HR
XBuddy HR is the system of record for your people. It holds every employee’s profile, contracts, documents, and reporting line, then layers operational workflows on top — recruitment, onboarding, probation, leave, succession planning, and a skills matrix. A companion Employee Service portal (/hr/self-service) is available to every authenticated employee without a separate licence, so people can act on their own records without going through HR.
Because HR is the source of truth for who works where and reports to whom, it feeds almost every other app: Payroll pulls headcount, contracts, and approved leave; Time Tracking pulls the same reporting line for team schedules and rosters; the Self-Service Portal lets employees act on their own records; and Performance ties review cycles to hire dates. This page walks through the day-to-day tasks an HR manager actually performs, end to end — from posting a job to processing a final settlement.
HR data drives Payroll and Data Scope (team-based visibility, derived from the reporting line you set in Organization). Set up departments, positions, and reporting lines before importing employees so leave approvals and payroll routing work on day one.
Attendance and time-clock devices live in the Time Tracking app, not here (/time-tracking/attendance). HR still shows each employee their own attendance summary in Employee Service, and HR events (probation ending, contract renewal) can trigger reminders — but schedules, overtime approval, and biometric device registration are managed in Time Tracking. See the Time Tracking page.
Before you start
Prerequisites
| You need | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Departments and positions | An employee record hangs off them; the org chart and the manager chain are built from them | /hr/organization, /hr/departments |
| A manager chain | ”Manager” approval steps, team data scope and the org chart all read it | Set on each employee |
| Leave types and policies | Balances cannot accrue against a type that does not exist | /hr/settings/time-off |
| Work schedules | Attendance compares against a schedule; without one there is nothing to be late for | /hr/settings |
| A user account per employee who needs to log in | Self-service, approvals and notifications target the user, not the employee record | Settings → Users |
Employee and user are two different records. An employee can exist without a login — a factory worker on a shared terminal, a contractor. Anything that must reach a person (notification, approval queue, self-service) needs the linked user account. When a step “goes to the manager”, it goes to the manager’s user.
Permissions
| Permission | Unlocks |
|---|---|
hr:read | The HR desk — overview, org, reports |
hr:write | Edit HR records |
hr:own | Self-service — your own profile, payslips, requests |
hr:approve | Approve HR items |
hr:admin | HR administration and automation |
hr:payroll | The payroll seam |
hr:manage_documents | Employee documents |
employees:read / :write / :delete / :import | The employee register |
leave:read / :request / :approve / :manage | Leave, from asking to administering |
leave:accrual_manage | Accrual rules |
attendance:read / :write / :manage / :dispute | Attendance and its corrections |
probation:read / :write / :approve | Probation reviews |
recruitment:read / :write / :delete | Hiring |
onboarding:read / :write | Onboarding checklists |
announcements:read / :write | Company announcements |
skills_matrix:read | Competency framework and skills matrix |
hr:own is not a smaller hr:read. They are different doors. hr:own opens your record; hr:read opens the company’s. Almost every employee has the first and should not have the second — and a manager needs both, because they are also an employee.
Key Features
- Employee records — profile, contracts, salary/tax details, education, skills, career history, and documents, all on one record
- Interactive org chart with departments, positions, and reporting lines that drives team-based data scope
- Recruitment: job requisitions, job postings, candidate pipeline, interview scorecards, and AI-assisted CV screening
- Onboarding checklists that fan tasks out to IT, HR, and the hiring manager, with a completion dashboard
- Probation tracking with 30/60/90-day milestones and a confirm/extend/end decision
- Leave management — configurable leave types, accrual rules, multi-level approval, and automatic payroll deduction
- Employee documents with expiry alerts (contracts, IDs, certificates, work permits)
- Company-wide and department-scoped Announcements
- Succession planning and a skills matrix for talent-gap analysis
- Competency Framework linking positions to the skills and proficiency levels they require
- Reports for headcount, leave liability, turnover, and recruitment funnel — with CSV export
- AI Hub agents (HR Ops, Recruiter Copilot) and Workflows for HR event automation
Screen map
The register and the organisation
| Screen | Route | What it is for | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | /hr | Headcount, what needs action | hr:read |
| Employees | /hr/employees, /hr/employees/[id], /hr/employees/[id]/edit | The register | employees:read / :write |
| New / import | /hr/employees/new; import from the Import button on /hr/employees | Add one, or many | employees:write / :import |
| Organisation | /hr/organization, /hr/departments | Structure and departments | hr:read |
| Org chart | /hr/org-chart | The manager chain, drawn | hr:read |
| Headcount | /hr/headcount | Movement over time | hr:read |
| Announcements | /hr/announcements | Company-wide notices | announcements:write |
Time away and attendance
| Screen | Route | What it is for | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave | /hr/leave, /hr/leave/[id], /hr/leave/new | Requests, balances, approvals | leave:read |
| Accrual rules | /hr/leave/accrual-rules | How entitlement builds up | leave:accrual_manage |
| Time-off settings | /hr/settings/time-off | Leave types and policy | hr:admin |
| Geofences | /hr/settings/attendance-geofences | Where check-in is allowed | hr:admin |
The employee lifecycle
| Screen | Route | What it is for | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruitment | /hr/recruitment, /hr/recruitment/[id] | Openings and pipelines | recruitment:read |
| Candidates / requisitions | /hr/recruitment/candidates/[id], /hr/recruitment/requisitions/[id] | The people and the headcount requests | recruitment:read |
| Onboarding | /hr/onboarding, /hr/onboarding/[checklistId] | Checklists per new hire | hr:read / onboarding:write |
| Onboarding templates | /hr/onboarding/templates/[id] | Reusable checklists | onboarding:write |
| Probation | /hr/probation, /hr/probation/[id] | Reviews and outcomes | probation:read |
| Succession | /hr/succession, /hr/succession/[id] | Who could step up | hr:read |
Skills
| Screen | Route | What it is for | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competency framework | /hr/competency-framework | Competencies and levels | skills_matrix:read |
| Skills matrix | /hr/skills-matrix | Who has what, and the gaps | skills_matrix:read |
| Skill categories | /hr/settings/skill-categories | Grouping | hr:admin |
Self-service
Everything under /hr/self-service/* is the employee’s own view: profile, payslips, leave, attendance, requests, certificates, learning, transcript, skills, OKRs, submissions. It is gated by hr:own and announcements:read, not by hr:read — an employee needs no access to the HR desk to use it.
