Zoho People Partner for HRMS Implementation, Migration and Support
Datahikes is a Zoho Consulting Partner headquartered in Perungudi, Chennai, delivering Zoho People implementations, HRMS migrations and long-term support for organisations across India, the UAE, the United States and more than twenty other countries. If you are moving off spreadsheets, replacing a legacy HRMS, or trying to get an existing Zoho People account to actually match your leave policy, this page covers the method, the timeline, the cost drivers and the decisions involved.
Every scoping call on this page is taken by Sam or Jay, both founding members of Datahikes. You will not be routed to a sales development representative.
Zoho Consulting Partner
Chennai, India
Zoho People go-lives delivered across 20+ countries
Scoping calls taken by founders
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How to Migrate to Zoho People: The Complete 2026 Method
This is the method we run on client engagements. It is published in full so you can evaluate whether you want to run it yourself or have us run it. For a team under twenty-five employees with clean data, following these steps directly is realistic. Above that, or with any history to preserve, the reconciliation work is where self-migrations usually fail.
Step1
Export and Inventory Your Existing HR Data
Pull everything out of the source system before you touch Zoho People. At minimum you need the employee master, employment history including designation and department changes, leave balances as of a fixed cut-off date, leave transaction history, attendance records, salary structure references, reporting hierarchy, and document attachments. Export to CSV or XLSX with headers intact.
Record the exact date and time of the export, because this becomes your cut-off and every later reconciliation is measured against it. Freeze changes in the source system from this moment, or accept that you will have a delta to reconcile.
Step2
Clean the Data Before It Touches Zoho People
This step consumes more time than any other and it is the one most self-migrations skip. Work through it in order. Deduplicate on employee ID and official email, not on name. Normalise every date to a single format, because mixed DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY in one column will silently corrupt joining dates and every service-period calculation downstream.
Standardise department, designation and location values to a controlled list, because "Sales", "sales" and "Sales Dept" will become three separate values in Zoho People. Resolve every employee whose reporting manager is missing, has left the company, or points at themselves. Confirm every email address is unique and deliverable, because Zoho People uses email as the login identity and a duplicate will block the import.
Flag every record with a blank joining date, a blank date of birth or a blank employment type, and get a decision on each one rather than importing a blank.
Step3
Map Fields to Zoho People Modules
Build a mapping sheet with four columns: source field, source sample value, Zoho People module and field, and transformation rule. Do this before configuring anything. The mapping sheet is the artefact that makes the migration auditable and it is the document your HR head signs off on.
Employee master maps to the Employee form. Leave balances map to the Leave module's opening balance import, which is separate from leave history. Attendance maps to the Attendance module and needs a decision on how much history you are carrying forward, because full history from a large workforce is a substantial volume. Appraisal records map to the Performance module and often need a custom form if your old system's rating scale does not match.
Anything that has no destination goes into a custom field, and every custom field you create is a maintenance cost, so create them deliberately.
Step4
Configure Before You Import
Set up the organisation structure, departments, designations, locations, employment types, leave types with their accrual and carry-forward rules, shift definitions and holiday calendars first. Importing employee records into an unconfigured account creates orphaned values that then have to be corrected record by record.
Configure roles and permissions at this stage too, because the permission model determines what your import user can write.
Step5
Run a Sample Import of 20 Records
Pick twenty records that between them cover every edge case you have: a recent joiner, a long-tenured employee, someone who changed department, someone on probation, a contractor, someone with a leave balance carried forward, someone with a missing field you decided to leave blank.
Import those twenty. Then open each one in Zoho People and check it field by field against the source. Fix the mapping, not the records. Repeat until twenty out of twenty are correct. Only then move on.
Step6
Import in Dependency Order
Order matters because records reference each other. Import in this sequence.
Departments, designations and locations.
Employees without their reporting manager populated.
The reporting hierarchy as a second pass, which avoids the circular reference problem where a manager cannot be assigned because they have not been created yet.
Leave opening balances.
Leave history.
Attendance.
Documents.
Appraisal history.
Take a full data export from Zoho People after each stage so you have a rollback point.
