HR, Scheduling and Payroll for Multi-Branch Retail

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

Rosters, attendance and payroll for every outlet, with branch-level pay rules and reporting in one system

For HR, payroll and operations teams at multi-branch retail chains such as supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, fashion and electronics retailers operating in Southeast Asia and cross-border operations.

retail HR softwareretail payroll softwaremulti-branch retail staff schedulingretail shift scheduling software Southeast Asia

Pain points

Rosters built store by store in spreadsheets or chat groups, with no chain-wide view of weekend and public holiday coverage
Staff covering shifts at other outlets, so hours and location-based pay are recorded against the wrong branch
Buddy punching and paper timesheets that store managers sign off without checking
Minimum wage floors that differ by province or region and change on different dates each year
Overtime, rest day and public holiday premiums worked out by hand for hundreds of hourly and part-time staff
No branch-level view of labour cost, overtime and absence across the chain

Regional minimum wages your branches must follow

Several Southeast Asian countries set minimum wages by region, province or city rather than nationally. A chain with stores in a capital and in smaller towns pays different legal floors, and those floors are revised on different dates. The figures below were current in early November 2026. Check the official source before each annual change.

Vietnam: Decree 293/2025/ND-CP sets four regional minimums from 1 January 2026: Region I VND 5,310,000 a month (VND 25,500 an hour), Region II VND 4,730,000 (22,700), Region III VND 4,140,000 (20,000) and Region IV VND 3,700,000 (17,800). The region is set by where the employer, unit or branch operates, so each store follows the rate for its own locality. Decree 399/2026/ND-CP raises the rates from 1 January 2027 to VND 5,700,000, 5,080,000, 4,450,000 and 4,040,000 a month (VND 27,400, 24,400, 21,400 and 19,400 an hour).
Thailand: Wage Committee Notification No. 14, in force since 1 July 2025, sets daily minimums from THB 337 to THB 400 depending on the province. THB 400 applies in Bangkok, Chachoengsao, Chonburi, Phuket, Rayong and Koh Samui district. THB 372 applies in Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon. The THB 337 floor applies in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala. Provincial proposals for 2027 have been submitted to the Wage Committee, but no new rate had been approved by early November 2026.
Indonesia: each governor sets a provincial minimum wage (UMP) for 2026 under PP 49/2025, and many regencies and cities set a higher UMK. Jakarta's 2026 UMP is Rp5,729,876 a month (Governor's Decree 1142/2025), the highest in the country, while West Java's UMP of Rp2,317,601 is the lowest. In Jakarta the UMP applies to workers with less than one year of service, and employers must use a wage structure and scale for longer-serving staff.
Philippines: Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards set daily minimums region by region. In Metro Manila, Wage Order NCR-28 set the non-agriculture rate at PHP 755 a day from 26 September 2026. In CALABARZON, the Wage Order effective 26 October 2026 sets PHP 550 to 645 depending on area and category. As of 6 October 2026 the lowest non-agriculture rate in the country was PHP 455, in MIMAROPA and Region V.
Singapore: there is no general minimum wage, but the Retail Progressive Wage Model is mandatory for Singapore citizen and PR retail staff at firms that employ foreign workers. From 1 September 2026, retail assistants and cashiers must earn at least SGD 2,435 a month (SGD 12.77 an hour part-time), senior retail assistants SGD 2,680 (SGD 14.06) and assistant retail supervisors SGD 2,950 (SGD 15.47), excluding overtime pay.

Overtime, rest day and public holiday premiums for shift staff

Retail rosters run through weekends, festive seasons and public holidays, and each country prices those hours differently. A payroll system has to tell an ordinary-day overtime hour from a rest-day hour, a holiday hour and a holiday overtime hour, and apply the right multiplier to each.

