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Key Impacts
Internal Operations · Entexis Systems (Internal)

Entexis HR —
One Platform with AI for Employees · Consultants · Payroll · GST Invoicing.

One platform for employees and consultants. Calendar-day Loss of Pay. CGST/SGST invoicing. Auto-published payslips. India compliance built in — at ₹0/month.

The Problem Space

The Consultant-Shaped Hole in Every HR Tool We Trialled

Our workforce is two populations. Salaried employees on payroll. Independent consultants on retainers. Every HR tool we tested was built around only the first one. Consultants ended up in a separate spreadsheet, invoices drafted in Word, GST split by guesswork, payslips generated by the payroll tool but invoices by whoever remembered. Two workforces, three tools, zero source of truth.

Meanwhile, we were shipping custom HR systems for clients. The irony of running our own on scattered tools was becoming hard to ignore. So we built what the market kept missing — one platform that treats employees and consultants as first-class citizens of the same system, with Indian statutory compliance built in from day one.

6 Weeks
Build & Launch
From first schema sketch to employees receiving their payslips. Built alongside client work — not in a silo.
2 Populations
Employees + Consultants, Unified
One platform for salaried staff and independent consultants. Different tax logic, different payment flows, one unified workforce view.
5 Engines
PF · ESI · PT · TDS · GST
Every statutory calculation India requires, built natively — not bolted on. Calendar-day Loss of Pay, quarterly paid leave, CGST/SGST vs IGST automation.

"We don't recommend tools we wouldn't build for ourselves."

— The Entexis Thesis

The Impact

From Scattered Tools to One
HR Platform

We built this platform because we were the client who needed it. Here is what shifted once scattered tools were replaced with one system.

₹0/mo
HR Software Cost, in Perpetuity
No per-seat pricing. No licence renewal. Every new hire adds zero to the HR budget. The cost curve is flat, not linear.
~2 hr
Full Payroll Cycle, Month-End
From month-end to employees receiving payslips. Down from 2–3 days of spreadsheet work and manual PDF emails.
100%
Workforce Coverage — Both Populations
Employees and consultants in one system. No parallel spreadsheet for the "other half" of the workforce.
Zero
"What Is My Leave Balance?" Queries
Employees self-serve. The message has disappeared from our team chat entirely.
Full Paper Trail
From Offer Letter to Relieving Letter — One System
Offer letters, appointment letters, payslips, GST invoices, experience letters, relieving letters — every HR document an employee or consultant needs is generated and stored from one platform. No Word templates with wrong dates. No PDF archives scattered across drives. The complete paper trail, in one place.
Before
Leave on WhatsApp. Salary in a spreadsheet with a wrong 26-day divisor. Consultants in a separate folder, invoices in Word, GST split by guesswork.
After
Leave applied and approved in one place. Calendar-day Loss of Pay correct to the rupee. Consultants first-class citizens with CGST/SGST/IGST automatic.
What It Unlocked
Compliance moved from risk to default. Board reporting became instant. Every client conversation about HR software got sharper.
How It Works

From Onboarding
to Payslip

Four stages. One platform. Every step of the employee and consultant lifecycle — without a spreadsheet in sight.

01

Onboard

Full profile with government IDs, bank details, salary structure, and document uploads. Separate flows for employees and consultants, but one unified workforce record.

02

Track

Leaves, approvals, notice periods, revisions, exits. Quarterly paid leave with auto paid/unpaid determination and full calendar visibility.

03

Pay

One-click salary generation. Calendar-day Loss of Pay. PF, ESI, PT, TDS computed automatically. Consultants paid with CGST/SGST or IGST invoices — whichever applies.

04

Deliver

Payslips auto-published to employees. GST invoices generated for consultants. Every document stored in one place and searchable.

Platform Features

Built by Entexis.
For Entexis.

Every feature exists because we hit the wall ourselves — not because a spec document imagined it. This is the system that runs our payroll every month.

