WorkNest - Laravel HRM, Payroll, Attendance, Leave & Loan Management System

1Overview

WorkNest is a modern, role-driven HRM platform built for organizations that need a complete employee lifecycle solution from hiring to exit, with payroll, attendance, leave, finance, engagement, and reporting modules in one Laravel application.

👥 Employee Lifecycle

Manage employees, profiles, departments, designations, branches, teams, documents, contracts, onboarding, offboarding, and final settlements.

💰 Payroll & Loans

Run payroll, generate payslips, manage salary structures, bonuses, reimbursements, advance salary, employee loans, EMI schedules, tax declarations, and payroll reports.

⏱ Attendance & Leave

Track check in/out, daily attendance, corrections, shifts, rosters, attendance policies, holidays, leave requests, approvals, balances, and encashments.

2Core Features

The project includes a broad feature set suitable for CodeCanyon HRM buyers, HR teams, managers, and employees.

Laravel Fortify authentication with 2FA, email verification, and password reset
Admin, HR Manager, Manager, and Employee self-service portal support
Permission-gated modules powered by Spatie Laravel Permission
Employee management with profile, salary, documents, skills, education, experience, notes, and emergency contacts
Departments, designations, branches, job grades, teams, and organization chart
Attendance check in/out, daily attendance, correction requests, shifts, rosters, and comp-off ledger
Leave requests, leave approvals, calendar, balances, policies, leave types, and encashment workflow
Payroll engine with salary components, payroll runs, payslips, taxes, PF/ESI/gratuity style settings, and reports
Loan types, employee loans, L1/L2 approval, disbursement, EMI schedule, and payroll repayment
Advance salary, bonuses, reimbursements, tax declarations, and money-flow reports
Recruitment with requisitions, job posts, candidates, applications, interviews, offers, and public career page
Performance management with KPIs, goals, review cycles, 360 feedback, probation, promotion, and PIP
Assets, training, benefits, meetings, helpdesk tickets, documents, HR records, and reports hub
Global search, quick create, notification bell, sidebar badges, demo mode, and seedable demo data

3HRM Workflow

WorkNest connects the most important HR operations into one continuous workflow.

Recruitment→ Onboarding→ Employee Profile→ Attendance→ Leave→ Payroll→ Loan / Bonus→ Performance→ Reports→ Offboarding

4Module Catalog

Below is a compact module map included in the WorkNest HRM project.

Dashboards

My Dashboard, Overview, HR Command Center, Attendance Overview, Payroll Overview.

People & Organization

Employees, employee profiles, departments, designations, branches, job grades, teams, document master, org chart.

Attendance & Time

Check in/out, daily attendance, attendance requests, corrections, shifts, rosters, policies, holidays, reports, comp-off.

Leave Management

My leaves, all leaves, approvals, leave calendar, leave types, policies, balances, encashments.

Payroll & Finance

Pay periods, payroll runs, payslips, salary components, salary structures, payroll profiles, statutory settings, reports.

Loans, Bonus & Claims

Loan types, employee loans, EMI schedule, repayments, advance salary, bonuses, reimbursements, tax declarations.

Recruitment

Requisitions, job posts, candidates, applications, pipeline, interviews, offer letters, public career page.

Performance

Indicators, KPIs, review cycles, goals, reviews, 360 feedback, probation reviews, promotions, PIP.

Training & Assets

Training categories, providers, courses, sessions, requests, enrollments, assets, vendors, requests, allocations, maintenance.

Documents & Meetings

Policies, letter templates, issued letters, document requests, contracts, meeting rooms, meetings, minutes, action items.

Engagement & Helpdesk

Kudos, pulse surveys, suggestions, knowledge base, polls, announcements, ticket categories, priorities, SLA tracking.

Reports, Settings & Logs

Reports hub, CSV exports, notification center, settings, roles, permissions, activity logs, login logs, audit pruning.

5Server Requirements

Before installation, make sure your server supports the required PHP extensions and Laravel environment.

Requirement	Recommended
PHP	PHP 8.3 or higher recommended for Laravel 13
Database	MySQL 8+ or MariaDB compatible version
Web Server	Apache / Nginx with rewrite enabled
PHP Extensions	BCMath, Ctype, Fileinfo, JSON, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PDO, Tokenizer, XML, GD/Imagick, Zip
Composer	Composer 2+
Node.js	Node 22 recommended for Vite asset build

6Installation Guide

Follow these general Laravel installation steps after uploading the project files to your hosting or local server.

composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --seed
npm install
npm run build
php artisan storage:link
php artisan optimize:clear

Tip: For shared hosting, upload the project outside public_html when possible and point the domain document root to the public folder.

Important: Configure database credentials, app URL, mail settings, filesystem, queue, and demo mode values in .env before running the application in production.

7Configuration

After installation, configure the most important settings from the admin panel and .env file.

Application

Set APP_NAME, APP_URL, timezone, locale, cache/session drivers, and environment mode.

Database

Set database host, database name, username, password, and run migrations with seeders.

Mail

Configure SMTP mail values for password reset, notifications, recruitment, meetings, and reminders.

Branding

Upload company logo, login message, company name, address, and notification settings from the settings area.

Scheduler

Enable Laravel scheduler for leave accrual, ticket SLA checks, meeting reminders, loan EMI reminders, and reports.

Permissions

Run permission seeders and assign roles to admin, HR manager, managers, and employees.

8Roles & Permissions

WorkNest uses granular permissions so every module and action can be controlled per role or user.

Role	Purpose
Super Admin	Full system access, settings, roles, permissions, reports, all HR operations, and admin-level configuration.
HR Manager	HR operations, employees, attendance, leaves, payroll, recruitment, onboarding, performance, reports, and approvals.
Manager	Team-level visibility, approvals, attendance/leave oversight, tasks, meetings, performance, and reports based on permissions.
Employee	Self-service access to profile, attendance, leaves, payslips, requests, tickets, training, benefits, kudos, and feedback.

The permission registry includes module groups for dashboards, reports, employees, attendance, leave, payroll, recruitment, performance, assets, training, documents, helpdesk, benefits, engagement, HR records, settings, logs, and more.

9Demo Mode & Seed Data

WorkNest includes demo-friendly features to present the product safely to CodeCanyon buyers.

Demo mode toggle through DEMO_MODE=true
Sticky demo banner across the application
Demo login role buttons for Admin, HR Manager, and Employee
Write-blocker middleware to prevent destructive actions in public demo
Demo reset artisan command for restoring demo data
Seeders and factories for rich HRM sample data

php artisan demo:reset --fresh --force

10Support & Customization

For installation, configuration, bug fixing, and customization requests, contact the author through the official marketplace support channel.

Support Includes

Installation guidance, bug fixes, configuration help, documentation clarification, and product usage guidance.

Customization

New modules, UI changes, business workflow changes, payment gateway integration, reports, and third-party API integration can be handled as paid customization.

Recommended after upload: Set correct file permissions for storage and bootstrap/cache, configure cron job, and test login, payroll, attendance, leave, notifications, and PDF/CSV export.