Departments, grades, locations and policies by scope
Model the organisation as it is: departments with sub-departments, designations, grades, employment types, staff categories and work locations. Every HR rule says who it applies to, from the whole Entity down to one employee, and the most specific rule wins.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- The factory works six days and the head office five, but the software has one rule for everyone.
- Staff on probation should get less leave, so HR adjusts balances by hand every month.
- One senior manager has a different shift, and the exception is kept in someone's head.
- Nobody can tell which rule applied to a person on a given day.
How it works
- Set up departments (with a Parent Department for sub-departments), designations, work locations, grades, staff categories and employment types.
- Write each rule once: shift assignments, weekly offs, holiday calendars, attendance and overtime rules, leave policies, probation and notice rules.
- In each rule's Applies To part, fill in only what narrows it, such as Entity, location, department, grade, one employee or a stage. Empty means everyone.
- When several rules fit a person, the most specific one wins. One employee beats a designation, a designation beats a grade, and so on down to the Entity. Equal ones go by sequence.
- The Applies To column on each list shows who the rule covers in plain words, such as Plant 2 / Production.
Everything it does
Organisation lists
- Departments with a Manager (the department head) and a Parent Department, to any depth
- Designations: plain job titles
- Work locations: a campus, a branch or a plant, with latitude, longitude and a Geofence Radius (200 m to start with) for phone check-in
- Grades with a level (higher is more senior)
- Employment types: Permanent, Fixed-term Contract, Guest / Visiting, Daily Wage, Part-time, Intern / Trainee, Agency / Outsourced. Each has: paid monthly, daily or hourly, default attendance, probation months (6) and notice days (30)
- Staff categories, such as management, support or drivers, with their own attendance mode, probation and notice that override the employment type
- A staff category, employment type or grade with no Entity is used by every Entity of the group
Rules that use Applies To
- Shift assignments and weekly offs
- Holiday calendars and holidays declared on the day
- Attendance rules, overtime rules and permission rules
- Leave policies
- Probation and notice rules
- Increment policies, travel entitlements and flexible benefit plans, where those parts are in your plan
How the winner is chosen
- Weights: employee 256, designation 128, grade 64, employment type 32, staff category 16, department 8, location 4, stage 2, Entity 1; the highest total wins
- A rule naming a department covers its sub-departments
- A rule for the stage Probation stops on the day the person is confirmed; the rule for confirmed staff applies from that day by itself
- Valid From and Valid To limit a rule in time, so next year's rule can be entered now
- Among rules equally specific, the lowest sequence wins
Entity settings
- Financial Year Starts In (April to start with), leave year start, payroll cycles
- Managers See in the Org Chart: their tree below and their own manager, or every level above
Who uses it
HR ManagerKeeps departments, designations, grades and the HR rules.
Attendance ManagerKeeps the shifts, weekly offs, holiday calendars and attendance rules.
Leave ManagerKeeps the leave types and leave policies.
Where you use it
- Web: Employees > Departments, Employees > Configuration > Employee > Work Locations
- Web: Employees > Configuration > HRMS Setup (Employment Types, Staff Categories, Designations, Grades)
- Web: the Configuration menu of each area, such as Time & Attendance > Configuration and Leave > Configuration
- Not in the app: rules are set on the web
What you control
Settings
- Each rule's Applies To: empty to start with (everyone)
- Ready to start with: the General shift (9:00 to 17:30, 30-minute break) for everyone, Sundays off, and Default attendance rules
- Work location Geofence Radius: 200 metres
Questions
Can one employee have a different rule from the rest of the department?
Yes. Make a rule with only that employee in Applies To. A rule for one employee wins over every other rule.How do we give staff on probation different leave?
Make one leave policy with the stage Probation and one for confirmed staff. The person moves to the second one on the day they are confirmed, without anyone changing it.Do sub-departments follow the rules of their parent?
Yes. A rule naming a department covers all its sub-departments, unless a sub-department has a rule of its own.Can each Entity of the group keep its own lists?
Yes. Give a grade, a staff category or an employment type an Entity and only that Entity uses it. Leave the Entity empty to share it across the group.Related features
SHIFTS, OFFS AND HOLIDAYSShifts, rotations and the roster plannerDefine fixed, night, split and flexible shifts and run 24-hour rotations with teams offset from each other. Plan who works what on a grid of people by days. Shift swaps need the colleague's acceptance and the manager's approval, and every change flows into that day's attendance.SHIFTS, OFFS AND HOLIDAYSWeekly offs and holiday calendarsSet weekly offs such as Sundays plus the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, and half-day offs, for whoever they apply to. Keep holiday calendars with public and restricted holidays and a yearly quota. Declare a holiday on the day when rain or an emergency closes the site.ATTENDANCEDaily attendance, regularisation and the registerEvery employee gets one attendance record a day with the status, paid days, loss of pay and late, early and overtime minutes. It says in plain words which rules gave the result. Employees correct missed punches by request, only authorised HR can change a day, and the monthly register exports to CSV.LEAVELeave types, credits, rules, year end and maternitySet up any leave type with its own credits and rules, and let the system keep every balance. Requests are checked against the policy when they are sent, approved through your chain, and closed at year end by carry forward, encashment or lapse.EMPLOYEES AND ORGANISATIONEmployee records with statutory detailsOne record holds each employee's position, PAN, Aadhaar, UAN, PF and ESIC numbers, family and nominees, education, past jobs, background checks and bank accounts. The stage (probation, confirmed, notice, separated) moves by itself, and every change is kept with its date.
See your own month run in it.
Tell us how many people you have, how you take attendance and how your salary is structured. We will show you SmartMy HRMS set up that way.