Step7
Reconcile and Sign Off
Reconciliation is what separates a migration from a data dump. Check total headcount against the source. Check the sum of leave balances by leave type against the source, not just a sample. Check that every employee has a manager and that the hierarchy resolves to a single top node. Check attendance record counts by month. Run a live payroll input dry run against the previous month's known-good numbers and confirm the outputs match.
Have the HR head sign a written reconciliation statement before you switch off the old system, and keep the old system in read-only mode for at least one full payroll cycle.
Migration Readiness Checklist
Use this before you begin. You are ready when every line below is true.
The source export is complete and timestamped.
Changes in the source system are frozen, or the delta process is agreed.
Duplicates are resolved.
Dates are normalised to a single format.
Department, designation and location values are on a controlled list.
Every employee has a valid unique email address.
Every reporting manager resolves.
The field mapping sheet is signed off.
The leave policy configuration is agreed in writing, including accrual, carry-forward and encashment rules.
The cut-off date for leave balances is fixed.
The parallel run period is agreed.
The rollback plan is documented.
What Goes Wrong Most Often
In order of frequency, across the migrations we have run and remediated.
Mixed date formats corrupting joining dates and every service calculation built on them.
Leave balances imported before the leave policy is configured, so accrual overwrites the imported opening balance.
Duplicate email addresses blocking the employee import halfway through.
Reporting hierarchies with circular references or orphaned nodes.
Attendance history imported without a retention decision, creating volume that slows reporting.
Appraisal history imported into a mismatched rating scale, making historical ratings meaningless.
Do It Yourself or Hire a Zoho People Partner: An Honest Comparison
Self-migration works here
When a Small Team Can Self-Migrate
Under twenty-five employees, single entity, single location, one leave policy, no shift complexity, no biometric integration, and either no legacy system or a legacy system whose history you are willing to archive rather than migrate.
In that situation, follow the seven steps above, budget two to four working days, and you will get a working Zoho People account. Keep the old records in an archive file rather than trying to import history you do not need operationally.
What changes with a partner
What a Partner Does Differently
A partner is not doing the same work faster. The difference is in what gets decided rather than what gets typed. A partner designs the leave policy configuration so that accrual, carry-forward, pro-rata joining and encashment behave correctly at year end rather than looking correct on day one.
A partner builds the reconciliation controls that prove the migration was accurate, which is the artefact your auditor and your CFO will ask for. A partner knows which Zoho People behaviours cannot be changed later without a rebuild, particularly around organisation structure, employment types and the permission model. And a partner owns the outcome after go-live, which means the first payroll cycle after the switch is somebody's contractual responsibility.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Self-migration compared with Datahikes as your Zoho People Partner
Factor
Self-migration
Datahikes as Zoho People Partner
Suitable size
Under 25 employees, single entity
Any size, multi-entity, multi-country
Time to go-live
2 to 4 days if data is clean
2 to 10 weeks depending on scope
Leave policy design
Configured as understood
Designed and tested against year-end behaviour
Data reconciliation
Spot checks
Full reconciliation with written sign-off
Payroll integration
Manual setup
Configured and dry-run against known-good numbers
Custom workflows
Out-of-the-box only
Deluge-built to your process
Biometric and device integration
Not covered
Configured and tested
Historical data
Usually archived
Migrated and reconciled
First payroll cycle
Your risk
Supervised under hypercare
Ongoing changes
Learn as you go
AMC with a named contact
Suitable size
Self-migrationUnder 25 employees, single entity
DatahikesAny size, multi-entity, multi-country
Time to go-live
Self-migration2 to 4 days if data is clean
Datahikes2 to 10 weeks depending on scope
Leave policy design
Self-migrationConfigured as understood
DatahikesDesigned and tested against year-end behaviour
Data reconciliation
Self-migrationSpot checks
DatahikesFull reconciliation with written sign-off
Payroll integration
Self-migrationManual setup
DatahikesConfigured and dry-run against known-good numbers
Custom workflows
Self-migrationOut-of-the-box only
DatahikesDeluge-built to your process
Biometric and device integration
Self-migrationNot covered
DatahikesConfigured and tested
Historical data
Self-migrationUsually archived
DatahikesMigrated and reconciled
First payroll cycle
Self-migrationYour risk
DatahikesSupervised under hypercare
Ongoing changes
Self-migrationLearn as you go
DatahikesAMC with a named contact
How We Use AI to Compress Zoho People Migration Timelines
Datahikes runs an AI-first delivery model. That phrase gets used loosely, so here is exactly what it means on a Zoho People engagement.
