Human Resources
Complete human resources management — personnel, recruitment, leave, expenses, overtime, KPI, and AI reports.
Getting Started
New to the HR module? Follow the sequence below to add your first employee, submit a leave request, approve it, and confirm the AI Reports assistant picks it up.
Approve Mechanism
Follow this quick sequence to get your HR module up and running:
- Add your first employee — go to Employees and click Add Employee. Fill in the name (required), department, position, and start date.
- Submit a leave request — go to Leave Management and click Add Leave. Select the employee, leave type, start and end dates. The day count calculates automatically.
- Approve the request — the request starts as Pending. Click it to open the detail view, then click Approve. The status updates to Approved immediately.
- Check the AI — go to HR Reports, open the AI Assistant panel, and type "How many leave requests were approved this month?" You should see your test record reflected in the answer.
HR Mode Activation
HR screens are grouped in HR mode. If you don't see the HR sidebar, click the mode chip in the top header until it reads "HR", or go to Settings → My Apps and toggle HR screens on. HR screens can also be added to any other mode from the same settings panel.
What's Included
TotalApp's Human Resources module is a comprehensive suite of 10 screens covering every stage of the employee lifecycle. From hiring a candidate to tracking their performance KPIs and managing the equipment issued to them, everything lives in one place with a consistent dark-chrome aesthetic designed for high-density data work.
Activate the HR module by switching to HR mode in the header, or navigate directly to any HR screen from the sidebar. All HR data is server-backed and survives page refreshes — no data is ever stored only in browser memory.
Shared Employee Data
Every HR screen reads from the same employee store. An employee added in Employees is immediately available in Leave Management, Expense Management, Overtime, Performance KPI, and both asset screens. There is no sync step and no duplicate entry.
Assignment dropdowns outside of HR — Preventive Maintenance, Field Service, Project Management, and more — draw from a wider pool than this employee store alone, since not everyone who needs to be assigned a task is on payroll. See Employees & Assignees for how that works.
| Screen | Primary Purpose | Key Action |
|---|---|---|
| Employees | Central employee directory — 5-tab profile (General, Work & Position, Skills & Tags, Payroll, Assets, Documents) | Add / edit / delete employees |
| Recruitment | Hiring pipeline (Kanban) | Move candidates through stages |
| Document Entry | Personnel document storage per employee | Upload, classify, download, delete files |
| Asset Manager | HR's own equipment pool (laptops, phones, meal cards, access cards, company cars) | Add, stock, assign / unassign equipment |
| Leave Management | Leave requests & approvals | Submit / approve / reject leaves |
| Expense Management | Expense claims & reimbursements | Submit / approve expense claims |
| Overtime | Overtime logging & approval | Record hours, approve for payroll |
| Performance KPI | Goal tracking per employee | Create KPIs, update progress |
| Skill Matrix | Competency map by department | Rate skills, identify gaps |
| HR Reports | AI-powered workforce analytics | Ask questions, save reports |
HR Screen Guide
Employees
The employee directory. A 5-tab profile covers General info, Work & Position (including system Capabilities), Skills & Tags, Payroll (salary/IBAN), Assets (assign equipment inline), and Documents. The foundation that all other HR screens build upon.
Recruitment
A Kanban-style hiring board. Track every candidate from application through screening, interview, offer, and hire. Drag cards to advance pipeline stages.
Document Entry
Upload, classify, and manage personnel documents for any tenant member — contracts, ID copies, certificates, health reports, payslips — stored per employee. Also embedded as a tab inside the Employees profile.
Asset Manager
HR's own equipment pool — laptops, phones, meal cards, access cards, and company cars — kept separate from IT/Facilities' Asset Registry. Full stock/repair/retired lifecycle, assign/unassign, and an optional link to IT's asset stock.
Leave Management
Submit and approve leave requests for any leave type. Day counts auto-calculate from date ranges. Managers see pending requests first.
Expense Management
Employee expense claims with category breakdown. Approved claims automatically feed into Finance → Expenses & Budget with no double entry.
Overtime
Log extra hours against a reason, get manager approval, and watch the figures flow automatically into Payroll. No manual handoff required.
Performance KPI
Create measurable goals for each team member. Colour-coded status indicators (On Track / At Risk / Behind) surface issues at a glance.
Skill Matrix
Map every employee's competency level across technical and soft skills. Visualise gaps by department and identify training priorities.
HR Reports
An AI assistant that answers plain-English questions about your workforce. Ask about headcount, overtime costs, or leave balances and get instant answers.
Dark Chrome Design
HR screens use a deliberate near-black canvas (#080a12) instead of the standard app background. This is not a bug — it is an intentional design choice that maximises contrast for dense tabular data like employee records, leave tables, and payroll rows.
Inside the dark canvas, all text uses white-opacity tokens (text-white/70 for primary data, text-white/40 for secondary labels) rather than the theme-aware tokens used elsewhere in TotalApp. This means HR screens look identical in every theme — they are self-contained dark environments.
Why Dark Chrome?
HR managers often work with 50–100 employee rows visible at once. High contrast between text and background reduces eye strain during extended use. The same pattern is used in Bloomberg terminals and professional data workstations for the same reason.
Visual Elements Unique to HR
- Status badges —
bg-success/10 text-success/70for Active, amber for Pending, red for Inactive. Always 10% opacity fill, never solid. - Filter tab bar — pill-style with
rgba(255,255,255,0.03)background; active tab usesbg-white/[0.08]. - Table headers — sticky with frosted blur (
backdropFilter: blur(12px)) so column labels stay visible while scrolling through large datasets. - Quick stat cards — near-invisible border (
border-white/[0.06]) with a barely-there background so they read as elevation rather than boxes.
AI Reports
The HR Reports screen includes a live AI assistant panel that draws on all HR module data in real time. You can ask questions in plain English and get structured answers about your workforce — no SQL, no pivot tables, no export required.
Headcount Questions
"How many active employees are in Engineering?" or "Show me headcount by department" — the AI reads live Employees data.
Leave Analytics
"Which employees have the most approved leave this quarter?" or "What is the average sick leave per department?" — pulls from Leave Management.
Expense & Overtime
"Total approved expenses by category this month" or "Top 5 employees by overtime hours" — reads Expense and Overtime module data directly.
Save as Report
Click Save once and the AI response is stored as a named report with a timestamp. Open, edit, and share reports from the Report Library tab.
Tip — Be Specific
The more specific your question, the more useful the answer. Instead of "show me expenses", try "show me total approved travel expenses for Q2 2026 broken down by employee". The AI has access to all date fields, categories, and status values.