How to choose HR software (for teams in Turkey)
How to choose HR software in 2026 is a checklist: map the modules your team will actually use (records, leave, payroll, recruiting), apply Turkey-specific requirements such as payroll legislation, SGK processes, KVKK and data residency as pass/fail filters, score a shortlist of two or three products on data migration, integrations, pricing and support, then trial the finalists with real data before deciding.
Start with a needs map: which modules do you really need?
Start from your own process inventory, not from a product list. The core modules are well known: employee records (Turkish employers are legally required to keep a personnel file for every employee under Labor Law No. 4857, Article 75), leave tracking, payroll, recruiting, attendance/PDKS data, and employee self-service. For each one, answer two questions: how do we do this today, and how many hours does it cost per month? The processes whose honest answer is "Excel, email and memory" are where software pays for itself fastest.
Priorities shift with headcount. At 10-25 employees the core need is records plus leave tracking. Payroll usually runs at an external accountant, so the critical question is not whether a payroll module exists but whether the data that feeds payroll (leave, overtime, attendance) flows out cleanly. Between 25 and 100, self-service and approval flows start to matter: HR's day should not be spent answering "how many leave days do I have left". Above 100, org structure, permissions and reporting become the deciding factors.
The goal is not the product with every module. It is the product that does your three core processes end to end. Do not pay today for modules you will not use, but do check that the needs of two years from now (say, recruiting or performance) exist on the product's roadmap.
Turkey-specific criteria: legislation, SGK, KVKK, Turkish support
Payroll and leave legislation is a pass/fail filter, not a scoring criterion. The question is not "does the product support Turkey" but whether Turkish legislation is native to it: how do SGK processes and filings run? When minimum wage or premium parameters change, who applies the update and how fast? Are the statutory annual-leave tiers (minimums of 14, 20 and 26 days by seniority under Labor Law No. 4857, Article 53) built into the arithmetic? In global products, Turkish payroll often runs through a local partner, which is not a flaw in itself, but make the contract state clearly who is liable when a filing goes wrong.
KVKK is the second pass/fail set. Employee data is personal data under Turkey's Data Protection Law No. 6698, and records such as health reports count as special categories of personal data subject to stricter processing conditions (KVKK Article 6). Ask: in which country is the data hosted? If it crosses borders, how are the transfer conditions of KVKK Article 9 met? Does the vendor sign a data-processor agreement, and who are its sub-processors?
Do not confuse Turkish support with a translated interface. The real test is whether the support team works in Turkish and can answer a legislation-adjacent question such as "why was this employee's leave balance calculated this way". The language of the documentation and the contract belongs under this heading too.
Evaluation criteria: data migration, integrations, pricing, AI
Evaluate data migration in both directions. On the way in: is there bulk import from Excel/CSV, can leave entitlements earned before the system be entered as opening balances, and how many fields will need manual fixing? On the way out: can you export your data in a standard format? A product that is hard to leave also weakens your hand in every future price negotiation.
Read pricing as 12-month total cost of ownership, not list price. Per-user pricing looks cheap for a small team but grows with every hire. Flat packages are predictable but can charge you for capacity you never use. Ask explicitly about the hidden lines: setup fees, training, add-on modules, annual commitments, user-tier overages, support levels. For integrations, list the tools you already run (accounting, calendar, attendance hardware) and have each one demonstrated, because "we have an integration" and a working connection are not the same thing.
AI is no longer a checkbox: it is its own evaluation axis, because agentic HR software has started doing the work rather than merely recording it. The right question is not "does it have AI" but two questions. First, authority: which tasks does the AI take on, and where does a person approve? In well-designed agentic HR the agent screens, prepares and drafts, and publishing and approval stay with a person. Second, data: which employee data can the AI reach, and is your data used to train models? A product without clear written answers to both should count AI as a risk item, not a feature.
The process: shortlist, trial, decision
Build a shortlist of two or three products from those that pass the eliminating filters (native legislation support, KVKK, budget ceiling). A list longer than five makes every comparison shallow, and a list of one erases your negotiating power.
Do not watch a demo, run a trial. The difference is large. Work with your own data: import 10-20 real employee records, push a real leave request through the approval flow, and simulate one payroll period end to end. Measure three things while you do: how many hours setup took, whether an employee outside HR could log into the portal and request leave without help, and how fast, and how well, support answered your question.
