HRMate User Guide

Welcome to HRMate, the go-to desktop application designed exclusively for HR managers like yourself.

Discover a seamless one-stop solution within HRMate to oversee your team's contact details, roles, and streamline leave application processes, so you can keep both your staff and management satisfied.

If you are a fast typist, you will love the swift speed of working in HRMate compared to traditional HR apps like Oracle and SAP. HRMate's Command Line Interface (CLI) is optimised for you, so you can perform nearly every task simply by typing short commands (What is a command?).

This guide explains how you can set up and use the various features of HRMate, as well as provides troubleshooting insights to help solve problems you might face while using HRMate. No matter your familiarity with HRMate or technology, this guide has something for you.

New to HRMate? Dive into our Quick Start guide for a step-by-step setup and key features tutorial, so you can start using HRMate in no time.

Need a quick refresher on the commands? Explore the Command Summary, a concise compilation of commands and their usage.

Seasoned HRMate user? Delve into our Features section for an in-depth exploration of advanced features to elevate your HR management experience.

We trust you will find this guide helpful in maximising your HRMate experience!

~ The HRMate team

About HRMate

At its core, HRMate is a desktop application designed to help HR managers manage their employees' contact details and leave applications.

Employee

HRMate stores your employees' contact details, such as their name, phone number, email address, and home address in an employee list. In addition, HRMate also allows you to tag your employees and categorise them into groups for easier management. You could categorise them by their roles, such as "Full-time" or "Part-time", or by their departments, such as "Sales" or "Marketing", whichever suits your needs and preferences best.

Leave Applications

HRMate also allows you to manage your employees' leave applications in a leave list. You can add, approve, and reject leave applications, as well as view all leave applications at a glance. You can also filter leave applications by their status, such as "PENDING" or "APPROVED", to help you keep track of the status of each leave application.

Each leave application is associated with an employee by name and has a title, description, start date, and end date.

To facilitate ease of transfer of information, a core feature of HRMate is its ability to import and export employee records and leave applications in CSV format. This allows you to easily transfer your employee records and leave applications to and from HRMate, so you can use HRMate alongside other HR management tools.

Quick start

1. Download the latest hrmate.jar from here and move the downloaded file to your desired location. See How do I move a file? for help.

2. Open a terminal or your computer.

3. Use cd command in the terminal to navigate to the same location as hrmate.jar in step 1. See How do I navigate files in terminal?

4. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed on your Computer. This can be done by typing java -version in your terminal and pressing "Enter".

• See How do I download Java 11? if Java is not updated or if the terminal does not recognise the java input.

5. Type java -jar hrmate.jar into the terminal and press "Enter" on your keyboard.
   An app similar to the one below should appear in a few seconds. The app is populated with some sample data for you to experiment with.
   We have added some annotations in red so that you can understand the app visually.

6. You can try typing some commands into the command box and pressing "enter" to execute. We have listed down some commands for you to try.

• help: Opens the help window.
• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01: Adds an employee named John Doe to the employee list.
• list: Lists all employees.
• add-leave 1 title/medical leave start/2023-11-11 end/2023-11-11: Adds a leave entry for the first employee in the current employee list. Note that the default leave status is PENDING.
• delete 2: Deletes the second employee shown in the current employee list and any leave applications associated with the second employee.
• exit: Exits the app. For new users, especially first-time users, it is very important and helpful to read through the How to interpret command formats?. This section provides a detailed introduction to the overall structure of all commands used in HRmate.

Also, look through Features for commands and the details of each command. If you would like a concise summary of the commands, please check out our command summary. We hope to aid you in your HR journey!

Important things to note

Warning:

Character Limit

Index

Name

Tag

Command Order

PDF Version Copy and Paste

Features

The user guide splits HRMate's features into 3 main categories: Employee-related operations, Leave-related operations, and other operations.

Employee-related operations

HRMate allows you to manage your employees' contact details, such as their name, phone number, email address, and home address.

For instance you can add a new employee, find specific employees, edit an employee's information, delete an employee, or import/export employee records in CSV format.

