What HR Documents Are For
The HR Documents feature issues formal, tracked documents to individual employees — the paperwork that needs an audit trail: who issued it, when it was served, when the employee read it, what they answered, and their signature. Use it for disciplinary due process and employment-lifecycle paperwork. For general announcements to the whole team, use feed memos instead — never issue disciplinary notices as memos.
Find it under HR → Staff → HR Documents. Issuing requires the Issue HR Documents or Manage Employees permission.
Built-In Document Types
Nine templates ship ready to use, written to Philippine labor-standard practice:
- Disciplinary — Notice to Explain (NTE), Show-Cause Memo, Written Warning, Suspension Notice, Notice of Decision, Return to Work Order (RTWO).
- Employment lifecycle — Certificate of Employment (COE), Regularization Notice, End of Contract / Termination Notice.
Under Templates you can edit any built-in, hide ones you don't use, or create your own custom types. Templates support automatic variables — {{employee_name}}, {{job_title}}, {{department}}, {{hire_date}}, {{issue_date}}, {{store_name}} — which are replaced with the employee's actual details at the moment you issue. Details that vary per case (the incident description, suspension dates) are written as bracketed placeholders like [describe the incident] for you to fill in per document.
Issuing a Document
- Click Issue Document, pick the document type and the employee, and optionally set a response due date (e.g. the 5-day NTE reply deadline) and internal notes.
- A draft opens in the editor with the employee's details already filled in. Replace the bracketed placeholders with the specifics of the case. You can also place extra fillable fields or signature blocks if needed — though every HR document already gets a built-in response-and-signature section, so this is optional.
- Back on the HR Documents list, use Send to deliver it.
Each document gets a reference number like NTE-2026-8-0001 — document type, year, your store's ID, and your store's own running count for that type.
Delivery Options
- Email — sends the employee a secure link (valid 30 days). Email delivery is billed in store tokens like other system emails; the price per email is set by the platform.
- Telegram — pushes the same link through your store's Telegram bot. Free, but the employee must have their Telegram account linked; the button is disabled otherwise.
- Print — opens a clean printable copy for in-person service. After handing it over, click Mark Served, and once signed physically, upload a scan of the signed copy — that attaches it to the record and completes the acknowledgment.
Employees can also always find their documents themselves under Workplace → My Documents in the portal — useful when an email goes missing or a link expires; they can reopen and respond from there at any time.
Tracking Status & Reading Responses
Each document moves through Draft → Issued → Viewed → Acknowledged:
- Issued — delivered, not yet opened.
- Viewed — the employee opened the link.
- Acknowledged — the employee signed (or you uploaded the signed scan). The timestamp is recorded.
- An Overdue badge appears when a response due date passes without acknowledgment.
Every document also has a History button (the clock icon) that opens a timeline of everything that happened to it, oldest first: when the draft was created and by whom, each time it was sent — with the channel (email or Telegram), who sent it, the address it went to, and whether delivery succeeded, failed, or the email was opened — when the employee opened the link and how many times, when they signed, and any print, mark-served, signed-scan or cancellation actions. Each send is its own secure link; sending again revokes the earlier one, and the timeline shows which links are revoked or expired. The row itself lists every channel the document has gone out on, with a count when it was sent more than once over the same channel.
When the employee submits a written response — the whole point of an NTE — a chat icon appears on the row. Click it to read their explanation and see their signature. You can filter the list by employee, document type, or status, and jump to it from the 201 Files page via the document icon on any employee row.
Separated or Archived Staff
Once an employee is archived or set inactive under Staff, they appear in the Issue Document picker under Separated staff and only closing documents can be issued to them — Certificate of Employment, Notice of Decision, and End of Contract / Termination Notice. Disciplinary notices such as a Notice to Explain, Show-Cause Memo, warning or Return to Work Order are greyed out, and the incident page offers only the closing types; restore the employee first if a case still has to run. Documents issued before the separation can still be sent — the row shows an Archived or Inactive badge, and the Send dialog reminds you that the person no longer has portal access and can only respond through the secure link in the email or Telegram message.
Good-Practice Notes
- Always set the response due date on an NTE or Show-Cause Memo — it drives the Overdue tracking.
- Cancelling a document revokes its links; acknowledged documents can't be cancelled.
- The employee's signature acknowledges receipt, not agreement — the shared page says so explicitly.
Performance Review Summary
A built-in lifecycle type, numbered PRS-…. It is normally created from a published performance review (HR → Reviews → open the review → Issue as HR document), which fills in the ratings, narrative and goals for you; edit the wording, then send, print or serve it like any other document. You can also issue it blank from the Issue Document dialog and write the summary yourself. Use it for regularization decisions, improvement plans, or whenever a served, signed copy of the review outcome is needed.