HR and payroll software for authorised electronics service centers
Offrd costs ₹50 per active employee per month and keeps bench technicians and field engineers on one employee record. Field engineers check in by GPS and center staff by QR, and the same account issues appointment letters, payslips and full and final settlement. A center with 30 employees, 12 of them in the field, pays ₹1,500 a month.
Last updated 11 October 2026
Why is HR different at a service center?
Half the staff sit at the bench and half go to the customer. The bench technician works inside the center, so marking attendance is easy. The field engineer leaves in the morning, visits three or four homes during the day, and may not come back in the evening.
Most HR software assumes an employee walks in through one door. When that is untrue for half the team, the attendance register drifts away from what happened, then nobody uses it, and at month end pay gets worked out from the supervisor's diary.
The second problem is paper. Staff turn over, and each appointment letter is copied from some older file. After a while one center has four formats in circulation.
How do you mark attendance for bench and field staff?
A center is a site, stored with a name, a code, latitude, longitude and a geofence radius. Bench technicians, front desk and store staff mark attendance with a QR code at the entrance, and all they need is the camera on their phone.
A field engineer checks in by GPS within 500 metres. The location goes in with the check in, so the day's record shows where the person was, and that is what makes a field work attendance report useful.
Shifts are named schedules with a start time, an end time and a grace period. If the center opens on Sundays or runs an evening shift, that becomes one fixed shift. A biometric machine you already have does not need replacing, because it connects to the same record.
| Role | Where they work | How attendance is marked |
|---|---|---|
| Bench technician | Inside the center | QR at the entrance, or biometric |
| Field engineer | At the customer's home or shop | GPS check in, 500 metre radius |
| Front desk | Inside the center | QR check in, general shift |
| Spare parts store | Inside the center | QR check in |
| Delivery and pickup | Moving around the city | GPS check in |
| A second center | A separate location | A separate site with its own geofence |
Does every technician need an appointment letter?
Under the Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025, every employee must receive a written appointment letter. That applies to a technician who joined three months ago and to one who has been there six years.
In Offrd every letter comes from one generator. The salary structure balances against total CTC, basic wage defaults to 50 percent of CTC as the Code on Wages 2019 expects, and the center's PIN code fixes the city, district and state, so the professional tax slab arrives on its own.
The rest of the documents then come from the same record: probation confirmation letter, increment letter, experience letter, relieving letter, and full and final settlement. Settlement is a separate module with its own reference number, a flow from draft to approved, 19 standard deduction heads and 13 exit payout heads. It is built from the same pay heads as the payslips, so the figures agree.
Fixed term employees now qualify for gratuity after one year of service and not five. A service center with steady staff turnover should notice that change.
The statutory part is calculated inside payroll and not submitted anywhere. Provident fund is 12 percent from the employer and 12 percent from the employee, on the ₹25,000 wage ceiling. ESI is 3.25 percent from the employer and 0.75 percent from the employee while gross pay is under ₹21,000. Professional tax comes from the state that the center's PIN code resolves to. Gratuity is wages times 15, times years of service, divided by 26. Filing returns is not part of it. The EPFO ECR and the TRACES 24Q stay with your CA, who receives the payroll in EPF return format.
What does Offrd not do?
It is better to say this early. Job cards, warranty claims, spare parts inventory and the brand's service portal are not in Offrd, and they should not be. They are separate systems and they are fine where they are.
Performance reviews, OKRs, 360 feedback, expense claims, a helpdesk and an asset register are also absent. On the hiring side, Pre-Hire screens resumes before the interview, ranks them and suggests interview questions. The interview and the hiring decision stay with you.
Offrd also calculates statutory amounts and does not file them. If your main need is returns that file themselves, that should be clear from the start.
Signup brings 50 free credits, with no card. That is enough for one appointment letter, one onboarding pack and about a dozen payslips.
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What do service center owners ask?
- How is attendance recorded for a field engineer who works at customer homes?
- By GPS check in within 500 metres, from the engineer's own phone. The location is recorded with the check in, so the day leaves a record of visits and not just a mark of presence. Staff who sit at the center only need the QR code at the entrance.
- Does every technician need a written appointment letter?
- Yes. Under the Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025, every employee must get a written appointment letter. That covers bench technicians, field engineers, front desk and spare parts store staff.
- Does Offrd handle job cards or warranty claims?
- No. Job cards, warranty claims and the brand's service portal are separate systems and should stay where they are. Offrd keeps the record underneath them: who is an employee, on what terms, when and where they worked, and what they were paid.
- If I run two or three centers, do I pay for separate subscriptions?
- No. Billing is ₹50 per active employee per month for the whole group. Each center joins as a site with its own geofence, and payroll runs in a single cycle. There is no seat block and no minimum headcount.
- What happens when a technician is transferred from one center to another?
- The site is changed on the same employee record. The joining date, salary structure and earlier documents stay with the person. Creating a fresh record at the new center is the usual mistake, and it starts the gratuity count from the wrong date.
- Is there a report for brand audits?
- Brand audits have their own standards, and the auditor sets them, not a software tool. What Offrd gives you is the base record that is usually asked for: appointment letters, attendance records and a pay record that all agree with each other.
- What does a center with 30 employees pay?
- ₹1,500 a month on the subscription plan, which is ₹50 per active employee. It covers documents, EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity calculation, geofenced attendance and leave management. There is no setup fee.
How do you try Offrd on a field team?
Signup brings 50 free credits, with no card. Make the center a site, put two field engineers on GPS check in, and read the field work report at the end of the month.
Statutory rates follow the published rules of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and ESIC, and the Labour Codes notified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Several limits vary by state. This is general information and not legal advice. Confirm your own position with your CA or legal adviser. Questions go to service@offrd.co.