Module guides

Coworkee is organised into a set of modules, reachable from the sidebar after login. This page explains how to use each one. Visibility of actions depends on your role.

Employees & org chart

The Employees directory is the heart of Coworkee.

• Directory — search, filter and page through everyone. Everyone can browse; HR/Admin can create and edit.
• Profiles — each employee has a detail profile: contact data, role, department, contract type, manager, start date, plus tabs for documents and absence.
• Create / edit — HR/Admin add new employees and keep records current. Setting an employee's manager is what builds the reporting lines.
• Org chart (/org) — a live organisational chart generated from those reporting lines. Change a manager and the chart updates.

Absence & approval workflow

Manage leave from request through approval, with entitlements per employee.

• Entitlements — HR/Admin set each employee's leave entitlement (their annual balance). Do this before people start requesting.
• Request — an employee requests absence for a date range and type; the balance is checked.
• Approval workflow — the request goes to the approver (Manager for their team, or HR/Admin), who approves or rejects. Balances update on approval.
• Team overview — a calendar showing who is away, so overlaps are visible before approving.

Time tracking

• Clock in / out — employees record working time with start/stop.
• Weekly overview — hours per day and week totals for the individual.
• Manual entries — add or correct entries when a clock-in was missed.
• Team times — managers see their team's recorded time.

Documents

Secure, private document storage per employee — nothing here is ever served publicly.

• Private storage — files live under storage/documents/ on the server (a persistent volume), never in the public web root.
• Access-guarded download — every download goes through an access check (/api/documents/[id]); you only get files you're allowed to see.
• HR upload — HR/Admin upload documents onto an employee's profile (contracts, certificates, etc.).
• Profile tab — documents appear on the employee's profile under a Documents tab.

Onboarding

Turn a repeatable checklist into a tracked process for each new hire.

• Templates — HR/Admin build reusable onboarding checklist templates (the list of tasks a new joiner needs).
• Per-employee processes — instantiate a template for a specific employee; it becomes a live process.
• Checkable tasks — tasks are ticked off as they're completed, so onboarding progress is visible at a glance.

Performance

Two connected tools: goals and reviews.

• Goals — set objectives with a target; employees update their own progress (self-service), so goals stay current without a manager chasing them.
• Performance reviews — a review moves through Draft → Submitted → Acknowledged. The reviewer drafts and submits; the employee acknowledges, closing the loop.

Analytics

An HR dashboard (HR/Admin) with KPIs and charts:

• Headcount over time,
• Contract types breakdown,
• New hires,
• Absence days.

Use it to spot trends — growth, attrition, absence load — at a glance.

Recruiting

• Job postings — create and manage open positions.
• Applicant pipeline — a Kanban board with six stages; drag applicants along as they progress through the hiring process.

News & notifications

• Announcement feed — HR/Admin publish company news; everyone sees the feed.
• In-app notifications — the bell in the top bar surfaces notifications (new announcements, absence decisions, etc.) without email.

Conversations (1:1s & annual talks)

Configurable employee conversations (/talks), separate from the rigid performance review.

• Templates — a manager (or HR/Admin) designs a reusable agenda: sections plus typed questions (free text, 1–5 rating, yes/no). HR/Admin can publish org-wide shared templates.
• Schedule & release — a manager schedules a talk for one of their reports from a template; the agenda is snapshotted so later template edits never change a talk in flight. Releasing it makes it visible to the employee and notifies them.
• Prepare together — manager and employee each fill in their own answers side by side, then the manager closes the talk with a shared summary.
• Visibility follows the roles — you see a talk if you are its employee, its manager, or HR/Admin. So a manager who also reports to someone sees both their own talks (with their supervisor) and the ones they run. Employees never see a draft.

Surveys & pulse

Engagement and pulse surveys (/surveys), HR/Admin.

• Build — create a draft with Scale (1–5), eNPS (0–10) and free-text questions.
• Open / close — opening a survey invites everyone and locks editing; closing stops new responses.
• Anonymous by design — anonymous responses carry no identity; a separate participation marker still prevents a second submission.
• Results — aggregated per question: average and distribution for scales, an eNPS score for NPS, and the list of text answers.

Skills & succession

• Skills matrix (/skills) — HR/Admin maintain a skill catalog. Everyone self-assesses their own skills (1–5); managers/HR rate their team, shown as a read-only matrix.
• Succession (/skills/succession, HR/Admin) — build a plan for a key role holder and add internal candidates with a readiness (ready now / 1–2 years / 3+ years).

Trainings

A lightweight LMS (/trainings).

• Course catalog — managers/HR/Admin add courses (title, provider, link).
• Assign — assign a course to an in-scope employee.
• Self status — employees move their own enrollments through Assigned → In progress → Completed.

Shifts

Shift scheduling (/shifts).

• Schedule — managers/HR/Admin create shifts for their team (date, start/end time, role, location).
• My shifts — everyone sees their own upcoming shifts.

Expenses

Expense claims with an approval flow (/expenses).

• Submit — an employee submits an expense (amount, category, date, note).
• Approve / reject — the manager (or HR/Admin) decides; the employee is notified.
• Reimburse — HR/Admin mark an approved expense as reimbursed.

Benefits

• Catalog — HR/Admin maintain a benefits catalog (active/inactive).
• Self-service — employees enroll in or leave active benefits themselves.

Assets & equipment

Company equipment inventory (/assets, HR/Admin).

• Inventory — add assets (name, category, serial number).
• Assign / return / retire — assign an asset to an employee, take it back, or retire it. Employees see My equipment — what's currently assigned to them.

Compensation

Salary tracking (/compensation) — HR/Admin only. Not a payroll engine (no tax, no payslip runs).

• Records — add compensation entries per employee (amount, currency, frequency, effective date) — this builds a salary history.
• My compensation — every employee sees their own current compensation and history; nobody else's.

E-signatures

Lightweight acknowledgement signing (/signatures) — an acknowledgement record, not a cryptographic/qualified e-signature.

• Request — a manager/HR/Admin sends a document text to a signer.
• Sign / decline — the signer types their full name to sign, or declines; the requester is notified.

Single sign-on (SSO)

Optional enterprise OIDC login (Keycloak, Entra ID, Okta, Authentik, Google Workspace, …). It is enabled only when the SSO_* environment variables are set; with none set, Coworkee uses email/password only. SSO authenticates existing users by email — it never creates new accounts. See Configuration for the environment variables.

Audit log

HR/Admin can browse the audit log at /settings/audit — who changed what, with a filter over action, entity and id.