Add an employee record

When a new employee joins, use the add command to add their information into HRMate.

Adding an employee: add

Use the add command to add an employee to the employee list.

Here's how to add an employee:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL_ADDRESS a/HOME_ADDRESS [t/TAG]..., replace NAME with employee name, PHONE_NUMBER with employee phone number EMAIL_ADDRESS with employee email address and HOME_ADDRESS with employee home address. [t/TAG]... is an optional field with one or more tags, with TAG being the name of the tag.

• For instance, if you have an employee name John Doe with phone number 98765432, email johnd@example.com, home address John Street, block 123 #01-01 and tags full-time and remote, type in the command add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John Street, block 123 #01-01 t/full-time t/remote
• If your employee does not require any tags, using the same information as above, the command would be add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John Street, block 123 #01-01
• Please refer to how to interpret command formats for more information

2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the person information at the end of the employee list.

Here are the potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Find an employee record

HRMate makes it easy to find an employee and there are multiple ways of doing so. You can use the list command to list all employees, or use the find command to find employees by name. You can also use the find-all-tag and find-some-tag commands to find employees by their associated tags.

Listing all employees: list

Use the list command to view all employees that are currently listed in the employee list.

Here's how to use the list command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: list.
2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the information of all employees listed in the employee list.

Here are the potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Finding employees by name: find

Use the find command to find employees by name. This command will find employees whose names contain the specified words that you enter.

Here's how to find employees by name:

1. Type in the following command in the command box find NAME.... where NAME... are to be replaced with one or more names of the employees for search.
   • The words for search are case insensitive, meaning you do not have to worry about the capitalization of the words entered.

• For instance, to find employees whose names contain Martin, type find martin to the command box.
• Take another example, suppose we have employees alex and Alex, for input find alex, both employees will be shown as a reult.
• For another instance, to find employees whose names contain either "Harry" or "Redknapp, type find harry redknapp to the command box.
• However, if you want to find employees whose names contain martin but only entered mar, NO employee named Martin will be found, instead employee named Mar will be found. Note that he search looks for names containing the entire specified word.

2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the employees matched being listed in the employee list.

• For advanced users:
  • Employees are displayed in the order in which they are arranged in the employee list.

Viewing All Tags: view-tag

To view all tags currently in use within the employee list, use the view-tag command. This will be useful if you want to find employees by their associated tags using the find-all-tag and find-some-tag commands.

Here's how to view all currently used tags:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: view-tag.
2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see a list of all tags currently in use within the employee list.

Here are the potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Finding employees by all specified tags: find-all-tag

To find employees by a set of specified tags, use the find-all-tag command. This command will find employees that are currently associated with all the specified tags that you enter.

Here's how to use the find-all-tag command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box find-all-tag t/TAG [t/MORE_TAGS]... where TAG is to be replaced with the name of the tags.
   • At least one tag should be entered for search and more tags can be entered if you want to search for more.
   • The tag names are case sensitive, meaning the capitalization of the words entered matters.

• For instance, to find employees with both tag remote and tag full time, type find-all-tag t/remote t/full time to the command box.
• However, if you want to find employees with tag remote, but only entered re as the tag name, NO employees with tag remote will be found, instead, employees with tag re will be found. Note that only tags containing the entire specified word are matched.

2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the employees matched being listed in the employee list. Note that employees with additional tags other than the specified ones will also be displayed.

• For advanced users:
  • Employees are displayed in the order in which they are arranged in the employee list.

Finding employees by at least one specified tag: find-some-tag

To find employees by at least one of the specified tags, use the find-some-tag command. This command will find employees that are currently associated with at least one of the specified tags that you enter.

Here's how to use the find-some-tag command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box find-some-tag t/TAG [t/MORE_TAGS]... where TAG is to be replaced with the name of the tags.
   • At least one tag should be entered for search and more tags can be entered if you want to search for more.
   • The tag names are case sensitive, meaning the capitalization of the words entered matters.

