HR for Management Offices and Field Teams

Name: Better HR Southeast Asia
Address: US
Price range: $$

Run attendance, leave, claims and approvals for sales reps, distributors and field staff in every region from one head office account

For HR and operations leads at head offices managing distribution, field sales, medical rep, logistics and project field teams operating in Southeast Asia and cross-border operations.

field staff attendance appGPS attendance app for field employeesHR software for distribution companiesfield sales team attendance tracking

Pain points

Field staff report attendance by phone, chat message or paper sheets that reach head office days later
No reliable record of whether reps and technicians actually started work at the assigned site or region
Leave, overtime and expense requests wait on area managers who are themselves on the road
Each region or country office keeps its own spreadsheets, so head office has no single view of the workforce
Field employees rarely see announcements, payslips or training material sent to office email
Unclear rules on whether field roles are entitled to overtime and how location data from phones may be used

Working hours rules for staff who work outside the office

Whether a field employee is owed overtime depends on the country and on how closely the employer can track their hours. Classify each field role before you configure attendance and overtime, because the records you keep can affect that classification.

Singapore: the hours of work, overtime and rest day rules in Part 4 of the Employment Act do not cover managers and executives. Overtime can be claimed by non-workmen earning a basic monthly salary of SGD 2,600 or less and workmen earning SGD 4,500 or less. Overtime is paid at no less than 1.5 times the hourly basic rate, within 14 days after the end of the salary period, and is capped at 72 hours a month unless MOM grants an exemption.
Philippines: Article 82 of the Labor Code excludes field personnel from the hours of work provisions. Field personnel are non-agricultural employees who regularly work away from the principal place of business or branch office and whose actual hours of work in the field cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
Philippines: the Supreme Court has held that location alone does not decide the question. The test is whether the employee's time and performance are supervised. Employees required to be at specific places at specific times are not field personnel, so a fixed check-in schedule may bring a sales or delivery role back under the overtime rules.
Philippines: the implementing rules let employers skip individual time records for non-agricultural field personnel, provided a record of their daily attendance is kept.
Vietnam: Article 105 of the 2019 Labour Code sets normal working hours at no more than 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week, with up to 10 hours a day allowed where the employer sets hours on a weekly basis. These limits apply to field staff in the same way as office staff.

GPS attendance and personal data: notify, limit, document

A GPS check-in collects location data tied to a named person. Most Better HR markets allow this for employment purposes, but each expects employees to know what is collected and why. Write a short attendance and location notice, explain that verification happens at check-in, and keep it with the employee handbook.

Singapore: under the PDPA, employers do not need consent to collect personal data that is reasonable for managing the employment relationship, but they must tell employees the purposes. PDPC guidance says this can be done through employment contracts, employee handbooks or intranet notices.
Philippines: the Data Privacy Act requires processing to follow the principles of transparency, legitimate purpose and proportionality, and to rest on at least one lawful ground in Section 12, such as consent, fulfilment of a contract, a legal obligation or legitimate interests.
Vietnam: Personal Data Protection Law No. 91/2025/QH15 took effect on 1 January 2026. Article 31 bars location tracking without the person's agreement unless a competent authority requests it or the law provides otherwise, and requires mobile app providers to tell users how location data is used and give them options over location tracking.
Vietnam: Article 25 allows employers to process employee data collected through technology only on the basis that employees clearly know about the measures used. Decree 356/2025/ND-CP lists a person's position determined through positioning services as sensitive personal data, and consent for sensitive data must tell the person that the data is sensitive.

Expense claims and allowances for field staff

Field teams generate a steady flow of small claims: fuel, tolls, parking, client meals and overnight stays. Paying them as a flat allowance or as reimbursement of actual costs can change the tax treatment, so decide the policy per claim type and keep the approval trail. In the Better HR mobile app, employees submit expenses and approvers sign off through the same workflow used for leave and overtime.

