Built a Payroll UI for the Frappe Community – Looking for Feedback

Frappe HR
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Built a Payroll UI for the Frappe Community – Looking for Feedback

Hi everyone :waving_hand:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a project called PayrollOS Community, and I wanted to share it with the Frappe community to get your feedback.

The idea is simple: instead of building another payroll engine, PayrollOS Community sits on top of the existing Frappe HR/HRMS payroll engine and provides a cleaner, more focused payroll experience.

It continues to use the standard HRMS doctypes such as:

  • Employee

  • Salary Structure

  • Salary Structure Assignment

  • Salary Components

  • Payroll Entry

  • Salary Slip

So there is no vendor lock-in, and your payroll data remains fully compatible with the Frappe ecosystem.

Why I built it

Many organizations don’t need the entire ERP interface just to process payroll. They need a dedicated workspace where HR and payroll teams can:

  • Run payroll

  • Manage salary structures

  • Generate payslips

  • Track payroll runs

  • Work with a modern, focused interface

That was the motivation behind PayrollOS Community.

Community First

PayrollOS Community is completely open source and self-hostable.

The goal is to give the Frappe community a better payroll experience while continuing to rely on the stability of the existing HRMS payroll engine instead of replacing it.

Future Plans

I’m also working on an optional Pro edition for organizations that need features such as:

  • Statutory compliance (PF, ESI, PT, TDS, Form 16)

  • Hiring & onboarding

  • Attendance & leave

  • Expense reimbursements

  • Payroll operations

  • Analytics

  • AI-powered payroll assistant

  • Integrations

The Community edition will always remain open source.

I’d love your feedback

I’d really appreciate feedback from the Frappe community on:

  • Does this solve a real problem?

  • What payroll features are currently missing in your workflow?

  • Which features would you expect in the Community edition?

  • What would make this more useful for ERPNext/Frappe HR users?

GitHub Repository:
https://github.com/amet123/payrollos-community

Thank you for taking the time to have a look. I’m looking forward to your suggestions and contributions from the community.

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Hi there. Looks interesting. One thing that caught my eye is that Attendance, Leave, Employee Loans, and Holiday Calendar all seem to require the “Pro” version.

These are base features of Frappe’s HRMS. Are you saying that the Community version of this app locks base HRMS features behind a paywall?

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Thanks for pointing that out—that’s a fair question.

To clarify, we’re not locking any core Frappe HRMS features behind a paywall. Attendance, Leave, Employee Loans, Holiday Calendar, and the rest of the standard HRMS functionality remain available in the official Frappe HRMS project exactly as they always have been.

The Community edition of our project focuses on providing a simplified, payroll-focused interface and workflow. The “Pro” edition includes additional capabilities such as enhanced UI, automation, AI-assisted workflows, advanced reporting, and other productivity features that are built on top of HRMS.

If the current feature comparison gives the impression that core HRMS functionality is being restricted, that’s on us—we’ll update the wording to make it clearer. Thanks for highlighting the confusion.

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It still doesn’t sit right. It’s great that you’v written a UI, but half that UI is for material and logic that somebody else wrote. It doesn’t sit right or fit with the intentions of the GPL.

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My intention isn’t to take credit for the excellent work already done in ERPNext/Frappe HR or to replace it. PayrollOS Community deliberately relies on the standard HRMS payroll engine and doctypes because I believe that engine is mature, reliable, and well-tested.

The value I’m trying to contribute is in the user experience and workflow. Similar to how many open-source projects build alternative frontends or specialized interfaces on top of existing platforms, PayrollOS focuses on making payroll operations simpler and more streamlined while keeping all data in the standard Frappe HR models.

The Community edition is open source, and I’m happy to accept contributions, suggestions, or even rethink the direction if the community feels there are better ways to add value.

My goal is to strengthen the Frappe ecosystem, not fragment it or claim ownership of functionality that already exists.