Prepare, calculate, review and close
Effective-dated staff inputs, exceptions, approvals, immutable results, payslips and period-close evidence in one controlled workflow.
Open source · Self-hosted or managed · UK-first
Deploy payroll infrastructure on your terms.
HULO HR brings payroll operations, people records, documents and controlled integrations into one inspectable platform. Deploy the software in a controlled environment today, then activate real payroll use only when your statutory, provider and operational gates have passed.
Deployment path available · Live payroll activation remains release-gated
One operational platform
Payroll work without the black box
Ordinary employers get guided actions; payroll professionals retain detailed controls, evidence and review paths.
Records people can trust
Scoped employee records, self-service, communications and a quarantined, encrypted people-document vault.
Review without over-broad access
Time-bounded assignments, separation of duties, control packs and auditable sign-offs for in-house and external accountants.
Provider-ready workflows with honest status
Registration, authorisation, capability and release-gate workflows across the connector catalogue. Provider network traffic remains disabled until each integration is certified and configured.
Submission work is separately controlled
RTI and Government Gateway preparation, notices, payments and evidence are distinct workflows. No live HMRC submission is implied by a deployable application.
Recoverable work and visible health
Background-job recovery, encrypted backups, restore verification, health checks and correlation evidence support accountable operations.
Choose your operating model
Keep it on premises, or let us help operate it.
The code and data-control model stay visible in either route.
Self-host
Your infrastructure, your release decision
Run the container stack on a reviewed Linux host, supply your own keys and secrets, connect your edge TLS, and retain your own backup custody.
- Documented bootstrap and verification
- Private data-service networks
- Encrypted backup and restore tooling
- Portable AGPL source
Host with us
A dedicated environment, planned with you
We can scope an isolated managed deployment, operational ownership, backup design and support path for teams that do not want to operate HULO HR themselves.
- No payroll data needed for the first conversation
- Security and data-residency review before provisioning
- Acceptance and restore evidence before handover
- Live connectors activated only after approval
Security you can inspect
Layered controls, stated without absolutes.
No software is immune from attack. HULO HR combines preventative controls, contained data paths and retained evidence, then requires independent production review.
Identity & authority
Mandatory MFA, server-side sessions, scoped permissions, recent-verification gates and independent approval for consequential actions.
Data protection
Versioned authenticated encryption for restricted values, application-encrypted private documents, external key material and encrypted host, database and backup volumes for production deployments.
Service containment
Private database, cache and object networks; non-root containers; restrictive browser policies; bounded uploads; malware quarantine; and no public storage URLs.
Evidence & recovery
Append-only hash-chained audit events, immutable workflow snapshots, encrypted backups, disposable restore tests and release verification.
Production activation is a decision, not a badge.
Before real payroll data is admitted, the deployment owner must complete the published statutory validation, HMRC/provider approval, maintained storage, independent penetration test, monitoring, recovery and governance gates. Until those gates pass, this release cannot submit live RTI, send pension data, contact accounting or banking providers, or move money.
Open source & installable
Inspect first. Deploy second.
HULO HR is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later. A verified public GitHub remote has not yet been configured in this checkout, so we do not publish an invented repository, releases or issues link.
Source status & installationReviewed source checkoutUbuntu + Docker
cp .env.example .env
./scripts/bootstrap-secrets.sh
docker compose config --quiet
./scripts/preflight.sh --repository-only
docker compose build --pull
docker compose up -d --wait
./scripts/verify-deployment.sh --runningPlan the next step