# Timetastic — Absence Management

Timetastic by Timetastic Ltd holds a panel rating of 1/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 1.5/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: UK / wider Europe; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Timetastic Ltd (https://timetastic.co.uk)
- 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/timetastic
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/timetastic/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/timetastic/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: Timetastic 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

## The panel's verdict

Timetastic is absence-management software from Timetastic Ltd of Wilmslow, England, presented as "Proudly built in the UK & Canada". It scores strongest on the everyday flow: requests and approvals and payroll handover both cluster at 4, on approvals, a shared calendar, daily Slack and Teams updates, Sage 50 and QuickBooks integrations and a payroll data export. It scores weakest on sick leave and eAU (0 to 1) — no public information on certificates, continued-pay counting or BEM — and on sovereignty (0 to 1), where data residency and subprocessors are unknown on the captured pages beyond Stripe for payments. Leave policies cluster at 2, with no public information on part-time proration, carry-over expiry or public holidays per German federal state or Austrian region. Pricing transparency spans 1 to 2: tiers Basic, Business and Pro are named publicly, no price figures appear, and captured pages give different plan names. Absence data protection spans 3 to 4, with specific retention and deletion commitments but no public information on who may see a sickness reason. Judges' totals run 2.0 to 2.7 with no disagreement flagged.

**Speaks for it:**
- Requests and approvals scores cluster at 4, on evidenced approvals, a shared calendar, calendar sync and daily Slack and Teams absence updates.
- Payroll handover scores cluster at 4, with Sage 50 and QuickBooks integrations, a payroll data export, payroll-ready timesheets and an API named.
- Retention and deletion rules are specific: six-year retention for accounting and legal purposes, deletion from live servers on cancellation with backups purged in 10 to 14 days, dormant accounts deleted at 18 months, and support conversations auto-deleted at 12 months.
- A data processing agreement is available, and most user rights can be exercised in self-service.
- The tier structure is public, showing which features sit in Basic, Business and Pro.

**Held against it:**
- Sick leave and eAU (electronic certificate of incapacity) scores sit at 0 to 1, with no public information on certificate retrieval, continued-pay counting, BEM or child-sick days.
- Leave policies scores cluster at 2, with no public information on part-time proration, carry-over with expiry, or public holidays per German federal state or Austrian region.
- Sovereignty scores sit at 0 to 1: the vendor is Timetastic Ltd of Wilmslow, England, "Proudly built in the UK & Canada", and data residency, hosting and subprocessors are unknown on the captured pages beyond Stripe as payment provider.
- Pricing transparency scores sit at 1 to 2, with no price figures, pricing basis, minimum term or VAT treatment on the captured pages, and the captured pages give different plan names (Basic and Pro on the calendar connections page, Business on the pricing page).
- No public information covers who may see a sickness reason or certificate, access logging, or guardrails for the burnout board and risk alerts.

**Best for:**
- You need a day-to-day time-off flow — approvals, a shared calendar, calendar sync and daily Slack or Teams updates — where requests and approvals scores cluster at 4.
- You hand payroll over to Sage 50 or QuickBooks through a payroll data export or payroll-ready timesheets, with an API listed.
- You want documented data lifecycle rules — six-year retention for accounting and legal purposes and deletion from backups within 10 to 14 days of cancellation — with a data processing agreement available.
- You need configurable leave types and holiday allowance records for a team whose absences do not involve statutory sick-leave administration.

**Avoid if:**
- You must administer sick leave with the eAU, continued-pay counting, BEM or child-sick days — sick leave and eAU scored 0 to 1, with no public information on any of them.
- Your payroll depends on German or Austrian leave rules such as part-time proration, regional public holidays or carry-over with expiry, or on DATEV or another German payroll system — leave policies scored 2 and no German payroll system is named.
- You require European data residency or a published subprocessor list — sovereignty scored 0 to 1, and residency, ownership and subprocessor exposure are recorded as unknown.
- You need a price before talking to sales — 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 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 |
| 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 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **1.5/5** | **1/5** | **1/5** | **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**
- Access controls: yes · yes [S4]
- Breach notification: yes · yes [S4]
- Contract documents: Acceptable Use Policy · Privacy Policy · Data Processing Agreement [S6]
- DPA: data controller · data processor · yes [S6]
- DPA: yes [S3]
- DPA available: yes [S7]
- Encryption in transit: yes [S4]
- Google API policy: yes [S4]
- Ico escalation: Information Commissioner's Office [S4]
- ISO 27001: yes · yes · yes [S2]
- Minimum age: 16 [S4]
- SSO MFA: yes · yes · 4 [S2]
- Third party sharing: yes · yes [S4]

**Data**
- Deletion after cancel: 10 to 14 days · immediate [S6]
- Dormant account deletion: delete account and all data · 18 [S4]
- Location data purpose: currency-appropriate pricing via IP lookup [S4]
- Payment storage: last 4 digits, expiry date, name · Stripe · no [S4]
- Record of changes: Record of changes [S2]
- Retention after closure: accounting · legal · 6 [S4]
- Retention years: 6 [S3]
- Rights self service: yes [S4]
- Support conversation retention: yes · 12 [S4]
- User rights: access · rectification · erasure · restriction · portability [S4]