AI does the high-volume, low-judgement work. Certified consultants do the decisions. The result is that the phases which used to consume the most calendar time now take a fraction of it, and the phases that require judgement get more attention rather than less.
AI-Assisted Field Mapping
Legacy HR exports arrive with hundreds of columns, inconsistent naming and no documentation. We use large language models to propose an initial mapping between source columns and Zoho People fields, including the transformation rule for each. A consultant then reviews every proposed mapping line by line.
The proposal is the time saving; the review is the quality control. On a typical mid-market engagement this reduces the mapping phase from several days to hours.
AI proposes the mappingConsultant approves every line
AI-Assisted Data Cleansing and Deduplication
We use AI to detect probable duplicate employee records across inconsistent name spellings, to identify date columns with mixed formats, to cluster free-text department and designation values into a proposed controlled list, and to flag records whose values are internally inconsistent, such as a joining date after a confirmation date.
Every flag is surfaced to a human for a decision. Nothing is auto-corrected.
AI flags the anomalyHuman makes the call
AI-Assisted Policy Translation
Leave policies usually arrive as a PDF written in HR language, not as configuration. We use AI to convert policy documents into a structured configuration specification: leave types, accrual frequency, accrual rate, carry-forward cap, encashment rule, probation behaviour, pro-rata joining rule.
That specification then goes back to your HR head as a plain-language document to confirm before anything is configured. This single step removes the most common cause of post-go-live rework.
AI drafts the specificationHR head confirms in writing
AI-Assisted Test Case Generation
We generate the user acceptance testing script from the configuration specification, covering every leave type, every approval path, every employment type and every edge case in the policy.
Manually written UAT scripts tend to test the happy path. Generated scripts test the combinations nobody thought of.
AI generates the combinationsConsultant runs and signs off
AI-Assisted Documentation and Training Material
Administrator runbooks, manager quick-reference guides and employee self-service instructions are drafted from the actual configuration, then reviewed and corrected by the consultant who built it. Clients get documentation that matches their system rather than generic product help.
AI drafts from live configurationBuilder reviews and corrects
What We Never Hand to AI
Employee personal data is never pasted into a public model interface.
Data cleansing runs against structured schemas and sample patterns, not against live personally identifiable information sent to a third party.
Final configuration decisions are made by named humans and recorded against their name.
Reconciliation sign-off, payroll validation and go-live approval remain human responsibilities.
AI compresses the timeline. It does not own the outcome.
What a Zoho People Partner Does and When You Actually Need One
The product
What Zoho People Is
Zoho People is a cloud human resource management system built by Zoho Corporation, a company headquartered in Chennai. It manages the full employee lifecycle in one place: employee records, onboarding, attendance, leave, shift rosters, timesheets, performance appraisals, case management and offboarding. It connects natively to Zoho Payroll for salary processing and statutory compliance, and to the wider Zoho suite including Zoho CRM, Zoho Books and Zoho Recruit.
Zoho People is sold in a free tier plus four paid editions, priced per employee per month. The editions differ mainly in what they unlock: basic HR and onboarding at the entry level, attendance and timesheets at the next tier, performance and appraisal cycles above that, and learning management, compensation and advanced analytics at the top. Exact figures are in the pricing section below.
No partner needed
When Out-Of-The-Box Setup Is Enough
Not every business needs a Zoho People Partner, and it is worth being direct about that. If you have fewer than roughly twenty-five employees, a single legal entity, one location, one leave policy, no shift complexity, no biometric device to connect, and no legacy system to migrate from, you can set Zoho People up yourself in a few days using Zoho's own documentation.
The step-by-step migration method further down this page is written for exactly that case, and you are welcome to use it without engaging us.
Partner territory
When You Need a Certified Partner
The calculation changes when any of the following is true.
You are migrating employee history out of an existing HRMS such as GreytHR, Keka, Darwinbox, BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors or an in-house system, and you need attendance, leave balances and appraisal history to survive the move.
You run multiple legal entities or operate across countries with different statutory rules.
