Own your HRIS — hiring, timekeeping, leave, and employee records with no per-employee lock-in

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Every line of code we write is yours at cutover. No license. No annual increase. No lock-in.

How much does custom HRIS software cost in the Philippines?

A custom HRIS is a one-time build fee you own outright — no per-employee charge that climbs as you hire. Sprout HR's per-seat model overtakes it within a few years at growing headcount. Optional ops support is ₱50K–250K/month. Your exact scope and price are confirmed on the first call.

The build range depends on the scope of modules — a core HRIS covering employee records, leave, and timekeeping sits at the lower end. Add payroll computation, recruitment workflow, performance management, and BIR integration and you approach the upper end. The one-time fee is the full payment for your own codebase — you own the source code, the database schema, and the deployment. There are no per-employee fees, no renewal licenses, and no vendor lock-in. The optional ops support covers hosting management, compliance rule updates when DOLE issues new orders, and feature work queued by your HR team after go-live. Companies with a capable internal IT team often skip ongoing support entirely.

What is an HRIS and what does it cover?

An HRIS — Human Resource Information System — is the software layer that manages employee records, timekeeping, leave, payroll inputs, and compliance reporting inside a company.

A well-built HRIS for a Philippine company covers: the 201 file (complete employee profile, government IDs, contract history, salary history), leave management (filing, approval, accrual, encashment), timekeeping (biometric integration or mobile clock-in, shift scheduling, overtime computation), payroll computation inputs fed to your payroll module, government remittance data for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, and DOLE-required reports. The system should also handle employee lifecycle events: onboarding document collection, regularization tracking, promotion and demotion history, and separation processing with final pay computation. Most off-the-shelf HRIS tools cover 70% of this list adequately — the gaps are always in the Philippine-specific compliance rules that foreign SaaS vendors treat as edge cases.

How does the system handle DOLE leave requirements (sick, vacation, maternity, paternity)?

Leave rules under the Labor Code — service incentive leave, sick leave, vacation leave — are built into the accrual engine. RA 11210 (Expanded Maternity Leave), RA 8187 (Paternity Leave), and RA 8972 (Solo Parent Leave) are each configured as distinct leave types.

The accrual engine handles both statutory minimum and employer-granted leave separately, so a company that gives 15 vacation days instead of the statutory 5-day service incentive leave can track both correctly without conflating them. Maternity leave under RA 11210 covers 105 days for normal delivery, 120 days for caesarean, and 60 days for miscarriage — the system differentiates these at filing time. Solo Parent Leave under RA 8972 requires an active Solo Parent ID from the DSWD, so the system includes an ID expiry tracker tied to leave eligibility. Paternity leave is 7 days for married male employees. All leave types feed correctly into payroll deduction logic and appear on the employee's 201 file with the approving officer's digital signature chain.

How does timekeeping integrate with payroll?

The timekeeping module outputs a verified attendance summary — regular hours, overtime, night differential, absences, late arrivals — that feeds directly into the payroll computation engine without manual re-entry.

Biometric terminals (Suprema, ZKTeco, Hikvision, and most BLE-based devices) push raw logs to a middleware layer that maps each punch to an employee record and applies your shift schedule to compute actual attendance. The system flags discrepancies — an employee punched in but has an approved leave for that day, or punched out 10 minutes early — for HR review before the payroll run locks. Night differential under the Labor Code (10pm–6am, 10% additional rate) is computed automatically from the punch times. Holiday pay logic — regular holidays, special non-working days, and the locally declared holidays your region observes — is maintained as an annual calendar your HR admin updates. The final payroll input file is reconciled against the timekeeping summary before any payslip is generated.

Can the system handle multiple employee types (regular, contractual, project-based)?

Yes — the system supports distinct employment categories with different leave entitlements, payroll computation rules, and compliance treatment for each type.

