Contractor management, in the same HR system as your employees
Individual Contractors and agency staff get a proper record, an engagement with the terms you agreed, and a login that shows only what you allow. Agencies propose their own people; you approve. Live on every plan, at the same per-user price.
Illustration of the People, Contractors tab: a list of individual Contractors and agency workers with their Contractor codes, payout track and engagement end dates.
Why contract staff fall through the cracks
Many companies run employees in an HRMS and contract staff, freelancers and agency workers somewhere else. The somewhere else is usually a spreadsheet.
The contract lives in an inbox
Rates, end dates and the signed SOW sit in email threads. Nobody notices an engagement has ended until the person is still in the office a month later.
Access is all or nothing
Either the Contractor gets a full employee login they should not have, or they get nothing and miss the announcements, policies and holiday list everyone else sees.
Agency workers are invisible
An agency places six people with you and you know four of their names. Their documents, start dates and who approved them are with the agency, not with you.
What the Contractors module does now
Everything in this section is live on app.zekohr.com, on every plan, since 22 October 2026.
One Contractor, one engagement per contract
A Contractor is a separate worker type, kept apart from employees but in the same system. Each one has engagements that hold the terms you actually agreed, so the contract stops living in someone's inbox.
- Company, reporting manager, start and end dates
- Rate as hourly, daily, monthly, milestone or fixed
- Payout track: payroll or invoice. Agencies and GST-registered Contractors are invoice-only
- Leave on or off per engagement, contract caps and TDS defaults
- The SOW on the engagement, the MSA on the Contractor or agency
Illustration of an engagement card: company, manager, dates, monthly rate, invoice payout track, leave off, a contract cap and an attached SOW.
Contractor access, switched per company
Contractors sign in to their own home screen, not an employee dashboard. Under Settings → Contractor access you decide, per company, which parts of ZekoHR they see. Everything starts switched on; turn off what does not fit.
- Feed, kudos and announcements
- Grievances, including POSH complaints
- Documents, assets, letters and policies
- Directory, attendance and the holiday calendar
- Never: payroll admin, people management or other people's records
Illustration of the Contractor access settings: a list of modules, each with an on/off switch, with Assets switched off.
A "Contractor" badge in the directory
Contractors appear in the directory with a clear badge, and agency workers show their agency, so everyone knows who they are working with.
Their own code series
Contractors get codes from a separate series, such as CTR-0001, so your employee codes stay unbroken and reports never mix the two.
Hire as a Contractor from Recruitment
A candidate who is joining on contract can be hired as a Contractor straight from the Recruitment pipeline, with no re-typing.
Bulk import and conversion
Import Contractors in bulk with their engagements. People you previously added as employees with a contractor employment type get a "Convert to Contractor" action.
Engagement-end reminders
HR and the manager are reminded 30 and 7 days before an engagement ends, then daily once it has passed. Renewing or ending stays a human decision.
PAN and bank details encrypted
A Contractor's or agency's PAN and bank account details are stored encrypted, the same way ZekoHR stores employee payroll details.
How agencies and agency staff work
Agencies keep their people current. You keep control of who gets in.
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Step 1
HR adds the agency
Add the agency with its PAN, GSTIN and bank details, its MSA, and one or more agency admins. Decide whether this agency may propose its own workers.
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Step 2
The agency admin signs in
Agency admins see their own agency's placed workers and engagements, and never another agency's people.
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Step 3
The agency proposes a worker
If you allowed it, the admin proposes a new worker with the proposed engagement. A proposal is only a request: no login and no seat yet.
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Step 4
HR approves, then access starts
HR approves or rejects. On approval the worker gets an engagement and an invite, and signs in to see exactly what your Contractor access settings allow.
Every Contractor, agency admin and approved agency worker is a user on your plan, priced the same as an employee. Pending agency requests are not billed. See pricing.
What comes next for Contractors
None of this is live yet. It is the next phase of work, and we will update this page as each piece ships, not before. The launch post has the background, including what changed for TDS on contractor payments in 2026.
Contractor timesheets
Hourly, task-based or daily timesheets per engagement, approved by the manager, or no timesheet at all where it does not fit.
Contractor invoices
Upload an invoice, review an auto-drafted retainer invoice, generate one from approved timesheets, or build a GST invoice in the app.
Invoice approvals
Approval chains for Contractor invoices with their own rules, built on the engine that already runs expense approvals.
Contractor Pay Run
A payroll-style run for approved invoices, with TDS computed automatically, partial payments and a remittance advice for each Contractor.
MSME 45-day tracking and a bank file
Days-left flags on invoices from MSME-registered Contractors, and a bulk payment file for your bank.
Overseas Contractors
Foreign-currency invoices with the exchange rate captured at payment.
Contractors on the same record as everything else
→ Core HR
Directory, documents, attendance and holidays work for Contractors too, within the access you switch on.
→ Recruitment
Hire a candidate as an employee or as a Contractor from the same pipeline.
→ Culture & Engagement
Contractors can join the feed, give kudos and raise grievances, including POSH complaints, if you allow it.
Contractor management: common questions
What is contractor management software?
It is software for keeping track of people who work for you without being employees: freelancers, consultants, contract staff and workers placed by an agency. At minimum it holds who they are, the terms of each engagement, their documents and what they can access. It is also called a contract employee management system. In ZekoHR it is part of the HRMS you already use for employees, rather than a separate tool, so contractual employees and permanent staff sit side by side.
Which plans include Contractors, and what does it cost?
Every plan, and the free year. There is no separate per-Contractor monthly fee: each Contractor, agency admin and approved agency worker is a user at the same per-user price as an employee. Pending agency requests are not counted. The pricing page shows the live rates.
What is the difference between an individual Contractor and an agency?
An individual Contractor is one person you engage directly. An agency is a firm that places its staff with you: it has one or more agency admins who sign in to manage their side, and placed workers who each have their own engagement with you.
Can Contractors see everything employees see?
No. Contractors get their own home screen, and each company decides which modules they see: feed, kudos, announcements, grievances, documents, assets, directory, attendance, holidays, policies and letters. All start on and each can be switched off. Contractors never get payroll administration, people management or other people's records.
Can ZekoHR pay Contractors and deduct TDS?
Not yet. Today each engagement records the payout track (payroll or invoice) and the TDS defaults you will apply. Contractor invoices, approvals and a Contractor Pay Run that computes TDS automatically are the next phase, and we will say so here when they ship. Since 1 April 2026, TDS on payments to contractors and on professional or technical fees falls under section 393 of the Income-tax Act 2025 (formerly 194C and 194J); confirm sections and rates with your CA.
We already added contract staff as employees. Do we start again?
No. People added as employees with a contractor employment type are listed for HR with a "Convert to Contractor" action. New Contractors can be added one by one, imported in bulk, or hired from Recruitment.
Is this a contract labour (CLRA) compliance tool?
No, and we would rather say so. ZekoHR keeps clean records of Contractors, agencies, engagements and documents, which helps when someone asks who worked for you and on what terms. It does not file contract labour registrations, licences or returns.