Your leave policy has accrual rules, carry-forward caps, encashment or pro-rata joining logic that will not fit a simple configuration.
You have biometric hardware or a third-party attendance device to integrate.
You need Zoho People talking to Zoho Payroll, Zoho Books or a third-party payroll provider without manual reconciliation.
You have already implemented Zoho People, it is not working, and you need someone to diagnose the configuration rather than start over.
In each of those cases the cost of getting it wrong is measured in payroll errors and compliance exposure, not in setup hours. That is the point at which a certified Zoho People Partner pays for itself.
Zoho People Implementation Timeline: What to Expect Week by Week
Under 50 employees
Small Team Implementation
Two to three weeks
Week 1Discovery, leave and attendance policy confirmation, and configuration.
Week 2Data import, sample validation, user acceptance testing and training.
Go-liveEnd of week two, followed by a two-week hypercare period.
Typical elapsed time is two to three weeks.
50 to 500 employees
Mid-Market Implementation
Six to ten weeks
Weeks 1 and 2Discovery, process mapping and the configuration specification.
Weeks 3 and 4Configuration build and integration setup.
Week 5Data migration and reconciliation.
Week 6User acceptance testing and remediation.
Week 7Training for administrators, managers and employees.
Week 8: go-liveFollowed by thirty days of hypercare through the first full payroll cycle.
Typical elapsed time is six to ten weeks.
500+ employees
Multi-Entity and Enterprise
Three to six months
PhasingMulti-entity, multi-country implementations are phased by entity rather than run as a single cutover.
Entity oneGoes live first and becomes the reference configuration.
Subsequent entitiesFollow at two to three week intervals against that reference.
Full programme duration is typically three to six months and depends primarily on how many distinct statutory regimes and payroll providers are involved rather than on headcount.
Zoho People vs Zoho People Plus: Which Licence You Need
What Is Zoho People Plus?
Zoho People Plus is a bundled licence that packages Zoho People with six other applications under one subscription, pre-integrated.
It is not a different HRMS. Zoho People inside the bundle is the same product you would buy on its own, at its Enterprise edition. What changes is what surrounds it: recruitment, payroll, expense, intranet, chat and credential management arrive in the same subscription rather than as separate purchases you connect yourself.
Which Apps Are Included in Zoho People Plus
Seven applications are included. The edition each one arrives at matters, because two of them are not at the tier buyers assume.
Application
Edition in bundle
Covers
Zoho People
Enterprise
Core HRMS: records, onboarding, leave, attendance, shifts, timesheets, performance, learning management and case management
Zoho Recruit
Enterprise
Applicant tracking, requisitions, career site, assessments, and handing a hired candidate off to People onboarding
Zoho Payroll
PremiumIndia only
Indian statutory payroll: provident fund, employee state insurance, professional tax, tax deducted at source with Form 16, and gratuity
Zoho Expense
Standard
Travel and expense claims, receipt scanning, approval workflows and reimbursement
Zoho Connect
Enterprise
Intranet and internal social network: announcements, groups, forums and knowledge base
Zoho Cliq
FreeNot a paid tier
Team chat and channels
Zoho Vault
Standard
Shared credential management, relevant to onboarding and offboarding access control
Zoho PeopleEnterprise
CoversCore HRMS: records, onboarding, leave, attendance, shifts, timesheets, performance, learning management and case management
Zoho RecruitEnterprise
CoversApplicant tracking, requisitions, career site, assessments, and handing a hired candidate off to People onboarding
Zoho PayrollPremium
India onlyIndian statutory payroll: provident fund, employee state insurance, professional tax, tax deducted at source with Form 16, and gratuity
Zoho ExpenseStandard
CoversTravel and expense claims, receipt scanning, approval workflows and reimbursement
Zoho ConnectEnterprise
CoversIntranet and internal social network: announcements, groups, forums and knowledge base
Zoho CliqFree
Free edition, not a paid tierTeam chat and channels
Zoho VaultStandard
CoversShared credential management, relevant to onboarding and offboarding access control
Payroll in the bundle is India only
Buyers outside India get the other six applications and need a local payroll answer separately, either through a regional Zoho Payroll edition where one exists or a third-party provider.
Cliq is included at the Free edition
Zoho Cliq arrives on the free plan, not a paid tier. Anything beyond the free plan's limits costs extra on top of the bundle price.