• For instance, to find employees with either tag remote and tag full time, type find-some-tag t/remote t/full time to the command box.
• However, if you want to find employees with tag remote, but only entered re as the tag name, NO employees with tag remote will be found, instead, employees with tag re will be found. Note that only tags containing the entire specified word are matched.

2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the employees matched being listed in the employee list. Note that employees with additional tags other than the specified ones will also be displayed.

• For advanced users:
  • Employees are displayed in the order in which they are arranged in the employee list.

Edit an employee record

HRMate offers different commands for editing employee records. add-tag and delete-tag would add and remove an employee's tags while edit is for editing name, phone number, email address, home address and tags.

Adding tags to employees: add-tag

Use the add-tag command to add tags to an employee. This command will add the specified tags to an employee specified by their index in the employee list.

Here's how to use the add-tag command:

1. Find the employee under the employee list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box add-tag INDEX t/TAG... where INDEX is the index of the employee in the list currently, TAG is the name of the tag to be added and t/TAG... representing one or more tags.

• For instance, if you want to add the tags full-time and remote to the employee indexed 2, type add-tag 2 t/full-time t/remote to the command box.
• Please refer to how to interpret command formats for more information

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the input tags added to the employee specified.

Here are the potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Removing tags from employees: delete-tag

Use the delete-tag command to remove tags from an employee. This command will remove the specified tags from an employee specified by their index in the employee list.

Here's how to use the delete-tag command:

1. Get the index of the employee in the employee list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box delete-tag INDEX t/TAG... where INDEX is the index of the employee in the list currently, TAG is the name of the tag to be deleted and t/TAG... representing one or more tags.

• For instance, if you want to remove the tags full-time and remote to the employee indexed 2, type delete-tag 2 t/full-time t/remote to the command box.
• Please refer to how to interpret command formats for more information

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the input tags removed from the employee specified.

Here are the potential error messages you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Editing employee information : edit

For a more comprehensive editing of an employee's information, use the edit command. This command will edit the specified fields of an employee specified by their index in the employee list.

Here's how to use the edit command to edit an employee's information:

1. Get the index of the employee under the employee list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL_ADDRESS] [a/HOME_ADDRESS] [t/TAG]... where INDEX is the index of the employee in the list currently, [n/NAME], [p/PHONE_NUMBER], [e/EMAIL_ADDRESS], [a/HOME_ADDRESS] are optional fields which require changing, replacing NAME with employee name, PHONE_NUMBER with employee phone number, EMAIL_ADDRESS with employee email address and HOME_ADDRESS with employee home address. [t/TAG]... is an optional field representing one or more tags where TAG is the tag name. Note that at least one field to edit must be present and only the fields present will be edited.

• For example, to change the phone number, email address and tags of the employee indexed 2 to 98765432, johndoe@example.com and full-time and remote, type in the command edit 2 p/98765432 e/johndoe@example.com t/full-time t/remote. Note that the name and home address will remain unchanged.
• In another example, to change the home address of the employee indexed 1 to John street, block 123 #01-01 and remove all tags from the employee, type in the command edit 1 a/John street, block 123 #01-01 t/. Note that the name, phone number and email_address will remain unchanged.
• Please refer to how to interpret command formats for more information

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the changes applied to the employee.

• For advanced users:
  • You can remove all the tags of an employee with edit INDEX t/ (see warning above)

Delete an employee record

Delete employee records from HRMate using the delete command.

Deleting a record : delete

Use the delete command to delete an employee record from HRMate. This command will delete the specified employee from the employee list.

Here's how to delete an employee record:

1. Get the index of the employee under the employee list. View this image in quick start for more information.

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the employee removed from the employee list with all leaves related to that employee in the leave list being removed.

Import/export employee records

It's painful having to add in each employee into HRMate manually. That's why HRMate provides import and export commands, so you can bring in all your records from Excel with just a single command!

With the import and export commands, HRMate can read and save files in CSV format, which is supported by major spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Importing employee records: import

Use the import command to import employee records from a CSV file. This command will import the employee records from the specified CSV file into HRMate.