Feature 01

Employee Management with Full Lifecycle

Profiles, employment, salary structure, bank details, tax records, document uploads, revision history, exit flow. Every data point an HR team needs, in one canonical record per person.

Employee Record Fields
Core
Name, code, designation, department, DOJ
Gov
PAN, UAN, Aadhaar, bank + IFSC
Salary
Basic · HRA · Special · Other · PF/ESI/PT
Docs
Offer, appointment, revisions, NDAs
Feature 02

Leave System with Quarterly Paid Balance

3 paid leaves per quarter, available day one. Auto paid/unpaid determination. Half-day and short-leave support with session tracking. Sudden Fri/Mon rule prevents the long-weekend pattern. One-click cancel on the calendar.

Leave Balance — Current Quarter
3
Paid leaves earned
2
Used this quarter
Paid
Within quarterly balance
Unpaid
Balance exhausted · Sudden Fri/Mon
Feature 03

Salary Engine with Calendar-Day Loss of Pay

Loss of Pay calculated on actual calendar days (28, 29, 30, or 31), not a fixed 26-day divisor. Basic, HRA, Special, Other. PF employer/employee, ESI employer/employee, Professional Tax by state, TDS on salary. One-click run for the whole month.

Calendar-Day Loss of Pay
Correct method
Monthly salary ÷ days-in-month × unpaid days
What most tools do
Monthly salary ÷ 26 — overpays in Feb, underpays in months with 31 days
Per-rupee accuracy every month. Zero argument about "why is my Loss of Pay different from last month".
Feature 04

Consultant Management — The Second Population

Consultant profiles with GST registration state, PAN, bank details, contracts. Live alongside employees in one system. Reportable as one workforce, tracked separately where compliance demands it.

Consultant Record Fields
Tax
GSTIN, state of registration, PAN
Terms
Retainer, per-project, hybrid
Docs
Contract, NDA, PAN/GST certificates
Pay
Bank, payment history, TDS records
Feature 05

Consultant Payments with Correct GST Logic

Determines CGST+SGST (intra-state) vs IGST (inter-state) automatically based on stored GST registration states. Generates compliant invoices. TDS under Section 194J or 194C depending on engagement type.

Automatic GST Split Logic
Same state
CGST 9% + SGST 9% — two line items on the invoice
Different states
IGST 18% — single line item, correct ITC treatment
Zero manual selection. Zero wrong split. Zero quarterly reconciliation pain.
Feature 06

Document Management

Offer letters, appointment letters, revision letters, appraisals, contracts, NDAs. Uploaded against the employee or consultant record. Download anytime with original filename. Missing-document warnings flag gaps on view pages.

Document Types Supported
Offer
Offer & appointment letters
Revision
Annual increments, role changes
Appraisal
Performance review letters
Legal
NDAs, contracts, PAN/Aadhaar
Feature 07

Role-Based Access Control

Four roles: Owner, Admin, HR Manager, and Employee. Granular permissions — HR managers see everything, employees see only themselves. Owners delegate without oversharing. Built so sensitive data stays sensitive.

Role Matrix
Owner
Full access · delegation
Admin
All modules · system settings
HR Manager
Employees, leaves, payroll, documents
Employee
Own record · apply leave · payslips
Feature 08

Self-Service Employee Dashboard

Employees check their own leave balance, apply leave, download payslips, view documents, see revision history. No HR ticket needed. No email chain. Answers them before they ask.

Employee Self-Service Actions
Live
Leave balance, any time
Auto
Payslip publish on salary run
The "what's my balance?" message has disappeared from team chat entirely.
Feature 09

Workforce Document Automation

Four letter types generated from live employee data — Experience, Relieving, Salary Revision (with Increment / Promotion / Both variants), and Salary Certificate for loans and visas. Gender-aware pronouns, title-prefix stripping (Mr./Ms./Shri/Smt.), tense that switches for active vs exited staff, company stamp composited over a rotated signature, all rendered to a single A4 page. Employees can request letters from their portal; HR issues with one click; every issuance is logged.

