SWA Diamonds
How SWA Diamonds Centralised HR and Payroll for 215+ Employees Across Multiple Retail Stores Using Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
Client
SWA Diamonds
Industry
Jewellery Retail
Employees
215+
Solution
Zoho People & Zoho Payroll
Scope
Multi-location, India
About SWA Diamonds
SWA Diamonds is a leading jewellery business operating multiple retail stores and office locations across India. With employees working across Retail Operations, Marketing, Design, HR, IT, Media, and Back-Office functions, the organisation required a centralised HR and payroll solution to manage its growing workforce efficiently.
As the workforce expanded across locations and departments, managing attendance, leave, payroll, and compliance through manual processes became increasingly difficult. Biometric attendance data was consolidated by hand. Payroll calculations ran on spreadsheets. Statutory compliance across multiple states required significant manual effort. To address this, SWA Diamonds implemented Zoho People and Zoho Payroll as an integrated Human Resource and Payroll Management System.
How SWA Diamonds Centralised HR and Payroll Across Multiple Retail Locations Using Zoho
The project involved implementing and configuring Zoho People and Zoho Payroll to automate and centralise HR and payroll operations across the organisation. Tech Geum worked closely with SWA Diamonds to understand its workforce structure, attendance policies, payroll processes, and compliance requirements across multiple store locations.
The solution was tailored to support varying shift patterns, multiple attendance methods — biometric and mobile — departmental approval workflows, and state-specific payroll configurations. The implementation aimed to improve operational efficiency, reduce manual effort, and create a scalable HR and payroll management system that could grow with the business.
Challenges Before Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
Managing HR and payroll for 215+ employees across multiple retail stores and office locations — with different shift structures, attendance methods, and state-specific compliance requirements — through manual processes created significant operational strain.
Manual consolidation of biometric attendance records from multiple store locations.
Spreadsheet-based payroll calculations — time-consuming and prone to error.
Manual calculation of leave balances, LOP, incentives, and leave encashments.
Multiple departmental shift structures and attendance policies across locations.
Workforce spread across multiple stores and office locations with no unified view.
Complex statutory and state-specific payroll compliance managed manually.
Manual payslip generation and distribution to 215+ employees every month.
Requirement for both biometric and mobile attendance tracking to cover all locations.
Limited visibility into employee attendance and leave status for managers.
Compensatory leave management requiring manual intervention for each case.
These challenges increased administrative workload across the HR and payroll teams and limited management visibility into workforce availability across stores.
Proposed Solution
Tech Geum implemented Zoho People and Zoho Payroll as an integrated HR and payroll solution tailored to SWA Diamonds' policies, workforce structure, and multi-location operational requirements. The implementation covered four core areas.
HR and Attendance Management: Employee database centralised in Zoho People. Biometric attendance integrated across store locations. Mobile check-in and check-out with GPS location tracking configured for field and mobile employees. Multiple shift structures set up per department. Attendance regularisation and on-duty request workflows built in. Multi-level approval workflows configured for leave and attendance.
Payroll Management: Automated salary processing configured in Zoho Payroll with integration to attendance and leave records. Leave Without Pay (LOP) calculations automated based on attendance data. Incentive and leave encashment management set up. State-wise payroll configurations built to handle multi-state statutory requirements. Automated payslip generation and distribution configured for all 215+ employees.
Statutory Compliance: Statutory compliance requirements — PF, ESI, PT, and TDS — configured per state within Zoho Payroll. Multi-state configurations built to handle the varying compliance obligations across SWA Diamonds' operating locations without manual intervention.
Custom Automation: A custom Deluge function was written for compensatory leave expiry — automatically expiring unutilised compensatory off balances per policy without manual HR intervention. Automated notifications for attendance and payroll milestones configured. HR workflow automation built for approvals, regularisation requests, and payroll processing triggers.
Applications Included
Implementation
The implementation was structured in phases, with HR foundations built first before payroll automation and custom functions were layered on top.
