Active and idle time
Measured from real keyboard and mouse activity rather than from the app simply being open. Idle time is shown separately instead of being quietly counted as work.
Attendance · Leave · Time tracking
Employee management, attendance & time tracking software
Manage employee attendance, leave, work hours and workforce activity from one platform — available in the cloud or on your own server. Employee Desk covers attendance, leave, holidays, employee records, projects, daily work reports and an optional desktop time tracker for Windows · macOS · Ubuntu.
- 7-day free trial
- No credit card
- Windows · macOS · Ubuntu
- CSV export for payroll
- No keystroke logging, ever
The short answer
What does Employee Desk do?
One employee record drives every module, so attendance, leave, work and payroll data never have to be reconciled across three tools.
01 / Time off
Attendance and leave
Shifts with a grace window and late policy per employee, automatic lunch deduction, every leave type with balances that accrue on their own, and one holiday calendar the whole company shares.
Attendance software → 02 / OutputProjects, tasks and reports
Projects with a code, a manager and members. Tasks carry an assignee, a priority and a completion percentage. Daily work reports are written against a project with hours and completion.
Workforce management → 03 / Measured timeDesktop time tracker
A native app for Windows · macOS · Ubuntu that measures active and idle time from real keyboard and mouse activity, works offline, and takes screenshots only if you turn them on.
Desktop tracker → 04 / ControlReports, roles and retention
Attendance, tracked time and work reports over any date range, on screen and out as CSV. Retention rules you set, an access audit log, SSO and directory sync, plus a REST API.
Employee management →
Deployment
Our cloud, your server, or your brand
The same product ships four ways. The difference is who runs the server and whose name is on it — not which features you get.
Cloud
We run it
Signed up before lunch, tracking by the afternoon. We handle servers, backups and updates. Hosted in India, encrypted at rest, daily backups. From ₹59 per user per month.
Cloud deployment → Self-hostedYou run it
A Docker Compose stack on your own server. Your database, your disk, your retention policy, your backups. From ₹40,000 per year. Nothing leaves your network but a licence check, or nothing at all with an offline licence file.
Self-hosted details → Private cloudWe run it, alone
A single-tenant instance in the region you choose, operated by us. You get the data separation of self-hosting without putting a server on your own operations team. From ₹90,000 per year.
Private cloud → White labelYour brand on it
Your logo, colours, domain, login page, emails and signed desktop builds. Built for IT providers, HR consultants and staffing firms who already own the client relationship. From ₹3,00,000 per year.
Partner programme →
Attendance
Attendance that matches how your shifts actually work
Most attendance software assumes one office, one start time and one policy. Real teams have three shifts, a grace window that varies by role and half a dozen people on permanent work-from-home.
- Per-employee shifts. Own start time, grace window and late policy, so no single rule has to fit everyone.
- Lunch breaks deducted automatically and kept out of paid hours.
- Late, half-day and absent derived from the policy rather than typed in by an admin.
- Regularisation requests when someone forgets to punch in, with the approval trail kept.
- Month-end CSV that goes straight into payroll without a pivot table in between.
Read more about employee attendance software or the attendance documentation.
Leave
Leave balances that maintain themselves
Every leave type your handbook already lists, with balances that accrue monthly and approvals that take one click instead of an email thread.
- Sick, casual, paid, work-from-home, half-day and short leave, each with its own rules.
- Balances accrue monthly on their own, with carry-forward and encashment caps you set once.
- Approve or reject in one click, with the full history attached to the employee record.
- One holiday calendar everyone sees, so attendance stops flagging days nobody was meant to work.
- Team calendar so a manager can see who is out before approving another request for the same week.
Time tracking
Work hours, measured rather than estimated
Tracked time answers a specific question: how many hours went into which project, and how much of that time was actually active. It is not a productivity score and it is not a ranking.
Time against projects
Hours land against a project and a task, so the number you bill a client or budget a sprint against comes from the same record the employee already filled in.
