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Administrators can add users to absentify in three ways: manual entry, Excel import, or Microsoft Teams/Entra ID (Azure AD) group synchronization. All newly added users are initially set to inactive, allowing administrators to fully set up their profiles before activation.

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Checklist before adding users

Before you start inviting users to absentify, it’s important to complete a few key setup steps to ensure everything works correctly and reflects your company’s structure and policies. Complete this checklist before you start inviting users. These settings define how users sign in, how leave is calculated, and how your company is structured in absentify.
1

Update your company privacy settings

Go to Privacy settings and adjust them to match your internal company policies.
2

Set your preferred sign-in method

Navigate to Authentication & Access Control and choose whether users will sign in with Microsoft 365 or by email (Magic Link).
3

Add all public holidays used in your company

Go to Public holiday settings and add all calendars relevant to your teams.
This is necessary to assign the correct holidays when creating users.
4

Add all leave types

Go to Leave types and enter all leave types allowed by your company.
5

Add allowances and link them to leave types

If your company offers deductible leave types (e.g. paid vacation), go to Allowances, create the allowance types, and link them to the corresponding leave types.
6

Add all departments used in your company

Go to Departments and set up the departments used in your company.
This ensures accurate assignment and is especially important for importing users or using Entra ID sync.
If you want to manage allowance totals per department, use the Advanced settings in the department configuration.
7

Set default user settings

Go to Default user settings to define settings that will be applied automatically to each new user.
This saves time and prevents the need for manual edits later.
8

Set your company’s business hours

Set your company-wide work schedule in General settings.
These hours are applied by default to all users.If needed, you can update individual schedules later using the user schedule settings.

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How to add users

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1. Add users individually

Use manual entry when you need to add a single user quickly — perfect for one-off additions or small teams.
Getting started:
1

Navigate to "Users"

  • Go to Settings > Users, then click Invite a new user at the bottom of the user list.
2

Fill in the user details

  • Name: Enter the user’s full name (required).
  • Email: Provide their email address (required).
    • For Microsoft 365 sign-in: The email must be linked to a Microsoft account.
    • For email sign-in (Magic Link): Any valid email address can be used. If the Teams & Entra ID group sync is activated, you can use the search bar to look up users directly in Active Directory.
  • Department(s): Assign the user to a department. Additional departments can be added later from the user’s profile or using the bulk edit feature.
  • Public holidays: Assign the applicable holiday calendar based on the user’s location.
  • Employment start date: Specify the user’s start date (required). This is used at the time of user creation to calculate pro-rated allowances.
  • Annual allowance: Set the user’s leave quota for the current and next year if you want to override the standard allowance calculated based on the user’s start date and the advanced settings in their assigned department. However, this is not recommended unless the user is supposed to receive a different quota than the default setup for your workspace.
Users added manually are initially set to inactive, allowing administrators to complete their profile setup before activation.
3

Save the user as inactive

  • By default, newly added users are set to inactive. Inactive users:
    • Do not receive emails.
    • Cannot log in: If they attempt to log in, they will see a message indicating their account is inactive and advising them to contact an HR administrator.
    • Allow retroactive absence entry: Absences can be recorded for inactive users without triggering notifications.
4

Activate user when ready

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2. Add users via Excel import

The Excel import is ideal for adding larger groups of employees. If you have access to Microsoft Teams/Entra ID (Azure AD) groups, these can prefill the Excel template with existing user data.
Before importing users via Excel, make sure that public holidays, departments, and allowances are already created in absentify.
These settings are required to complete the user profiles and ensure proper absence tracking.
Steps for Excel import:
1

Step 1: Prepare the Excel template

  • Go to Settings > Users > Import users and download the Excel template.
  • If enabled: Use Entra ID (Azure AD) or Teams groups to prefill the template with user data. Only users not already in absentify will be included.
    Learn how to enable this setting in the admin guide for user integration.
2

Step 2: Fill out the template

  • Review and update the prefilled data, or manually enter the following:
    • Name and Email (required)
    • Department(s), Holiday calendar(s), Start date, and Annual allowances
Don’t forget to define the default allowance for upcoming years to ensure users have leave entitlements in future fiscal years. This is important for long-term planning and accurate quota calculations.
  • Define whether each user should be set to active or inactive. If you want to review or complete the profile before users log in, it’s recommended to set the status to inactive. Inactive users won’t receive invitations or access until you activate them.
3

Step 3: Upload the file

  • Return to the import view and upload the completed file.
4

Step 4: Validate the data

  • The system will check the uploaded data for errors. Any invalid entries will be highlighted for correction.
5

Step 5: Invite users

After successful validation, you can invite all users with a single click.
If you’d like to review each profile and compare it against our Checklist before activating users before making any final changes, you can skip this step for now. Later, use the bulk edit feature to activate multiple users at once.

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3. Add users via Microsoft Teams/Entra ID group sync

Synchronizing Microsoft Teams or Entra ID (Azure AD) groups provides an automated way to add users and link them to departments in absentify. Steps to set up synchronization:
1

Enable Teams/Entra ID synchronization

  • Go to Settings > Microsoft and activate Teams and Entra ID (Azure AD) group synchronization. Learn how to enable this setting in the admin guide for user integration.
2

Link a group to a department

  • Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Microsoft Teams/Entra ID (Azure AD) group synchronization.
  • Select a Microsoft group and link it to a department in absentify.
3

Enable auto-creation

  • Activate the Auto-create user accounts option to automatically add group members to absentify. Refer to this article for a more detailed outline on how to set up Entra ID group sync for automated user creation.
4

Sync and manage users

  • Newly synced users are automatically created in absentify as inactive. Administrators must activate them before they can access the system.
  • They are assigned a pro rata allowance based on the allowance default settings and their start date – the date they were added to the group.
  • After synchronization, administrators can manually adjust user profiles, such as allowances or holiday calendars, as needed.
If you’d like to review each profile and compare it against our Checklist before activating users before making any final changes, you can skip activation for now.
Later, use the bulk edit feature to activate multiple users at once.

