Keep each person's work details, reporting line, working pattern and dated changes in one joined-up record. Move in from a spreadsheet or BreatheHR with a mapping preview, then take a broad, self-serve export bundle whenever you need it.
Employee records software is the central place an organisation keeps current, trustworthy information about its people: contact and work details, job and department, reporting line, working pattern, start date, documents and dated employment changes. It replaces duplicated spreadsheets with one record that the surrounding HR jobs can use.
HollyHR is designed for small UK teams that need those basics properly joined up. The directory, current org chart, time off, documents, reports, imports and exports all work from the same organisation-scoped people records, with detailed sections kept behind explicit access rules.
A useful people database does more than hold fields. It keeps everyday answers consistent, preserves the changes that matter and makes moving data in or out a normal admin job.
Job title, department, manager, workplace and working pattern feed the directory, org chart, time-off calculations and reports. Change the current record once and the surrounding view uses that same organisation-scoped information.
When core employment details or pay change, HollyHR creates dated history entries rather than leaving the previous value trapped in an old spreadsheet. HR can see what changed, when it took effect and the context recorded with it.
Upload an Excel or CSV file, including a BreatheHR people export. HollyHR suggests mappings, calls out ignored columns and validation problems, and shows a five-row preview before a System Admin starts an import of up to 500 rows.
A System Admin can download a ZIP of separate organisation and people CSVs, eligible uploaded document files and a manifest explaining any document binary that could not be included. The export is broad and explicit about its limits.
Role, department, manager, workplace and work-type changes create dated employment history. The current primary manager relationship also powers a searchable, read-only organisation chart.
HollyHR's sensitivity label helps administrators understand a custom field; it does not pretend to be a magic permission switch. Approved API read and write access is configured separately, while detailed in-app records stay out of the shared directory view.
A System Admin can review mappings and validation before importing people, then later download separate CSVs, eligible document files and an honest record of any binary that could not be included.
HollyHR keeps payroll-adjacent employment, compensation and banking records for authorised HR work. It does not run payroll, submit RTI, issue payslips or turn a custom field into an arbitrary workflow database.
HollyHR records personal and work contact details, emergency contacts, job title, department, current manager, workplace, working pattern, start and leaving dates, employment type, compensation, banking details, documents and time off. HR and System Admins can also define typed custom fields for organisation-specific information.
Employees can maintain their own Basics and Banking details and view their own employment record. Organisation-wide editing of profiles and employment stays with HR and System Admins. Every active same-organisation colleague can open the directory-safe work view, but managers do not inherit their direct reports' detailed personal, employment, banking, document or profile time-off tabs.
Yes, for specific changes. HollyHR creates a dated employment-history entry when role, department, manager, workplace or work type changes, and a compensation-history entry when the recorded pay amount changes. It does not claim that every edit to every profile field creates a history event.
Yes. Active organisation members can open a read-only chart built from current primary line-manager relationships, search it, find their own position, collapse branches, switch to an accessible list view and download the chart as a PNG. It is a current reporting-line view, not a workforce-planning tool.
HR and System Admins can create text, number, date, yes/no and single-select fields. A sensitivity label classifies the information for administrators; separate per-field API settings decide whether an approved integration may read or write it. The label itself is not presented as an access-control switch.
A System Admin can upload Excel or CSV people data, including a BreatheHR export, in batches of up to 500 rows. HollyHR suggests field mappings, shows ignored columns and validation issues, and provides a five-row mapped preview before import. The preview is not a database dry run. History keeps source details, mappings, aggregate counts and bounded warnings and errors—not a downloadable row-by-row receipt or undo log.
A System Admin receives a ZIP containing separate CSV files for core organisation and people records, plus eligible uploaded document files. A manifest records document binaries that were included or skipped and why. HollyHR describes the result as a multi-file export bundle, not one literally complete CSV.
Durable HR records use Neon's EU region, while uploaded documents and encrypted backups use AWS London. Supporting services process data in the regions listed in HollyHR's public sub-processor register, so the claim is precise rather than pretending every supporting provider is UK-only.
The Free plan covers up to 10 active people with no card or trial clock. Standard is £2 per active person per month before tax, with no headcount bands or upper cap. Leavers do not count as active people for billing, and Plus modules are not presented as buyable today.
The whole core product, no card, no trial clock — with a broad self-service organisation export if you ever want to leave.
Related: Working patterns · Documents · Onboarding · Data export