Welcome

Meet Brightleaf Logistics (example organisation)

Brightleaf Logistics is an illustrative example — not a Foundry HR customer. It’s a fictional 180-person freight and warehousing company used in this guide to show how the product fits together once a team has outgrown spreadsheets.

In the story, employee records lived in one file, leave requests in email, timesheets in another spreadsheet, and nobody could say for sure who reported to whom. You’ll follow three people at Brightleaf as they move onto Foundry HR — the same journey you’ll take with your own team.

Meet the team

Maya — HR Admin. Owns employee records, policy, goals, and review cycles.
Devon — Team Lead. Approves leave and timesheets, and runs goals and reviews for his team.
Priya — Employee. Uses self-service leave, timesheets, goals, and her own profile.

The metaphor

Think of Foundry HR as a single filing cabinet with six drawers — Employee, Leave, Timesheets, Team, Goals & performance, and Admin — where every drawer opens onto the same folder for each person. Update it once, and every drawer sees the change.

01 Employee 02 Leave & Attendance 03 Timesheets 04 Team 05 Goals & performance 06 Company & Admin One employee record every hub reads it
Six hubs, one employee record at the centre. Update it once and every hub sees the change.

Every stage in this guide follows the same shape: a metaphor, a Brightleaf example moment, a diagram, then concrete steps. Move at your own pace — your progress is saved automatically.

Stage 0

Sign in and get your bearings

/login/home
The metaphor

Home is the front desk of the filing cabinet — it doesn't hold records itself, it points you to the drawer you need.

Brightleaf moment

Maya, Devon, and Priya all sign in at the same URL. What they see next differs — Maya’s Home surfaces admin shortcuts; Priya’s surfaces her leave balance, open timesheet, and goals.

Sign in /login Home /home Maya · HR Admin admin shortcuts, company totals Devon · Team Lead approvals waiting on him Priya · Employee leave balance, open timesheet, goals
One sign-in, one Home. What it surfaces is shaped by your role.
  1. Go to /login and sign in with your workspace credentials.
  2. Land on /home — this is your launchpad, not a hub itself.
  3. Note the navigation groups on the left: Overview, Employee, Timesheet, Team, Company, and — if you're an admin — Admin.
Stage 1

Employee — the record everything connects to

/employee-details/:userId/employee-management/onboarding-setup-wizard
The metaphor

The employee record is the folder itself — everything else in Foundry HR is a drawer that references it.

Brightleaf moment

When Brightleaf hires a new warehouse supervisor, Maya runs the Onboarding Setup Wizard once. From that moment, the new hire appears in the Directory, can request leave, can set or be assigned goals, and gets a manager to approve their timesheets — without Maya touching four different systems.

Onboarding Setup Wizard, run once Employee record role + reporting line Directory & Org Chart drawn from the reporting line Leave & Attendance balances attach to the record Timesheets approver comes from the line Goals & performance goals and reviews run against the record
Create the record once. Every other hub references it rather than storing its own copy.

HR admins use Employee Management to see, add, and edit every employee record in the company.

  1. Open /onboarding-setup-wizard for a guided setup.
  2. Or go directly to /employee-management and add a record manually.
  3. Fill in role, reporting line, and employment details — the reporting line is what drives the Org Chart later.

Employees view and maintain their own details from My Profile.

  1. Open /employee-details/:userId (your own ID is pre-filled from your session).
  2. Review personal details and employment history.
Stage 2

Leave & Attendance

/my-leaves/leave-management/holiday-management
The metaphor

Holiday Management is the calendar pinned to the wall; My Leave and Leave Management are the request and the sign-off that happen against it.

Brightleaf moment

Priya requests three days off in My Leave. Devon sees it land in his approval queue in Leave Management, checked automatically against the holiday calendar Maya set up — no email required.

Before

Leave requested in Slack, approved verbally, tracked nowhere. Balances are guesswork.

With Foundry HR

Request → holiday-calendar check → approval, all logged with a running balance.

Employee submits My Leave · dates and leave type Checked automatically balance · holiday calendar · clashes Manager decides Leave Management queue Declined returned with a reason on record Approved balance deducted, calendar updated
Every request takes the same path, and a decline loops back to the employee rather than vanishing.
  1. Open /my-leaves.
  2. Submit a request for the dates you need.
  3. Track its status without chasing anyone.
  1. Open /leave-management.
  2. Review requests against team coverage.
  3. Approve or decline — balances update automatically.
  1. Open /holiday-management.
  2. Add company and regional holidays for the year.
Stage 3

Timesheets

/my-timesheets/manage-timesheet/timesheet-approvals
The metaphor

A timesheet is a time card that gets punched, reviewed by a team lead, then filed — three steps, one flow.