Zoho People vs Zoho People Plus: The Difference
The HRMS itself is identical. Only the applications around it change.
This is the point most comparisons get wrong. Buying People Plus does not give you a more capable HRMS, more configuration options, or features Zoho People lacks. Zoho People at Enterprise edition is Zoho People at Enterprise edition whether you buy it alone or inside the bundle. The leave engine, attendance rules, appraisal cycles and permission model are the same.
What you are buying with People Plus is six adjacent applications and the integration between them, in one subscription and one contract. So the question is never which product is better at HR. It is whether you will use the other six.
When Zoho People Plus Is Worth It
Count how many of the seven applications you will genuinely use within twelve months. Not which ones sound useful: which ones you will actually roll out.
1 to 2
Buy Zoho People
Buy Zoho People on its own and add whichever single application you need. The bundle is paying for capacity you will not use.
3+
Buy Zoho People Plus
At three or more, People Plus is usually cheaper and always simpler: one subscription, one renewal, one set of integrations already in place.
3+
Price Zoho One instead
If the answer is three or more and finance, sales or support also need new systems, price Zoho One before committing to People Plus.
Zoho People Plus or Zoho One?
These are not competing HR products. They are different scopes of purchase, and the right one depends on whether your requirement stops at HR.
Zoho People PlusHR, recruitment, payroll, expense, intranet, chat, credentials
Zoho OneThe full Zoho suite across every department
Apps included
Zoho PeopleOne
Zoho People PlusSeven
Zoho OneForty plus
HRMS capability
Zoho PeopleSame
Zoho People PlusSame
Zoho OneSame
Best when
Zoho PeopleHR is your only requirement
Zoho People PlusYou will use three or more of the seven
Zoho OneFinance, sales or support also need systems
Licensing
Zoho PeoplePer employee
Zoho People PlusPer employee
Zoho OnePer employee, all users on one plan
Implementation effort
Zoho PeopleSingle application
Zoho People PlusSum of the applications you switch on
Zoho OnePhased programme across departments
How We Implement Zoho People Plus
Pre-integrated is not pre-configured. The integration work is genuinely saved. The configuration effort is roughly the sum of the parts.
This is the assumption that derails People Plus rollouts. Because the applications arrive connected, buyers plan as though the bundle is a single implementation. It is not. Each application still needs its own setup, its own decisions and its own testing. What the bundle removes is the connector work between them, which is real but is not the bulk of the effort.
So we sequence the rollout rather than launching all seven at once. As a Zoho People Plus partner, this is the order we run.
Zoho People first, because every other application in the bundle reads from the employee master. A clean, reconciled employee record is the foundation everything else depends on.
Payroll next, run in parallel against a known-good cycle before the old system is switched off.
The remaining applications at two to three week intervals, each with its own configuration, testing and user training rather than a single combined go-live.
Zoho People Pricing and Implementation Cost in 2026
Zoho People Subscription Editions
Zoho People is licensed per employee per month with annual and monthly billing options and a free tier for very small teams. Paid editions step up from core HR and onboarding, to attendance and timesheets, to performance and appraisals, to learning management and advanced analytics at the top edition.
Zoho Payroll is a separate subscription where you need statutory payroll processing.
Zoho People edition
Per employee, per month
What it unlocks
Free
₹0
Core employee records for very small teams
Essential HR
₹105
HR records, onboarding and employee self-service
Professional
₹170
Adds attendance, leave tracking and timesheets
Premium
₹255
Adds performance appraisal and case management
Enterprise
₹380
Adds learning management, compensation and advanced analytics
Free₹0
Core employee records for very small teams
Essential HR₹105
HR records, onboarding and employee self-service
Professional₹170
Adds attendance, leave tracking and timesheets
Premium₹255
Adds performance appraisal and case management
Enterprise₹380
Adds learning management, compensation and advanced analytics
Figures are per employee per month on annual billing. Zoho Payroll is a separate subscription. Pricing is set by Zoho Corporation and can change.
What Implementation Costs on Top
Subscription is what you pay Zoho. Implementation is what you pay a partner, and it is a one-time cost.