Offline-safe
The desktop app keeps recording without a connection and uploads the backlog when it returns. A dropped Wi-Fi connection does not leave a hole in the day.
Transparency and privacy
Work time, measured — not guessed
Monitoring software has a reputation, most of it earned. Here is the full list of what the desktop app records and what it will never touch, published so your team can read it before you roll it out.
What it records
- Active and idle time, from real keyboard and mouse activity
- The application or window title in use, sampled through the day
- Screenshots at a random interval you bound, each tagged with the activity percentage — only if you enable them
- Keystroke and click counts, as a measure of activity only
- Start and stop times, signed in with the same portal account
What it never does
- Record what you type. The content of what is typed never leaves the machine
- Touch the camera or the microphone
- Run after the employee has stopped it, or while the machine is asleep
- Hide. The tray icon stays visible the whole time it is recording
- Read personal files, browser history or messages
Employees see every screenshot taken of their own screen, in the same gallery their manager uses, and get a notification each time one is captured. Monitoring people without telling them is how teams lose trust, so the product will not do it. Read the full position on privacy, what monitoring means here and how long data is kept.
Self-hosting
Run it on your own server
The reason most buyers ask for this is simple: screenshots and attendance records are employee personal data, and some organisations are not willing to put that on a vendor’s infrastructure at all.
- Docker Compose, single host. One command to install, one to upgrade.
- Node.js application + MongoDB on 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 200 GB disk, which is a small VM rather than a rack.
- 443 inbound only. Nothing needs to be exposed outbound except a licence check, or nothing at all with an offline licence file.
- You are the data controller. There is no sub-processor to declare in your privacy notice.
- Your backups, your retention. Screenshots delete themselves on the schedule your policy sets, not ours.
Self-hosted deployment · Docker install guide · Backup and restore
- Install
- Docker Compose, single host
- Stack
- Node.js application + MongoDB
- Minimum server
- 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 200 GB disk
- Ports
- 443 inbound only
- Authentication
- SAML 2.0, OIDC and AD/LDAP directory sync
- Desktop clients
- Windows 10/11 · macOS 11+ · Ubuntu 20.04+
Pricing
Published prices, because you should not have to book a call to get one
Cloud is billed per user per month with a minimum of 10 users. Self-hosted is a flat annual licence by headcount band, so the price stops climbing every time you hire.
Cloud
Starter
Attendance, leave and holidays for a team that just needs the records right.
₹59 / user / month
- Attendance with shifts, grace window and late policy
- Leave types, balances and approvals
- Holiday calendar
- Employee records and documents
- Web portal, mobile ready
- CSV export for payroll
- Email support
Cloud · most chosen
Growth
Adds the work side: projects, daily reports and the desktop time tracker.
₹99 / user / month
- Everything in Starter
- Projects, tasks and completion tracking
- Daily work reports written against a project
- Desktop time tracker for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu
- Active and idle time from real input activity
- Team chat and web push notifications
- Attendance and tracked-time reports
Cloud
Pro
Adds screenshots with context, the live board, retention rules and the API.
₹149 / user / month
- Everything in Growth
- Screenshots at a randomised interval
- Live tracker board
- Configurable screenshot retention
- Access audit log
- REST API and webhooks
- Priority support
| Employees | What's included | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 25 | Full product, updates, email support | ₹40,000 |
| Up to 50 | Full product, updates, email support | ₹70,000 |
| Up to 100 | Adds SSO, directory sync, access audit log | ₹1,20,000 |
| Up to 250 | Adds priority support and upgrade assistance | ₹2,25,000 |
| 250+ | Adds source-code escrow and a named contact | ₹3,50,000+ |
One-time setup and handover: ₹25,000. A perpetual licence is available at 2.5× the annual price with one year of updates, then 18% AMC. Annual cloud billing takes 20% off. Prefer data separation without running a server? Private cloud puts a single-tenant instance in your own region and we operate it. Every plan, add-on and currency is on the pricing page.
