The Challenge
A growing company with over 120 employees was drowning in manual payroll and HR processes. Approvals were routed through email chains, working hours were tracked inconsistently, and payroll calculations — including late penalties, public holidays, and employee-specific rules — were handled through spreadsheets. The margin for error was high, and staying compliant with UAE labour regulations added another layer of complexity that manual tools couldn't handle reliably.
Designing a flexible approval workflow system that could adapt to different company structures — from flat teams to multi-level hierarchies — without over-complicating the interface.
Handling employee-specific working hours alongside company-wide defaults without breaking payroll logic or creating edge cases.
Separating company owners from employees in the system while still supporting executive approvals and visibility.
Ensuring payroll accuracy across attendance rules, late penalties, paid public holidays, and exportable reports — all compliant with UAE labour law.
My Role
What I worked on
Core HR & payroll dashboard UI & UX
Design system & component library development
Multi-level sequential approval logic
Work schedule & attendance tracking engine
UAE labour compliance system architecture
Design Showcase
Visual exploration of the employee lifecycle and payroll automation flows.
The Solution
I approached this with a systems-first mindset, starting in Figma to map complex HR processes into clear, manageable interfaces before building anything. The core of the solution was a sequential approval engine that supported line-manager routing, department-based flows, and a toggle-based CEO approval mechanism — flexible enough to handle different company structures without requiring custom configuration for each. In Bubble, I implemented scalable data models for employees, work schedules, approvals, and payroll. Special attention went to the payroll engine: it needed to account for company-wide defaults, employee-specific overrides, late penalties, and UAE public holidays — all while producing accurate, exportable reports. The entire system was designed and shipped in 12 weeks.
The Outcome
Oqool Core HR replaced manual spreadsheets and email chains with a production-ready system managing over 120 employees. Payroll processing went from a multi-day ordeal to a streamlined, one-click operation. The flexible approval workflows eliminated routing confusion, and UAE labour compliance was built directly into the payroll logic rather than layered on as an afterthought. The company gained confidence in their payroll accuracy and freed their HR team to focus on people, not processes.
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