01 — Overview
For many growing companies, the last week of the month belongs to HR. Attendance has to be collected from every branch, leave balances checked, salaries worked out one by one, and statutory returns prepared. If one number is wrong, someone has to find it in a pile of sheets.
A growing company with several branches and a shift-based team was in this position. Employee details, attendance and salary sat in different files, and each branch followed its own habits.
The company partnered with us to bring all of this onto cloudeHR, our HR and payroll platform. Before it committed, we set up a sample payroll using the company's own salary structure, so HR could see exactly how the system would behave.
02 — The Challenge
HR spent more time collecting and checking data than looking after people
The team was careful, but its tools were scattered. The main difficulties were:
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Attendance came from biometric devices, registers and messages, and had to be joined by hand every month
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Leave balances were kept in sheets, and approvals went through phone calls and messages
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Salaries were worked out person by person, with different allowances and deductions, so small errors crept in
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PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS were calculated separately, and returns were prepared by hand
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Loans, advances and arrears were noted in different places
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Appraisals ran on emails and paper forms, with no clear record of goals and ratings
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New hires were tracked in an inbox, and joining formalities were easy to miss
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Employees kept asking HR for payslips and leave balances
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Branches followed different rules, although the policy was meant to be common
03 — The Solution
One HR platform from the day someone joins to the day they leave
We set up the core modules first, so payroll could run on real data from the start. Modules for performance, recruitment and mobile access can be added when the company is ready.
Key highlights
- ✓A profile for every employee, with personal details, documents, role history and reporting line, and a document vault
- ✓Confirmation tracking for new employees
- ✓Attendance by biometric, web or mobile punch, with shift rosters, overtime, late-mark rules and regularisation requests
- ✓Biometric device sync, so punches flow in without typing
- ✓Leave types, accrual rules, balances and a multi-level approval chain
- ✓A payroll engine with salary heads, formula-driven components, loans, advances, arrears and full and final settlement
- ✓Payslips generated in a click
- ✓Statutory compliance for PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS, with ready-to-file reports and Form 16 support
- ✓Appraisals with goal setting, KRA and KPI definition, self and manager reviews, rating scales and appraisal letters
- ✓Recruitment with openings, applicant pipeline, interview scheduling, offer letters and joining checklists
- ✓Employee self-service, so staff apply for leave, download payslips and update their own details
- ✓Mobile self-service for attendance, leave, payslips and announcements
- ✓Integration with biometric devices, accounting software and bank payment files
- ✓An audit trail behind every HR record
04 — Our Approach
What We Did Differently
01
We ran payroll on the company's own numbers before it committed
A sample payroll was set up using the real salary structure. HR saw how allowances, deductions and arrears behave, and could ask questions while it was still only a demo.
02
Only what the company needs, with room to grow
Core HR, attendance, payroll and compliance reports come as the base. Performance management, recruitment and the mobile app are added later, when the team is ready for them.
03
Your data stays where you want it
cloudeHR can be hosted in the cloud, with data kept in India by default, or run on the company's own server.
05 — The Impact
From a month-end scramble to a routine payroll
HR now works from a single source for attendance, leave and salary. Payroll follows the same rules every month, and employees can answer many of their own questions without calling HR.
- ✓A profile for every employee, with documents and role history in one place
- ✓Attendance, leave and payroll connected to each other
- ✓Payslips ready without hand calculation
- ✓PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS calculated, with returns ready to file
- ✓Leave requests approved through a clear chain, with balances visible to the employee
- ✓Employees who find their own payslips and leave balances
- ✓A record of every change in an HR file
What's next
With the base in place, the company can add appraisals, recruitment and the mobile app step by step, and bring new branches under the same policy.
