HR setup planner:a calmer start, a plan you can use.

Tell us what you are organizing and get a practical checklist with the reasons, suggested owner roles and useful links. No account, no email, nothing sent. Download the plan and adapt it with your team.

A planning aid. It organizes preparation tasks from your answers. It does not change any company, enable any module or tell you what the law requires.

Your team, your starting point

How many people?
Where is the work today?
Where do your people work?

Only whether it is one country or several. You never name a country.

What do you need to organize?

Choose any, all or none.

Your people data

Your answers stay in this page session and are gone when you reload. Download the plan to keep it. Nothing is sent, enabled or configured.

Your starting plan

Clear steps. Suggested owners.

  • 1–10 people
  • Spreadsheets and documents
  • One country
  • Organizing: people records, leave and time off
  • People data: needs review or cleanup
0 / 100 of 10 steps checked

A preparation checklist, not a rollout-time estimate, a score or a compliance assessment. Adjust it with the people responsible for your company.

Prepare the decisions

Choices and information to settle before you change anything.

  1. Why: Someone needs to confirm employee data, decide policies and sign off access. Naming a backup as well means requests do not wait on one person.

    Suggested owner role: Company owner or HR lead

    Explore the platform

  2. Why: Names, work emails, departments, roles and start dates are easier to fix before they are loaded anywhere. Resolve duplicates and keep sensitive information to what is needed.

    Comes after: Choose an accountable owner

    Suggested owner role: HR lead or data owner

    Open the people-list guide

  3. Why: Spreadsheets and documents tend to hold several versions of the same facts. Decide which file is current and keep a copy before you change anything.

    Comes after: Choose an accountable owner

    Suggested owner role: HR lead or data owner

    Open the people-list guide

Configure with the right owners

Settings and workflows to review, each with a suggested owner role.

  1. Why: Setup in the product covers company details, country defaults and starting needs, and you can decide later. This plan applies no settings; it only helps you prepare the answers.

    Comes after: Choose an accountable owner

    Suggested owner role: Company owner

    See the setup steps

  2. Why: Access should follow real responsibilities. Try an employee and a manager view before giving anyone broad access.

    Comes after: Review the existing company setup

    Suggested owner role: Company owner or HR lead

    Review access and workflows

  3. Why: Review whether you need more than name, role, department and start date in the people directory, and who may see each field. Keep what is kept to what is needed.

    Comes after: Review and clean your people list

    Suggested owner role: HR lead

    Explore the people directory

  4. Why: Agree leave types, working days, approvers, carry-over and opening balances. Have a policy owner confirm each rule instead of copying a guessed default.

    Comes after: Decide who can see and approve what

    Suggested owner role: HR lead or policy owner

    Explore leave management

Test, invite and improve

Try it with realistic examples before inviting the team, then learn from the first cycle.

  1. Why: Use fictional data or an approved test group. Try a request, a manager decision, a phone view and an export, and record errors and manual hand-offs before inviting anyone.

    Comes after: Review the existing company setup; Decide who can see and approve what

    Suggested owner role: HR lead and a test manager

    See real product screens

  2. Why: Tell people what is changing, what their first task is, where to ask for help and who handles corrections. Review access before invitations are sent.

    Comes after: Run a small pilot with realistic examples

    Suggested owner role: Company owner or HR lead

    Open the team introduction draft

  3. Why: Pick a simple local baseline, such as incomplete records, unanswered requests or correction work, and choose one improvement for the next cycle.

    Comes after: Plan invitations and team communication

    Suggested owner role: HR lead and managers

    Find a useful measure

Start small. It stays free.

Free forever for teams of up to 10 people. Larger teams are free for now; if that changes, we'll tell you first.

Review pricing and start Compare other options

Nothing here creates an account or changes a company. The plan stays a checklist you control.

See where it lives

The real product, for what you chose

Reviewed screens from the current Hub, filled with a fictional company. They show where each area is, not how your company should be set up.

People records

The people directory in the HourSquare Hub with a fictional team.
Real Hub · desktopReal Hub · tabletReal Hub · phonePeople directory in a fictional company. It shows where records live; which fields you keep is your decision.

People directory in a fictional company. It shows where records live; which fields you keep is your decision.