Under 50 employees
Startup
₹65,000
One-time implementation
Single entity, one leave policy, clean data and a two to three week go-live. Covers configuration, data import, user acceptance testing, training and two weeks of hypercare.
50 to 500 employees
Business
₹65,000 to ₹2.5 lakh
One-time implementation
Multiple leave and attendance policies, payroll integration, historical data migration with full reconciliation, and thirty days of hypercare through the first payroll cycle.
500+ employees
Enterprise
₹3 lakh and above
One-time implementation
Multi-entity and multi-country programmes phased by entity, multiple statutory regimes, custom Deluge development and integration across payroll providers and biometric devices.
Prices may vary based on the scope and requirements of your engagement. The figures above are indicative ranges for the scope described. Your final figure is confirmed in a written scope of work before any work begins.
What Drives the Cost Up
Cost is driven by five things, in rough order of impact.
Leave and attendance policies. The number of distinct policies you need configured.
Entities and statutory regimes. The number of legal entities and the jurisdictions they sit in.
Historical data. The volume and quality of the records being migrated.
Integrations. Particularly biometric devices and third-party payroll.
Custom development. The amount of custom workflow and Deluge work required.
Headcount alone is a weak predictor. A two-hundred-person single-entity company with one leave policy is a smaller engagement than a sixty-person group with four entities in three countries.
Price Verification
Pricing verified by Sam, Zoho Solution Architect at Datahikes. Last reviewed . Zoho subscription pricing is set by Zoho Corporation and can change.
Implementation figures shown are indicative ranges for the scope described and are confirmed in a written scope of work before any engagement begins.
For a figure specific to your headcount, entity structure and integration list, book a scoping call with Sam or Jay.
Zoho People Integrations We Configure
Zoho Ecosystem Integrations
Zoho Payroll
Salary processing and statutory compliance, with attendance and leave without pay flowing through without a manual step.
Zoho CRM
Sales team hierarchy, territories and incentive inputs stay aligned with HR records.
Zoho Books
Expense and reimbursement flow between finance and the employee record.
Zoho Recruit
A hired candidate becomes an employee record without anyone re-keying the data.
Zoho Expense
Travel and reimbursement claims tied to the employee master and approval chain.
Zoho Analytics
HR dashboards that combine Zoho People data with data from your other systems.
Third-Party and Payroll Integrations
Biometric and access control devices
Punch data captured into Zoho People attendance automatically, whether the device exposes an API, a database or a scheduled file export.
Slack and Microsoft Teams
Approval notifications and HR announcements reach people where they already work.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Identity, calendar and notification flow tied to the joiner and leaver process.
Third-party payroll providers
Configured where local statutory processing sits outside Zoho Payroll.
Document signing platforms
Offer letters and policy acknowledgements signed and filed against the employee record.
Custom API and Webhook Integrations
Where no connector exists we build against the Zoho People REST API and use webhooks and scheduled Deluge functions to keep systems in sync. This is how we connect Zoho People to in-house applications, ERP systems and regional compliance portals.
Zoho People for Your Industry
The configuration work in Zoho People is almost entirely industry-specific. A manufacturing plant needs shift rosters, overtime slabs and contractor records. A consulting firm needs utilisation-linked timesheets and competency appraisals. A retail group needs seasonal hiring at volume and location-wise rostering. The modules are the same; the way they are configured is not.
Delivery runs from our team in Perungudi, Chennai, with working-hours overlap agreed in the scope of work. Choose your location for statutory context, local implementation detail and the payroll route that applies where you operate.
Zoho People rarely runs alone. Where HR data has to reach sales, finance or a custom internal application, these are the pillars that connect to it. The same Chennai delivery team handles all of them.
Scoping calls booked from this page are answered by Sam or Jay, both founding members of Datahikes. The person who scopes your engagement is involved in delivering it.
S
Sam
Accounts Director
Sam is a founding member of Datahikes and leads solution design on Zoho People engagements. He takes scoping calls directly, owns the leave and attendance policy specification on every implementation, and verifies the pricing published on this page.
12+ years of Zoho experience
Certified across Zoho People, CRM, Desk, Recruit and Expense
Jay co-founded Datahikes and leads client engagement and delivery governance. Scoping calls booked from this page are answered by Sam or Jay, not by a sales team.
