Settings › Company › Company Profile

1. Open Settings, then Company, then Company Profile, and click Edit Profile (top right).
2. Check your Company Name, Timezone, Currency, Date Format and Time Format.
3. Under Registration & Legal, add your registered name and tax numbers. For an Indian company that's GSTIN, PAN Number and TAN Number — the fields change to suit your country. Not GST-registered? Leave GSTIN blank.
4. Fill in Contact (a contact name is required) and the Registered Address — this is where you pick your country, state and city.
5. Under Employment, decide whether to Confirm employees automatically when their probation ends. Leave it off to confirm each person yourself — you'll get a monthly reminder of probations ending.
6. Click Save.

System › Billing

1. Open System, then Billing. You'll see your plan, its status, how many employees it covers and when Renewal Due falls.
2. Note the renewal date. Renewal is manual — there's no automatic charge — so pay before that date to keep access.
3. Past invoices are under Invoice History, ready to download.

Settings › Admin › Branding

1. Open Settings, then Admin, then Branding.
2. Upload your logo — a PNG or SVG with a transparent background looks best.
3. Pick a primary and secondary colour (or type a colour code like #0c056d), then click Save Branding.

Settings › Company › Locations

1. Open Settings › Company › Locations and click Add Location.
2. Give it a Location Code and Location Name (e.g. "GGN-HQ" / "Head Office"), then pick the country, state and city and its time zone.
3. Tick Head Office for your main office (and Registered Office if it's your legal address).
4. In Tamil Nadu you'll also be asked for the Local body (for Professional Tax) — pick it so the right Professional Tax applies. Elsewhere there's nothing extra to choose.
5. Click Add, and repeat for each office.

Part A · Seniority levels

The rungs of a ladder — generic words like Director, Manager, Executive. Not job titles.

Settings › Organization › Hierarchy

1. Open Settings › Organization › Hierarchy. The first time, you're asked for a Hierarchy name — "Corporate" is fine.
2. Click Add Level and type a name (the code fills itself in). New levels go to the bottom.
3. Use the up/down arrows to put them in order. The top of the list is the most senior — there's no number to type.

Part B · Departments

Your teams — Engineering, Sales, HR, and so on.

Settings › Organization › Departments

1. Click Add Department and enter a Name and Code (e.g. "Engineering" / "ENG").
2. Making a sub-team? Pick its parent department and it nests underneath.
3. Optionally pick the department's Head. The Head can be one of the approvers for payroll items such as incentives and reimbursements (Step 9). It's the same Head you see on Settings › Responsibilities (below).

Name who is responsible for each department

One list of approvers that both expense claims and payroll inputs use.

Settings › Responsibilities

1. Under Whole company, name the Finance Head and CFO — the final approvers for money.
2. Under Departments, name each department's Department Head, HR Manager and Finance Manager: click Name, pick the person and the date they took over, and save. Keep Also covers sub-departments ticked so its sub-departments without their own person use this one.
3. Under Cost centres, you can name a Finance Manager for each cost centre later, once your cost centres exist (Part 2).

Part C · Job titles

The titles people hold, like "Software Engineer" or "VP Sales".

Settings › Organization › Designations

1. Click Add Designation, enter the title and a code.
2. Pick the seniority level (from Part A) it belongs to. Many titles can share one level — VP Engineering and VP Sales both sit on "VP".

Settings › Admin › Emp. Codes

1. Open Settings › Admin › Emp. Codes. A ready-made series is already there, with a Next preview such as EMP-00001.
2. Click the pencil to change the Prefix, Separator or Digits, then Save. The Next preview shows the new format once saved.
3. Want contractors numbered differently from staff? Click Add Series, then under Employment Type → Series point each employment type at a series and click Save Assignments.

Shifts — do this first, it's required

Settings › Time & Leave › Shifts

A shift is a working-hours window, like 09:30 – 18:30. Every employee must have a shift — you pick one when you add each person, and you can't add anyone until at least one shift exists.

1. Click Add Shift. Give it a Name and Code and set the start and end time. Any break is part of the window — nothing is deducted.
2. Set Grace Minutes — how late someone can arrive before they're marked late.
3. For hours that cross midnight (e.g. 22:00 – 06:00), tick Night shift.
4. Optionally keep the shift for one Office Location or Department — then it can only be given to people there. Leave both on "All" to use it for anyone. Click Create.

Holidays

Settings › Time & Leave › Holidays

1. Check the Holiday Year card at the top (usually January to December).
2. Click Import national holidays to preview your country's public holidays for a year and add them in one go — dates you already have are skipped. Or use Add Holiday for one at a time, or Import CSV for your own list.
3. Set each holiday's scope: all locations, one country, or one office.
4. Optional holidays (festivals people choose from): tick Optional holiday on the holiday, then under Optional Holiday Pools click New Pool and set a name, year and the Quota — how many each employee may pick. Every optional holiday of that year (and that office, if the pool has one) belongs to the pool automatically. Tick Require approval if picks should be approved (this needs an active Optional Holiday workflow).

Leave types

Settings › Time & Leave › Leave Types

1. Set the Leave Year at the top (India usually April to March).
2. Quickest start: click Add recommended to create the standard set (Earned, Casual, Sick, Maternity, Paternity…), then edit the quotas.
3. To add one yourself, click Add Leave Type and pick the kind of leave first — it fills in sensible rules. Earned, Casual and Sick are prorated for people who join mid-year; Maternity, Paternity and similar give the full quota. Then set the Annual Quota (days).
4. Decide During probation: Accrues and can be taken, Accrues, but cannot be taken yet, or Does not accrue at all. For prorated leave you can also set a lower Quota while on probation. Decide During notice period too.
5. Finish with the switches — Carry Forward, Encashable, Paid Leave — and save. (Every leave request goes to approval.)
6. When your types are ready and your people are added, click Initialize balances to give everyone this year's balance.