Reports, settings and automation
| Screen | Route | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| Reports | /hr/reports | hr:read |
| Settings | /hr/settings | hr:admin |
| Agents / workflows | /hr/automation/agents, /hr/automation/workflows | hr:admin |
Important features
Full feature reference
| Nav item | Path | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | /hr | HR dashboard with headcount, active leave, probation milestones, and open requisitions at a glance. |
| Announcements | /hr/announcements | Compose, target (all / department / role), schedule, publish, and track read receipts. Employees read at /hr/self-service/announcements. |
| Organization | /hr/organization | Departments, positions, and reporting lines that render the org chart and drive team-based data scope. |
| Competency Framework | /hr/competency-framework | Defines the skills and proficiency levels each position requires — the benchmark for the skills matrix. |
| Skills Matrix | /hr/skills-matrix | Grid of employees vs. skills and proficiency levels, surfacing gaps for training and staffing. |
| Employees | /hr/employees | The employee directory — create, import, edit, and offboard records with 17 record tabs covering everything from contracts to documents. |
| Recruitment | /hr/recruitment | Job requisitions, postings, candidate pipeline, interview scorecards, AI screening, and offer-to-employee conversion. |
| Onboarding | /hr/onboarding | Template-driven checklists that assign first-week tasks to IT, HR, and managers with progress tracking. |
| Succession | /hr/succession | Maps high-potential talent against critical roles to plan coverage for key positions. |
| Leave Management | /hr/leave | Leave types, balances, request queue, and multi-level approval; syncs to payroll deduction. |
| Leave Accrual Rules | /hr/leave/accrual-rules | Configurable accrual logic — monthly/annual grants, tenure tiers, and carry-over caps per leave type. |
| Probation | /hr/probation | Tracks 30/60/90-day probation milestones and captures the review outcome. |
| Reports | /hr/reports | Headcount, leave liability, turnover, and recruitment reports with CSV export. |
| AI Hub | /hr/automation/agents | Entry point to run and review HR AI agents on employees, requisitions, and leave data. |
| Workflows | /hr/automation/workflows | Automation rules for HR events (new hire, probation end, contract expiry) that trigger tasks and notifications. |
| Settings | /hr/settings | HR module configuration — leave types, approval chains, feature toggles, roles, and data scope. |
Employee Service (self-service, /hr/self-service)
Available to every authenticated employee, independent of the HR module licence:
| Nav item | Path | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| My Requests | /hr/self-service/requests | Submit and track internal requests (leave, IT, procurement, and any other configured request type) — not limited to HR. |
| Overview | /hr/self-service | Personal dashboard — pending requests, leave balance, and quick links. |
| My Leave | /hr/self-service/leave | Submit leave requests and see balance, history, and approval status. |
| My Payslips | /hr/self-service/payslips | View and download issued payslips. |
| My Attendance | /hr/self-service/attendance | Read-only view of the employee’s own attendance, captured in Time Tracking. |
| My OKRs | /hr/self-service/my-okrs | The employee’s own objectives and key results. |
| My Learning | /hr/self-service/learning | Assigned and available LMS courses. |
| My Submissions | /hr/self-service/submissions | Status of previously submitted forms and requests. |
| My Transcript | /hr/self-service/transcript | Completed training history. |
| My Skills | /hr/self-service/skills | Self-reported skills against the competency framework. |
| My Documents | /hr/self-service/documents | The employee’s own contract, ID, and certificate documents. |
| My Certificates | /hr/self-service/my-certificates | Earned training/LMS certificates. |
| Certificate Verification | /hr/self-service/certificate | Verify a certificate by reference. |
| My Profile | /hr/self-service/profile | Personal details the employee can self-update. |
Integration points
| Integrates with | How |
|---|---|
| Time Tracking | Owns attendance capture, schedules, overtime approval, and biometric/card devices for the same reporting line HR defines; the employee’s own attendance still surfaces read-only in Employee Service. |
| Payroll | Employee records, contracts, and approved leave feed the payroll run; leave configured to deduct pay reduces salary automatically in the right period. |
| Self-Service Portal | Employees submit leave, view payslips, check attendance, and update profiles without HR involvement. |
| Performance | Review cycles and probation-end goals are anchored to hire-date milestones. |
| Calendar | Approved leave and public holidays appear on team and company calendars. |
| Finance | Headcount and salary costs tie into department budgets. |
| LMS / Training | Skills-matrix gaps against the competency framework recommend training courses to close them. |
Related AI agents
| Agent | What it does |
|---|---|
| HR Ops | Monitors HR processes — probation reviews, contract renewals, leave anomalies, retention risk — and surfaces tasks for the HR team. |
| Recruiter Copilot | Pre-screens applicants, ranks candidates by job fit, drafts interview-scheduling tasks, and flags stale applications to speed up the hiring pipeline. |