Philippines (DOLE Handbook on Workers' Statutory Monetary Benefits): overtime on an ordinary day is paid at 125%, work on a rest day or special non-working day at 130%, work on a regular holiday at 200%, and a regular holiday that falls on a rest day at 260%. Night shift differential adds at least 10% for hours between 10 pm and 6 am. Retail and service establishments regularly employing fewer than ten workers are exempt from holiday pay.
Vietnam (Labour Code 2019, Article 98): overtime is paid at least 150% on normal working days, 200% on weekly days off and 300% on public holidays and paid leave days. Night work between 10 pm and 6 am earns at least 30% extra. Overtime is capped at 40 hours a month and 200 hours a year in most sectors.
Thailand (Labour Protection Act, sections 61 to 63): overtime on a working day is paid at least 1.5 times the hourly wage. Work on a holiday is paid at least one extra hourly rate for employees already paid for that holiday, or twice the hourly rate for employees who are not. Overtime on a holiday is paid at least 3 times the hourly wage.
Indonesia (PP 35/2021): the hourly wage is 1/173 of the monthly wage. On a working day the first overtime hour is paid at 1.5 times and each following hour at 2 times. On a weekly rest day or public holiday under a six-day week, hours 1 to 7 are paid at 2 times, hour 8 at 3 times and hours 9 to 11 at 4 times. Working-day overtime is limited to 4 hours a day and 18 hours a week.
Singapore (Employment Act Part 4): workmen earning up to SGD 4,500 and non-workmen earning up to SGD 2,600 basic a month are paid at least 1.5 times the hourly basic rate for overtime, up to 72 overtime hours a month. An employee who works on a public holiday is owed an extra day's salary at the basic rate, or a day off in lieu by agreement.

Part-time staff, commissions and incentives

Retail payroll mixes monthly staff with hourly part-timers, festive temps, sales commissions and outlet incentives. Each of these is treated differently for minimum wage, social security and holiday allowances.

Singapore part-timers: Retail PWM wage requirements for part-time staff are pro-rated on a 44-hour basis and published as hourly rates. The PWM gross wage counts basic wage, allowances and productivity incentive payments, but not bonuses, the Annual Wage Supplement or employer CPF contributions.
Singapore commissions and CPF: sales commission is a wage for CPF purposes. A commission earned for the month and paid by the 14th of the following month is counted as Ordinary Wages for that month. Commissions paid less often, such as quarterly, are treated as Additional Wages, which have their own annual ceiling.
Vietnam hourly staff: Decree 293/2025/ND-CP sets an hourly minimum for each region alongside the monthly one, so part-time and hourly retail staff have a floor of their own based on where the store is.
Indonesia THR: the religious holiday allowance is owed to permanent and fixed-term staff with at least one month of continuous service. Staff with 12 months or more receive one month's wage, and shorter-serving staff a pro-rated amount. The 2026 Ministry of Manpower circular requires payment in full, no later than 7 days before the holiday.
Indonesia overtime base: where pay is made up of basic wage plus fixed allowances, overtime is calculated on the whole amount, not on basic wage alone.
Philippines minimum wage earners: statutory minimum wage earners are exempt from income tax on the minimum wage itself and on holiday pay, overtime pay and night shift differential.

Day-to-day problems in multi-outlet retail

Most retail payroll errors start on the shop floor, before payroll is run. These are the patterns that cause the most rework for retail HR teams and how a single system handles them.

Staff moving between outlets: when an employee covers a shift at another branch, the hours need to land in that branch's attendance and cost, and in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines the store's location can change the wage floor. Pay rules by location or department keep this consistent.
Buddy punching and proxy clock-ins: mobile clock-in with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification checks that the employee is at the outlet. A biometric device at the store ties the clock-in to the person rather than a card or PIN.
Weekend and holiday coverage: rosters for festive seasons, sales events and public holidays need to be planned chain-wide, so head office can see which stores are short before the day and what the holiday premiums will cost.
Late arrivals and early leaves: grace periods, late and early deduction rules and rounding set once per shift type stop store managers from making their own calls each month.
Labour cost by branch: branch-level reporting shows hours, overtime and absence per outlet, so area managers can compare stores on the same basis.

