Your employee database is four lists that disagree, and staff still queue at HR for payslips.
Employee Records and Self-Service Software is an employee database management system with a portal on top of it. One record holds the person: personal details, documents, ID and licence expiry dates, joining papers and exit papers. Attendance covers shifts and overtime, leave carries a balance, and staff pull their own payslips and tax forms without standing at the HR desk. Payroll runs beside it.
- Staff list, shifts and opening leave balances loaded before the first month closes
- Begin with the records and attendance; the self-service portal can follow later
- The Bengaluru engineers who set it up are the ones who pick up the phone
What goes wrong before the software.
Nobody can tell me today’s headcount
One list sits in the salary sheet, one in the attendance machine, one on the gate register. Ask three people your headcount. You get three answers, each said with confidence.
The HR desk prints payslips all of Monday
A man wants April’s payslip for a bank loan. A woman wants to know how many casual leaves are left. Both questions have the same answer every month, and both need somebody to stop what she is doing.
Overtime on the night shift is settled by argument
The B shift ran two hours over. The supervisor remembers it one way and the worker another, and the figure that reaches the salary sheet is whoever spoke last.
Half the joiners never gave us their PAN copy
Papers are collected in the first week and then nobody checks what is missing. In March the accountant asks for PAN numbers and the chasing starts, person by person.
The licence expired and we found out at the gate
A driver’s licence, a security guard’s police verification, a nurse’s registration. The date passes quietly in a file, and you hear about it when a client asks to see the papers.
When somebody leaves, nothing comes back on time
The last working day is agreed on WhatsApp. The ID card, the SIM and the pending advance are chased for weeks, and the full and final is worked out from memory.
How the work flows through it, step by step.
- 1
A fitter joins on the 3rd
His record is opened once: name as on records, designation, branch, shift, reporting manager, bank account, UAN and ESIC number. The joining checklist shows what has not yet been handed over, so the missing PAN copy is visible on day one rather than in March.
- 2
Attendance is marked where the work is
Office staff punch on the machine at the gate. A supervisor marks his gang from site. Late marks, half days and the hours worked past the shift are applied by the rules you set, the same way for everybody.
- 3
Leave is applied for and approved
He asks for two days in the third week. The balance is on the first screen, so there is nothing to dispute. His manager clears it from a phone, and the attendance for those days changes on its own.
- 4
The month is closed and handed over
Days present, overtime hours, approved leave and unpaid absences are locked once the manager signs off. That sheet goes to payroll, whether payroll runs inside your own system or with your consultant.
- 5
The payslip lands in his portal
Once the salary is run and released, each person sees the payslip on his own login, along with last year’s and the tax forms your accountant issues. Nobody comes to the desk for a copy.
- 6
Two years later, he resigns
Resignation date, notice period and last working day go on the same record. Assets returned, dues pending and the handover to a named colleague are ticked off before the file is closed.
What is inside.
Every module can be switched on, left out or changed to match how your team already works.
The employee master record
Employee code, full name as on records, designation, department, branch, shift, reporting manager, PAN, Aadhaar, UAN, ESIC number and bank account. Contract and temporary staff sit on the same list, marked by type.
Learn moreDocuments and expiry dates
Appointment letter, identity and address proofs, certificates and photographs on the person’s record. Driving licence, medical fitness and police verification carry an expiry date with a reminder before it.
Learn moreShift roster and attendance
Who is on early shift and who is on nights, planned in advance and set against who actually came. A punch at the machine, or a supervisor marking a gang from site with the location on the entry.
Learn moreOvertime, late marks and half days
Hours past the shift are counted and shown by person and by day. Your grace period and your overtime rules apply the same way to everybody, so nothing depends on who is asking.
Learn moreLeave with a balance both sides believe
Casual, sick, earned and comp off, with opening balances, accrual and carry forward set to your policy. An approved leave moves the balance and shows on the attendance.
Learn moreSelf-service portal
Each person logs in to see leave balance, holiday list, shift roster and his own record. It opens in a phone browser rather than an app store download.
Payslips and tax forms to download
Every payslip since joining, and the tax documents your accountant releases, sit on the employee’s login as PDFs. Salary certificates for a bank are issued by HR from your own template.
Learn moreChanges the employee asks for
Address, phone, emergency contact and bank account are updated by the person and held for HR approval. A salary in the wrong account helps nobody.
Joining and onboarding checklist
Papers, assets, logins and induction tracked for each joiner, so the first week has a list instead of a memory.
Learn moreExit and clearance
Resignation date, notice period, last working day, handover to a named colleague, assets returned and dues pending, with each department clearing its part.
Learn moreWho sees what
Managers usually see their own team without pay details. Salary and identity documents stay with HR, accounts and the owner, and every view is logged.
The month, ready for payroll
Days present, overtime, loss of pay and leave per person, exported in the format your payroll software or your consultant asks for.
One system, each person sees their part.
HR executive
Adds joiners, chases the missing documents, fixes the day somebody forgot to punch, and closes the month. Hers is the first login of the day.
