Set up your workspace
From your first sign-in to a workspace your team can use.
Help Center
Learn HRPortal, one screen at a time.
Step-by-step guides written from the product as it works today — for workspace owners, HR and payroll teams, managers and employees.
Learning paths
HR getting started
Set up people, time, leave and payroll, then bring your employees in.
Managing your team
See your team, decide on requests and keep attendance on track.
Your HRPortal basics
Everything you need for day-to-day leave, attendance, pay and requests.
All guides
Getting started
First sign-in, defaults, inviting your team
- Your first sign-in and workspace preparationWhat happens when you open a new HRPortal workspace for the first time, and the choices you make.
- Review your defaultsCheck each default your workspace was prepared with, fix anything marked Needs attention, then confirm it.
- Work through the Setup checklistThe Setup checklist groups everything your workspace needs before go-live and shows what is ready.
- Find your way around HRPortalHow the sidebar is organised and why different people see different menus.
- Invite your HR team and give them accessGive colleagues HR, payroll, administrator or auditor access from their employee profile.
- Invite employees to HRPortalSend sign-in invitations to your employees in one go and track who has joined.
- Using Help in HRPortalOpen help for the screen you are on, search articles, follow a learning path and look up terms.
People
Employees, organization structure, documents and assets
- Add an employeeCreate an employee record by hand from the People directory.
- Employee profilesWhat you find on an employee’s profile and who can see each part.
- Set up departments, locations and reportingBuild your organization structure: legal organization, units, locations and numbering.
- Review profile change requestsApprove or decline the corrections employees request to their own records.
- Track company assetsRegister laptops, phones, cards and equipment, issue them to employees and record returns.
- Employee documents and lettersSet up letter templates and generate employee documents such as appointment and experience letters.
Attendance
Attendance policy, shifts, holidays and regularization
- Set up your attendance policyDecide how attendance is captured and what counts as late, early or missing.
- Workweeks and shiftsSet working days, weekly offs and shift timings for your employees.
- Add your holiday calendarYour starter holiday calendar is empty. Add the holidays your company observes.
- Review exceptions and close the attendance monthClear attendance exceptions, lock the month and hand attendance off to payroll.
Leave
Leave policies, requests and approval routing
- Set up leave policiesInstall the India starter policies or create your own, then publish them.
- Leave plans, coverage and balancesAssign leave plans, check which employees are covered and correct balances.
- Set leave and attendance approval routingChoose who approves leave and attendance corrections, and when HR is alerted about delays.
Payroll
Pay groups, salary, statutory compliance and payroll runs
- Set up pay groups and payroll settingsConfigure your pay group, pay schedule, attendance cut-off and payslip settings.
- Salary componentsCreate the earnings, deductions and contributions that make up pay.
- Statutory setup for IndiaRecord your registrations and configure PF, ESI, professional tax, LWF, TDS and gratuity.
- Minimum wage screeningCheck pay against the minimum wages you have recorded for each state, before payroll.
- Run payrollCreate a pay run, calculate, submit for review, approve, finalize and publish payslips.
- Record payment and filing evidenceAfter payroll, record the reference numbers for salary payout, PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS.
- Review employee tax declarationsOpen a declaration window and review the investments and proofs employees submit.
- Full and final settlementSettle pay for employees who are leaving, with calculation, approval and finalization.
Joining
Preboarding and the candidate joining portal
Employee self-service
What employees and managers can do
- Your home screenWhat you see when you sign in as an employee, and where to go next.
- Apply for leaveCheck your balance, preview a leave request and submit it for approval.
- Check in, check out and correct attendanceRecord your attendance and request a correction when a day is missing or wrong.
- View and download your payslipsFind your published payslips, compare months and download a PDF.
- Submit your tax declarationDeclare tax-saving investments and previous income, and upload proofs.
- Raise and track HR requestsCreate an HR request and follow it through approval.
- Request a change to your profileAsk HR to correct your name, date of birth or contact details.
- Approve your team’s leave and attendance correctionsAs a manager, review and decide on requests waiting for you.
- See your team’s attendance and leaveAs a manager, check who is in, who is away and any attendance exceptions.
Administration
Roles, access, imports and data migration
- Roles and permissionsUnderstand the built-in workspace roles and add custom roles where needed.
- Import data with templatesDownload a template, fill it in and import employees, holidays, balances and more.
