HR software for agritech companies with field and office teams
An agritech company runs three workforces at once: a product and engineering team at a desk, field agronomists moving between villages, and collection or warehouse staff on shifts. Offrd holds all three on one employment record with the right attendance method for each, at ₹50 per active employee a month.
Last updated 24 August 2026
Three workforces, one company
This is the thing that makes agritech HR awkward, and it is not the technology. It is that a single company of eighty people contains a software team in Bengaluru, twenty five field officers moving between villages in two states, and a set of collection centre staff working to a procurement rhythm.
A tool built for the software team assumes a laptop, a work email and a general shift. A tool built for the field assumes nobody has any of those. Most agritech companies end up running both, plus a spreadsheet to reconcile them at the end of the month, and the reconciliation is where errors live.
The useful framing is that these are three attendance methods rather than three systems. The employment record, the salary structure, the leave policy and the payroll cycle can be common. Only the way a person marks presence needs to differ.
| Team | Where they work | How attendance is marked |
|---|---|---|
| Product and engineering | Office or home | Remote or office check in, general shift |
| Field agronomists | Villages, farms, demo plots | GPS check in, 500 metre radius, location recorded |
| Collection centre staff | A fixed centre | QR check in at the centre, named shift |
| Warehouse and grading | A warehouse site | QR or biometric sync, shift with break splits |
| Procurement season hires | Centres and warehouses | Bulk import, then QR |
| Regional managers | Moving between sites | GPS check in at whichever site they are at |
Field visits that leave a record
A field officer's day is a sequence of places. Set each collection centre, demo plot or partner location up as a site with a geofence radius and the day becomes a sequence of check ins with locations attached, rather than a single present mark that says nothing.
The field work attendance report and the geofence report are the two most agritech companies use. Between them they answer the question a regional manager actually asks, which is not whether someone worked but where.
This is an attendance record, not a route optimiser or a field force automation tool. It will not plan a beat, score a visit or hold farmer data. If you run a field force management product alongside, keep it. Offrd sits underneath as the employment record.
Procurement season and the headcount swing
Most agritech companies have a season where headcount jumps. Extra hands at collection centres, temporary grading staff, additional field support. Then it falls back.
Billing at 50 rupees per active employee a month follows that curve rather than fighting it. Forty people in a quiet month is 2,000 rupees. Ninety during procurement is 4,500. There is no seat block to fill and no minimum headcount, which is a meaningful difference from platforms that sell in blocks of 50 users.
The paperwork follows the same shape. Bulk import brings a batch in from one CSV, onboarding collects Aadhaar, PAN, bank details and UAN from a phone browser, and appointment letters generate from one salary structure. Written appointment letters became compulsory for every employee under the Labour Codes that took effect on 21 November 2025, seasonal staff included, and fixed term employees become eligible for gratuity after one year rather than five.
The statutory side is calculated across all three teams from one salary structure. Provident fund at 12 percent employer and 12 percent employee against the ₹15,000 Para 26A ceiling, ESI at 3.25 and 0.75 percent under a ₹21,000 gross, professional tax from each location's state, gratuity as wages by 15, by years, over 26. Offrd does not submit returns. The ECR to EPFO and the 24Q to TRACES are your CA's, and payroll exports in EPF return format for them.
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Where Offrd stops
Stating this plainly saves a demo. There is no performance review module, no OKR tracking and no 360 feedback. No expense claims, no help desk, no asset register. Recruitment stops at pre interview resume screening through Pre-Hire, which returns a ranked shortlist and nothing further. Equity and option records sit outside entirely.
And Offrd calculates statutory contributions without filing them. If your main requirement is automated PF and TDS filing, that points somewhere else, and it is better to know now.
If your operation is a growing or estate business rather than a technology company with a field arm, the farms and estates page is the closer fit.
Questions from agritech founders and HR leads
- How do we track agronomists and field officers who never come to an office?
- GPS check in within a 500 metre radius works from the field officer's own phone, and the check in carries the location. Village level or collection centre visits can be set up as sites with their own geofence, so a day spent at three centres is recorded as three visits rather than as a single present mark.
- Can office staff and field staff sit in the same system?
- Yes, and they should. The office product and engineering team use remote or office check in on a general shift, collection centre staff use QR check in at the centre, and field officers use GPS. One employee record, one payroll cycle, one leave policy, three ways of marking attendance.
- Do we need appointment letters for field officers hired through a local partner?
- If you employ them directly, yes. Written appointment letters became compulsory for every employee under the Labour Codes that took effect on 21 November 2025. Where a field officer is engaged through a partner or an FPO rather than employed by you, the position is different and worth confirming with your legal advisor.
- How does headcount that swells during a procurement season get billed?
- At 50 rupees per active employee a month, calculated on who was actually active. A company running 40 people through most of the year and 90 during procurement pays for 40 and 90 respectively, with no seat block and no minimum.
- Can we run payroll across states with different professional tax slabs?
- Yes. The PIN code of each location resolves city, district and state, and the professional tax slab follows from the state without anyone looking up a table. Payslips are tagged to the location the person worked at.
- Is there anything here for stock option or ESOP records?
- No. Offrd handles employment documents, payroll calculation, attendance and leave. Equity records, cap tables and option grants sit outside it and stay with your company secretary or your existing tool.
- What does Offrd not cover for an agritech company?
- No performance reviews, no OKRs, no 360 feedback, no expense claims, no asset register and no applicant tracking beyond pre interview resume screening. It does not file EPF or TDS returns either. Those stay with your CA, who receives payroll in EPF return format.
Put one region on it before procurement starts
Fifty free credits on signup, no card. Set up two collection centres, put a field officer on GPS check in, and look at the month's field work report.
Statutory rates follow published rules from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and ESIC, and the Labour Codes notified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Several thresholds vary by state. This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your own position with your CA or legal advisor. Questions to service@offrd.co.