absences [S8]
- Access requirement: Approval Framework configured by HR Admins in Salesforce [S7]
- Accrual access: Employee Hub · mobile app · yes [S6]
- Accrual intervals: Yearly · Monthly · Weekly · Employee’s work anniversary · Per hours worked [S6]
- Accrual policies: Accrual policies define how employees earn absence allowance, proration, carryover and expiration [S6]
- Additional leave first: yes [S6]
- Addon advanced recruiting: Multiposting · CV-Parsing · Skills Matching · yes [S2]
- Addon qes: Qualifizierte elektronische Signatur (QES) · yes · yes [S2]
- Addon ticketsystem: yes [S2]
- Admin monitoring: Admin Monitoring: free integration that checks licenses, allows/blocks users, alerts on license changes or unauthorized access attempts [S13]
- AI capabilities: flair AI automates recruiting tasks: job description creation, candidate evaluation and prioritization [S1]
- AI recruiting: Stellenbeschreibungen erstellen · Bewerbungen bewerten/priorisieren [S1]
- Amount change rules: Allowance can increase based on age, years of service, or custom field thresholds; rules do not stack [S6]
- Analytics: Customizable analytics dashboards based on Salesforce [S1]
- Analytics dashboards: customizable HR dashboards on Salesforce [S1]
- Anniversary from start date: Work anniversary interval counts from employee's start date [S6]
- Appexchange ranking: #1 HR and recruiting solution on Salesforce AppExchange [S1]
- Appexchange ranking: #1 HR and recruiting solution on Salesforce AppExchange, modular platform covering entire employee lifecycle [S1]
- Approval admin platform: Approval Policies configured in Salesforce, by HR Admins [S7]
- Approval approver types: Manager · Additional Managers · Defined by Segments · Custom Field [S7]
- Approval assignment target objects: Absences · Employee Documents [S7]
- Approval default absence policy: Default Absence Policy routes all absence types through one step to direct manager [S7]
- Approval default document policy: Default Document Policy routes self-uploaded Pending Employee Documents to direct manager when visibility is HR+Manager+Employee [S7]
- Approval default policies: no · yes · yes [S7]
- Approval framework: centralized policies · multiple steps · segment-based approver assignment [S8]
- Approval manager transfer: On manager change during pending workflow: old request skipped, new manager gets request, new manager notified, transfer recorded in Approval Path [S7]
- Approval multiple approvers: first response advances · all required · parallel review [S7]
- Approval notifications: Handle leave requests in one place, notifications via email or Slack [S3]
- Approval notifications: email · Slack · Employee Hub · mobile [S7]
- Approval path audit: Workflow keeps prior assignment in audit history [S7]
- Approval policy routing: Approval Policies route requests through managers, Additional Managers, Employee Segments, or a custom field [S7]
- Approval policy routing: Approval Policies route requests through managers, Additional Managers, Employee Segments, or a custom employee lookup field [S7]
- Approval priority matching: lowest Matching Priority number wins [S7]
- Approval segment entity filter: Segment filters include department, position, location, entity, employment status, or a custom employee field; Entity filters by assigned legal entity [S7]
- Approval soql filter: Assignments support Target Object, Employee Field, Approval Status Field and an optional SOQL Filter [S7]
- Approval types: All need to approve · First approves the step · Specific number of approvers · Quorum (at least 2/3 of approvers) [S7]
- Approver types: The employee's direct manager · Absence manager · Compensation manager · Expense manager · Time entry manager · Shift manager · Help desk manager · See employee data manager · HR manager [S7]
- Assignment fields: Assignments configure Related Object Name, Employee Field, Status Field, SOQL Filter, Matching Priority [S7]
- Automatic timeoff in time tracking: Approved absences automatically adjust target working hours in time tracking [S3]
- Balance details: Absence Period · Days Available · Accrued · Taken · Scheduled · Available From Previous Period [S8]
- Built on salesforce: HR- und Recruiting-Software auf Salesforce [S5]
- Carryover: yes [S8]
- Category settings: Restrict Absence Editing · Restrict Absence Deletion · Restrict Absence Amount Change [S8]
- Change request form: yes [S8]
- Claim: #1 HR solution on Salesforce [S1]
- Comments: yes [S8]
- Comments apex classes: CommentController · CommentService · CommentTriggerHandler [S12]
- Comments avatar apex classes: EmployeeAvatarCommon · EmployeeAvatarCriteria · EmployeeAvatarGroupController · EmployeeAvatarResizer · EmployeeAvatarResizerAsync · EmployeeAvatarRestController · EmployeeAvatarService · EmployeeAvatarsFactory · EmployeeAvatarUpdateContro… [S12]
- Comments crud options: Create, Edit, Delete permissions optionally enabled for comment modification [S12]
- Comments custom permission set: yes · custom Salesforce permission set required for flair's Comments component when standard permission sets are not assigned [S12]
- Comments custom permission set: Instructions for creating a custom Salesforce permission set for flair's Comments component when standard permission sets are not assigned [S12]
- Comments employee field access: flair__Employee__c · all five objects [S12]
- Comments employee field access: flair__Employee__c · all five objects [S12]
- Comments permission admin role: Salesforce Admins managing permission sets, object, field and Apex class access in Salesforce Setup [S12]
- Comments read objects: flair__Comment__c · flair__Comment_Mentioned_Employee__c · flair__Comment_Reaction__c · flair__Employee_Avatar__c · flair__Reaction__c [S12]

**Support**
- Comparison: Best-Practice support from HR experts [S2]
- Comparison email only: claims other companies offer only email support [S1]
- Docs: help & support section plus Entwicklerportal (developer portal) [S1]
- Model: best-practice consulting and support; tailored service packages [S1]
- Monthly reports contact: Contact flair Support when monthly policy values look wrong in reports [S6]
- Offerings: Best-practice consulting and support; tailored service packages [S1]
- Security report: yes [S1]
- Status and roadmap: developer portal · status page · public roadmap [S1]
- Status page: yes [S1]
- Troubleshooting missing apex access: Users unable to see comments usually indicates missing Apex class access in the permission set [S12]

197 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr

## Questions

### Is flair European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies flair as EU-Made.

### Where does flair store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does flair have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to flair?

As of 15 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Kenjo (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/kenjo), [HRlab (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/hrlab) and [Urlaubsverwaltung (2/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/urlaubsverwaltung) highest among the other 16 Absence Management products evaluated. 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: [flair alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 16 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.
- 5 integrations 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.
- 3 subprocessors 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 hosting 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 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.
- 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.
- 2 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are 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://flair.hr/de (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://flair.hr/de/pricing (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Absence management: https://flair.hr/de/absence-management (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Privacy policy: https://flair.hr/de/legal/privacy-policy (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Legal notice: https://flair.hr/de/legal/imprint (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Entitlements & German leave rules — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/customize/accrual-policies (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/learn/approval-framework/approval-policies (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/learn/absence-management/requests-approvals (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Sick leave, eAU & continued pay — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/learn/absence-management/eau-electronic-sick-notes (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/learn/payroll/datev-integration (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S11] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/learn/payroll/payroll (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S12] Health data, access & works council — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/customize/custom-permission-for-comments (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S13] Health data, access & works council — found from sitemap: https://kb.flair.hr/docs/customize/permissions-and-access-control (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "flair — Absence Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/537?target=page