Reporting manager
Clears leave from his phone between two site visits, and sees who on his team is on which shift this week.
Employee
Checks a balance, applies for two days, downloads April’s payslip for the bank. No favour asked of anybody.
Owner
Headcount by branch, overtime that is rising, and the licences about to expire. Salary details stay visible only to the people he names.
The numbers the owner asks for.
- Headcount by branch, department and employment type, on a date you pick
- Monthly muster: days present, leave, unpaid absence and overtime per person
- Overtime hours by shift, supervisor and month
- Leave balance statement for every person, per leave type
- Documents and licences expiring in the next sixty days
- Joiners and leavers for the quarter, with reasons for leaving
- Who has logged in to the portal, and who never has
Who this is built for.
- Firms where one HR executive keeps records for staff across two or three branches
- Security agencies, hospitals and factories running shifts through the night
- Businesses whose people carry licences, registrations or verifications that expire
- Companies with contract labour and agency staff on the same premises as their own
- Owners who want attendance and leave settled before payroll is run, not during it
- HR consultancies keeping client staff records out of half a dozen spreadsheets
When it is not the right choice.
- It is not a payroll engine on its own. It prepares the month and holds the payslips your payroll produces; the salary calculation runs in payroll software or with your consultant.
- It will not make you PF or ESI compliant. It stores the UAN and ESIC numbers and the attendance behind the month. Filing, and any notice that comes back, stay with your consultant.
- Ten people in one office on fixed salaries do not need this. A register and a folder are cheaper. Nobody has to log in.
Adapted to your business before it goes live.
You are not handed a login and left to it. The product is set up around your records, your people and the tools you already use.
Your shifts and your leave policy
Shift timings, grace period, overtime rules, leave types, accrual and carry forward are set to the policy you already follow. We check a closed month against your own sheet before go-live.
Staff records moved across
People, joining dates, designations and opening leave balances come in from your salary Excel or your old software. Duplicates are merged and the spellings are settled with you first.
The attendance machine you already own
Most biometric machines export a file, and many allow a direct connection. We check your model and say plainly whether it can be used or is better replaced.
The portal in the language your staff read
Few buttons, large ones, on the sort of handset your floor staff actually carry. Supervisors keep applying on behalf of the people who prefer that.
Training on your own records
Short sessions for HR, for managers and for a group of staff, using your branches and your leave rules rather than a demonstration company.
Hosting, backups and support
Cloud hosted with regular backups. Personal papers and salary fields are access controlled, and the same team fixes what breaks and builds what you ask for.
Works alongside
- Biometric attendance machines
- Payroll software and your consultant’s formats
- SMS
- Excel and CSV
Questions owners ask before a demo.
Is this an employee database management system or a payroll system?
The database, with self-service on top. Records, documents, attendance, shifts, overtime and leave live here, and the closed month is handed to payroll. The salary calculation itself runs in payroll software or with the consultant who does it for you today.
Can staff download payslips and tax forms from the self-service portal?
Yes, once payroll has released them. Each person sees every payslip since joining and the tax documents your accountant issues, on his own login. Salary certificates and letters are issued by HR from your template, because somebody should read them before they go out.
Does it handle night shifts and work out overtime?
It does. Shifts are rostered, the punch or the supervisor’s marking is set against the roster, and hours past the shift are counted by your rules. Whether those hours are paid single or double is a payroll rate, set where the salary is calculated.
How does the month reach our payroll or our accountant?
As an export in the format asked for: days present, leave, loss of pay and overtime per person. Where the accountant wants the salary journal in Tally, that link is scoped at set-up rather than assumed.
We keep our staff database in Excel. Can you move it across?
Yes, and nearly every set-up starts there. The sheet is cleaned, duplicate entries are merged, and joining dates and leave balances are checked with you before loading. You sign off a sample so an old mistake is not inherited.
Will it make us PF and ESI compliant?
No, and be careful with anybody who says otherwise. It holds the UAN and ESIC numbers and the attendance the returns are built from. What gets filed, and what happens if a notice arrives, is between you and your consultant.
Does the self-service portal work on a cheap phone?
Yes. It is a browser page saved to the home screen, not an app to install. Some of your staff still will not use it, so supervisors carry on applying for leave on their behalf and the record shows who approved.
Who owns the employee data, and who inside can see salary?
You own it, and it exports whenever you ask. Inside, access is by role: managers see their teams without pay, HR and accounts see more, and identity documents open only for the people you name. Every view is logged.
What does an employee database management system like this cost?
No price is published. It depends on headcount, branches and which parts you switch on. You see it running with your own shift pattern first, and the quote comes in writing after that.
We are twelve staff in one office. Is this too much?
Probably, for now. Twelve people on fixed salaries fit in a sheet, as they always have. A free technology audit will say plainly whether you are near the point where that stops working, and often the answer is not yet. The case changes with a second branch, a night shift, or contract labour whose hours you are billed for monthly.
Businesses that use this.
Related products.
See Employee Records and Self-Service Software with your own data.
Tell us how you run things today. We’ll show you the parts that matter to you and say plainly what would need changing.
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