Est. 2024 · Jakarta & Dubai · Vol. I, No. 1
A small team's field notes on building HR software
that doesn't cost a fortune
About · Story · Catalog · Timeline
We were a tiny team — spread between Jakarta and Dubai — drowning in spreadsheets, WhatsApp threads, and the kind of leave-tracking chaos that makes you question whether "HR" stands for "Highly Ridiculous."
Every solution we found wanted $12 per employee per month. For a 10-person team that's $1,440 a year — just to know who's on leave tomorrow. We refused. So we opened our laptops and started building.
Yes, really. The first working prototype of Workived's leave management module was coded during an actual holiday. There's something poetic about building a leave tracker while you're supposed to be off.
That prototype became the foundation of everything. Attendance came next, then expense claims, then the task board. Each feature was born from a real pain point, not a product roadmap dreamt up in a boardroom.
Now we use it daily — every clock-in, every leave request, every expense receipt. It's ours, and it's yours — free for almost everything. No hidden costs. No "contact sales." No enterprise pricing page designed to make you feel small.
Workived is designed and engineered by EmiraLabs — a small studio building practical software for the markets we live in. We're based between Jakarta and Dubai, and we believe the best tools come from people who actually use them every day.