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Key points about inactive and non-login users

  • Inactive users do not receive emails: This allows administrators to complete profiles (e.g., adjust allowances, assign approvers) before activation.
  • Inactive users cannot log in: If they attempt to log in, they will see a message stating their account is not active and advising them to contact an HR administrator.
  • Retroactive absence entry is possible: Absences can be added for inactive users without triggering notifications.
  • Non-login users: Users without an email address cannot log in, approve absences, or act as department managers. However, their absences can still be managed by administrators.

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Adding users without an email address

absentify allows you to add users without an email address for cases where login access is not required. These users can have their absences managed, but they cannot log in, act as department managers, or approve absences for others.
This feature is only available with the Essentials or Plus Plan.
  1. Navigate to User Management
    Go to Settings > Users, then click Invite a new user.
  2. Enter user details
    Fill in the user’s name, assign them to departments, and configure other settings such as public holiday calendars and employment start dates. Leave the email field blank.
  3. Save the user
    The user will be added as a non-login user, and their profile can now be used to manage absences and schedules.

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Key limitations for users without an email address

  • No login access: These users cannot log in to absentify.
  • No manager roles: They cannot act as department managers or approve absences for others.
  • Admin management required: Their absences and calendar entries must be managed by an administrator.
This feature is ideal for including employees in absence management who do not require direct access to the platform.

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Checklist before activating users

Use this checklist after adding your users and before activating them to ensure their profiles are correctly configured.
1

Review and customize individual user profiles

Go to each user profile and review details such as:
  • Allowance settings: Adjust if the default does not apply — for example, if someone has a custom contract with more days or if the allowance should be hidden from the user.
  • Approver: Confirm or change the assigned approver if needed.
  • Representative: Optional, available with upgraded plan.
  • Working schedule: Update if the user has different working hours (e.g. part-time).
2

Set up leave request notifications

3

Activate all users

Once everything is set up correctly, use the bulk activation feature to activate your users.
This checklist helps prevent issues such as:
  • Incorrect leave request calculations due to wrong working hours
  • Requests being routed to the wrong approver
  • Notifications not reaching the correct department or person

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Troubleshooting: adding/inviting users

If one of your users is running into issues accessing the app after being added to your company’s workspace, here are some potential causes and how to resolve them:
If you see the message “A user with this email address already exists in another Workspace”, there are two likely causes:

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1. The user has accidentally created their own workspace

Ask the user to log in at app.absentify.com. If they find themselves in a workspace where they are the only user and also the tenant admin, it means they have accidentally created a new workspace.To confirm this, send them this guide and ask if the steps shown match what they did during sign-in.If this is indeed what happened, they will need to delete that workspace before you can add them to your company’s workspace. Please refer them to this guide: Delete company account.
To prevent this from happening in the future, enable the “Prevent workspace creation for same tenant” option in your General settings.

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2. The user is still part of a previous company’s workspace

The user must be removed from the other workspace before they can be added to yours.
If a user was previously archived, they cannot be invited until they are reactivated.To fix this:
  1. Go to Settings → Users.
  2. Click the Edit (pencil) icon next to the user’s name.
  3. In the user profile, scroll down to Archive user and disable the toggle.
Once the user is no longer archived, you’ll be able to send them an invite simply by activating them.
If a user doesn’t have a Microsoft 365 license or the IT administrator doesn’t allow logins at third-party websites with Microsoft account:Solution: The user can use the email login (Magic Link) as an alternative.Important: With email login, the following features are not available:
  • Automatic calendar synchronization (instead: iCal invitations via email)
  • Synchronization of public holidays to the Outlook calendar
  • Automatic out-of-office replies in Outlook
  • Group calendar synchronization
  • Microsoft Teams/Outlook App integration
  • Teams and Entra ID group synchronization
  • Manager synchronization from Entra ID
  • Azure AI integration
Switching to Microsoft SSO sign-in:The switch from Magic Link to Microsoft can be done in two ways:
  1. By the user themselves: In their personal settings, the Microsoft account can be linked.
  2. By an administrator: Under Settings > Users → select user → toggle on for Microsoft sync to link their Microsoft account.
Important:
For the advanced automations (calendar sync, out-of-office replies, etc.), Microsoft permissions must be separately approved under the Microsoft settings by the tenant admin.
If a user reports that they did not receive an invite after being activated in the app, follow these steps:
  1. Check email history
    Go to the user’s email history to confirm whether the invite was sent from absentify.
  2. Verify delivery
    If absentify shows the invite was sent but the user did not receive it, ask them to check whether any email rules, spam filters, or security settings are blocking the message.
  3. Resend the invite
    Once delivery issues are ruled out, disable the Active user toggle in the user profile and then reactivate the user to send the invite again.
  4. Escalate if needed
    If the user still does not receive the invite, refer to the email troubleshooting guide for further steps.
For further help and troubleshooting tips, contact our Support Team.