What Better HR covers for a retail chain

Better HR is a single plan priced per active employee, with every module included. Retail teams typically use these parts of it:

Shift scheduling and rosters with multiple shift types, each with its own rates
Attendance through the iOS and Android mobile app with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification, or a biometric device
OT1, OT2 and OT3 multipliers, weekend and public holiday rates, shift allowances, grace periods, rounding and late or early deduction rules
Pay by location or department, with a multi-outlet dashboard and branch-level reporting
Leave management, approval workflows and expense tracking
Payroll with statutory compliance for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan from one account, with payslips and bank disbursement files
KPI tracking, performance appraisals, an AI agent, and hiring through Better Jobs for seasonal and new-store recruitment

How Better HR solves this

Better HR gives a retail chain one system for rosters, attendance and payroll across every outlet. Store managers build shift schedules with multiple shift types, each with its own rates, and staff clock in through the mobile app with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification or on a biometric device at the store. Your configured grace periods, late and early deduction rules, rounding, OT1/OT2/OT3 multipliers, weekend and public holiday rates and shift allowances turn those clock-ins into pay, and rates can be set by location or department so each branch follows its own wage floor. Payroll runs with statutory compliance for all nine Better HR countries from one account, goes through approval, and produces payslips and bank disbursement files. Head office sees every outlet in a multi-outlet dashboard with branch-level reporting.

Expected outcomes

Every outlet's roster, attendance and labour cost visible from one multi-outlet dashboard
Overtime, rest day and holiday premiums calculated from actual clock-in data instead of re-keyed timesheets
Pay rules set by location, so branches in higher-wage regions are paid against the right floor
Clock-ins verified at the outlet by GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth or a biometric device
Payroll for every country closed from one account with approvals, payslips and bank-ready files

Frequently asked questions

1. Do retail chains with branches in different provinces pay different minimum wages?

Often, yes. Vietnam sets four regional minimums and requires each unit or branch to apply the rate for the locality where it operates. Thailand sets daily rates by province (THB 337 to 400 under Notification No. 14), Indonesia sets provincial and city or regency minimums, and the Philippines sets them through regional wage boards. A store in Bangkok, Jakarta or Metro Manila has a higher floor than a store in a smaller province.

2. What is the minimum wage for retail staff in Vietnam in 2026 and 2027?

Under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP, the 2026 monthly minimums are VND 5,310,000 (Region I), 4,730,000 (Region II), 4,140,000 (Region III) and 3,700,000 (Region IV). Decree 399/2026/ND-CP raises them from 1 January 2027 to VND 5,700,000, 5,080,000, 4,450,000 and 4,040,000. Hourly minimums apply to hourly and part-time staff.

3. What is the Retail Progressive Wage for retail assistants in Singapore?

From 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027, retail assistants and cashiers covered by the Retail PWM must earn at least SGD 2,435 a month excluding overtime, or SGD 12.77 an hour if part-time. It applies to Singapore citizen and PR retail staff at firms that employ foreign workers.

4. How much do retail staff in the Philippines get for working on a regular holiday?

At least 200% of the daily wage for the first eight hours, or 260% if the holiday is also the employee's rest day. Hours beyond eight earn a further 30% on the holiday hourly rate. Retail and service establishments regularly employing fewer than ten workers are exempt from holiday pay.

5. Are sales commissions subject to CPF in Singapore?

Yes. Commission is a wage for CPF. Commission earned for a month and paid by the 14th of the following month counts as Ordinary Wages. Commission paid at longer intervals, such as quarterly, is treated as Additional Wages.

6. How can a retail chain stop buddy punching at its outlets?

Tie each clock-in to the person and the place. With Better HR, staff clock in on the mobile app with GPS, WiFi or Bluetooth verification at the outlet, or on a biometric device installed in the store, and the clock-in goes straight into payroll without a paper timesheet in between.

7. Can Better HR schedule shifts and run payroll across many outlets and countries?

Yes. You build rosters per outlet with multiple shift types and their own rates, set pay rules by location or department, and see every store in a multi-outlet dashboard with branch-level reporting. Payroll for all nine supported countries runs from one account.

8. How much does Better HR cost for a retail business?

Better HR has a single plan priced per active employee per month, with every module included and no tiers by outlet count. Prices are set per country, so check the pricing page for the markets your branches are in.