Why True HR is the payroll outsourcing company India's growing teams switch to
True HR runs payroll, statutory compliance, hiring, lawyer-reviewed policies and global Employer of Record cover as one accountable team, founded by leaders from ADP, Workday and PwC. Salaries credit on the 1st. PF (Provident Fund), ESI (Employee State Insurance) and TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) file before due dates. One named owner answers for all of it.
True HR in numbers
Five figures carry the case, and each one comes up again further down this page.
6
Service lines
Under one roof, with one accountable team
5%
Hiring fee
Flat, of CTC (Cost to Company) per closed position
91%
Hiring match
Internal matching effectiveness on our AI-enabled hiring engine
180+
Countries
Covered through Employer of Record
9
Offices
Bangalore to Florida
Built by people who have run payroll at scale
True HR was founded by leaders who ran payroll and HR operations at ADP, Workday and PwC: the platforms and firms that process salaries for some of the largest employers in the world. They saw the same gap from the inside, month after month. Enterprise-grade payroll discipline existed, but growing Indian companies could not buy it. They got a patchwork instead: a vendor here, a CA (Chartered Accountant) there, software that computes but never answers.
So they built the company they kept wishing existed: one team that brings that global process discipline to companies that cannot afford to get people's money wrong. That is the whole founding idea. Salaries credited on the 1st. PF, ESI and TDS filed before due dates.
Before and after
Five vendors become one team
The patchwork is five separate parties, each sending its own invoice; True HR replaces all five with one team that owns the outcome.
BeforeFive parties, five invoices
- Invoice 1
Payroll vendor
Runs payroll
- Invoice 2
PF and ESI consultant
Files PF and ESI
- Invoice 3
CA for TDS
Files TDS
- Invoice 4
Hiring agency
Hires
- Invoice 5
Lawyer
Drafts
AfterOne accountable team
One True HR team
One team computes, files and answers for it.
- One named owner
- One retainer
What you get
Ten strengths, one accountable team
From HRMS (Human Resource Management System) tooling to litigation support, each strength below is part of the retainer, not an upsell. Together they cover everything a people function touches.
Strength 01
Deep labour law expertise
Complex Indian labour law handled across multi-state operations with practical, implementation-first guidance. Registers, returns, inspections and audit readiness, not just salary processing.
Strength 02
Policy and documentation excellence
Employee handbooks aligned with Indian labour laws and business needs. Every offer letter, appointment letter, HR communication and disciplinary draft is reviewed by lawyers specialising in labour law.
Strength 03
Litigation and dispute support
Advisory for labour disputes, notices, conciliation preparation, documentation strategy and case readiness, with court and tribunal appearance available through empanelled experts where required.
Strength 04
Background verification
Third-party background checks through an in-house team with structured verification workflows and documented outcomes.
Strength 05
Technology-led operations
Advanced HRMS tooling with global process discipline from team experience at ADP and international payroll companies. Data privacy controls with role-based access, confidentiality protocols and audit trails.
Strength 06
People ops automation
Automated tracking of work anniversaries, increment due dates, rewards and recognition, gifting workflows and birthdays.
Strength 07
AI-enabled hiring engine
A proprietary, AI-enabled hiring engine with 91% internal matching effectiveness, measured on conversion quality and speed, running on a full Applicant Tracking System from sourcing to selection reporting.
Strength 08
Global EOR reach
Employer of Record coverage and complete employee management across 180+ countries.
Strength 09
Strategic HR consulting
Business-aligned HR strategy, organisational design support, compensation benchmarking and workforce planning advisory.
Strength 10
Dedicated account management
A single point of contact for all HR needs with committed response times, proactive compliance alerts and regular business reviews.
How it fits together
Six service lines, one stack
Those strengths reach you through six service lines that sit on one team; pick a layer to open its service page.
- 01Hiring at 5% of CTC91% internal matching effectiveness
- 02Payroll processingSalary registers, bank advice, digital payslips
- 03Statutory complianceFiled before due dates, every cycle
- 04Employee lifecycleOne file per employee, always current
- 05HR policies and advisoryEvery letter reviewed by labour law lawyers
- 06Global EOR, 180+ countriesHire wherever the talent is
The monthly cycle
Your month, on rails
Six dates, the same every month, from input freeze to management reports.
- Day 20 to 25Inputs freeze
- Day 26 to 28Process and validate
- Day 1Salaries credited
- By Day 7TDS deposited
- By Day 15PF and ESI filed
- By Day 20Management reports
Why the dates matter
What late costs
Miss a PF due date and the amount starts to grow: interest at 12% a year, plus damages that step up the longer the default runs.