Brightleaf moment

Priya logs her week in My Timesheets every Friday. Devon reviews his whole team's submissions in Manage Timesheet, then approves them in Timesheet Approvals before payroll runs.

sent back for a fix EMPLOYEE My Timesheets log the week TEAM LEAD Manage Timesheet the whole team TEAM LEAD Approvals approve or return Payroll-ready period closed
Log, review, approve, with a send-back path when a week needs fixing.
  1. Open /my-timesheets.
  2. Log hours against the current period and submit.
  1. Open /manage-timesheet.
  2. Scan for missing or late submissions.
  1. Open /timesheet-approvals.
  2. Approve or send back individual submissions.
Stage 4

Team

/team/directory/team/org-chart/team-management
The metaphor

Directory is the phone book; Org Chart is the map of who reports to whom — both drawn live from employee records, never hand-maintained.

Brightleaf moment

When Brightleaf's new supervisor's reporting line was set during onboarding, they appeared on Devon's branch of the Org Chart automatically — no separate diagram to update.

Team Management where reporting lines are set Directory every person, searchable by name or role Org Chart reporting lines, drawn automatically
Set the reporting line once in Team Management; the Directory and Org Chart follow from it.
  1. Open /team/directory and search by name or role.
  1. Open /team/org-chart.
  2. Confirm reporting lines match reality — fix them in Team Management if not.
  1. Open /team-management.
  2. Reassign employees between teams or leads as the org changes.
Stage 5

Goals & performance

/performance-configuration/performance-configuration/add-review-cycle/performance-review/[employeeId]/employee-details/:userId
The metaphor

Goals are what good looks like for each person; Performance Configuration is the season schedule; each Performance Review is a single match played against that schedule — all still reading the same employee folder.

Brightleaf moment

Maya sets Brightleaf’s goals framework and Q3 review cycle once. Priya can see and update her goals; Devon opens a Performance Review for each direct report against the same cycle — no separate doc per person.

Goals set on employee record Review cycle configured once (Admin) Performance Review per employee Dashboard tracks completion
Goals set on the employee record → Review cycle configured once (Admin) → Performance Review per employee → Dashboard tracks completion.
  1. Open /employee-details/:userId. Create or assign goals on the employee record so reviews have something concrete to land on.
  1. Open /performance-configuration.
  2. Add a new cycle at /performance-configuration/add-review-cycle.
  1. Open /performance-review/[employeeId] for the person you're reviewing.
  2. Complete and submit the review against the active cycle (and the goals already on the record).
Stage 6

Company & Admin

/company/attachments/admin/customise-user-policy/dashboard
The metaphor

Admin is the office behind the front desk — it doesn't process day-to-day requests, it sets the rules and watches the whole floor.

Brightleaf moment

Maya keeps shared policy documents in Company Attachments, restricts who can see salary data via Customise User Policy, and checks headcount and review completion for the whole company on the Dashboard.

OWN RECORD TEAM DATA COMPANY-WIDE Priya Employee Devon Team Lead Maya HR Admin
Customise User Policy decides each row: the same screens, a different amount of them.
  1. Open /company/attachments.
  2. Upload and organise documents everyone in the company may need.
  1. Open /admin/customise-user-policy.
  2. Set visibility and permissions per role.
  1. Open /dashboard.
  2. Review headcount, leave trends, and review-cycle completion.
How it all works together

The full journey, end to end

From a new hire through leave, time, team visibility, goals, and a completed review cycle, every stage in Foundry HR reads and writes the same employee record.

1 Record created 2 Leave requested 3 Time logged 4 Team visible Goals & review done Company & Admin access policy and Dashboard oversight, across every stage above
The five stages run in order. Admin is not a sixth step; it sits across all of them.

Confirm the new hire's record, role, and reporting line are set.

Confirm the employee can request leave and it's checked against the calendar.

Confirm logging, review, and approval all run without email.

Confirm the employee shows up in the right place on the Org Chart.

Confirm goals exist for the employee and a review cycle is scheduled.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

No — one sign-in gives access to every hub your role is permitted to see, controlled from Customise User Policy.

Yes — the Org Chart and Directory are drawn live from Team Management data, not maintained separately.

No. Brightleaf Logistics is an illustrative example used only in this guide (and similar walkthroughs) to show how Foundry HR fits together.

In the Goals & performance hub — same employee record as leave, time, and reviews. Set goals first, then run review cycles against them.

Only what Customise User Policy allows for their role — most employees see their own records only.