Employee Database and Organisational Structure
All 215+ employee records were onboarded into Zoho People with department, designation, location, and reporting structure configured. The employee self-service portal was set up so employees could access payslips, apply for leave, submit attendance regularisation requests, and view their own records without going through HR.
Attendance Setup — Biometric Integration and Mobile Attendance
Biometric attendance devices across store and office locations were integrated with Zoho People. Mobile check-in and check-out with GPS location tracking was configured for employees at locations without biometric devices or for field staff. Multiple shift configurations were built per department — retail floor, back-office, and management shifts with different timing and overtime policies.
Leave Management and Approval Workflows
Leave types were configured per policy — earned leave, casual leave, sick leave, compensatory off, and leave without pay. Leave balance tracking and accrual rules set up. Multi-level approval workflows built so leave applications route through the correct reporting hierarchy. A custom Deluge function was written to automatically expire unused compensatory leave balances per the organisation's policy.
Payroll Configuration and Statutory Compliance
Zoho Payroll was configured with salary components, allowances, deductions, and incentive structures per employee category. Attendance and leave data feeds directly into payroll — LOP days calculated automatically from attendance records. State-wise payroll configurations built for statutory compliance across PF, ESI, Professional Tax, and TDS. Leave encashment calculations automated.
Automation, Testing, and Go-Live
Automated notifications configured for payroll processing milestones, attendance exceptions, and leave approval reminders. All workflows, payroll calculations, LOP logic, statutory outputs, and compensatory leave automation tested against real employee scenarios before go-live. Training delivered to HR, payroll team, and department managers. System went live for all 215+ employees.
Results
The implementation delivered significant improvements across HR operations, payroll accuracy, and workforce visibility for SWA Diamonds.
215+ employees successfully onboarded onto Zoho People and Zoho Payroll.
Manual attendance consolidation from biometric devices eliminated entirely.
Payroll calculations automated — LOP, incentives, and encashments run without manual spreadsheet work.
Improved payroll accuracy — errors from manual calculations and data transfer removed.
Statutory compliance simplified across multiple states — PF, ESI, PT, and TDS managed in system.
Attendance and leave management streamlined across all stores and office locations.
Attendance tracking enabled across every store location through biometric and mobile.
Managerial visibility into workforce availability improved — real-time attendance and leave status visible.
Compensatory leave expiry automated via custom Deluge function — no manual HR intervention required.
Employee self-service access improved — payslips, leave applications, and attendance records accessible by employees directly.
HR and payroll administrative workload significantly reduced.
Scalable platform in place to support continued workforce growth across locations.
Conclusion
By implementing Zoho People and Zoho Payroll, SWA Diamonds successfully transformed its HR and payroll operations into a centralised and automated system. The integrated platform — combining biometric attendance, mobile check-in, multi-shift management, automated payroll, statutory compliance, and custom leave automation — eliminated the manual effort that had previously constrained the HR team across a 215+ employee multi-location workforce.
The custom Deluge function for compensatory leave expiry is a good example of how the implementation went beyond standard configuration: where Zoho's built-in tools needed extending to match SWA Diamonds' specific policy, custom automation filled the gap without requiring a separate tool or ongoing manual process.
SWA Diamonds now operates with a scalable HR and payroll platform that supports accurate workforce management, improves employee experience through self-service access, and gives management reliable visibility into attendance and leave across all locations.
Partner Bio
Techgeum is a trusted Zoho consulting and implementation partner specialising in digital transformation, business process automation, and cloud-based business solutions. Our certified Zoho experts help organisations optimise operations across HR, Payroll, CRM, Finance, Customer Support, Inventory, ERP, and custom business applications.
Through a structured implementation approach and a customer-focused service model, Techgeum delivers scalable solutions that improve efficiency, enhance productivity, and drive business growth. We partner with businesses across industries to maximise the value of the Zoho ecosystem and achieve long-term operational success.
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