Zoho People 5.0 Administrator Guide | Zoho People Help

Zoho People 5.0 Administrator Guide

What is Zoho People 5.0?

Zoho People is a comprehensive cloud-based HR software that aims to streamline HR processes, enhance employee engagement, and improve workforce productivity. With this refreshing new version, Zoho People further aims to deliver an enhanced workplace journey in this ever-evolving workspace, not just for HR and managers but for all employees!
See the overview video of Zoho People 5.0 below:



Alert
This guide is intended for Administrators and HR personnal who will configure the settings and manage operations in Zoho People.

Quick Navigation

Getting Started

  1. ⬡ Setting up organization details and preferences
    - Manage Accounts

    - Employee Information (Settings)
    - Employee Information (Operations)
    - Organization Setup - Help Video 

Services

    1. Leave (Time off) 
          Settings | Operations | User Service 

    2. Attendance 
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    3. ⬡ Shifts
          Settings | Operations 
    4. Timesheet
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    5. Performance
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    6. Onboarding
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    7. Employee Engagement
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    8. Files
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    9. Compensation
          Settings | Operations | User Service 
    10. ⬡ HR Help Desk
          Settings | OperationsGlossary | User Service 
    11. LMS
          LMS Settings | Course Settings | Courses | Glossary Operations
      ⬡ Reports
    12. ⬡ Marketplace
    13. ⬡ Developer Space
    14. ⬡ Data Administration

    Common Settings

    1. Extending Service in Zoho People
    2. Automation
          Workflow | Email Alerts | Field Updates | Checklist and Tasks | Webhooks | Custom Functions | E-Sign Flow | Custom Schedulers | Email Schedulers | Absent Scheduler in Attendance Service | Timesheet Scheduler | Compensatory off Scheduler in Leave Service
    3. ⬡ Templates
          Email Templates | Letter Templates | Mail Merge Templates
    4. ⬡ Setting Up Permissions 
    5. Setting Up Approvals
    6. Adding Administrators
          Service Specific Administrators | Administrators for Settings & Operations | Administrator Role Users

    New in Zoho People 5.0

      1. ⬡ New Home Tab
            My Space | Team Space | Organization Space
      2. ⬡ New Settings
      3. ⬡ New Operations
      4. ⬡ E-Sign Templates
      5. ⬡ Appraisal Templates in Performance
      6. ⬡ Survey Templates
      7. ⬡ Custom Widgets
      8. ⬡ Compensation
      9. ⬡ Policy Documents
      10. ⬡ Career History
      11. ⬡ Sandbox 
      12. ⬡ HR Process
      13. ⬡ Administrators for Settings & Operations

      Latest Updates

      February 2026

      Introducing accessibility controls in Zoho People

      New Feature

      Zoho People now includes built-in accessibility controls to make the platform more inclusive and easier to navigate. Enable features that improve usability for users with visual, hearing, and mobility needs, helping your teams work comfortably and efficiently.

      SharePoint integration for Zoho People

      New Feature

      Connect your Zoho People organization with Microsoft SharePoint to securely backup Zoho People data directly to your SharePoint folder.

      Note: This feature is enabled on request. Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable it for your organization.

      Organisation files expiry reminder

      Enhancements

      Set up automated reminders to notify administrators in advance about organization file expiry.

      Continuous review data access for custom admins

      Enhancements

      Configure custom administrators to view and manage continuous review data.

      Enhanced remote work policy

      Enhancements

      Allow employees to switch to remote work on the same day without approval after an office check-in.

      Restrict repeating time log descriptions

      Enhancements

      Employees cannot use the same time log description more than once within a month, ensuring more accurate timesheet records.

      Extend leave requests

      Enhancements

      Extend existing leave requests directly without cancelling and submitting a new request. Employees, reporting managers, and approvers can perform this action based on permission.

      Enhanced location tracking

      Enhancements

      Automatically check out employees and notify their reporting managers or specific users when an employee’s location is detected outside the geo-restricted range.

      Automatic absence to leave conversion notification

      Enhancements

      Notify employees and their reporting manager when absence is automatically converted to leave at the end of the pay period.