Regular employees accrue statutory leave, are subject to the 6-month probationary period tracking, and trigger regularization notices automatically. Contractual or fixed-term employees have their contract end dates visible in the dashboard with configurable advance notices to HR so renewals or separations aren't missed. Project-based employees are tied to a project cost center, and their timekeeping records are tagged to that project for cost reporting. Casual and seasonal workers can be included with limited leave entitlements and a separate payroll computation bucket. The employee type classification also controls which DOLE reports the employee appears in — the RTWPE (Report on Total Workforce by Position and Employment) and the ROWE (Report on Work Experience) require breakdowns by employment status, and the system generates those correctly.

How is 201 file / employee record management handled?

Each employee has a digital 201 file that stores all documents, history entries, and status changes in one place — accessible by HR, restricted for the employee's own view, and auditable.

The 201 file covers: personal information and government IDs (SSS, TIN, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG numbers stored and validated), pre-employment documents (NBI clearance, medical certificate, barangay clearance), employment contract and amendments, salary history with effective dates and approval records, performance review results, disciplinary action records with the case file attached, and separation documents. Document uploads are stored with metadata — uploaded by, upload date, document type — so an audit trail exists for every record change. HR staff can update records; employees can view their own 201 but cannot edit it. The file is exportable as a structured PDF for DOLE inspection requests, and the system flags records with missing required documents so HR can chase completions proactively.

Does the system support self-service for employees (leave filing, payslip viewing)?

Yes — employees get a self-service portal or mobile app where they can file leave requests, view approval status, check their leave balances, and download payslips.

The employee self-service layer covers leave filing with a multi-level approval chain (direct supervisor, then HR), real-time leave balance display that reflects pending and approved leaves, payslip viewing for any period in their tenure, their own 201 data view (read-only), overtime and schedule queries, and separation request initiation for resigned employees. The approval chain is configurable per department — some companies route to the department head, then HR, then finance for leaves longer than 5 days. Mobile access is via a responsive web app or a white-labeled mobile build depending on the project scope. Notification triggers — leave approved, payslip available, contract expiry warning — go out via email and optionally via a webhook to your internal Viber or Slack channel.

How does the system handle Expanded Maternity Leave (RA 11210)?

RA 11210 entitles female employees to 105 paid days (120 for caesarean, 60 for miscarriage/emergency termination), with an additional 30 days optional unpaid extension — all of which the system tracks and computes correctly.

The maternity leave module captures the delivery type at the time of filing — normal, caesarean, or miscarriage — and sets the correct entitlement. The law allows the benefit to commence up to 45 days before the expected delivery date. SSS pays the bulk of the maternity benefit (up to ₱70,000 for the first eight deliveries), and the employer advances the full salary during leave then files for reimbursement from SSS. The system generates the SSS maternity notification form (SSS Form MAT-1 and MAT-2 equivalents), tracks the employer advancement as a receivable from SSS, and reconciles it when the SSS reimbursement arrives. PhilHealth also has a separate maternity benefit for normal and caesarean delivery that applies in parallel. The system does not conflate the two — SSS and PhilHealth computations run independently and are reported separately.

What recruitment / applicant tracking features are included?

A built-in applicant tracking module covers job posting, candidate pipeline, interview scheduling, offer management, and pre-employment document collection before the new hire's 201 file is created.

The recruitment module is scoped to what a Philippine SME actually uses: a job board feed (your careers page pulls live from the system), a kanban-style pipeline with stages you define (applied, phone screen, interview, offer, hired, rejected), structured interview scoring forms so hiring managers submit feedback in a consistent format, offer letter generation from a template with the salary and start date auto-filled, and a pre-onboarding checklist that collects government ID numbers, bank account details, and required documents from the candidate before their Day 1. The candidate record converts to an employee record on hire — no duplicate data entry. Background check integrations and job board API connections to JobStreet or LinkedIn are available as add-ons depending on scope. Applicant data is stored separately from employee data with its own retention and access rules.

How does the system handle performance management and 360 reviews?

The performance module supports KPI-based evaluation cycles, 360-degree feedback collection, and calibration — tied to the employee's 201 file and salary review history.