Here's how you can bring over your records from Excel:

1. Export your Excel save file in CSV format. Ensure that the separator is set to be a semicolon(;), and that you have the following fields: Name, Phone, Email, Address, Tags. Note that tags in the Tags field have to be separated by commas.
   • You may skip this step if you already have a CSV file (e.g. you are importing a previously exported CSV file generated by HRMate)

2. If you are unsure how your file should look like, you may refer to the following images:

   • Here's how your CSV file should look like if you open it up in Notepad:
     • It is okay if your CSV file does not contain the first line sep=;, as this is a line added to files exported by HRMate to help Excel open the file. Do ensure the next line has to be the following: Name;Phone;Email;Address;Tags in order for HRMate to read it. Also note that tags are separated by commas (see colleagues, friends under Bernice Yu's row).
   • If you open your CSV file in Excel, your file should look like this:
     
     
     
     
     • Do ensure that the first row contains the following headers: Name, Phone, Email, Address, and Tags. Note that tags, if present, should be separated by commas (see cell E3 for an example).

3. In HRMate, type in the following command in the command box: import

4. In the file dialog that opens up, go to where you saved your exported CSV file, click on it, and click on the Open button.

5. You should see your employee records show up in HRMate, along with the message "Employee records have been imported from [your file name]!"

Here are some possible error messages you might encounter and here's how you can fix them:

Exporting employee records : export

Not only can you bring your data into HRMate, you can also bring your data out of HRMate. HRMate's export feature allows you to export either the entire set of employee records, or employee records with a particular filter applied (e.g. only export all full-time employees, which are tagged with "Full time"). You can then either store your exported CSV file for future use, open it in a different application, or send it to another employee for them to import!

Here's how you can export your data out of HRMate:

1. In HRMate, type in the following command in the command box: export [file name], replacing [file name] with the name you will like to give your file. Your files will be saved in CSV format automatically.
   • For instance, if you would like to save your file as employees.csv, type in the command export employees
2. You should see the message "Employee records have been saved to [file name]!"
3. To retrieve your exported file, go to the folder in which HRMate is stored in your File Explorer (if using Windows) or Finder (if using Mac OS). From there, click on the export folder.
4. You should see your file in the export folder.

Here are potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Leave-related operations

HRMate allows you to manage your employees' leave applications with ease.

For instance, you can add a leave application, find specific leave applications, edit leave applications, delete a leave application, and import/export leave applications with just a few commands.

Add a leave application

When an employee applies for leave, you can use the add-leave command to add their leave application into HRMate.

Adding a leave application: add-leave

Use the add-leave command to add a leave application to HRMate. This command will add the specified leave application to the leave list.

Here's how to add a leave application:

1. Get the index of the employee under the employee list. View this image in quick start for more information.

2. Type in the following command in the command box add-leave INDEX title/TITLE start/START_DATE end/END_DATE [d/DESCRIPTION], replace
   • NAME with the index of the employee applied for leave in the employee list
   • Title with the title of the leave
   • START_DATE with the start date of the leave
   • END_DATE with the end date of the leaves and it must be the same as or later than the start date. Dates are in a format of yyyy-MM-dd
   • [d/DESCRIPTION] is an optional field with DESCRIPTION to be replaced with the description of the leave.
   • Note that duplicated title and concurrent leave (overlapping date duration of leaves) are allowed.

• For instance, to add a leave of one day on 2023-11-01 to employee indexed 1 with a title of Sample Leave 1, type `add-leave 1 title/Sample Leave 1 start/2023-11-01 end/2023-11-01`` to the command box.
• For another instance, to add a leave of two days from 2023-11-01 to 2023-11-02 to employee indexed 2 with a title of Sample Leave 2 and a description of Sample Description, type add-leave 2 title/Sample Leave 2 start/2023-11-01 end/2023-11-02 d/Sample Description to the command box.

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the leave information at the end of the overall leave list. Note that if there is no description field added, the description will be NONE by default.

