Quick answer
The letters system turns templates into personalised employee letters. Templates use {{placeholder}} merge fields — employee name, designation, joining date and more fill automatically from records, while custom placeholders prompt you for values. Every letter downloads as a PDF styled by your letterhead settings: logo, brand colour, address block and signatory.
Templates and placeholders
Admins manage templates under Documents → Templates. A template is the letter body with {{placeholder}} merge fields. Two kinds exist:
- System fields fill automatically from records —
{{employee_name}},{{employee_id}},{{department}},{{designation}},{{joining_date}},{{manager_name}},{{company_name}},{{signatory_name}},{{today}}and more. - Custom placeholders are anything else you invent (say
{{annual_ctc}}or{{work_location}}) — ASHR detects them and asks you for the values when generating.
Templates are typed (offer, experience, relieving, appraisal, promotion, warning, contract and so on) and can be archived without breaking letters already generated from them. Not starting from zero: the Add starter templates button seeds six professionally worded letters, skipping any name that already exists.
Generating a letter
On Documents → Generate (admin only), choose a template and an employee, and optionally a title. The form shows which fields will be auto-filled and prompts you for the custom ones. Preview renders the letter without saving anything; the rendered text then loads into an editor so you can fine-tune the exact wording before generating — with a one-click reset back to the template. Generating saves the letter and records who created it (hand-edits are noted in the audit trail).
The employee finds their letters on the Documents page under the Generated Documents tab; admins and managers see letters across the team. Each letter opens on its own page with text and Download PDF buttons.
Branded PDFs and letterhead
Documents → Letterhead (admin only) controls how every PDF looks:
- Logo — a hosted image URL (PNG or JPG), drawn top-left on every page.
- Brand colour — the accent rule under the header.
- Company name, address block, contact line and footer text.
- Default signatory name and designation — pre-fills the
{{signatory_name}}fields, overridable per letter. - Page numbers — an optional "Page X of Y" toggle.
A live preview shows the layout as you edit. PDFs are rendered on the server at download time, so letterhead changes apply to every letter — including ones generated earlier. The same letterhead also brands payslip PDFs from the Payroll module.
What else lives under Documents?
The Documents page is also each employee's personal vault: files captured during onboarding, documents they submit themselves (with a draft-then-submit flow), and files uploaded by HR — all alongside their generated letters.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to write templates from scratch?
- No. Click "Add starter templates" on the Templates page to seed six ready-made letters — offer, internship offer, experience, relieving, appraisal and promotion. Seeding skips any template name you already have.
- Where does the employee see their letter?
- On the Documents page under the Generated Documents tab. They can read it online and download it as a branded PDF at any time.
- If I change the letterhead, do old letters update?
- Yes. PDFs are rendered fresh on every download, so logo, colour and footer changes apply to previously generated letters too.