Picture a Philippine company with 320 employees. Head office in Makati, a distribution centre in Cebu, a few branches in Davao and Pampanga. Payroll runs twice a month. Every month brings SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG remittances, and every December brings the 13th month pay. The HR team of five is competent, but it is spending most of its week moving data between a payroll tool, an attendance tool and a folder of spreadsheets.
This is the squeeze that defines HR software in the Philippines for 200 to 500 employees. The entry-level tools these teams adopt early start to creak, yet an enterprise suite like SAP SuccessFactors costs more and takes longer than the company can justify. This guide compares the HRIS for mid-size companies in the Philippines that an employer is most likely to shortlist, starting with the one designed for this stage, and explains what to test before you sign.
What changes when a company passes 200 employees
Below 100 people, an owner or a single HR officer can hold the whole picture in their head. Between 200 and 500, the work becomes a system. These are the requirements that start to matter.
- Statutory remittances at volume: SSS at 15% of the monthly salary credit (10% employer, 5% employee, with a credit ceiling of ₱35,000), PhilHealth at 5% of basic salary between ₱10,000 and ₱100,000, and Pag-IBIG at 2% each on a maximum fund salary of ₱10,000.
- BIR filings that tie out: Forms 2316 and 1601-C and the alphalist should come from the payroll data, not from a separate re-key.
- Premium pay rules: overtime, night differential at 10%, regular holiday pay at 200% and special non-working day pay at 130% must follow attendance data automatically.
- Regional wage orders: operations in several regions mean several wage boards, and one missed update can create back pay for the whole branch.
- Approval workflows: leave, overtime and expense approvals that follow your real reporting lines across sites.
- Hiring and performance at volume: a recruitment pipeline and a review cycle that work for hundreds of people, not a shared spreadsheet.
Also read: Top HRMS/HRIS software in the Philippines.
HR software in the Philippines for 200 to 500 employees at a glance
| Platform | SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG and BIR | Attendance | Full HR suite | Multi-country | Best fit |
| Akrivia HCM | Native | GPS, geo-fence, biometric, mobile | Yes | Yes | 200 to 2,000, growing or regional |
| Sprout Solutions | Native | Yes | Strong | No | Philippines only, mid-size |
| PayrollHero | Native | Shift focused | Limited | No | Shift heavy, multi-site |
| GreatDay HR | Native | Mobile first | Partial | SEA only | Field and frontline teams |
| SAP SuccessFactors | Partner configured | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2,000 plus enterprises |
Akrivia HCM: built for the middle of the market
Among HR software in the Philippines for 200 to 500 employees, Akrivia HCM comes first on this list because it is designed for the stage where HR stops being an admin job and becomes an operating system. It is a unified hire-to-retire HRIS for mid-size companies in the Philippines. Recruitment, onboarding, core HR, attendance, leave, payroll, performance, learning and analytics share one record, so nothing is entered twice.
For a Philippine employer with 200 to 500 people, that means:
- SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG calculated natively, with contribution tables updated automatically when the agencies revise them.
- BIR compliance built in: TRAIN withholding with Forms 2316 and 1601-C and the alphalist generated from payroll.
- Prorated 13th-month pay computed automatically under DOLE rules.
- Night differential, overtime and holiday premiums driven by attendance from GPS, geo-fencing, biometric and mobile punches.
- Multiple legal entities and branches managed from one dashboard.
- OKR-based performance management, a native learning system and recruitment inside the same platform.
- Akrivia CoPilot analytics that show attrition, cost per branch and headcount trends without a separate BI tool.
- Mobile self-service so employees check payslips, apply for leave and file requests from a phone.
- Native multi-country payroll for Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE and beyond, so a regional office does not mean a second vendor.
Sprout Solutions
Sprout is among the most recognised HR names in the Philippines, and for a Philippines-only company it is a credible choice. It covers the payroll employers expect, plus time, HR and statutory compliance, with local support and a strong product reputation.
Where to look closer:
- Per employee pricing compounds as headcount grows. At an indicative range of ₱200 to ₱300 per employee per month, 300 employees would cost roughly ₱60,000 to ₱90,000 a month, so get a written quote for your headcount.
- Native multi-country payroll is not part of the product, so regional expansion means a second system.
- Some customers report slowdowns during busy payroll windows, so ask about peak load in your demo.
PayrollHero
PayrollHero is focused on time, attendance and payroll for shift-heavy, multi-location workforces such as BPO, retail and service chains, and shift teams rely on it every cutoff. It does not try to be everything, and that focus is its strength.
Where to look closer:
- Recruitment, performance management and learning are not part of the core product, so you will need other tools for them.
- There is no multi-country payroll for companies with offices abroad.
- If shifts are only part of your workforce, you may be paying for depth you will not use.
GreatDay HR
GreatDay HR is built around mobile self-service, with selfie-based attendance and GPS for employees who work away from a desk. It suits field sales, logistics and branch-based staff, and unlike the Philippines-only tools here it runs payroll across several Southeast Asian markets.
Where to look closer:
- Performance management, recruitment and learning are not its main strengths.
- Analytics and approval customisation can hit a ceiling as workflows get more complex.
- Its multi-country payroll covers Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam), but not India or the Gulf, so expansion beyond the region still needs another vendor.
SAP SuccessFactors
SAP SuccessFactors is the enterprise reference point. It is a full global suite, and it makes sense for multinationals that already run SAP.
Where to look closer:
- Full local payroll compliance is typically configured through partners rather than delivered natively.
- Implementations commonly run from 6 to 18 months.
- The cost and consulting effort are usually beyond what a 200- to 500-person company needs.
The workflow wall: when the first system stops keeping up
An HRIS for mid-size companies in the Philippines rarely fails at payroll first. It fails at workflow. The workflow wall shows up as small recurring frictions:
- Leave and overtime approvals that live in email chains across branches.
- Attendance exports reconciled by hand before every payroll cutoff.
- A second payroll person hired only to check the first one’s work.
- Statutory remittance files assembled from several spreadsheets.
- Monthly reports for management rebuilt from three separate exports.
Two or three of these is normal. Five means your current system is working against you, and the cost is hiring more people to compensate.
Read more: Best HR software for 200 to 500 employees in India.
Conclusion
The best HR software in the Philippines for 200 to 500 employees is the one that handles SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, BIR and 13th month pay correctly today and still works when your headcount, branches or countries double. Choosing a platform your team will not outgrow is the real task. Starter apps hit the workflow wall, and enterprise suites arrive too late and cost too much.
FAQs
Is the 13th month pay due in December?
it must be paid no later than 24 December for rank-and-file employees who worked at least one month
Are wage orders the same in every region?
No, each regional wage board sets its own minimum wage. Branches in different regions need separate rates in payroll.
Do night shift workers get extra pay?
Yes, working between 10 PM and 6 AM earns a night differential of at least 10% of the hourly rate. Your attendance data should drive it automatically.