At the end of every month, the accountant or HR officer sits down with three sources: the fingerprint device report, the leave file, and managers' messages about overtime and deductions. They match them up by hand, calculate salaries in Excel, and then an employee comes to ask why a day was deducted when they were out on an off-site assignment. Most of the time goes into gathering and reconciling the sources. The calculation itself is the easy part.
What does an HR system mean for a small or mid-sized company?
It is one place holding each employee's file, attendance, leave and salary, so payroll is calculated from data that was already recorded instead of being pulled together at month-end. A company of twenty or fifty people doesn't need every module of an enterprise system.
The modules most companies need at the start:
- Employee file: personal details, contract, job title, salary and allowances, plus expiry dates for documents such as residence permits (iqama) or work permits.
- Time and attendance: from the fingerprint device or a phone app, with shifts and flexible hours.
- Leave: the employee requests, the manager approves, and the balance updates itself.
- Payroll: a monthly calculation that takes in attendance, leave, overtime, deductions and salary advances.
- Employee portal: where staff see their balance and payslip and submit requests.
How does a fingerprint device connect to an attendance system?
Most fingerprint and face recognition devices store punch records and let you pull them, either through the manufacturer's software or through an integration interface. The system pulls the records on a schedule and matches them against each employee's shift.
Before buying a new device, ask the supplier whether punch records can be pulled automatically into another system, and how. Some cheap devices only allow a manual file export, which puts you back to reconciling by hand. For sales reps and field teams, clocking in from a phone app with location is a better fit than a fixed device.
The part that needs the most thought is the rules: how many minutes late are allowed, when something counts as a half day, and how an off-site assignment is treated. Write them down before development starts, because they decide whether the numbers come out right.
How do you organize leave requests and approvals?
Put every leave request through one path. The employee requests, the direct manager approves, and the balance is deducted automatically and shows up in the payroll calculation. When approval only happens on WhatsApp, it gets lost and never reaches payroll.
- Employee requestLeave type and dates, with the balance visible before sending
- Manager approvalA notification, then approval or a rejection with a written reason
- Balance updateAutomatic deduction based on the leave type
- PayrollUnpaid leave is reflected in the month's calculation
Leave types and their lengths are set by the labor law in your country and by your employees' contracts. Make them settings the HR officer can change when the law or a contract changes.
What does payroll need to come out right?
It needs accurate attendance and leave data, and clear rules for allowances and deductions. Once those are in place, the calculation takes minutes.
The usual components are base salary, fixed allowances, overtime, deductions for absence and lateness, salary advances and their installments, and contributions to Social Security in Jordan or GOSI social insurance in Saudi Arabia, depending on where the employee works. Rates and rules change from time to time, so review them with your accountant before signing off, and have the system read them from settings.
At the end, the system produces a payroll sheet for approval, a payslip for each employee, and a bank transfer file if your bank accepts one.
Off-the-shelf HR software or a custom system?
Cloud HR products cover what many companies need for a monthly fee per employee, and some update their legal settings for the countries they serve. Start with one if it supports your country and language.
A custom system suits you when the way you work is different: complex shifts, commissions tied to sales, staff spread across projects where you want to know what each project costs, or when you want HR in the same system you use for clients and contracts. If you already have systems that work well, connecting them may cost less than replacing them, as we explained in connecting systems through an API.
How do you move HR from Excel to a system?
Start with the employee files, since everything else is built on them. Review the data, standardize job titles and departments, and enter current leave balances as of a set date once each employee has agreed to theirs.
Then run attendance and leave for a full month before switching on payroll. Calculate that month's salaries both ways, the old method and the system, and compare the results line by line. Every difference exposes a rule nobody wrote down or a number entered wrong. When the two sheets match, adopt the system and close the old file.
Who should be able to see salary data?
As few people as possible. A direct manager sees their team's attendance and leave, and doesn't see their salaries unless management decides otherwise.
Ask for a log showing who opened the payroll sheet and who changed a salary and when, along with regular backups. If you have employees in Saudi Arabia, the Personal Data Protection Law there sets conditions on how personal data is processed, so ask where the system is hosted before you choose.
We build HR systems connected to attendance and payroll as part of our custom software and systems service, and the need often starts from Excel files, as we described in when your company has outgrown Excel. Tell us how many employees you have and which fingerprint device you use, and we'll suggest where to begin.
Questions our partners ask
Can our current fingerprint device connect to the system?
Usually yes, if the device lets you pull punch records over the network or through an integration interface. We check the model before starting, since some devices only allow a manual export.
Does the system calculate social security and taxes?
It can be set up to, with the rates entered as settings your accountant reviews. Official filings remain the responsibility of your certified accountant.
Can employees request leave from their phone?
Yes, through a portal or app where they see their balance and payslips, and the request goes to their direct manager for approval.
Written by the Visual Innovate team, the people who build, host and follow up systems, websites and apps for our clients in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt.