Four Letter Types — On Demand
Any time
Experience letter — active or exited
Loans / Visa
Salary Certificate with breakdown
On revision
Promotion & hike letters with table
On exit
Relieving with F&F + No Dues clauses
Every issuance logged. Reprints idempotent. Employees request, HR issues.
Feature 10

AI Resume Screening — Candidate vs Job, Scored in Seconds

Every applicant’s resume is screened against the job description and scored 0–100 with a verdict (Strong, Interview, Borderline, Weak), a one-line summary, three resume-grounded strengths, and two gaps. A hard-blocker rule catches core domain mismatches, wrong experience bands, and location or work-mode conflicts — capping the score so they never sneak into a shortlist. Manual-trigger only, so zero tokens are spent on applications the team never reviews. Results are stored and shown next to each applicant; one click to re-score if the JD changes.

Resume Fit — Scored Against the JD
92
Strong fit — 16+yr PPC, location match, all skills
74
Worth interviewing — strong base, one gap learnable
52
Borderline — transferable skills, real gaps
28
Hard blocker — domain mismatch capped at 35
~5 seconds per resume. Results stored, never re-spent.
Under the Hood

A Closer Look at
What Powers the Platform

Deep Dive 01

Calendar-Day Loss of Pay Calculation

Most HR tools divide monthly salary by a fixed 26 days to compute the Loss of Pay rate. It is a shortcut that quietly overpays the employer and underpays the employee — or vice versa — depending on the month. The correct method divides by the actual calendar days in the pay period.

Loss of Pay Per-Day Rate — Same Salary, Different Months
Feb 28 days
Salary ÷ 28
Highest daily rate. Shortest month, fewest divisors.
Apr 30 days
Salary ÷ 30
Standard month. Mid-range daily rate applied.
May 31 days
Salary ÷ 31
Lowest daily rate. Longest month, most divisors.
What tools do WRONG
Salary ÷ 26
Fixed divisor. Accurate for no month. No legal basis.
  • Exact per-rupee Loss of Pay every month, every employee
  • Zero arguments about "why is Loss of Pay different from last month"
  • Reason recorded per unpaid day — visible on the salary screen
  • Consistent with India labour-law guidance on monthly wage deduction
Deep Dive 02

CGST/SGST vs IGST for Consultants

GST treatment for a consultant payment depends on whether both parties are registered in the same state. Same 18% total, different line items, different accounting. The system checks the stored registration states and produces the right split automatically.

How the Split Is Decided
SAME STATE
CGST 9%  ·  SGST 9%
Two line items on invoice
State tax credit + central tax credit
Example: Punjab → Punjab
DIFFERENT STATES
IGST 18%
Single line item on invoice
Inter-state tax credit only
Example: Punjab → Karnataka
  • Zero manual selection — logic runs at invoice generation time
  • Quarterly GST reconciliation becomes a non-event
  • Supports TDS under 194J (professional) and 194C (contract)
  • Invoice-ready PDFs generated, consultant-addressed, downloadable
Deep Dive 03

Quarterly Paid Leave with Auto Paid/Unpaid

Three paid leaves per quarter, granted day one. When leave is applied, the system checks the remaining balance. Within balance means paid. Exhausted means auto-unpaid and fed into Loss of Pay. A separate rule catches the sudden Fri/Mon long-weekend pattern.

Quarterly Balance Logic
Leave 1 & 2
Paid
Within 3-leave quarterly balance. Zero salary impact.
Leave 3
Paid (last one)
Exhausts the quarterly balance. Still paid. Counter resets next quarter.
Leave 4+
Auto-Unpaid
Balance exhausted. Fed into Loss of Pay. Reason recorded on salary screen.
Fri/Mon Exception
Same-day sudden leaves on Friday or Monday are auto-unpaid unless HR ticks the override when approving. Prevents the long-weekend abuse pattern.
  • Employees see live balance on their dashboard — no HR query needed
  • Paid/unpaid classification happens on apply, not on payroll day
  • Half-day and short leaves (0.5 days) supported with session tracking
  • HR can cancel approved future leaves with one click from the calendar
Deep Dive 04

Dual-Population Architecture

The defining choice. Employees and consultants live in separate tables with different shapes — salary structures vs retainer rates, PF/ESI vs GST, payslips vs invoices. But they roll up to one unified workforce view, one reporting layer, one permissions model.