Evaluation cycles are configurable: annual, semi-annual, or quarterly. Each cycle has a setup phase (HR defines KPI templates per department or role), a self-assessment phase (employees rate themselves and submit evidence), a manager assessment phase, and an optional 360 peer feedback phase. Calibration sessions — where department heads align ratings across teams before final scores are locked — are supported via a group review view where HR can see all scores in a matrix and flag outliers. Final ratings link directly to the salary review record, so the performance score is referenced when HR proposes the next increment. The system does not score employees automatically or apply any algorithmic weighting — all scoring is human-entered and the computation is transparent arithmetic that HR can audit.

Can the system generate DOLE-required reports (RTWPE, ROWE, etc.)?

Yes — the system generates the Report on Total Workforce by Position and Employment (RTWPE) and other DOLE-required establishment reports from the live employee database.

DOLE requires covered establishments to submit the RTWPE annually, detailing total workforce by employment status, gender, position, and salary band. The system pulls this directly from the employee records — no manual tabulation from spreadsheets. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) establishment report, which requires headcount by department and the name of your OSH coordinator, is also generated. For companies with more than 50 employees, the DOLE Annual Establishment Report (AER) submission is supported. The system also maintains the Employment Register — the running log of all new hires and separations that DOLE field officers may request during inspections. All generated reports are stamped with the generation date and the responsible HR officer, and stored in the system's audit log so you have a record of every submission.

How does employee offboarding and final pay work?

The offboarding module initiates when a resignation or termination is logged, triggers a clearance checklist, and computes final pay in line with DOLE's 30-day final pay rule.

DOLE's 2016 Labor Advisory No. 6 requires final pay to be released within 30 days of separation. The system starts a 30-day clock from the separation date and sends automated reminders to HR and finance when the deadline approaches. Final pay computation includes: last salary for days actually worked, prorated 13th month pay for the year, encashment of unused service incentive leave (5 days statutory minimum), any unpaid reimbursements, and deductions for unreturned company property or salary advances. The clearance checklist — IT equipment returned, company access revoked, accounts payable cleared — is routed to each department head for digital sign-off. The final pay computation is presented as a breakdown for the employee to review and sign before release. The separation record, the signed final pay computation, and the Certificate of Employment (COE) are all stored in the employee's 201 file.

Can it integrate with BIR payroll for withholding tax computation?

Yes — the system applies the BIR withholding tax table (Revenue Regulations 11-2018 and amendments) to each payroll run and generates the BIR Form 2316 annual certificate and the monthly alphalist.

Withholding tax on compensation is computed using the graduated rates under the TRAIN Law (RA 10963) as amended. The system holds the current tax table and applies it per employee based on their annualized gross compensation, non-taxable benefits (de minimis, 13th month up to the ₱90,000 ceiling), and declared exemptions. The monthly BIR Form 1601-C remittance file is generated in the BIR's required format. At year-end, BIR Form 2316 certificates are generated for every employee — both resigned and active — and the annual alphalist (BIR Form 1604-C) is assembled from the payroll records. The system does not file directly to eFPS, but it produces the files in the format that your accountant or tax team uploads. Updates to tax tables when BIR issues new Revenue Regulations require a config update, which your ops support covers if you are on the retainer.

What does implementation look like and how long does it take?

A standard HRIS build runs 12–20 weeks from requirements sign-off to go-live, broken into discovery, build, data migration, and parallel-run phases.

Week 1–2 is discovery: we map your existing processes, pull a sample of your current employee data (from spreadsheets, Sprout exports, or whatever system you are leaving), and agree on the exact scope. Week 3–12 is the core build — employee records, timekeeping integration, leave management, and payroll inputs are the critical-path items. Self-service portal and recruitment are built in parallel where scope allows. Week 13–16 is data migration: we clean and import your historical employee records, leave balances, and salary history so the system is not starting from zero on go-live day. Week 17–20 is parallel run: the new system runs alongside your current system for one full payroll cycle, and HR signs off on the outputs before you cut over. Go-live is a planned cutover, not a big bang. Ongoing feature requests and compliance rule updates are handled through the ops support retainer or as separate small-scope engagements.