RigoHR is one of Nepal’s most widely used HRIS platforms, offering a comprehensive suite that covers payroll, leave, attendance, recruitment, performance reviews, and asset management. It is particularly popular among mid-size organisations and enterprises in Kathmandu Valley. Leave Balance takes a fundamentally different approach — purpose-built for leave management and payroll with flat-rate pricing, native Bikram Sambat calendar support, and Slack and Microsoft Teams integration.
Both tools handle leave and payroll for Nepali companies, but they are built for different audiences and solve different problems. RigoHR is a full HRIS platform where leave and payroll are modules within a larger system. Leave Balance is a focused leave and payroll tool designed to be simple, affordable, and integrated into where your team already communicates.
If you are evaluating both, this comparison covers everything you need to decide: pricing, features, Nepal-specific compliance, integrations, and the daily experience of using each platform. We will be straightforward about where each tool excels.
The Core Difference: Full HRIS vs Focused Leave + Payroll
The most fundamental difference between RigoHR and Leave Balance is scope.
RigoHR is a comprehensive HRIS platform:
- Payroll, leave, attendance, recruitment, performance reviews, asset management
- Per-user or package-based pricing: NPR 3,000–10,000/month
- Designed for organisations that want everything in one system
- Requires more setup and configuration time
- Stronger in attendance/biometric device integration
Leave Balance is a focused leave and payroll tool:
- Leave management, payroll processing, salary management, loans, payslips
- Flat-rate pricing: NPR 1,490/month for leave, NPR 2,490/month for leave + payroll
- Unlimited employees included — no per-seat fees
- Native Slack and Microsoft Teams integration
- Faster to set up, simpler to maintain
Here is what the pricing looks like in practice:
| Team size | RigoHR (estimated) | Leave Balance (Leave + Payroll) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 employees | NPR 3,000–5,000/mo | NPR 2,490/mo |
| 30 employees | NPR 5,000–8,000/mo | NPR 2,490/mo |
| 50 employees | NPR 7,000–10,000/mo | NPR 2,490/mo |
| 100 employees | NPR 10,000–15,000/mo | NPR 2,490/mo |
| 200 employees | NPR 15,000+/mo | NPR 2,490/mo |
The crossover point is around 10 employees. Above that, Leave Balance is cheaper and the gap widens with every hire. At 50 employees, you save NPR 4,500–7,500 per month. At 100 employees, the savings are NPR 7,500–12,500 per month. At 200 employees, you save over NPR 12,500 per month — that is NPR 150,000 per year.
This matters because flat-rate pricing means your leave and payroll software cost never increases as your company grows. With per-user pricing, every new hire increases your software bill.
Nepal-Specific Features
Both tools support core Nepal requirements, but the depth and approach differ.
Bikram Sambat Calendar
Both Leave Balance and RigoHR support the Bikram Sambat calendar. Leave Balance has native AD↔BS date conversion built into its core date service layer, with dual calendar display throughout the application. Dates are stored in AD and displayed in BS (or both) based on your account preference.
Nepali Fiscal Year
Both tools support the Shrawan-to-Ashad fiscal year. Leave Balance allows configurable fiscal year boundaries and supports leave balance reset, carry-over, and encashment aligned to the Nepali fiscal year.
Labour Act 2074 Leave Types
| Leave Type | Leave Balance | RigoHR |
|---|---|---|
| Home Leave (~18 days/year, 90-day cap) | Configurable with encashment | Supported |
| Sick Leave (12 days/year, 45-day cap) | Configurable with encashment | Supported |
| Maternity Leave (98 days) | Gender-restricted type | Supported |
| Paternity Leave (15 days) | Gender-restricted type | Supported |
| Mourning Leave (13 days) | Configurable | Supported |
| Study Leave (10 days/year) | Configurable | Supported |
| Public Holidays (13-14 days) | Calendar entries per country | Supported |
| Special Leave (1 day/year) | Configurable | Supported |
Both platforms cover all eight statutory leave types under the Labour Act 2074.
SSF and Provident Fund
Leave Balance’s payroll module supports both SSF (Social Security Fund) and Provident Fund with enforced mutual exclusivity — your company uses one or the other, as required by regulation. Employee and employer contribution rates are configurable, with monthly tracking and override support. RigoHR offers similar SSF/PF support as part of its broader payroll module.