- Bring data from your current HR systemMove employees, balances and payroll history from Keka, greytHR, Zoho People or spreadsheets.
AI in HRPortal
Autopilot recommendations and Ask HR AI
Glossary
- CTC (cost to company)
- The total yearly cost of employing someone, including their salary and the employer’s contributions and benefits. It is usually more than what the employee takes home.
- Gross pay
- An employee’s total earnings for a pay period before any deductions are taken off.
- Net pay
- What the employee actually receives after all deductions, such as tax and statutory contributions, are taken from gross pay.
- LOP (loss of pay)
- Days for which an employee is not paid, for example unpaid leave or absence without approved leave. Pay components marked as affected by LOP are reduced for these days.
- PF / EPF (Provident Fund)
- A retirement savings scheme in India where the employee and employer both contribute each month to the employee’s provident fund account.
- UAN (Universal Account Number)
- The single number that identifies an employee’s provident fund account across every employer they work for.
- ESI (Employees’ State Insurance)
- An Indian social security scheme that gives eligible employees medical care and cash benefits, funded by employee and employer contributions.
- Professional tax (PT)
- A tax on employment charged by some Indian states. The employer deducts it from salary and pays it to the state, and the rules differ from state to state.
- Labour Welfare Fund (LWF)
- A state-run fund in some Indian states that pays for welfare activities for workers. Employees and employers contribute, and each state sets its own rules and schedule.
- TDS (tax deducted at source)
- Income tax the employer withholds from salary each month and deposits with the government on the employee’s behalf.
- Form 16
- The annual tax certificate an employer in India issues to each employee, showing the salary paid and the tax deducted during the year.
- Tax declaration
- A statement in which an employee lists their planned tax-saving investments and exemptions, so payroll can work out how much tax to withhold. Proofs are usually checked later.
- Gratuity
- A lump sum paid to an employee when they leave after a qualifying period of service, as a reward for their years with the employer.
- Full and final settlement (F&F)
- The final payment made to an employee who is leaving. It settles their last salary, leave encashment, recoveries and any other dues.
- Minimum wage
- The lowest pay that employers are legally allowed to pay, set by government notification. In India it varies by state and by worker category such as unskilled or skilled.
- ECR (Electronic Challan cum Return)
- The monthly file an employer submits for provident fund contributions, listing each employee’s contribution, before paying the dues.
- Remittance
- Paying money that is due to someone else, such as depositing statutory contributions or tax with the government. HRPortal records the reference number as evidence.
- Pay group
- A set of employees who are paid on the same schedule under the same payroll rules.
- Payroll cut-off
- The day after which attendance changes are no longer included in the current month’s payroll. In HRPortal it is set as the attendance cut-off day on the pay group.
- Salary component
- One building block of pay, such as basic salary, an allowance, a deduction or an employer contribution.
- Maker-checker
- A control where one person prepares something and a different person reviews and approves it. In HRPortal, the person who submits payroll cannot also approve it.
- Regularization
- A request to correct an attendance record that is missing or wrong, such as a forgotten check-out. It is applied only after approval.
- Grace minutes
- The number of minutes an employee can arrive late or leave early without it counting as an attendance exception.
- Half day
- A day on which an employee works, or takes leave for, only part of their scheduled hours. Your attendance policy sets how many hours count as a half day.
- Workweek
- The days of the week that are working days, and the weekly hours, for a group of employees. The other days are weekly offs.
- Shift
- The start time, end time and break for an employee’s working day.
- Sandwich rule
- A leave rule where weekends or holidays that fall between leave days are counted as leave too. In HRPortal it is the option to count intervening weekends and holidays.
- Accrual
- Leave building up gradually over time, for example a little each month, instead of being given all at once at the start of the year.
- Carry forward
- Unused leave that moves into the next leave year instead of lapsing, up to the limit set in the policy.
- Leave encashment
- Being paid for unused leave instead of taking it, where the leave policy allows it.
- Leave plan
- A group of leave policies that applies to a set of employees, so each person gets the right leave types and balances.
- Probation
- An initial period after joining during which an employee’s fit for the role is assessed before their employment is confirmed. Some leave rules treat it differently.
- Notice period
- The time between an employee giving or receiving notice and their last working day.
- SLA escalation
- When a request waits longer than the agreed response time, it is marked overdue and brought to someone else’s attention, such as HR.
- Cutover date
- The date from which HRPortal becomes the source of truth when you move from another HR system. Older records stay in the previous system.