7+ years of Zoho experience
Certified across Zoho CRM, Marketing Automation, SalesIQ and Social
Mani is a founding member of Datahikes and leads technical architecture, custom Deluge development and integration design across Zoho People implementations. He is the technical reviewer for the content on this page.
Content on this page is reviewed quarterly. Last reviewed by Mani, Zoho Technical Architect.
Why Businesses Choose Datahikes as Their Zoho People Partner
Zoho Consulting Partner
Authorised by Zoho Corporation to sell, implement and support Zoho People.
Architect-Led Delivery
Certified architects design and build your configuration. Your engagement is not handed to an account manager with a checklist.
A Published Method
The seven-step migration method on this page is the one we run, with written reconciliation sign-off at the end. Not a black box.
Founder-Level Accountability
Every scoping call is taken by a founder, and the person who scopes your engagement stays involved in delivering it.
Zoho People Partner: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Zoho People Partner?
A Zoho People Partner is a company authorised by Zoho Corporation to sell, implement and support Zoho People. A partner handles configuration, data migration from your existing HR system, integration with payroll and other tools, user training and ongoing support. Datahikes is a Zoho Partner headquartered in Chennai, working with clients in over twenty countries.
How long does a Zoho People implementation take?
Under fifty employees with clean data, two to three weeks. Fifty to five hundred employees, six to ten weeks. Multi-entity or multi-country programmes typically run three to six months and are phased by entity. Timeline is driven more by the number of distinct leave policies and statutory regimes than by headcount.
Can I migrate to Zoho People myself?
Yes, if you have under roughly twenty-five employees, a single entity, one leave policy and no legacy history to preserve. The seven-step method published on this page is written for that case. Above that size, or where leave balances, attendance history and appraisal records must be preserved and reconciled, a partner substantially reduces risk.
What data can be migrated into Zoho People?
Employee master records, employment and designation history, reporting hierarchy, leave types and opening balances, leave transaction history, attendance records, timesheets, document attachments and appraisal history. Attendance and appraisal history usually require a retention decision, since carrying forward everything creates volume that affects reporting performance.
How much does Zoho People cost?
Zoho People is licensed per employee per month across a free tier and four paid editions, with Zoho Payroll sold separately where statutory payroll processing is needed. Implementation is a separate one-time cost that depends on policy complexity, entity count, data volume and integrations. Current figures are in the pricing section above, verified by Sam.
Does Zoho People handle Indian statutory compliance?
Zoho People handles the HR side including leave, attendance and documentation. Statutory payroll compliance covering provident fund, employee state insurance, professional tax and tax deducted at source is handled through Zoho Payroll, which integrates natively. We configure both together so attendance and leave without pay flow into payroll without manual reconciliation.
Can Zoho People integrate with our biometric attendance devices?
Yes. We configure biometric and access control device integration so punch data flows into Zoho People attendance automatically. The approach depends on the device and whether it exposes an API, a database or a scheduled file export. This is confirmed during discovery because it is a common source of timeline surprises.
We already use Zoho People and it is not working properly. Can you fix it?
Yes. Roughly a third of our Zoho People work is remediation rather than new implementation. We run a configuration audit covering organisation structure, permission model, leave policy logic, workflow design and integration health, then give you a written remediation plan with what can be corrected in place and what needs rebuilding.
Do you support Zoho People outside India?
Yes. We deliver from Chennai to clients in the UAE, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Germany and more than twenty countries in total. Delivery is remote with working-hours overlap agreed in the scope of work. Local statutory payroll is handled through Zoho Payroll where available or a regional provider where not.
How is AI used in your Zoho People migrations?
We use AI for field mapping proposals, duplicate and inconsistency detection, converting written leave policies into configuration specifications, generating user acceptance test scripts, and drafting documentation. Every output is reviewed by a certified consultant before it is applied. Employee personal data is never submitted to public model interfaces.
Who will I speak to if I book a call?
Sam or Jay, both founding members of Datahikes. Scoping calls are not routed to a sales development representative. The person who scopes your engagement is involved in delivering it.
What happens after go-live?
A thirty-day hypercare period covering the first full payroll cycle, followed by an annual maintenance contract with a named contact covering configuration changes, module expansion, version updates and compliance changes. Support hours and response times are stated in the scope of work.
