Timeline Payroll
Free Windows payroll application for small businesses. Employees, attendance, tax calculation, payslips and reports, with no per-employee fee.
$0
Per-Employee Fee
12 min
Run Time
200+
Active Businesses
01Timeline Payroll: The Challenge
Commercial payroll services charge $40 per employee per month. A 25-person small business pays $12,000 a year before any add-ons. Most small operators we surveyed in Pakistan and the US Midwest were running payroll in Excel and missing tax filings as a result.
02Timeline Payroll: The Solution
Built a Windows desktop payroll engine with attendance tracking, automated income-tax calculation per employee, statutory deductions, payslip PDF generation and end-of-month tax-filing exports. Multi-country tax presets out of the box.
03Timeline Payroll: The Results
Used by 200+ small businesses across Pakistan, the UAE and the USA. Average payroll-run time dropped from 4 hours (Excel) to 12 minutes. Zero per-employee charge. Companion SEO pages rank for "best payroll for small business" and "free payroll Windows".
Technology Stack
Services Provided
Outcomes that mattered
The numbers above are the headline. Below is what they mean for the hr & payroll saas operations team: what they stopped doing, what they started doing, and what changed for end customers.
$0
Per-Employee Fee
Headline metric, measured against the pre-launch baseline.
12 min
Run Time
Captured 90 days post-launch with the same methodology used during discovery.
200+
Active Businesses
Operational impact reported by the client team in their post-launch review.
Why this tech stack
We pick technology based on the production load, the integration footprint and the long-term maintenance reality, not the latest framework on Hacker News. For Timeline Payroll, the stack we chose:
Electron
Production-grade choice for hr & payroll saas workloads at this scale.
Windows
Production-grade choice for hr & payroll saas workloads at this scale.
SQLite
Production-grade choice for hr & payroll saas workloads at this scale.
Node.js
Production-grade choice for hr & payroll saas workloads at this scale.
TypeScript
Production-grade choice for hr & payroll saas workloads at this scale.
Services used on this build
Timeline Payroll was delivered by combining the following Timeline Digital services. If your team needs a similar engagement, these are the entry points.
Custom Software Development
Off-the-shelf software forces your team to adapt to it. We reverse that by building business software around your exact workflows, data structures, and approval processes, so the tool fits the work rather than the other way around.
Enterprise Systems Development
Timeline Digital builds multi-module enterprise platforms (ERP, CRM, HR, supply chain, and BI) on .NET Core or Laravel backends with React or Next.js frontends, replacing disconnected departmental tools with a single governed system.
Common questions about this case
How long did the Timeline Payroll build take?+
4 months. We worked with short, regular updates and a working demo at each check-in, so Timeline Digital (in-house product) saw progress continuously.
What technology did Timeline Digital use to build Timeline Payroll?+
Electron, Windows, SQLite, Node.js, TypeScript. We pick the stack based on the production load, integration requirements and the team's long-term maintenance capacity, not the latest framework on Hacker News.
What industry was Timeline Payroll built for?+
HR & Payroll SaaS. The patterns we used here transfer to similar businesses with comparable scale and regulatory requirements. Reach out if you operate in this space and want a similar build.
Can Timeline Digital build something similar for our team?+
Yes. We start every engagement with a paid discovery phase that produces architecture, a clear written scope and a proposal, and we agree the full scope up front. Mutual NDA signed on day one, full IP assignment, no agency overhead. Cost depends on scope, features and integrations. Book a free call and we will walk you through it.
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