Income Tax
Leave Balance’s payroll engine includes historical Nepal income tax brackets from FY 2070/71 through 2081/82, covering progressive slabs for both single and married filing statuses and employee and freelancer tax categories. This historical coverage is useful for year-end corrections and audit scenarios. RigoHR supports current-year tax calculations.
Payroll Features
This is where the comparison gets detailed, because both tools offer full payroll processing for Nepal.
| Payroll Feature | Leave Balance | RigoHR |
|---|---|---|
| Salary structures and components | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly payslip generation (PDF + Excel) | Yes | Yes |
| SSF/PF contribution tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Income tax calculation | Yes (historical FY 2070-2081) | Yes |
| Loan management | Full lifecycle (skip, prepay, extend) | Basic |
| CIPS bank payment files | Yes (same-bank + inter-bank) | Yes |
| Expense claims with approval | Yes | Yes |
| Salary certificates | PDF with letterhead | Yes |
| Salary holds and arrears | Yes | Unknown |
| 7 bonus types | Yes | Unknown |
| Adhoc payments/deductions | Yes | Unknown |
| LOP adjustments with reversal | Yes | Unknown |
| 6-step payroll workflow | Yes | Unknown |
Leave Balance’s loan management is notably comprehensive — it supports installment skip requests with annual limits, prepayments with configurable penalty percentages, and tenure extension requests. Most competitors offer basic loan tracking without these advanced features.
Where RigoHR Has the Advantage
RigoHR has genuine strengths that deserve honest acknowledgment:
Attendance and biometric integration. RigoHR integrates with biometric attendance devices — fingerprint scanners, face recognition terminals. If your company uses physical attendance tracking, RigoHR has a head start. Leave Balance does not currently offer biometric integration (an attendance API is on our roadmap for 2027).
Recruitment and ATS. RigoHR includes job posting, applicant tracking, and hiring workflows. Leave Balance does not offer recruitment features and has no plans to — it is not our product focus.
Performance reviews. RigoHR includes performance management with review cycles. Leave Balance does not include this and will not — we believe performance management tools should be separate, purpose-built products.
Market presence. RigoHR is an established name in Nepal’s HR technology market. They have an existing customer base and local sales team. Leave Balance is newer to the Nepal market.
If your primary need is a comprehensive HRIS that covers recruitment, performance reviews, attendance with biometric devices, and leave and payroll in one platform, RigoHR is a reasonable choice — though you will pay significantly more for it.
Where Leave Balance Has the Advantage
Slack and Microsoft Teams integration. This is Leave Balance’s strongest differentiator in Nepal. No local HRIS platform — not RigoHR, not RealHRsoft, not FlexYear — offers native Slack or Teams integration. If your team lives in Slack (as most IT/BPO companies do), Leave Balance brings leave requests, approvals, daily absence notifications, and status updates directly into your workspace. Employees never need to open a separate HR portal.
Flat-rate pricing with unlimited employees. At NPR 2,490/month for leave + payroll, your cost is the same whether you have 10 employees or 200. With per-user pricing, a 100-person team on RigoHR could be paying NPR 10,000-15,000 per month. Leave Balance saves you NPR 90,000-150,000 per year at that scale.
Modern user interface. Leave Balance is built on a modern tech stack with a clean, responsive UI that works well on mobile devices. The interface is designed for self-service — employees can check their own leave balances, submit requests, and view payslips without involving HR.
Advanced loan management. Leave Balance’s loan system goes beyond basic tracking. Employees can request installment skips (with configurable annual limits), make prepayments (with penalty calculations), and request tenure extensions. All loan installments automatically deduct from payslips.
API-first architecture. Leave Balance has a REST API that enables custom integrations and automation workflows. This matters for IT companies that want to connect leave and payroll data with their own internal tools.
Making the Decision
Choose RigoHR if:
- You need biometric attendance tracking today
- Recruitment/ATS is a core requirement
- You want performance review cycles in the same platform
- You prefer an established local vendor with in-person sales support
- Budget is not a primary concern
Choose Leave Balance if:
- Your team uses Slack or Microsoft Teams daily
- You want leave requests and approvals inside your existing communication tool
- You want flat-rate pricing that does not grow with headcount
- You need comprehensive payroll with advanced loan management
- You are a tech-forward company that values modern, self-service tools
- Budget matters — especially as your team grows past 20 employees
Try Leave Balance Free
Leave Balance offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Set up your Nepal leave policies using our Labour Act 2074 templates, connect Slack or Teams, and see how leave management works when it lives where your team already communicates.
leave emails? Track your employee's leave with Leave Balance