Employee vs Consultant — Same System, Different Shapes
EMPLOYEE
Salary structure (Basic, HRA, etc.)
PF, ESI, Professional Tax, TDS
Monthly payslip (PDF)
Leave balance & Loss of Pay tracking
Section 192 income tax
CONSULTANT
Retainer / per-project rate
GST (CGST+SGST or IGST) & TDS
GST invoice (PDF)
Payment history & reconciliation
Section 194J or 194C TDS
One Workforce View
Dashboards, headcount reports, and compliance rollups show both populations in a unified view. Role-based access controls who sees what.
  • No parallel spreadsheet for consultants anymore
  • Reports answer "total workforce cost" across both populations
  • Compliance applies the right rules for each population automatically
  • A pattern that extends to multi-entity and multi-currency next
Deep Dive 05

Auto-Published Payslips & Self-Service Download

The old way: HR generates salary, then manually reviews each payslip, then clicks "issue" to release each one to the employee, then emails PDFs one by one. Four steps, all manual. The new way: generate and publish happen in one action — employees download the moment salary is ready.

Payslip Cycle — Before vs After
BEFORE
Generate salary
Review each row manually
Issue each payslip
Email each PDF
Follow up on "didn't get it"
AFTER
Generate salary (auto-published)
Employee sees payslip instantly
Downloads on demand
Any month, any time
No HR ticket
  • Payslips auto-publish the moment salary is generated
  • Employees download directly from their dashboard — past months included
  • Branded PDF with full earnings/deduction breakdown and employer details
  • Admin can still download, print, or re-generate any month on demand
Deep Dive 06

Leave Workflow — Notifications, Approval, Cancel

Leave is not just a form. It is a workflow — apply, notify, approve, notify back, track on calendar, cancel if plans change. Every state transition is handled in-system with notifications to the right party, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Leave Lifecycle States
Step 1
Apply
Employee submits. Overlap check runs. HR gets a notification.
Step 2
Approve
HR approves or rejects. Review note optional. Employee notified.
Step 3
Track
Approved leaves appear on the calendar for everyone with access.
Step 4
Cancel
Plans changed? HR clicks × on any future date. Leave splits correctly.
  • In-app notifications for every state change (apply, approve, cancel)
  • Overlap prevention — cannot apply for dates already on approved leave
  • Team calendar shows everyone's approved + pending leaves
  • Per-day cancel on calendar — splits multi-day leaves cleanly
Deep Dive 07

Four-Role RBAC with Route-Level Enforcement

HR data is sensitive — salaries, bank details, PAN/Aadhaar, medical leaves. Not everyone in the admin panel should see everything. Four roles, each with a crisp permission boundary, enforced at every route by middleware — not by UI hiding.

Role → Permission Matrix
OWNER
Full access to every module
Can delegate roles to others
System-wide settings
Final sign-off on payroll
ADMIN
All HR modules
System settings (non-owner)
Employee + consultant CRUD
Payroll generation
HR MANAGER
Employees, leaves, payroll
Documents + revisions
Leave approval + cancel
No system settings
EMPLOYEE
Own profile & documents
Apply / withdraw leave
Download own payslips
See own revision history
  • Middleware enforces role on every HR route — not just UI hiding
  • Employees can never see another employee's salary or documents
  • Owners delegate HR Manager role without surrendering system control
  • Audit logging tracks sensitive actions (salary edit, leave cancel, delete)
Deep Dive 08

Letter Requests & Self-Service Issuance

HR documents are high-touch and time-sensitive. A home-loan disbursement on the 25th depends on a salary certificate delivered on the 24th. A relieving letter that goes out the day after the last working day is table stakes. The Entexis HR platform turns this into a two-sided workflow with a full audit trail — not a chain of WhatsApp messages and forwarded Word files.