      January 2026

      Bulk import survey questions

      Enhancements

      Survey questions can be added in bulk by importing them into the Question Pool. You can import Single, Multiple, Date, Star, Comment, and NPS question types.

      Audit logs for payroll integration settings

      Enhancements

      Payroll setting changes for Zoho Payroll, Greythr, Paybooks, and Xero are now logged in the activity logs, giving admins better visibility and traceability.

      Note: This feature is supported through the Zoho Sign integration in Zoho People.

      Skip or reschedule workflow execution

      Enhancements

      Yearly recurring date-based workflow events can now automatically skipped or rescheduled when they fall on weekends or selected days.

      Enhanced manual data sync to Zoho Projects

      Enhancements

      Quickly sync timesheet data from Zoho Projects to Zoho People by selecting a custom start time.

      Limit time log description characters

      Enhancements

      Set minimum and maximum character limits for time log descriptions when the description is marked as mandatory.

      Enhanced attendance overtime

      Enhancements

      Overtime and extended overtime rules can be configured for bi-monthly, quarterly, and yearly periods, in addition to existing rules.

      Enhanced sandwich leave policy

      Enhancements

      Control the inclusion or exclusion of weekends and holidays based on employee leave duration with the sandwich leave policy.

      Custom holiday reminders

      Enhancements

      You can now edit the reminder email templates sent for each holiday. This enables an option to include holiday-specific messages and greetings to the reminder emails.

      Enable or disable course feedback

      Enhancements

      Course administrators can now enable or disable feedback for specific courses from the 'Course Settings' page.

      December 2025

      Bulk time log submission preferences

      Enhancements

      Configure bulk time log submission options to allow employees to submit time logs for a day, week, month, or semi-monthly.

      Manage timesheet methods

      Enhancements

      A new Methods tab in the timesheet service lets administrators enable or disable timesheet methods such as projects, clients, timesheets, job schedule, billing, and breaks based on organizational timesheet service requirements.

      Capture paid and unpaid breaks in timesheets

      New Feature

      Configure breaks in the timesheet service and allow employees to log break time in their time logs. Breaks can be logged manually or automatically based on break preferences.

      Manual survey reminders

      Enhancements

      Survey owners can now trigger reminders manually for users who haven’t completed a survey. This ensures timely follow-ups and higher response rates.

      WhatsApp integration enhancement

      Enhancements
      • Multi-channel notification in WhatsApp

        You can now create multiple WhatsApp channels and enable specific notifications for each. This keeps communication structured and helps streamline notifications.

      • Support for multiple notification types

        You can now create multiple WhatsApp channels and enable specific notifications for each. This keeps communication structured and helps streamline notifications.

      Note: Notifications are sent only if the corresponding email notifications are enabled.

      Remote work policy

      New Feature

      Configure remote work policy to limit remote work days per week or month for your employees, ensuring consistent workforce availability and effective remote work management.

      Retrigger candidate or employee onboarding

      Enhancements

      You can now retrigger onboarding to resend the latest flow to candidates or employees who have already started the process. A notification will be sent to complete onboarding again.

      New Feature

      Organizations can now request employee consent for specific important documents. For documents marked as mandatory, access to Zoho People will be restricted if consent is not provided by the specified deadline.

      November 2025

      Enhanced rebranded landing page customization

      Enhancements

      Now customize your rebranded Zoho People landing page. Customization options include custom background image, button colors, custom favicon, font color and more!

      Retry custom function with edit options

      Enhancements

      Failed custom functions can now be retriggered from workflow logs, with the option to edit the Record ID or Form ID before rerunning.

      View recurring survey schedules and reports in a click

      Enhancements

      Click the icon on the recurring survey to view all ongoing and completed schedules, along with their response rates.

      Export timesheet data in bulk

      Enhancements

      Export timesheet data of upto 6 months (184 days) in a single file. 

      Enhanced sandwich leave policy

      Enhancements

      Choose whether to include or exclude weekends and holidays within a leave period for leave calculation. Leave can be calculated using calendar days or business days, offering greater flexibility in leave tracking.