A look inside
The screens your team will actually use
Nine modules, one employee record. These are the screens an administrator and an employee spend their week in — and the employee sees the same data about themselves that their manager sees.
Every screen above is in the live demo, seeded with sample data and open without a signup form.
Who it is for
Who uses Employee Desk
Built for companies between roughly ten and two hundred and fifty employees that have outgrown a spreadsheet but do not want an enterprise HRMS rollout.
Software companies
Hours against projects and sprints, work-from-home attendance that is not guesswork, and a tracker developers can read the source behaviour of before it is installed.
For software companies →Digital agencies
Billable hours per client and per project, so the retainer conversation starts from a number rather than a memory.
For agencies →BPO and support teams
Shift attendance across rotating rosters, break tracking and adherence reporting for a floor that does not keep office hours.
For BPO →Staffing and consulting
Deployed staff working at client sites, timesheets that survive an audit, and per-client reporting you can attach to an invoice.
For staffing firms →
Comparisons
How Employee Desk compares
Honest comparisons, including the cases where the other product is the better fit. Feature claims are checked against public documentation and re-checked when we update the page.
| Employee Desk | Typical cloud tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosting on your own server | Included as a licence option | Cloud only |
| Attendance, leave and holidays | Built in | Add-on or absent |
| Keystroke content logging | Never | Varies by vendor |
| Employee sees their own screenshots | Yes, with a notification | Often admin-only |
| Screenshots can be switched off | Yes, per team | Sometimes |
| Published pricing in INR | Yes | USD, often per seat |
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is Employee Desk?
Employee Desk is employee management software that keeps attendance, leave, holidays, employee records, projects, tasks, daily work reports and tracked work time in one portal. It runs on our cloud, or you can install it on your own server. A desktop time tracker for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu is an optional add-on.
Can we host the employee tracking software on our own server?
Yes. The self-hosted licence ships as a Docker Compose stack you run on your own server or private cloud. Attendance records, work reports and screenshots stay on your disk. The only outbound call is a licence check, and an offline licence file is available for air-gapped networks.
Are keystrokes logged?
No. Key presses and mouse clicks are counted to measure activity, but what is typed is never captured or transmitted. There is no keylogger in the product, on any plan or deployment.
Can employees see what is being recorded about them?
Yes, and that is deliberate. Every employee gets a notification the moment a screenshot is taken and can open the same gallery their manager sees. Nothing is collected quietly.
Does the desktop tracker work on Mac and Linux?
Yes. The tracker ships for Windows 10 and 11, macOS 11 and later, and Ubuntu 20.04 and later on an Xorg session. It is the same app and the same account on all three.
How often are screenshots taken?
At a random gap between a minimum and a maximum you set, from 2 to 10 minutes by default, and never more than 15 minutes apart. The gap is redrawn every time so it cannot be predicted or waited out. Screenshots can also be switched off entirely.
Does it work without an internet connection?
The desktop app keeps recording offline and queues everything locally. When the connection returns it uploads the backlog, so a dropped Wi-Fi connection does not leave a hole in the day.
What does Employee Desk cost?
Cloud plans are ₹59, ₹99 and ₹149 per user per month with a minimum of 10 users. The self-hosted licence starts at ₹40,000 per year for up to 25 employees. Full details are on the pricing page.
Can we use attendance and leave without the tracker?
Yes. The web portal is complete on its own for attendance, leave, holidays, employee records, projects, tasks, work reports, chat and reports. The desktop tracker is an optional add-on you roll out only where it makes sense.
Can we sell Employee Desk under our own brand?
Yes. The white-label licence covers your logo, colours, domain, email templates and login page, plus signed desktop builds under your publisher name. Partners get a seat pool to resell from and a lead registration programme.
Try it on your own team this week
Start on the cloud in ten minutes, or tell us your headcount and where the server has to live and we will price the self-hosted licence on the call.
- 7-day trial
- No credit card
- Cancel anytime