Find a leave application

HRMate offers different commands for finding leave applications. find-leave-range and find-leave-status would find leave applications by time period and leave status respectively while find-leave and find-all-leave would find leave applications by employee and view all leave applications respectively.

Find leave applications by time period: find-leave-range

To find leave applications by time period, use the find-leave-range command. This command will find leave applications that fall within the specified time period.

Here's how to use the find-leave-range command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: find-leave-range [start/START_DATE] [end/END_DATE], and replace START_DATE with the start date of the time period, and END_DATE with the end date of the time period, both in the format yyyy-MM-dd.

• For instance: if you wanted to view all leave applications that fall within the time period of 2023-10-27 and 2023-11-03 inclusive, you would type in find-leave-range start/2023-10-27 end/2023-11-03 in the command box.
• Do note that neither the start or end fields are required:
  • If you wanted to view all leave applications that start on or after 2023-10-27, you can type in find-leave-range start/2023-10-27.
  • If you wanted to view all leave applications that end on or before 2023-11-03, you can type in find-leave-range end/2023-11-03.
• If you wanted to view all leave applications, you can type in find-leave-range or find-all-leave instead.

2. Press Enter to execute the command. You should see the leave applications that fall within the time period you specified.

Here are some potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to solve them:

Note: yyyy-MM-dd refers to the format of the date in the form of year-month-day. For example, 2023-11-01 refers to 1st November 2023.

Find leave applications by leave status: find-leave-status

To find leave applications by leave status, use the find-leave-status command. This command will find leave applications that have the specified status.

Here's how to use the find-leave-status command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: find-leave-status STATUS, and replace STATUS with the status of the leave applications you wish to view.

• For instance: if you wanted to view all leave applications that have been approved, you would type in find-leave-status APPROVED in the command box.
• Do note that the status field is required, and the status must be either APPROVED, PENDING or REJECTED.
  • You can only specify one status at a time.
• If you wish to view all leave applications, you can use the find-all-leave command instead.

2. Press Enter to execute the command. You should see the leave applications that have the status you specified.

Here are some potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to solve them:

Find leave applications belonging to an employee: find-leave

To find leave applications belonging to an employee, use the find-leave command. This command will find leave applications that belong to the employee specified by their index in the employee list.

Here's how to use the find-leave command:

1. Get the index of the employee under the employee list. View this image in quick start for more information.
2. Type in the following command in the command box: find-leave INDEX, and replace INDEX with the index of the employee whose leave applications you wish to view.

• For instance: if you wanted to view all leave applications that belong to the employee with index 1, you would type in find-leave 1 in the command box.
• Do note that the index field is required, and the index must be a valid number.
  • The index must be a positive number.
  • The index must be within the range of the number of employees in HRMate.
• If you wish to view all leave applications, you can use the find-all-leave command instead.

3. Press Enter to execute the command. You should see the leave applications that belong to the employee with the index you specified.

Here are some potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to solve them:

View all leaves: find-all-leave

Use the find-all-leave command to view all leave applications currently stored in HRMate.

Here's how to view all leave applications in the leave list:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: find-all-leave
2. Press Enter to execute the command. You should see all the leave applications in HRMate.

Edit a leave application

HRMate offers different commands for editing leave applications. approve-leave and reject-leave would approve and reject leave applications respectively while edit-leave would edit the leave application comprehensively.

Approve leave application by index: approve-leave

Use the approve-leave command to approve a leave application in HRMate. This command will approve the specified leave application.

Here's how to approve a leave application:

1. Get the index of the leave under the leave list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box approve-leave LEAVE_LIST_INDEX
3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and the specified leave application is approved.

Reject leave application by index: reject-leave

Use the reject-leave command to reject a leave application in HRMate. This command will reject the specified leave application.

Here's how to reject a leave application:

1. Get the index of the leave under the leave list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box reject-leave LEAVE_LIST_INDEX
3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and the specified leave application is approved.

Editing a leave application: edit-leave

For a more comprehensive editing of a leave application, use the edit-leave command to edit a leave application in HRMate. This command will edit the specified leave application.

