HRFlow — SaaS HR & Payroll Platform MVP
From idea to 15 paying companies in 60 days — a focused MVP that validated a Philippine HR SaaS business and led to a pre-seed raise.
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The challenge
The founder had identified a real gap: over a million Philippine SMBs were still computing payroll manually in Excel, making frequent errors on SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and BIR withholding tax calculations, and keeping employee records in physical folders. The opportunity was clear but the risk of over-building was real. The founder needed a shippable, credible product — not a prototype, not a demo — that would let early customers validate the core value proposition and give investors something concrete to evaluate. Budget and timeline were both tightly constrained.
Before
- Philippine SMBs computing payroll manually in Excel with no audit trail
- Frequent errors in SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and BIR withholding tax calculations
- Employee 201 files kept in physical folders with no digital backup
- No leave management system — requests tracked informally via chat or verbal approval
- No self-service payslip access for employees
- Founders manually chasing attendance records from team leads every cutoff
- No multi-company support — founders with two businesses had to maintain two separate systems
The solution
We ran a structured discovery sprint to define the minimum feature set that would prove the value proposition without over-building. The HRFlow MVP covers employee profiles and 201 file management, attendance logging and leave request workflows with approval routing, automated payroll computation with up-to-date SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and BIR withholding tax tables, digital payslip generation and employee self-service access, and a payroll summary and government contribution report module. Multi-company support was built in from day one. The entire MVP shipped in 11 weeks.
Core workflow connections:
- Company Setup → Employee Onboarding → 201 Profile → Document Upload → Access Assignment
- Attendance Log → Daily Time Record → Leave Request → Approval Workflow → Payroll-ready Record
- Payroll Run → Government Contribution Auto-computation (SSS/PhilHealth/Pag-IBIG/BIR) → Payslip Generation → PDF Export
- Employee Self-service → Payslip Access → Leave Balance → Attendance History
- Admin → Payroll Summary Report → Contribution Reports → BIR Alphalist Export
Launched in 11 weeks
By defining the right MVP scope upfront, we shipped a production-ready platform — not a demo — in under three months. Every feature that went in served the core value proposition.
15 paying companies within 60 days of launch
Early adopters validated the product immediately. Government contribution accuracy, digital payslips, and 201 file management were the features that closed every early sale.
Pre-seed round followed
With paying customers, accurate government compliance, and a working multi-company architecture, the founder had a credible story for investors. The pre-seed raise followed within the year.
Building a SaaS product and need a credible MVP fast?
We help founders define the right MVP scope, then ship it — working product in market, not a prototype in a deck. We've done it for HR, logistics, healthcare, and more.