Decide with a scorecard and more than one pair of eyes: HR judges process fit, finance judges total cost, and IT (if you have it) judges security and KVKK. Before signing an annual commitment, read the exit clauses and data-return terms. For most companies it is healthier to start monthly and move to annual once the product has proven itself.
How to choose HR software: the 2026 checklist
The workable 2026 answer to how to choose HR software is five boxes. One: count hires, leave requests, pay changes, and payroll corrections in the last three months. Two: treat SGK, KVKK, and the budget ceiling as pass/fail, not as scores. Three: cut the rest to two or three products. Four: finish employee import, one approval flow, and period preparation with your own data. Five: do not sign until twelve-month cost, support, and data return are written down.
Those steps narrow by headcount, become checkboxes, and become an import plan after the decision. The product face is human resources software. The comparison page does not publish a ranking. You choose by criteria. HR keeps the stamp.
Comparison criteria: prepared work or a dashboard?
When two products in the same category sit side by side, the test is not module count. It is work that finishes in the trial. A dashboard hands you screens. Prepared work puts a shortlist, a leave packet, or a pay-run draft in front of you and leaves the stamp with you.
In Türkiye that difference shows up in the accountant loop. Hours and leave are created inside the company, the period closes outside. If the software prepares those inputs and leaves a confirm, there is a handshake. If it leaves you with an empty table, there is a calculator race. Otto HR chooses the first model: the agent screens and prepares, publishing and approval stay with a person.
How to choose HR software: seven steps for 2026
How to choose HR software in 2026 is seven steps. Step 1: write the last three months of hiring, leave, pay changes, and payroll corrections. Step 2: treat SGK locality, KVKK, and the budget ceiling as pass or fail, not as scores. Step 3: cut the rest to two or three products. Step 4: finish an employee import, one leave approval, and one period packet on your own data. Step 5: look for prepared work, not a dashboard. Step 6: write the twelve-month total cost, the support path, and the data-return clause. Step 7: name who stamps, and how the accountant receives the packet, before you sign.
The seven steps do not publish a ranking. They measure work that finishes in the trial. The comparison page deepens the same criteria. Excel migration is the transfer after the decision. The pricing page is a twelve-month reading, not a list-price contest. The human resources software page is the product face of the method.
Price and total cost: where they sit in the method
Price is step six of how to choose HR software, not step one. A list price can look cheap. Twelve-month total cost carries setup, training, extra modules, seat thresholds, and support tiers. A per-user model grows with every hire. A fixed pack can make you pay for unused capacity.
Read the pricing page before the trial. Do not treat it as the signature. Otto HR publishes per-employee prices and plan limits at /pricing. The decision is whether that number matches your seven-step trial. If prepared work does not arrive, a cheap pack is expensive. A dashboard does not return hours. It returns a screen.
| Module coverage | Does it handle our three core processes (records, leave, payroll data) end to end? |
| SGK and legislation | Who maintains Turkish payroll rules, and how fast do parameter changes land in the product? |
| KVKK and data residency | Where is the data hosted? How are KVKK Article 9 transfer conditions met? Is there a data-processor agreement? |
| Data migration | Is there bulk import from Excel and opening leave-balance entry? Can I export my data in a standard format on exit? |
| Pricing model | What is the 12-month total cost? Are setup, training and add-on modules included? Per-user or flat? |
| Support and training | Is support available in Turkish? Who helps with initial setup? Can they answer legislation questions? |
| AI | Which tasks does the AI take on? Where does a person approve? Is our data used for model training? |
| Trial | Can we run a trial with our own data, and is it long enough to test a real process? |
Read next
Human resources software
The product face of the method: a handoff layer, one record.
Agentic HR for a team with no HR department
Founder plus accountant, remote teams, first HR hire.
Otto prepares. A person confirms.
Two trays, one stamp: the approval gate to test in a trial.
How to compare HR software
No ranking: score work that finishes in the trial.
Moving from Excel to an HR system
After the decision: balances, records, first period.
Pricing
Read the twelve-month total cost. List price is not the decision.
Related software
If you are comparing what an HR suite actually does, start with human resources software.
