The honest HRMS buyer's guide for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees

Most HRMS comparisons count modules. A company of a few hundred people does not need the most modules; it needs its payroll right every month, one record that does not need reconciling, and a price it can plan for. This guide is how to choose on those.

Decide what matters before the first demo

Write down, with your finance and IT colleagues, how much each of these matters to you. The HRMS buyer’s scorecard has them with suggested weights, and the question to put to every vendor:

• Payroll accuracy and statutory compliance
• Total cost over three years as you grow
• Security, data residency and DPDP readiness
• Multi-state payroll
• One record from hire to exit
• Time to go live, and migration
• Ease of use for HR, managers and employees
• Support, and integrations

Test payroll on your own structures

Give each vendor three anonymised salary grades and ask them to show PF and gratuity on the wages the labour codes define, including where special allowance goes. If you have not checked your own structures yet, the Payroll Health Check does it in a few minutes.

Compare the cost in year three, not year one

Per-seat pricing looks cheapest at today’s headcount. Ask for the bill at the headcount you expect in three years, including implementation and any module charges. The total cost calculator shows how a per-seat bill grows.

Give IT what it needs early

IT rarely starts an HRMS purchase and often stops one late. Ask every vendor for their security and data-protection answers before the shortlist, not after. Flowy’s are here.

If you are weighing Flowy against a suite, our comparison pages state what each vendor publishes and the date we checked it: Keka, greytHR, and Darwinbox against Keka.