      LOP push enhancement for Zoho Payroll, Paybooks, and GreytHR

      Enhancements

      Loss of Pay can now be pushed for all pay cycle types, including role-based, location-based, and employment type-based, making payroll management more flexible.

      Auto pause continuous review cycles

      Enhancements

      Continuous review cycles will be paused automatically if no self or manager reviews are submitted for three consecutive cycles. To restart, you must resume the continuous review.

      Enhanced SFTP authentication

      Enhancements

      SFTP connections now support SSH key authentication in addition to passwords, giving users a more secure and flexible setup.

      October 2025

      Slack integration for Zoho People

      New Feature

      Integrate Zoho People with Slack to perform HR actions directly within your Slack workspace. Receive real-time approval notifications, check in/out, apply for leave, log time, and manage requests, all within Slack.

      Generate employee IDs during candidate conversion

      Enhancements

      Employee IDs can now be generated automatically when converting a candidate to an employee or employee profile, making ID assignment faster and easier.

      Early check-in and late check-out adjustment

      Enhancements

      Automatically round employees’ early or late check-ins and check-outs to the shift start or end time. Total work hours can also be rounded up to the shift duration.

      Enhanced shift change permissions

      Enhancements

      Set permissions to control who can change past shift schedules within the current pay period and calendar year.

      Retrigger onboarding flow

      Enhancements

      You can now retrigger onboarding for candidates or users whose onboarding is already in progress or completed, ensuring they follow the latest updates in your onboarding flow.

      New "current salary" component added!

      Enhancements

      You can now use an employee’s current salary as a component in formula-based salary components, enabling smarter and more dynamic compensation calculations.

      Custom course completion certificates

      Enhancements

      Course admins can now create custom course completion certificate templates, in addition to the system templates, for a course.

      Reminders for due or overdue courses

      Enhancements

      Configure reminders to automatically notify users when a course is due or overdue for completion, helping ensure timely course completion.

      Pulse survey with daily recurrence

      Enhancements

      Pulse surveys can now be scheduled to repeat daily, helping you collect continuous employee feedback with ease.

      Import group members

      Enhancements

      Admin and group admin users can now directly import members into a group, making group management faster and easier.

      Enhanced workflow logs

      Enhancements

      You can now retry custom functions from the workflow logs page. You can also update execution scripts, view detailed failure reasons, - all from the same place.

      August 2025

      Continuous review report export with module ratings

      Enhancements

      You can now export a detailed report of the Continuous Review summary, including module-wise ratings, in a structured format for easy analysis.

      Continuous review – review publish permission

      Enhancements

      Control who can publish continuous review final ratings. By default, only Admins have permission.

      Support for multiple payroll application integration

      Enhancements

      Integrate multiple payroll applications within a single Zoho People account, with setup preferences based on location or employee type. 

      Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable multiple payroll integration options for your organization.

      Send salary revision letter via email with password protection

      Enhancements

      Enable the option to send salary revision letters via email with password protection upon publishing the revision letter.

      Restrict check-out source to match check-in source

      Enhancements

      Users can now be restricted to check out only from the same source they used for check-in (Web, Mobile App, or Kiosk), ensuring accurate attendance tracking.

      Restrict breaks during core working hours

      Enhancements

      You can now restrict employees from recording manual or automatic breaks in the system during their shift's core working hours.

      Cover image permission

      Enhancements

      Control employee access to cover image updates. Admins can allow employees to use the system cover image or upload a personalized custom cover image, based on the permissions provided.

      August 2025

      Continuous review report export with module ratings

      Enhancements

      You can now export a detailed report of the Continuous Review summary, including module-wise ratings, in a structured format for easy analysis.

      Continuous review – review publish permission

      Enhancements

      Control who can publish continuous review final ratings. By default, only Admins have permission.

      Support for multiple payroll application integration

      Enhancements

      Integrate multiple payroll applications within a single Zoho People account, with setup preferences based on location or employee type. 

      Contact support@zohopeople.com to enable multiple payroll integration options for your organization.

