A new hire living in a forwarded workbook
Addresses, an emergency contact, an ID number in a tab. Legal has written a memo already, or is about to. The next arrival is often when you find out who still keeps a copy of the file.
For people teams
Build an HR app with AI that your staff will actually open
A workbook forwarded from inbox to inbox is not a people system, least of all when one tab holds home addresses. To build an HR app with AI, describe your processes in plain English: Eqlo sets up the tables, forms, roles and reminders, and each employee sees only what concerns them.
- 19Field types, from dates to file uploads
- 15 minLifetime of an employee’s sign-in code
- 5Rights per table: read, create, edit, delete, export
- 0Members-only pages indexed by Google
Three processes to build an HR app with AI
Table and automations
Onboarding
The new hire, IT and the manager follow one list
Workstation, accounts, a welcome coffee, the handbook, a seven-day check-in. Each task has an owner, a status and a due date. When you add a new hire, an automation creates the linked tasks, then emails the manager seven days after the start date. Keep personal details in a separate table that only the HR role can open, since access is set per table rather than per field.
Form and statuses
Time-off requests
A balance and a named approver instead of a colored cell
Employees sign in as members with an emailed code, fill in their request and find it again in their own list of submissions. It arrives with a “to approve” status, and an automation alerts the manager. The reason for sick leave does not belong in a shared channel, so if Slack announces requests, send it the dates only. You will not get an absence-policy engine on day one, but you will get a queue the covering colleague can rely on.
Members-only listing
The team directory
A name, a team, a city, and nothing more
Who works here, on which team, in which city, and who covers for whom. Birthdays, home streets and salary bands have no place in a directory. Import the existing list as CSV or Excel, leaving out every column that was never public. On the site, a searchable, filterable listing shows it on a page reserved for signed-in staff, which Google never indexes.
What holds a people team back today
Three frictions, each caused by a sheet that should never have held a personal row.
Time off reduced to a color in a cell
The covering colleague cannot see the balance, the manager approves in a chat, and HR rebuilds the month from three files. Approval should be a named yes on a request, not a highlight.
A directory that doubles as the salary file
A birthday and a street next to a desk number. Staff stop opening it because they cannot tell what is public, and the useful part gets lost with the rest.
A small company takes onboarding out of the sheet
This scenario describes no real company. At an eighty-person firm, onboarding still lives in a workbook mixing addresses, emergency contacts and a tab of ID documents. An HR lead describes the first-week routine she already follows, then imports the task list. The ID tab stays out, because those documents remain with the payroll provider. She creates a “Manager” role that sees onboarding tasks and leave requests but not the personal-details table. In the first month, six new hires complete week one. Leave requests move into the tool two weeks later, and the directory opens that same week with each person’s team, city and cover. Leadership had set one condition: no personal row left in a shared sheet by month end. It holds for the three processes built, and payroll stays with its provider.
- 3processes taken out of the sheet
- 6new hires through week one
- 0ID documents imported into the tool
The HR tools you keep
Keep your payroll software if it already handles pay and contracts, along with your document provider and your process with the data protection officer. Eqlo covers the processes that never fitted that stack: week one, leave, a slim directory. Do not migrate a working payroll because a checklist appeared in an afternoon; the budget question is which gap to fill, not what to replace. Google Sheets can receive each form as a new row, and Slack can announce a new hire once the record exists in the tool.
How far HR can go alone
You can change copy, statuses, roles and reminders by writing a sentence, with no developer. Stop when the next constraint is a feed you do not control: payroll, tax filings, a background-check provider, a medical file. The tool does not become the payroll system of record, and health data does not belong in it just because a sentence created a column. Before opening the tool to the whole company, have legal review the tables, the roles and what you chose not to import. That review is the real work; the screens are the easy part. The AI can get things wrong, so check the fields before the first new hire arrives.
Related pages
To go further on security, or see what other teams do with Eqlo.
Frequently asked questions
Who can see personal data?
Only the people you allow. In the admin, a role sets which tabs are visible and, table after table, what the person may do: view, add, correct, remove or export. On the employee side, each person sees only their own requests. Put sensitive details in a table only the HR role can open. As for location, you set it when you create the project: pick the EU, US or UK region your legal team expects, and its tables and files will sit there.
Does this replace our HRIS?
No. If payroll and contracts already live with a provider, keep them. Eqlo fills the gaps around it: onboarding, leave, the directory. Replacing a working HRIS takes a year; taking one process out of a sheet takes a few days.
How do employees sign in?
As members of the site, with an emailed code valid for fifteen minutes or a password of at least ten characters. Five failed attempts lock sign-in for fifteen minutes, and a session lasts thirty days.
What should we show the data protection officer?
The list of tables, the roles and their rights, the record histories, and what you chose not to import. An ID tab that stayed out is a fact they will appreciate. Book that meeting before launch, not on a Friday evening.
Can an employee get a copy of their data?
You can export their records as CSV from each list. Answering the request remains your procedure: Eqlo does not write the letter, but it saves you from digging through email to find the information.
Pick the first process to take out of the sheet
The free account gives five projects and one seat, with no card. Per-table rights and record histories come with every plan.