Attendance policies — late, half-day, absent, and overtime

Settings › Time & Leave › Attendance

The shift says when people work; the policy says what the rules are. Start with one policy for the whole company and add others for a location, department or shift only if they differ.

1. Click Add Policy and give it a Policy Name and Policy Code.
2. Fill only the rules you want — a blank rule is switched off, except Grace period, which can't be blank (enter 0 to use each shift's own grace). Arrival: Grace period (min), Half-day if later than (min), Half-day if leaving early (min). Hours: Full-day hours and Absent if worked under (min). Late marks per absent turns repeated lateness into an absence.
3. Choose Shortfall handling: Advisory (shortfalls are shown but pay isn't cut) or Enforced (loss of pay — or Deduct leave, then loss of pay).
4. Pick Mobile Check-in — Restricted (only people mapped to a site, inside its fence), Audit (record where people check in from, refuse nobody) or Open (anyone, from anywhere). New policies start Restricted. See Mobile Check-in below.
5. Set Applies to — Organization-wide, or one location, department or shift — and save.

Mobile Check-in — where people may check in from their phone

Settings › Company › Mobile Check-in

1. Click Add Site. Give it a Site Code and Site Name, find the place (search an address or paste a Google Maps link) and set the Fence Radius (m) — how far from the pin a check-in still counts.
2. On the site, use the … allowed to check in here link to choose who may mark attendance there.
3. For people who genuinely work anywhere, use Allow someone to check in from anywhere.

Rest-Day Work — what someone gets for working a week off or holiday

Settings › Time & Leave › Rest-Day Work

1. Each attendance policy is a row. Click Configure.
2. Set Working a week off and Working a holiday separately: Not compensated (the default), Earns a comp-off, or Paid as overtime.
3. If you choose comp-off, pick which comp-off leave type to credit (create one under Leave Types first).

Expense categories

Settings › Expense › Categories

1. Click Add Category and enter a Category Name and Category Code — Travel, Meals, Supplies.
2. Optionally set a Monthly Limit and Annual Limit (in your company currency).
3. Tick Requires Receipt to make people attach a bill, then save. Every claim goes through the approval levels you set below, whatever the category.

Expense approval levels

Settings › Expense › Approval

1. Under Approval Levels there are five levels in order: Reporting Manager, HR Manager, Finance Manager, Finance Head and CFO. Switch on the ones you use (Active) and give each an amount range — e.g. Reporting Manager for any amount, Finance Head from 25,000. Click Save Levels.
2. This page sets the amount bands only. The people who approve are named on Settings › Responsibilities (Step 5) — the Open Responsibilities button under Approvers takes you there.

Statutory — PF, ESI and Professional Tax

Settings › Finance › Statutory

1. Provident Fund tab: click Add config, pick the country, and check the employee and employer rates, wage ceiling and start date. For India the usual figures are suggested for you — your company decides the final ones. Save.
2. ESI tab: the same — Add config, review the suggested rates and wage ceiling, save.
3. Professional Tax tab: nothing to set up for most states — Verdeshell keeps each state's rates up to date (see the reference table at the bottom) and uses each employee's work location. Use Add registration to record your PT registration number for each state; it prints on the Professional Tax report. Use Add slab only for a state that's missing, or for Tamil Nadu offices outside Greater Chennai.

Payroll Inputs Approval — who approves incentives, bonuses, reimbursements and deductions

Settings › Finance › Payroll Inputs Approval

"Payroll inputs" are the one-off amounts added to a month's pay: Incentive, Bonus, Variable pay, Reimbursement and Deduction. Every approval level starts switched off. With none on, one Finance or HR Admin approves each item — never the person who entered it.

1. Who can enter: click Add to map HR Managers and HR Executives to the departments, cost centres or whole company they handle. Until they're mapped they can't enter anything. HR Admins, Finance and the owner can always enter for everyone.
2. Approval levels: open each type's tab, switch on the levels you want (Reporting Manager, Department Head, HR Manager, Finance Manager, Finance Head, CFO) with an optional amount range, and click Save … levels.
3. Approvers: there's no separate list here any more. The same people named on Settings › Responsibilities (Step 5) approve both payroll inputs and expense claims. The Department Head (named there, or on each department) approves payroll inputs only.

Settings › Admin › Roles

1. Open Settings › Admin › Roles to see every role — ready-made ones such as HR Admin, HR Manager, Manager, Finance Approver, Payroll Admin and more.
2. Click View Permissions to see exactly what a role allows and how far each part reaches: Self, Direct Reports, All Reports, Department or Organization.

Send email from your own address

Settings › Admin › Email

Out of the box, emails (invites, payslip notices, reminders) come from Verdeshell — that works fine. To send from your own domain instead:

1. Pick your email provider (Brevo, SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, Resend, AWS SES, Microsoft Graph or Google Workspace) and paste the key it gives you.
2. Set the From email and name, click Save Configuration, then Send Test Email to check it works.
3. Changed your mind? Revert to Platform Default switches back at any time.

Notification preferences — each person chooses

System › Notif. Preferences

Every user can turn Push Notifications (mobile app) and Email Notifications on or off, and switch individual events on or off, then click Save Preferences. It only changes what they receive.