HR software ROI calculator
How many hours, and how many rupees, an Indian company of 10 to 500 people gets back by moving HR off spreadsheets. Every assumption is on the page and editable; the result is shown without an email gate.
Your company
Result
Adjust the figures and the result updates as you type.
How this is calculated
Five buckets of saving, minus what ZekoHR costs. Every number below is visible in the form and can be changed.
- HR admin time = Σ (hours per week on each task × % saved) × 52 weeks × HR hourly cost, where hourly cost = monthly CTC ÷ 176 (22 working days × 8 hours).
- Manager time = managers × hours per month on approvals and chasing × % saved × 12 × manager hourly cost (monthly CTC ÷ 176).
- Payroll corrections avoided = employees × % of payslips corrected per month × 12 × HR hours per correction × % prevented × HR hourly cost. Only the HR rework is counted; the cost of an annoyed employee or a late PF challan is not.
- Attrition cost avoided (optional, off by default) = employees × annual attrition × % the software helps avoid × average monthly CTC × months of CTC it costs to replace one person. The default is 2 months, well under the 6-plus months some US calculators assume, and the default "helps avoid" share is 5%: software fixes late payslips and lost leave requests, not a bad manager.
- Tools or services replaced = current monthly spend on HR software or a payroll bureau × 12. ₹0 if you run on spreadsheets today.
Gross saving is the sum. ZekoHR cost is employees × plan price × 12 (monthly) or × 10 (annual billing, two months free). Net annual saving = gross saving − subscription. ROI = (gross saving − subscription − one-time setup) ÷ (subscription + one-time setup) × 100, where setup is your own HR hours at HR hourly cost; there is no setup fee. Payback = one-time setup ÷ ((gross saving − subscription) ÷ 12), in months.
Assumptions you should argue with
- Default hours are for a company of roughly 50 people running HR on spreadsheets, email and WhatsApp: about 19 HR hours a week across the five tasks. A 200-person company will spend more; a 15-person one less. Change them.
- The default "% saved" figures (40 to 60%) are deliberately lower than vendor claims of 70 to 90%, because someone still has to approve leave, check the payroll pre-flight and answer the questions software cannot.
- Employee time is not counted at all. Self-service saves employees time too (no more "please send my payslip" emails) but it rarely turns into money, so it is left out.
- Companies with 50 or fewer employees get the first year free on every plan, so year-one ROI is higher than shown. The figures above assume you are paying, because that is the honest steady state.
- ROI percentages look absurd at ₹10 to ₹30 per user; that is a property of the price, not of the maths. The hours and the net rupees are the numbers worth looking at.
The buckets map onto what ZekoHR actually does: leave and attendance, payroll with a pre-flight check, documents and onboarding, and employee self-service. Worked example and commentary: what HR software actually saves a 50-person company.
Common questions
Why does the calculator not ask for my email?
Because a calculator that hides its answer behind a form is a lead magnet, not a tool. Everything here runs in your browser; nothing is sent to us. If you want to keep a result, copy the share link, which encodes your inputs in the URL.
Where do the default hours and percentages come from?
They are our own conservative estimates for a company of about 50 people on spreadsheets, set deliberately below the 70 to 90% automation figures vendors usually quote. They are not survey results and we do not claim they are. Replace them with your own numbers; the formula is the useful part.
Why is the ROI percentage so high?
Because the denominator is small. At ₹10 to ₹30 per user per month, a 50-person company pays ₹5,000 to ₹18,000 a year, so even a modest saving in HR hours is a large multiple of it. Judge the hours and the net rupees instead; those do not depend on how cheap the software is.
Does the result mean I can reduce HR headcount?
Usually not, and the calculator is not built to argue for it. With the defaults, a 50-person company gets back roughly a third of one person's year. That is time for hiring, policy and the conversations that get skipped when HR is busy chasing leave forms, not a redundancy.
How does this differ from the BambooHR ROI calculator?
BambooHR's page works in US dollars with US benchmarks (an HR professional on $37 an hour, 11 hours of onboarding per hire) and routes you to a quote form. This one works in rupees, with Indian CTC figures, PF/ESI/TDS prep in the task list, a 2-month cost-to-replace default rather than 6, and shows the answer immediately.
Is GST included in the ZekoHR cost?
No. The subscription line is the per-user price excluding GST, the same way the pricing page shows it. Add 18% if you want the invoice figure; for most companies the GST is input credit anyway.