Leave and time off

The Time off team calendar in the HourSquare Hub showing fictional leave requests.
Real Hub · desktopReal Hub · tabletReal Hub · phoneTime off team calendar with fictional pending leave. Policies and balances are configured by your company.

Time off team calendar with fictional pending leave. Policies and balances are configured by your company.

When you are ready

Continue into the setup that already exists

Company details, country defaults and starting needs, with “Decide later” available. The planner helps you prepare the decisions; you make the choices in the actual company setup.

See the product tour
Step three of the company setup in the HourSquare Hub: choosing starting needs and modules, with a fictional company.
Real Hub screenCurrent company setup, needs and modules step, with fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

Current company setup, needs and modules step, with fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

Step three of the company setup in the HourSquare Hub on a tablet-width screen: choosing starting needs and modules, with a fictional company.
Real Hub screenCurrent company setup on a tablet-width screen, fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

Current company setup on a tablet-width screen, fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

Step three of the company setup in the HourSquare Hub on a phone-width screen: choosing starting needs and modules, with a fictional company.
Real Hub screenCurrent company setup on a phone-width screen, fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

Current company setup on a phone-width screen, fictional data. The planner applies none of these choices.

How the plan works

Plain rules, no hidden score

Every task comes from one written rule: if your answers meet a condition, the task appears, with the reason it appears and the tasks it should follow. Team size adds phasing and backup tasks as a team grows. More than one worker country adds a country-by-country requirements task. Another HR system adds data-scoping and connection checks. Each workflow you choose adds its own decision task. Whether your people data needs review or is ready to validate changes the first data task.

Nothing is scored, timed or priced: no rollout duration, saving or fit score is calculated. Capability tasks are worded “review whether you need…” because the planner does not know your company. Owners are suggested roles, never people. This is general preparation guidance, not legal, tax or payroll advice, and it names no country or compliance result.

Links point to current HourSquare pages where relevant. The plan stays useful if you choose another provider. People records, invitations, modules and billing are never changed here.

See every rule (22)
Every planner task, the answers that add it and its suggested owner role
TaskStageAppears whenSuggested owner role
Choose an accountable ownerPrepare the decisionsAlways includedCompany owner or HR lead
Review and clean your people listPrepare the decisionsPeople data: Needs review or cleanupHR lead or data owner
Check your prepared list against the current templatePrepare the decisionsPeople data: Prepared and ready to validateData owner
Choose one file as the source of truthPrepare the decisionsCurrent process: Spreadsheets and documentsHR lead or data owner
List every kind of data you would need to movePrepare the decisionsCurrent process: Another HR systemHR lead with the current system administrator
Write down where each HR task happens todayPrepare the decisionsCurrent process: Email, chat and scattered processesHR lead and managers
Check which connections you rely on todayPrepare the decisionsCurrent process: Another HR systemCurrent system administrator
Map requirements country by countryPrepare the decisionsWorker locations: More than one countryHR lead with payroll and local advisers
Review the existing company setupConfigure with the right ownersAlways includedCompany owner
Decide who can see and approve whatConfigure with the right ownersAlways includedCompany owner or HR lead
Review which people fields you needConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: People recordsHR lead
Confirm leave types, rules and opening balancesConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: Leave and time offHR lead or policy owner
Review whether you need working-time trackingConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: Working timeOperations lead and managers
Review whether you need payroll workflows, and confirm their scopeConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: Payroll workflowsPayroll owner with a local adviser
Review whether you need a joiner checklistConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: OnboardingHR lead and hiring manager
Map one request from employee to decisionConfigure with the right ownersYou chose: ApprovalsManagers and HR lead
Name a backup for each approverConfigure with the right ownersTeam size: 11–50 people or 51–200 people or 201 or more peopleManagers and HR lead
Agree a data and access owner for each departmentConfigure with the right ownersTeam size: 201 or more peopleHR lead with department leads
Agree a pilot group, then expand in phasesTest, invite and improveTeam size: 51–200 people or 201 or more peopleHR lead with department leads
Run a small pilot with realistic examplesTest, invite and improveAlways includedHR lead and a test manager
Plan invitations and team communicationTest, invite and improveAlways includedCompany owner or HR lead
Review the first working cycleTest, invite and improveAlways includedHR lead and managers

Make a decision you can explain
HOURSQUARE · EST 2026 HR you run yourself.