We investigate theoretically the effects of electron-electron interactions on excitonic absorption in charged, lens-shaped, self-assembled quantum dots (SAD). The electronic shells of SAD are filled with N electrons according to generalized Hund's rules. In absorption, an exciton is added to the electronic system. The electronic part of the exciton couples in a nontrivial way to resonant electronic configurations of SAD through direct and exchange interaction while the mobile valence hole contributes through the entanglement of many-electron configurations. The two processes result in an excitonic absorption spectrum that reflects the filling of electronic shells. These processes are illustrated by detailed calculations of absorption spectra for few-electron complexes.61201375313762