      Send salary revision letter via email with password protection

      Enhancements

      Enable the option to send salary revision letters via email with password protection upon publishing the revision letter.

      Restrict check-out source to match check-in source

      Enhancements

      Users can now be restricted to check out only from the same source they used for check-in (Web, Mobile App, or Kiosk), ensuring accurate attendance tracking.

      Restrict breaks during core working hours

      Enhancements

      You can now restrict employees from recording manual or automatic breaks in the system during their shift's core working hours.

      Cover image permission

      Enhancements

      Control employee access to cover image updates. Admins can allow employees to use the system cover image or upload a personalized custom cover image, based on the permissions provided.

      July 2025

      Timesheet overtime policy

      New Feature

      Track your employees’ daily, weekly, weekend, holiday, and consecutive workday overtime hours based on their time log hours. Set overtime pay using regular RPH (Rate Per Hour) multiples or employee wage rates.

      • U.S. overtime policy compliance

        Effortlessly stay compliant with regional overtime regulations by applying preconfigured overtime policies designed for all 50 U.S. states + 2 territories (District of Columbia and Puerto Rico)—available in just a few clicks.

        Learn More

      Automatically convert employee absence to leave

      Enhancements

      Automatically turn recorded absences into approved leave using available leave balances—no manual effort or approvals needed.

      Using pay period configuration

      Using absent scheduler configuration

      A faster and smarter way to add holidays

      New Feature

      Easily browse and add region-specific holidays list with the new Holidays Gallery.
      Just select a country to view relevant holidays and import with ease.

      Dubai sick leave policy

      New Feature

      Employees get up to 90 days of sick leave per year after a 3-month probation period, with full pay for the first 15 days, half pay for the next 30 days, and no pay for the rest.

      This can be configured using the Leave Type Gallery.

      Introducing operations tab for HR Help Desk

      New Feature

      Handle all employee case requests in one place—view, assign, and resolve them quickly. Add cases for others via the Categories tab.

      Track learning plan progress with ease

      Enhancements

      View all learning plans assigned to an employee, including completion status and total time spent. Drill down into individual courses to see detailed progress for each item, such as time spent, file type, status, and total duration.

      Flexible manual start & stop for surveys

      Enhancements

      Launch surveys instantly upon publishing, and manage them effortlessly with the ability to pause or restart anytime using the Stop Survey / Start Survey buttons.

      Weightage range for KRAs

      Enhancements

      Set a weightage limit for KRAs, allowing users to assign values within the defined range during assignment. For example, a range of 60–80 lets users allocate a weightage between 60 and 80.

      SLA report

      Enhancements

      Track whether cases meet or miss SLA timelines, with options to filter by hours, days, or weeks. View detailed metrics like average residual time, average violation time, and escalation counts to monitor performance effectively.

      Restrict goal progress updates during goal setting

      Enhancements

      Lock goal progress updates until goals are finalized to ensure accurate tracking from the start.

      Zoho Projects integration sync error summary

      Enhancements

      Get clear, detailed reasons for sync failures during manual or automatic data import and export in the Zoho People and Zoho Projects integration.

      Preference to show/hide Rate Per Hour (RPH)

      Enhancements

      Control who can view and edit an employee’s Rate Per Hour (RPH) in Timesheet service jobs and projects.

      Limit maximum time log hours

      Enhancements

      Set daily or weekly caps on total billable and non-billable hours. Logging stops once the limit is reached.

      Note: Use the timesheet overtime policy to track overtime hours based on time log hours.

      Include non-billable hours in Payroll & Timesheet amount

      Enhancements

      Include non-billable hours in payroll reports and timesheet calculations—ideal for US compliance and businesses that pay for all hours worked.

      Webhook enhancement - custom header parameters

      Enhancements

      Configure up to five unique custom headers in webhook settings to add extra data or securely transmit credentials (e.g., authentication tokens, API keys) in API requests. Header names must be unique (≤100 chars) and values ≤250 chars.

      Help Videos 🎬 

      Employee Handbook 👤 

      What's New in Zoho People 🌟

      Implementation Guide 📘

      Mobile App Guide 📱