Four Letter Types — Each With Its Own Flow
Experience Any time
Requestable
Tense auto-switches for active vs exited staff. Reason required.
Salary Cert. Loans / visa
Requestable
Monthly gross in words, annual CTC, salary breakdown table.
Revision HR-issued
On Hike / Promotion
Three narrative variants — Increment, Promotion, Both.
Relieving On exit
Gated by Exit Date
Unlocks on last working day. F&F and No Dues clauses.
  • Employees request from their portal with a mandatory reason — HR prioritises by urgency
  • Two-way notifications — HR on new request, employee on issuance or decline
  • Reprints idempotent — first issuance wins, re-clicks just re-render the same PDF
  • Every issuance logged — who requested, who issued, when, why, linked to the profile
Deep Dive 09

AI Resume Screening — With Hard-Blocker Guardrails

A recruiter opens a job and has hundreds of applications. Half are off-domain. Some say remote-only while the role is on-site. Some have the wrong experience band entirely. The screener reads every resume against the job description and returns a fit score with the reasoning exposed — so the team focuses on the top of the list and does not spend time triaging noise.

Score Bands & What They Mean
85–100 Strong
Hire signal
Core requirements clearly met. Strong, relevant background. No hard blockers.
65–84 Interview
Worth a call
Most requirements met. Gaps are learnable. No hard blockers.
40–64 Borderline
Transferable only
Some adjacent skills, meaningful gaps. Review before committing.
0–39 Blocker
Capped at 35
Domain mismatch, wrong experience band, or location / work-mode conflict.
  • Score + verdict + one-line summary + three resume-grounded strengths + two gaps — stored on the application record
  • Hard-blocker rule caps scores at 35 for core domain, experience, or location / work-mode mismatches — first gap always states the blocker
  • Manual-trigger only (per applicant, or bulk “Screen Unscored” from the list) — no background spend on resumes the team never reviews
  • Model-agnostic by design — routed through the same AI foundation that powers the Entexis chatbot, easy to swap providers as cost and quality evolve
Technology Stack

What Powers the Platform

Node.js + Express
Backend server handling routes, sessions, file uploads, and payroll generation. The same stack every Entexis platform runs on.
Backend
EJS Templates
Server-rendered views. Fast first paint, SEO-clean, no build toolchain. The admin panel runs on the same engine as the public site.
Frontend
MySQL
Relational data with strict schemas for employees, consultants, leaves, salary runs, documents, and notifications.
Database
Multer + Local Storage
Document uploads with size limits and type validation. Organised per-employee folder structure on disk.
Files
PDF Generation
Server-side PDF rendering for payslips and GST invoices. Branded, itemised, one-click download for employees and consultants.
Output
Session + RBAC
Express-session with MySQL store. Four-role permissions enforced at every route with middleware checks.
Security
What's Next

Where This Platform
Can Go From Here

A platform like this is built to extend. Here is where the technology can go next — each one a natural evolution of what already exists.

Live

Employee + Consultant Core

Both populations unified under one workforce view. Documents, contracts, revisions, and history all stored per record.

Live

Payroll + GST Engine

Calendar-day Loss of Pay, PF/ESI/PT/TDS, CGST/SGST vs IGST consultant invoicing. Auto-issued payslips and invoices.

Live

AI Resume Screening

Every applicant scored against the job description in seconds. Verdict, strengths, gaps, and a hard-blocker rule — so off-domain and wrong-location applications never sneak into a shortlist.

Next

AI Leave Assistant

Natural-language leave application and balance queries — on the same AI foundation already powering the Resume Screener in production. Ask “how many paid leaves do I have left this quarter?” and get an answer, in context.

Next

Mobile App for Self-Service

Native iOS and Android apps for the employee layer. Leave apply, payslip download, document view, approvals — on the go.

Next

Multi-Entity Support

Scale the architecture to multiple legal entities across countries. The dual-population pattern extends naturally to multi-currency reporting.