12%a year
Simple interest on any amount due, from the due date until payment.
0.25%a month
of the arrears
Period of default: Less than two months
0.5%a month
of the arrears
Period of default: More than two months and less than four months
1%a month
of the arrears
Period of default: More than four months
The cap. Total damages cannot exceed the arrears themselves, and they are assessed after a hearing.
The honest comparison
What each path actually gets you
Three ways to run the people function: build it in-house around a CA and local vendors, buy software and run it yourself, or hand it to one team. Hiring fees as a share of CTC (Cost to Company) and ATS (Applicant Tracking System) coverage included, so you can compare like for like.
| What you need | In-house + local vendors | HR software alone | True HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-state labour law depth | Partly:Depends on one hire's experience | No:Not included, self-serve | Yes:Specialist team plus empanelled labour law advocates |
| Lawyer-reviewed letters and policies | Partly:Billed per document, if at all | No:Generic templates | Yes:Every letter reviewed, included in the retainer |
| Payroll with filings, owned end to end | Partly:Split across CA, vendor and HR | Partly:You run it, you own the errors | Yes:One team computes, files and answers for it |
| Hiring | Partly:Agencies at one month's salary, 8.33% of CTC | No:Job boards and your bandwidth | Yes:Flat 5% of CTC on our own ATS, 91% matching |
| Hiring beyond India | Partly:Country-by-country setup | No:Not covered | Yes:EOR across 180+ countries |
| Named owner with committed response times | No:Nobody owns the whole | No:Ticket queue | Yes:Dedicated account manager and business reviews |
| Predictable monthly cost | No:Salaries plus five separate invoices | Partly:Licence plus your team's time | Yes:One slab-wise retainer, known in advance |
Usually at or below the cost of the patchwork it replaces. With one owner instead of five.
The hiring row, drawn to scale
A flat 5% against the 8.33% agency norm
An agency charging one month's CTC takes 8.33% of annual CTC; True HR charges a flat 5% per closed position.
Fee per closed position
As a share of the role's annual CTC
Typical agency
One month's CTC per closed position
8.33%
True HR
Flat fee per closed position
5%
Hatched: the 3.33 percentage points an agency charges above 5%.
Worked example: one ₹12,00,000 CTC role
The same closed position, two invoices
- Agency at 8.33%
- ₹1,00,000
- True HR at 5%
- ₹60,000
- Difference per hire
- ₹40,000
Fees exclusive of GST.
The switch
Switching is the easy part
Four weeks from kickoff to your first cycle credited on the 1st. We carry the migration; your total effort is a few hours of access, one review call and approvals.
- Week 1
Discover and migrate
Employee masters, CTC structures, leave balances and registrations collected and mapped.
Your effort: Share access and documents.
- Week 2
Parallel run
We recompute your last payroll and reconcile it against what was actually paid, to the paisa.
Your effort: One review call.
- Week 3
Statutory handover
Filings, challans, registers and any pending notices taken over, with gaps flagged and a closure plan agreed.
Your effort: Authorisations and sign-offs.
- Week 4
Go live
First cycle credited on the 1st, payslips out, MIS pack delivered.
Your effort: Approve the run.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just HR software?
Software computes; it does not answer for the result. When a challan bounces, a notice arrives or a state changes its PT slab, a licence cannot respond. True HR gives you the tooling and a team that files, reconciles and owns the outcome, with lawyer-reviewed documents included rather than generic templates.
Who owns mistakes?
We do. If an error originates in our processing, we correct it, file the revision and absorb the rework. You get one named account manager with committed response times, so there is never a gap where a vendor, a CA and your HR team point at each other.
What happens to our existing vendors?
We take over their scope in a planned handover during the four-week switch. Filings, challans, registers and pending notices move to us with gaps flagged and a closure plan agreed. If you want to retain a vendor for a specific function, we coordinate with them and still own the calendar.
How fast can we go live?
Four weeks from kickoff to your first cycle credited on the 1st. Week 1 is discovery and migration, week 2 is a parallel run reconciled to the paisa, week 3 is statutory handover, and week 4 is go-live. Your total effort across the switch is a few hours of access, one review call and approvals.
Ready to stop worrying about people's money?
Book a 30-minute scoping call. We will map your headcount, states and current setup, and send a firm, slab-wise quote within two working days.
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