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Mobile app · Web portal · WhatsApp — one employee record

Mobile HR
for African Teams.
Even With No Signal.

A mobile app that keeps working when the signal drops. A web portal for anyone at a computer. WhatsApp for the payslip your driver actually opens. Three channels, one source of truth — built for how Africa really works.

Works offline Under 2 MB / month 6 languages
9:41
3G · 67%
May payslip
KES 142,500
Net · Tap to download PDF
Leave
12d left
Clock-in
In
Why most ESS apps fail in Africa

Built for boardrooms, not for the people who actually need them.

Not everyone has a smartphone

Security guards, drivers, factory floor staff, casuals. An app-only system leaves them out, so attendance has to work another way: a fingerprint device at the site, or a supervisor recording it for them.

The app needs constant internet

Field staff lose signal. The app crashes. They give up and start phoning HR for everything again. You've paid for software nobody uses.

It chews data

A 50 MB ESS app on a 1 GB monthly bundle is not a feature, it's a tax. Employees disable it after one month.

Payslips printed and hand-delivered

Once a month, HR prints 800 payslips, sorts them by branch, and hands them to a driver. Some get lost. Some get opened by the wrong person.

The three-channel strategy

Reach employees where they already are.

One employee record, three ways to reach it — pick what fits each person.

Smartphone app

iOS & Android · 17 MB · offline-capable

  • Full payslip viewer with PDF download
  • Apply & track leave, see balance
  • GPS-verified clock-in / clock-out
  • Submit timesheets & expense claims
  • Push notifications for approvals
  • Fingerprint or face unlock to open the app
Best for: field staff, supervisors, office staff

Web self-service portal

Any browser · no install · same record

  • View and download payslips
  • Apply for leave and see the balance
  • Web check-in for desk staff
  • Submit timesheets & expense claims
  • Update personal details, with HR approval where needed
  • Works on a phone browser too
Best for: desk staff, and anyone using a shared computer

WhatsApp delivery

Payslips · letters · alerts

  • Monthly payslip auto-delivered as PDF
  • Employment letter on request (reply "letter")
  • Payday confirmation alerts
  • Employee asks "balance" → auto-reply
  • Loan repayment reminders
  • Distribution that actually reaches everyone
Best for: 90% of employees — they all already have it

Running technicians, guards or sales reps across many sites? The same app handles GPS field workforce tracking: geofence clock-in, site start and end times, and route history.

Works offline

No signal? The app keeps working.

Field staff lose signal at rural sites, on the road and in basements. The app saves what they do on the phone and sends it when the network comes back, so nobody has to remember to do it again later.

  • GPS clock-ins, timesheets, expense claims and leave requests are saved on the phone.
  • Syncs by itself when the phone finds a network — no duplicates, nothing lost.
  • Mobile-network agnostic — Safaricom, Airtel, MTN, Orange, etc.
  • WiFi-only sync option for staff on small data bundles.
14:07 No network
3 items saved on this phone
Clock-in
08:02 · GPS saved
Waiting
Timesheet
8 hours · Tuesday
Waiting
Expense claim
Receipt photo attached
Waiting
Sends automatically when the network returns
SH
SmartHR
verified business
SmartHR · 9:42 AM
Hi Mary, your May 2026 payslip is ready 📄
PDF
Mary-K-payslip-may-2026.pdf
147 KB
balance
You have 12 leave days remaining for 2026. 🌴
WhatsApp business integration

The most reliable distribution channel in Africa.

90%+ of African employees use WhatsApp daily. They check it before email, before SMS, before the company portal. So that's where we put the payslip.

  • Payslips delivered automatically each payday — no app required.
  • Employees reply "balance", "leave", "letter" — auto-replies use the same data as the app.
  • Verified business profile — employees know it's really HR.
  • Privacy: only the employee's registered number receives their data.

Built for African phones, networks, and employees.

Three things most ESS apps overlook: data cost, language, and what to do when the phone is lost.

Light on mobile data

  • ~17 MB initial install
  • 1-2 MB per active employee/month
  • Compresses photos before sync
  • WiFi-only sync option

Six languages built in

English
Français
Português
العربية
Kiswahili
አማርኛ

Add more in 1-2 weeks at no charge.

Lost phone? No problem.

  • No PII stored after logout
  • Force-logout from admin panel
  • Fingerprint or face unlock to open the app
  • Encrypted local storage

Common questions about mobile ESS

Don't see yours? Ask the team →

Yes. The mobile app captures everything offline — timesheets, expense claims, leave requests, GPS clock-ins — and syncs the moment the device is back online. Critical for field staff in rural areas, on travel, or in low-coverage sites.
They can sign in to the web self-service portal from any browser, for example on a shared computer at the office or site. For attendance, they can clock in on a fingerprint device at the site, or a supervisor or HR can record attendance for them.
Yes. Each payroll run can deliver payslips automatically as PDFs to employees' WhatsApp numbers. WhatsApp has 90%+ penetration across most African countries — it's the most reliable distribution channel. Employees can also request a re-send by replying.
Designed for African data costs. The app uses around 1-2 MB per typical month for an active employee. Initial install is around 17 MB. Image-heavy actions (e.g. expense receipt photos) are compressed before sync.
English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, and Amharic out of the box. Each employee picks their preferred language; payslips, leave forms, and notifications all respect that setting.
Configurable per role and per location. Office staff usually don't need it. Field staff, drivers, security guards, and site workers typically do. The app verifies the employee is within a configurable radius of an approved site before allowing clock-in.
No PII is stored on the device after logout. Active sessions use encrypted local storage. Lost or stolen devices can be force-logged out from the admin panel. Fingerprint or face unlock can be used to open the app on phones that have it.
Yes — for fields HR allows employees to manage themselves (next of kin, emergency contact, address). Fields like salary, role, or bank account require HR approval before they take effect, with a full audit trail.

See it on a real phone.

Book a 30-minute demo. We'll show you the app working with no signal, the web portal, and send a test payslip to your WhatsApp.