Human Resources setup guide

This page walks through 9 steps to set up Human Resources, in the order the in-app Setup assistant recommends. Each step lists what to prepare, the questions to answer first and the screen to use.

1. Prepare

Optional

What to have ready before setting up HR: company time zone, a work schedule, public holidays, and cleaned-up files of the organisation, employees, contracts and leave balances.

2. HR process controls

Required

Choose the rules HR follows: onboarding and offboarding checklists, probation, Labour Code contract checks, leave self-service, and attendance before payroll. Overtime, timesheets and payroll approval are set up in Time Tracking and Payroll.

Prepare first

• A written description of the HR flow: hiring and onboarding, probation, contracts and renewals, leave, termination.
• The rules agreed with management: who submits leave, whether training is mandatory before a new role, how long before expiry contracts are renewed.

Questions to answer

• Must a new hire finish an onboarding checklist before becoming active? Do leavers go through an offboarding checklist?
• How long is probation, and who reviews the employee before it ends?
• Should contracts that break the Labour Code be blocked? How many days before expiry do you start renewing?
• Do employees submit their own leave requests? Does a leave request need more than one approver?
• Must every employee have attendance before payroll runs? Do you track expiry of work permits or certificates?

3. HR people

Required

Choose who runs HR: the HR manager, HR officers and specialists, recruiters, HR business partners and the HR director. You cannot remove a person’s last role here.

Prepare first

• The list of HR staff, recruiters, HR business partners and the HR head — each must already be invited as a user.

Questions to answer

• Who heads HR, who keeps employee records, and who recruits?
• Who approves leave and HR decisions (rewards, discipline, appointments)?

4. HR lists

Optional

The choice lists used on HR forms: employee types, contract types, work arrangements, career tracks, benefits, onboarding task categories, performance ratings, termination and leave rejection reasons. Fill empty lists with the standard values, rename or hide values, or add your own.

Prepare first

• The employee types, contract types, work arrangements, termination reasons and benefits the company really uses (Vietnamese and English names).

Questions to answer

• Which employee types, work arrangements and career tracks do you use?
• Which contract types and benefits do you offer?
• Which termination reasons and leave rejection reasons do you need?

Lookups to review (Settings → Lookups):

• Benefit Types (benefit_types)
• Career Tracks (career_tracks)
• Contract Types (contract_types)
• Employee Types (employee_types)
• Leave Rejection Reasons (leave_rejection_reasons)
• Onboarding Checklist Groups (onboarding_task_categories)
• Performance Ratings (performance_ratings)
• Termination Reasons (termination_reasons)
• Work Arrangements (work_locations)

5. Codes and numbering

Optional

Format of employee codes, employment contract and amendment numbers, and HR decision numbers. Changing the format after codes were issued leaves two code styles.

Prepare first

• The code format the company wants for employees, contracts, amendments and HR decisions (prefix, year, digits).

Questions to answer

• Do you keep your current employee codes and contract numbers, or use the XBuddy defaults?

Document types to configure numbering for (Settings → Document numbering):

• employee
• employment_contract
• employment_contract_amendment
• hr_decision

6. Approval workflows

Optional · After step: HR process controls, HR people

Leave requests are approved only through a workflow: without an active leave workflow a leave type that needs approval cannot be submitted. Job requisitions also go through a workflow. Probation reviews and HR decisions can be approved directly by a person with the right.

Questions to answer

• Who approves leave: the direct manager only, or the manager then HR?
• Must job requisitions, probation reviews and HR decisions go through an approval workflow?

Approval workflows to enable (Workflow → Template library) — see Workflow templates:

• leave_request
• job_requisition
• probation_review
• hr_decision

7. Import data

Optional

Bring the organisation, employees, contracts and leave balances in with the existing import screens. Each button opens the import with its template; the counts update from real data.

Prepare first

• Import in this order: departments → positions → employees → employment contracts → opening leave balances. Employees match departments and positions by code.
• Fill the old-system code column so re-importing the same file updates rows instead of duplicating them.

Questions to answer

• Where are employee records, contracts and leave balances kept today, and how many employees?

8. Open requests

Optional

Leave requests and probation still running on the cut-over date are re-entered by hand.

Prepare first

• Agree the cut-over date: requests still open that day are re-entered here; closed ones stay in the old system.

9. Go-live check

Optional

Run one employee through the main HR steps with the key user before go-live. Tick each step once its result is checked.

Prepare first

• One real department and one test employee; agree who checks each result.

Next

See the feature pages of this app in the left menu, or the setup guides of every app.