Singapore: IRAS treats a fixed monthly transport allowance as taxable, while reimbursing transport costs for official duties, such as travel from the office to meet a client, is not taxable. A per-trip allowance for an actual trip made is also not taxable.
Singapore: when staff drive their own car, mileage reimbursed for trips between the office or home and an external business venue such as a client's premises is not taxable, while reimbursement of private mileage is taxable.
Set approval routes by amount and claim type, for example area manager for routine fuel claims and finance for overnight travel.
Ask for the trip date, purpose and customer or site visited on every claim so finance can separate business travel from private use.

How head office stays in control across regions

Management offices need the same visibility over a rep in an upcountry territory as over staff at headquarters. Better HR keeps every employee in one account and lets each region keep its own approvers and rules.

Real-time attendance dashboard filterable by location and department
Custom approval workflows for leave, overtime and expenses, approved on mobile
Performance appraisals and KPI tracker for sales and field targets
Inbox announcements and a learning library for product updates and compliance training
Payroll with statutory compliance for 9 countries, bank disbursement files and payslips on mobile
Hiring for new territories through Better Jobs, the built-in applicant tracking system

How Better HR solves this

Better HR gives the management office one system for every employee, whether they sit at headquarters or cover a sales territory. Field staff check in through the iOS and Android app with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification, while office and warehouse staff can use a biometric device. Leave, overtime and expense requests go through custom approval workflows on mobile, so area and regional managers can approve from wherever they are. Head office sees a real-time attendance dashboard filterable by location and department, runs performance appraisals and the KPI tracker, sends announcements to every phone, and runs payroll with statutory compliance for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan from a single account.

Expected outcomes

Verified check-in records for field staff instead of self-reported attendance
Leave, overtime and expense approvals that do not stall when managers travel
One attendance and headcount view across regions, branches and country entities
Payroll for every country run from head office, with payslips delivered to each employee's phone
Announcements, appraisals and learning material that reach staff who never sit at a desk

Frequently asked questions

1. What is the best way to track attendance for field employees?

Use a mobile attendance app that verifies where the employee checks in, so the record does not depend on self-reporting. In Better HR, field staff check in on the iOS or Android app with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification, and head office sees the result on a real-time dashboard filterable by location and department.

2. Does Better HR track employees' live location all day?

No. Better HR uses GPS to verify where an employee is when they check in or out. It is an attendance tool, not a live route tracking system.

3. Do I need employee consent to use GPS attendance?

It depends on the country. In Singapore, consent is not required for data reasonably needed to manage employment, but employees must be told the purpose. In the Philippines, processing needs a lawful ground under the Data Privacy Act and must be transparent and proportionate. In Vietnam, the Personal Data Protection Law in force since 1 January 2026 restricts location tracking without the person's agreement. Give every field employee a written notice and take local legal advice before relying on consent exceptions.

4. Are field sales staff entitled to overtime pay?

It depends on the country and the role. In Singapore, overtime under Part 4 of the Employment Act covers non-workmen earning up to SGD 2,600 and workmen earning up to SGD 4,500 a month, but not managers or executives. In the Philippines, field personnel whose hours cannot be determined with reasonable certainty are excluded from the hours of work rules, but staff required to be at set places at set times are not field personnel.

5. Can area managers approve leave and expenses from the road?

Yes. Approval workflows run in the mobile app, so managers can review and approve leave, overtime and expense requests from their phone. You can set different approvers by region, department or request type.

6. Can we manage staff in several countries from one head office account?

Yes. Better HR runs attendance, leave and payroll for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan from a single account, applying each country's statutory rules.

7. Can office staff use a biometric device while field staff use the app?

Yes. Head office and warehouse staff can check in on a biometric device, while field teams use the mobile app. Both feed the same attendance records and payroll.

8. How much does Better HR cost for a large field workforce?

Better HR has a single plan priced per active employee per month, covering attendance, leave, approvals, expense tracking, appraisals and payroll with no feature tiers. Prices are set per country, so check the pricing page for each market your teams work in.