Absence reason in Cover & Absence type in Personnel are different, can they be the same?

The reasons for absences in Cover are held in a separate table from the reasons for absence in Personnel, but there is no reason why the tables cannot be the same, if desired.

The Cover absences are within SIMS under | Tools | Cover | Reasons for Absence. Select a reason and click on Edit to see the Absence type to which the reason is mapped. The absence types offered here are those which are marked active within SIMS under | Tools | Lookups – this list is the one which appears in Personnel. Several different reasons for absence in Cover can be mapped to the same absence type if required.

Extra reasons for absence in Cover can be used which do not appear in Personnel, and these would be ‘internal unavailability’ which means that e.g. the person needs cover because they are going to a meeting, but it is not an absence which should be recorded in Personnel.  Changing whether the ‘internal unavailability box is ticked or not will only affect absences added after the change has been made.

In SIMS .net | Tools | Cover | Statistics | Absence – the columns are the reasons for absence from Cover.  Please be aware that this will only count absences which happened on Teaching days, not those which happen in the holidays or on training days.

Reviewed 27/7/20