**Hosting**
- Built in: Proudly built in the UK & Canada [S5]
- Built in: UK · Canada [S8]
- Built in countries: UK & Canada [S7]
- Origin: Built in the UK & Canada [S1]
- Origin: UK · Canada [S3]

**Integrations**
- API: yes [S1]
- API: yes [S6]
- API: yes [S7]
- API: yes [S3]
- Calendar connections: team absences in calendar · yes [S7]
- List: yes · Sage 50 · QuickBooks · Slack · Teams · Google Workspace [S2]
- Slack: Slack · yes [S5]
- Slack: yes [S3]
- Slack daily update: daily absence updates · yes [S7]
- Slack teams: Slack · Teams [S1]
- Teams: Teams · yes [S5]
- Teams: yes [S7]
- Teams: yes [S3]

**Legal**
- Company number: 09236149 [S5]
- Company reg no: 09236149 · Timetastic Ltd [S8]
- Company registration: Timetastic Ltd · 09236149 [S7]
- Data controller: Timetastic Ltd · 09236149 [S4]
- DPA: yes [S2]
- DPA available: yes [S5]
- DPA available: yes [S8]
- Entity: Timetastic Ltd · 09236149 [S1]
- Entity: Citation Group · Timetastic Limited · Kings Court, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AR · 09236149 [S6]
- Entity: Timetastic Ltd · 09236149 [S3]
- Entity: Timetastic Ltd · 09236149 [S2]
- EU data representative: Adam Brogdan [S4]
- Governing law: England and Wales · England [S6]
- Registered office: Timetastic Ltd · Kings Court, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, United Kingdom, SK9 5AR [S5]
- Remote workforce: no · yes · electronic only [S5]
- VAT number: 196022312 [S5]

**Pricing**
- Billing cycle: monthly · yes [S6]
- Business: 1.5 [S2]
- Free trial: yes · yes [S6]
- Payment processor: Stripe [S6]
- Pro: 2.5 [S2]
- Rota time clock: 5.5 [S2]
- Trial free month: 1 · yes · no [S7]

**Product**
- Absence definition: one place to record and approve every kind of time off [S3]
- Burnout board: Burnout board and risk alerts [S2]
- Business features: shared calendar · holiday allowance records and approvals · mobile and desktop app [S2]
- Business unlimited users: Unlimited users and departments [S2]
- Calendar connections: yes [S3]
- Calendar connections plans: Basic · Pro [S8]
- Communication features: instant messaging · internal news feed · notifications · internal survey builder [S2]
- Core capability: Rota planning, time tracking, and time off management [S1]
- DPA available: yes [S4]
- Features: Slack tools · Calendar connections · Email reports · Leave types · Timetastic Pro [S1]
- HR features: employee profiles · health and safety · anniversary notifications · high fives · onboarding form · customisable HR fields · document storage · e-signature · multi-position · HR date reminders [S2]
- Leave types: multiple leave types incl. custom types [S7]
- Leave types: holiday · sickness · maternity · in the app · one click [S3]
- Leave types: multiple leave/absence types [S8]
- Leave types config: yes [S3]
- Marketing opt out: yes · yes [S4]
- Modules: Absence management · Staff leave planner · Rota & Time clock · Time clocking [S1]
- Pro features: booking limits by leave type · absence trends and insights · company-wide absence reports · enhanced user profiles [S2]
- Pro includes business: yes [S2]
- Pro tier: yes [S3]
- Publicity rights: yes [S6]
- Rota features: rotas · clock-in/out · payroll-ready timesheets · leave and absence requests · HR data storage · team chat [S2]
- Rota module features: scheduling · shift templates · conflict detection · multi-location · open shifts · shift transfers and swaps · labour cost calculator · weather forecast [S2]
- Slack daily update: Slack daily absence updates [S8]
- Time attendance features: clock-in/out · break and overtime tracker · timesheet management · payroll data export · shift premiums · equipment management [S2]
- Time clock: yes [S3]
- Time clocking: yes [S7]
- User base: well over 150,000 users [S6]

**Support**
- Channels: live chat · email · help centre · training videos · yes [S2]
- Docs: Help centre · Product updates · System status [S1]
- Response time: 9:30am-4:30pm UK Time Mon-Fri · within 2 hours [S5]

## Questions

### Is Timetastic European?

Yes, though not from the EU. whats-best.ai classifies Timetastic as UK / wider Europe.

### Where does Timetastic store data?

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

### Does Timetastic have a free plan?

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

### What are the best alternatives to Timetastic?

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: [Timetastic alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/timetastic/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 9 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.
- 3 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.
- 3 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 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.
- 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 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 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://timetastic.co.uk/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://timetastic.co.uk/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Absence management: https://timetastic.co.uk/absence-management-software (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Privacy policy: https://timetastic.co.uk/legal/privacy-policy (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Company details: https://timetastic.co.uk/legal/contact-details (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Terms of service: https://timetastic.co.uk/legal/terms-of-service (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Entitlements & German leave rules — found from sitemap: https://timetastic.co.uk/features/leave-types (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://timetastic.co.uk/features/calendar-connections (checked 2026-10-13)

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

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/543?target=page