Employee database software
One record per employee, hire to exit
01Dated history
Position and employment changes are added with an effective date and a reason.02Status that sets itself
Hired, Employed, On leave, or Terminated, read from dates on the record.03Your fields, your forms
Rename, hide, or require system fields, and add your own columns.04Access per field
Each role sees or edits only the fields you grant, salary lines included.The problem
Why employee spreadsheets stop telling the truth
A company with entities in Cyprus and Germany keeps its people in a master spreadsheet, a folder of contracts per country, and the HR inbox. In March a team lead moves to the Berlin office. The coordinator types the new manager over the old one, so by summer nobody can say who ran the team in February, or why it changed. The Limassol office keeps its own copy with a different job title. A new hire who starts next month already counts as active, and a colleague on parental leave doesn't stand out. When the CFO asks for headcount by legal entity, HR spends a day reconciling three files, and the salary column has been open to everyone with the link. Skailer changes that by keeping one record per employee, where every change is a dated entry and every field has its own access rule.
Hire into the record
Start the record at the hire so nobody types the same data twice
A hiring template decides which fields the form asks for, so contractors and employees in Germany each get their own. HR fills in work details, personal details, and onboarding in three steps, or hires a candidate from Recruiting with the offer start date already filled in. With a future start date, the employee shows as Hired until day one. Existing staff come in through a CSV or XLSX import that creates new profiles or updates the ones you have.
01Hiring templates
Fields, required data, probation, and flows per hiring scenario.02Hired via recruitment
The profile links back to the candidate and the job.03Automatic Employee #
The next number for every hire, import, or self-registration.04Import from a file
People, positions, employment, compensation, custom fields, and custom tables.
Dated history
Record every change with a date and a reason so the history stays intact
Promotions, transfers, and contract changes are added as new records, each with an effective date. Position records hold the job profile, manager, department, division, and location, and each one needs a reason from your own list. Employment records hold the legal entity, contract, employment type, work pattern, FTE, and probation. End dates fill themselves, and each entry shows who made it. A record dated in the future applies on that date.
01Position history
Job profile, manager, department, division, location, and comments.02Required reasons
Promotion, transfer, reorganization, or any reason on your list.03Employment history
Legal entity, contract, work pattern, FTE, and termination details in one table.04Compensation history
Dated packages with gross, net, and total cost of employment.05Changed by
The author of each row, shown to the roles you choose.Status and the People list
See who works here today so nobody has to ask HR to check
Lifecycle status is calculated from dates already on the record: the start date, approved leave, and the termination date. Nobody sets it by hand, so it can't drift. The People list filters on any column, from personal data and position to termination fields, custom fields, and custom tables. Save the filters, sorting, and columns as a view, and export the list to XLSX when your role allows it.
01Five statuses
Hired, Employed, On leave, On parental leave, and Terminated.02Future dates respected
A scheduled termination keeps the employee active until that day.03Filter by any column
Text, number ranges, date periods, and list values.04Saved views
The filters, sorting, and columns you return to every week.05Department card
Manager, active headcount, and members, opened from any profile.
Your data model
Shape the profile around your data so side spreadsheets go away
Rename, reorder, or hide system fields, add hints, and make the ones you rely on mandatory. Fields the platform needs stay locked. Add your own columns to the Position, Employment, Compensation, and Termination tables, or create custom fields and tables for work permits, equipment, or anything else you track. Forms, profile tables, and the People list all follow the same setup.
01System fields your way
Title, hint, visibility, and required, for each field.02Custom columns in system tables
Each with its own role permission.03Custom field types
URL, several employees in one reference, and legal entity among them.04Historical custom tables
Dated rows, exported with their full history.
Access and self-service
Decide who sees and edits each field so personal data stays with the right people
Every role sets access field by field, and the Myself role decides which parts of their own profile employees can change. Salary detail has separate permissions for compensation lines and total cost of employment. A role can show a shortened name in place of the full name. When a change needs sign-off, an employee request runs through Flows: approvers see the before and after values, and the approved data is written to the profile.
01Field-level access
No access, view, or edit.02Self-service by role
Employees edit what the Myself role allows.03Requests with approval
Pending changes show on the profile until approved.04Name visibility
Full name, first name and initial, or first name only.05Log in as
Open the portal as an employee, with each session in the audit log.
One HR platform
Every Core HR module reads the same employee record
The org chart is drawn from position records. Time off balances and approvals sit on the same profile, and status reads the leave. Onboarding starts from the hire, Offboarding hands the work to a successor on exit, and reviews and reports read the same fields. Employee records keep one dated record per person; Onboarding, Offboarding, and Flows run the processes that change it.
What is the employee database in Skailer?
Skailer vs. the alternativesSpreadsheets cost nothing and take any column you add. HRIS tools for smaller teams go live in days, and many come with a mobile app and payroll links that Skailer doesn't offer. Skailer keeps a dated record of every change and lets you set the structure and the access field by field.
Where employee data ends up with each approach
| Capability | Spreadsheets & shared drives | HRIS with a fixed profile | Skailer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where a person's data lives | A row per file, contracts in folders | One profile per employee | One profile with tabs, searchable by field name |
| Promotions and transfers | The old value is typed over | History on key fields | A new dated record with a required reason |
| Employment status | Typed by hand | Active or inactive | Five statuses calculated from dates |
| Profile structure | Any column, no rules | Custom fields next to fixed standard ones | System fields renamed, hidden, or required; custom columns in system tables |
| Finding people | Sheet filters | Search and preset filters | Filters on any column, saved views, XLSX export |
| Who sees what | Anyone with the link | Access levels | View or edit per field, per role |
| Changes employees ask for | Email to HR | Self-service edits | Edits by role, or requests with approval |
How it works
How employee records work in Skailer
01Shape the profile
Set field titles, order, and required fields. Add custom fields and tables for anything your company tracks beyond the standard profile.02Bring your people in
Import employees, positions, employment, and compensation from a CSV or XLSX file. Add new hires with a hiring template, or hire them from Recruiting.03Record changes as they happen
Add a position or employment record with its effective date and reason. Lifecycle status updates by itself when the dates arrive.04Give each role its view
In Roles & Permissions, set field access for HR, managers, and employees. Save People list views for the questions you answer every week.Customer stories
See how teams use Skailer
Classifieds · 5 countriesLarixon builds its first HR system across five countries
Read the storyiGamingAn iGaming company rebuilds its HR stack around data control
Read the storyPaytechA paytech company restores cross-team visibility in under an hour
Read the storyEmployee records in Skailer: common questions
What is an employee database in Skailer?
It's the Core HR record that keeps one profile per employee, with personal data, position, employment, compensation, documents, and custom fields. Changes are saved as dated records, status calculates itself, and each role sees only the fields it's allowed to.