Next

Compliance Calendar & Alerts

Automated reminders for PF/ESI filing deadlines, quarterly TDS returns (24Q, 26Q), and state-specific PT schedules. Never miss a filing.

Need Something Similar?

The Entexis HR system runs our own payroll every month — employees, consultants, leaves, GST invoices, compliance. If you are thinking about building your own HR layer, or replacing an HR tool that no longer fits, we can build yours on the same foundation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does custom HR software cost compared to SaaS HR tools?
Custom HR software has a fixed upfront build cost and near-zero ongoing cost — unlike SaaS, which charges per employee every month forever. Our HR system now runs at ₹0/month in software fees. Whether the trade is worth it depends on headcount, SaaS pricing tier, and how long you plan to operate at current scale.
How long does it take to build a custom HRIS for an Indian company?
Six weeks for the Entexis HR system — from schema design to employees receiving their first auto-generated payslips. Most custom HRIS builds run 8 to 16 weeks depending on workforce complexity, state-wise Professional Tax coverage, and integrations.
Can one HR system handle both employees and consultants together?
Yes. We built separate schemas for employees (PF/ESI, Section 192 TDS, payslips) and consultants (GST invoicing, Section 194J TDS, invoices), unified under one workforce view. Almost no off-the-shelf HR tool handles this well.
What does Indian payroll compliance require from an HR system?
Five statutory engines on every cycle: PF (Provident Fund), ESI, state-wise Professional Tax, TDS on salary (Section 192), and GST on consultant invoices (CGST+SGST or IGST). All computed automatically with correct slabs and rates.
What is calendar-day Loss of Pay and why does it matter?
Loss of Pay is the deduction applied for unpaid leave. Most HR tools divide monthly salary by a fixed 26 — inaccurate in every month. The correct method divides by actual calendar days (28, 30, or 31), which keeps LOP exact regardless of the month.
How does CGST/SGST vs IGST work for consultant invoicing in India?
Same state: 9% CGST + 9% SGST. Different states: 18% IGST. Same 18% total, different split, different accounting implications. The Entexis HR system picks the right split automatically from stored GST registration states — zero manual selection.
Can the HR system generate experience and relieving letters automatically?
Yes. Experience and relieving letters generate on-demand with gender-aware pronouns, active-vs-ex tense switching, Full & Final Settlement and No Dues clauses, and a company stamp over the signature. Single-page PDFs on company letterhead.
Is custom HR software worth it for a growing Indian company?
Under 50 employees, single-country, no consultants — a good SaaS tool is usually the right answer. Mixed workforce (employees + consultants), multi-state compliance, or workflows SaaS cannot model — that is where custom HR software starts to make sense. Scale, complexity, and planning horizon decide the rest.
Can employees generate their own HR documents, or does HR do everything?
Hybrid. Salary slips auto-publish to each employee the moment payroll runs — no HR step. All four letters (Experience, Relieving, Salary Certificate, Salary Revision) require HR to formally issue before the employee can view or download them. Employees can request any of the three common types from their portal with a mandatory reason field; HR sees the request with context and issues with one click. This keeps HR in the loop on every letter going out, while freeing them from chasing Word templates on Slack.
Does the HR system include AI features?
Yes. A candidate screener scores every resume against the job description in seconds with a verdict, three resume-grounded strengths, and two gaps. A hard-blocker rule caps the score when there is a core domain mismatch, wrong experience band, or location / work-mode conflict — so off-domain or wrong-location applicants never sneak into a shortlist. It runs on manual trigger, so nothing spends on applications the team never reviews. A natural-language leave assistant and workforce analytics are next on the roadmap.
Does the AI make hiring decisions?
No. The AI surfaces a fit score with the reasoning exposed — every applicant who is shortlisted, interviewed, or rejected is decided by a human recruiter. The score narrows the review set. It never replaces the decision.

Need Something Similar
for Internal Operations?

We built this for Entexis Systems (Internal). We can build it for you — same rigour, your domain.

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