Frequently asked
There is no single "best" HR software. The right product depends on headcount, on whether payroll runs in-house or at an external accountant, and on Turkish legislative requirements. The sound method is choosing by criteria, not by ranking: define the modules you need, make native SGK/payroll legislation support and KVKK compliance pass/fail conditions, trial two or three products with your own data, and decide on 12-month total cost and support quality.
Free HR software can cover basic leave and records tracking for up to roughly 10-15 people, but the honest answer is that its limits arrive early. The typical trade-offs: no guarantee that Turkish legislative updates are applied, little or slow support, no data-processor agreement or commitments that KVKK compliance requires, user and record limits, and a real migration cost once you outgrow it. For a system holding employee data, also ask how "free" is financed: a limited entry tier, or some other revenue model?
Move when the symptoms become clear: leave balances are maintained by hand and disputes turn into "which file is correct" arguments, multiple versions of the same spreadsheet circulate, personnel documents cannot be found during an audit, or HR operations depend on one person's memory. In practice the threshold shows up around 15-20 employees for most companies, and earlier for teams hiring heavily.
For small and mid-sized teams the switch itself takes days to a few weeks. The real time goes into data preparation, not the software: cleaning the employee list, settling leave entitlements carried over from the past, and collecting documents. A good practice is entering historical leave as a single remaining-days declaration per employee, then running the first payroll period in parallel with the old system and comparing results. Ask the vendor for a written onboarding plan with dates.
Check two axes: authority and data. On authority, ask which tasks the AI takes on and where a person approves. In sound design the AI screens, prepares and drafts, while publishing and approval stay with the user. If a product claims fully autonomous end-to-end execution, establish who is liable when it gets something wrong. On data, confirm in writing which employee data the AI can access, whether your data is used to train models, and whether every AI action is recorded in an audit trail.
Start with your own process inventory, not a product list. Write down how many hires, leave requests, pay changes, and payroll corrections you handled in the last three months. The work whose honest answer is Excel, email, and memory should be solved first. Then make SGK, KVKK, and the budget ceiling pass/fail. Trial the remaining two or three products with your own data.
Yes, same category. Human resources software is the full name, HR software is the everyday name. Both want hiring, records, leave, and payroll preparation to read one file. The product page is /insan-kaynaklari-yazilimi. This guide is the method for choosing that product.
Two questions suffice. Which work does the AI prepare, and where does a person confirm? Is employee data used to train models? In sound design the agent screens, prepares, and drafts, and HR keeps the stamp. If a product claims unsupervised writes, put liability in the contract. The dedicated pages are /ajan-ik and /insan-onayli-ik.
It prepares the inputs. Leave, hours, and pay are created inside the company. The software turns those three into a period packet. The accountant stamps it. Otto HR does not replace the accountant. It closes the month-end mail and retype loop. Measure the benefit in your own closing scenario.
By work that finishes in the trial, not by module count. Run one leave approval and one period preparation on your own data. If prepared work lands in front of you, there is a handshake. If an empty table remains, there is a dashboard. How to choose HR software is the spine of that comparison. We do not publish a ranking.
Yes. Finish the how to choose HR software checklist first. Then come a single remaining-days declaration, a clean employee list, and a first period run in parallel. Migration does not change the decision. It applies it. Otto HR prepares the import. A person closes the record.
The seven steps are a process inventory, pass-fail filters, a two- or three-product shortlist, a trial on your own data, prepared work versus a dashboard, twelve-month total cost, and the stamp plus accountant loop. How to choose HR software in 2026 is that sequence. We do not publish a ranking. You score work that finishes in the trial.
At step six, not step one. How to choose HR software asks for the work, the filters, and the trial first. The pricing page is how you read twelve-month total cost. Otto HR publishes plan amounts at /pricing. List price is not the decision if prepared work never arrives.
No. HRIS and HR software are the same family. How to choose HR software is not a brand name. It is whether hiring, records, leave, the timesheet, and the payroll draft share one record. Otto HR is built as that stack. A person stamps the packet.
Run the 2026 checklist on Otto HR
You can run this 2026 checklist on Otto HR: records, leave, payroll and recruiting on one record. Otto screens, prepares and drafts. A person approves every action. Trial it with your own data.