Here's how to use the edit-leave command to edit a leave application:

1. Get the index of the leave under the leave list.

2. Type in the following command in the command box edit-leave INDEX [title/TITLE] [start/START_DATE] [end/END_DATE] [d/DESCRIPTION] [s/STATUS] where INDEX is the index of the leave in the list currently, [title/TITLE], [start/START_DATE], [end/END_DATE], [d/DESCRIPTION], [s/STATUS] are optional fields which require changing, replacing TITLE with the title of the leave, START_DATE with the leave's start date, END_DATE with the leave's end date, DESCRIPTION with the title's description and STATUS with the leave's status. Note that at least one field to edit must be present and only the fields present will be edited.

• For example, to change the title and description of the leave indexed 2 to John's sick leave and MC provided, type in the command edit-leave 2 title/John's sick leave d/MC provided. Note that the start date, end date, and status will remain unchanged.
• Please refer to how to interpret command formats for more information

3. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the changes applied to the leave.

• Examples:

Delete a leave application

To delete a leave application, use the delete-leave command.

Removing a leave application: delete-leave

Use the delete-leave command to remove a leave application from HRMate. This command will remove the specified leave application from the leave list.

Here's how to use the delete-leave command to remove a leave application:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: delete-leave LEAVE_LIST_INDEX, and replace LEAVE_LIST_INDEX with the index of the leave application you wish to remove.

• For instance, referring to the figure below: if you wanted to remove the leave application titled "medical leave" with employee "Bernice Yu", you would type in delete-leave 2 in the command box.
• Do note that the index of the leave application you wish to remove must be a valid number
  • The index must be a positive number that is larger than 0
  • The index cannot exceed the number of entries in the leave book

2. Press "enter" on your keyboard and you should see the leave application removed from HRMate.

Here are some potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to solve them:

Importing/Exporting leave applications

The import and export feature extends to importing and exporting leaves, with import-leave and export-leave. This allows you to generate lists of leave applications that can be opened in other major spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Importing leave applications : import-leave

Use the import-leave command to import leave applications from a CSV file. This command will import the leave applications from the specified CSV file into HRMate.

Here's how you can bring over your leave applications from Excel:

1. Export your Excel save file in CSV format. Ensure that the separator is set to be a semicolon(;), and that you have the following fields: Title, Employee, Start, End, Description, Status.

• You may skip this step if you already have a CSV file (e.g. you are importing a previously exported CSV file generated by HRMate)

2. If you are unsure how your file should look like, you may refer to the following images:

• Here's how your CSV file should look like if you open it up in Notepad:
• It is okay if your CSV file does not contain the first line sep=;, as this is a line added to files exported by HRMate to help Excel open the file. Do ensure the next line has to be the following: Title;Employee;Start;End;Description;Status in order for HRMate to read it.
  • If you open your CSV file in Excel, your file should look like this:
    
    
    
    
  • Do ensure that the first row contains the following headers: Title, Employee, Start, End, Description, and Status.

3. In HRMate, type in the following command in the command box: import-leave and press "Enter"
4. In the file dialog that opens up, go to where you saved your exported CSV file, click on it, and click on the Open button.
5. You should see your leave applications show up in HRMate, along with the message "leave applications have been imported from [your file name]!"

Here are some possible error messages you might encounter and here's how you can fix them:

Exporting leave applications: export-leave

Not only can you bring your data into HRMate, you can also bring your data out of HRMate. HRMate's export feature allows you to export either the entire set of leave application records, or leave applications with a particular filter applied (e.g. only export all leaves in a given time period). You can then either store your exported CSV file for future use, open it in a different application, or send it to another employee for them to import!

Here's how you can export your data out of HRMate:

1. In HRMate, type in the following command in the command box: export-leave [file name], replacing [file name] with the name you will like to give your file. Your files will be saved in CSV format automatically.

• For instance, if you would like to save your file as today.csv, type in the command export today

2. You should see the message "leave applications have been saved to [file name]!"
3. To retrieve your exported file, go to the folder in which HRMate is stored in your File Explorer (if using Windows) or Finder (if using Mac OS). From there, click on the export folder.
4. You should see your file in the export folder.

