Custom permission sets allow you to create new permission sets tailored to your team's needs.
In Productive, absence refers to both time off and remote work: time off means the person is unavailable for work, while remote work means the person is working but not in the office.
This article covers two permissions that let managers see absence data only for the people in their reporting line:
View absence bookings for users you manage
View absence allowances for users you manage
👉 If your organization uses multiple subsidiaries and wants to restrict absence visibility by subsidiary, see Restricting Absence Visibility by Subsidiary.
View Absence Bookings for Users You Manage
This permission lets a user see absence bookings for everyone they directly or indirectly manage, based on the Manager field set on each person's profile.
📌 Visibility follows the reporting line, not the subsidiary. If someone is in the user's reporting chain (directly or through intermediate managers), their absence bookings are visible in full, including category, notes, and attachments.
With this permission enabled, users can see:
Absence bookings in the Resource Planner — only for people in their reporting line.
Absence bookings and requests on user profiles, under the Absence tab.
Absence overview in Time > Overview on user profiles.
Absence bookings in reports: Bookings report, Capacity and Availability report, Overtime/Undertime report, and Payroll report.
People outside the user's reporting line remain hidden — their Absence tab is not accessible and they don't appear in the above reports.
View Absence Allowances for Users You Manage
This permission lets a user see absence allowances for everyone they directly or indirectly manage, based on the Manager field set on each person's profile.
With this permission enabled, users can see:
Absence allowances on user profiles, under the Absence tab.
Allowance balances and details for all direct and indirect reports.
People outside the user's reporting line remain hidden — their allowance details are not accessible.
📌 Changes to the Manager field take effect immediately. If an admin updates who someone reports to, visibility updates in real time for both permissions
How to Set It Up
To make these permissions work:
Go to each person's profile and set the Manager field under Info. This defines the reporting line.
Open the relevant custom permission set and configure the following:
Enable:View absence bookings for users you manage — lets the manager see absence bookings for all direct and indirect reports.
View absence allowances for users you manage — lets the manager see absence allowances for all direct and indirect reports.
Disable:
View absence details for all users: this prevents the manager from seeing absence data for people outside their reporting line.
View absence bookings for users in their subsidiary (if not needed): if all users share one subsidiary, disabling this avoids unintentional cross-team visibility.
Assign the permission set to the relevant users.
📌 If the Manager field is not set for any employees, the permission has no effect — the user won't see anyone's absence data because no one is in their reporting line.
👉 Find out more about setting up custom permission sets and assigning permission sets to users.
(Default) System Permissions
View absence bookings for users you manage is automatically enabled for system permission sets that have View absence details for all users turned on:
Admin
Profitability Manager (restricted and unrestricted)
Manager (restricted and unrestricted)
Coordinator (restricted and unrestricted)
View absence allowances for users you manage is automatically enabled for:
Admin
Profitability Manager (restricted and unrestricted)
Manager (restricted and unrestricted)
Combining Subsidiary and Reporting Line Visibility
You can enable subsidiary-based and reporting line-based permissions on the same permission set.
For example, a manager based in the German subsidiary who also manages someone in the Croatian subsidiary would see:
Everyone in the German subsidiary (via the subsidiary permission)
Their Croatian report (via the reporting line permission)