Here are potential error messages that you may receive and here's how to fix them:

Other operations

This section covers other operations that you can perform in HRMate.

For information on how to get help, reset HRMate, and exit HRMate, please refer to the respective sections below.

Getting help

Should you need any help, you can access this online user guide (this document) with the help command.

Getting help : help

Here's how to use the help command:

1. Type in the following command in the command box: help.
2. Press "Enter" on your keyboard.
3. The following pop up should show:

4. Click on the "copy link" button to copy the link to the user guide, and paste into any web browser to access the user guide. Alternatively, click the red button at the corner of the window to close the pop up.

Reset HRMate

After playing with the different features in HRMate, you might feel that it's time to delete HRMate's sample employee contacts and instead use your own. Rather than manually deleting every employee contact and leave application, here's a quick and easy way to clear them in the app!

Resetting HRMate by clearing all existing records: clear

Here's how you can remove every employee contact and leave application from the app:

1. In HRMate, type this command into the command box: clear and press Enter.
2. That's it! You should notice that your Employee List and Leave List are both empty. You should also notice that the Command Output Box will display the message: All employee contacts and leave applications have been cleared! Now you have a clean slate and can start adding your own data!

Warning:

Exit HRMate

Once you've finished your work, you might want to close HRMate. You can do so by clicking on the "X" button at the top right corner of the window. Alternatively, If you love typing over clicking, you can close the app via keyboard too!

Close the application: exit

Here's how you can close HRMate using your keyboard:

1. In HRMate, type this command into the command box: exit and press enter.
2. That's it! HRMate will now close, and you will find your employee records and leave applications there the next time you reopen HRMate.

Saving the data

HRMate data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

HRMate data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/hrmate.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

• Warning:
  If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, HRMate will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.

How to interpret command formats

Example command formats: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]..., add-tag INDEX t/TAG...

The first command is used to add an employee while the second is used to add tags to a specified employee. Let's examine how the command is used.

Notes

• Parameters can be in any order
  e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER, p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME is also acceptable.
• Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list, exit and clear) will be ignored
  e.g. if the command help 123 is executed, it will be interpreted as help.
• If you are using a PDF version of this document, be careful when copying and pasting commands that span multiple lines as space characters surrounding line breaks may be omitted when copied over to the application.

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another computer?

A: We recommend using the import and export command for employees and import and export command for leave applications.

Q: How do I move a file?

A:

• For Windows users, first open File Explorer and find the file. Afterwards, drag the selected file's icon to the desired location using your mouse. For more help, please consult the Microsoft documentation
  
• For Mac users, first open Finder and find the specific file. Then drag it to the desired location using the mouse. For more help, please consult the Apple documentation.
  
  

Q: How do I open a terminal?

A:

• For Windows users, press the Windows key, type in powershell and press Enter. The terminal should open. For more help, please consult the Microsoft documentation.
• For Mac users, open the Terminal app on your Mac. For more help, please consult the Apple documentation.
  
  

Q: How do I navigate files in terminal?

A: You can use the cd command to navigate in terminal. For more information, please consult this documentation.

Q: How do I download Java 11?

A: Please refer to the official Java installation instructions here.

Q: How do I change the separator of my CSV file into semicolons(;) in Excel?

A:

• If you are a Windows user:
  1. In Excel, click on File > Options > Advanced.
  2. Under Editing options, uncheck the Use system separators check box.
  3. Change the Decimal separator to a comma (,) and the Thousands separator to a period (.).
  4. Save your file. When saving your file, change the save type (Save as type) to CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)
  5. After saving your file, remember to reset your Excel separators. Repeat steps 1 and 2, only that this time remember to check the Use system separators check box instead.
• If you are a Mac user, unfortunately Excel makes it very difficult to change the separator to semicolons. Stay tuned for future releases that will extend support for Mac OS!

Known issues

1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application to a secondary screen, and later switch to using only the primary screen, the GUI will open off-screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.

Command summary

Glossary