HR letters, templates and letterhead
Updated 2026-11-07
What it is
Letters lets you issue standard HR letters, like offer, appointment, increment, confirmation, relieving, experience and address proof letters, from templates. PunchMe fills in the employee's details, adds your letterhead and signature, and saves the letter to the employee's documents.
It saves you retyping the same letter for every person, and keeps a copy of each letter you issued.
Who uses it
| Task | Permission needed |
|---|---|
| Open the Letters page, edit templates, preview and generate letters | letters.manage |
Generate a letter that shows salary ({{ctc}} or {{monthly_gross}}) | letters.manage and payroll.view |
| Upload the logo and signature, set the signatory | settings.edit |
| See issued letters on an employee's Documents tab | employees.view |
The HR and Office HR system roles include letters.manage. The Office Manager role does not. See Roles and permissions.
Where to find it
- Templates and letterhead: Letters in the dashboard menu.
- Generate a letter: Employees, open the person, Letters tab.
- Relieving and experience letters after an accepted resignation: employee's Onboarding tab.
- Employee app: Profile, Documents.
Templates
The first time someone opens Letters, PunchMe adds seven ready templates: Offer, Appointment, Increment, Confirmation, Relieving, Experience and Address proof. You can edit them, delete them or add your own with New template.
Each template has:
- Name, for example "Offer letter (sales)"
- Type: Offer, Appointment, Increment, Confirmation, Relieving, Experience, Address proof or Custom
- Subject / heading: printed in bold above the letter
- Letter text: plain text. Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
Click Insert placeholder to add a field that PunchMe fills from the employee's record:
| Placeholder | Filled with |
|---|---|
{{employee_name}}, {{employee_code}}, {{employee_address}} | From the employee record |
{{designation}}, {{department}}, {{manager_name}} | From the employee record |
{{joining_date}}, {{last_working_day}} | Dates, written like 01 April 2026 |
{{ctc}} | Monthly gross × 12, from the latest salary structure |
{{monthly_gross}} | Monthly gross from the latest salary structure |
{{company_name}}, {{company_address}}, {{company_gstin}} | From Setup |
{{today}} | Today's date |
{{signatory_name}}, {{signatory_designation}} | From the letterhead |
The Preview panel shows the letter with sample employee data as you type.
Salary placeholders use the latest salary structure, even one dated in the future. That way an increment letter shows the revised salary. See Salary structure.
Letterhead
On the Letters page, open the Letterhead card:
- Company logo and Signature: PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 1 MB each
- Signatory name and Signatory designation, for example "HR Manager"
Click Save letterhead. Company name, address and GSTIN come from Setup. See Company and offices.
Without a signatory name, letters are signed "Authorised signatory".
Generating a letter
- Open the employee, then the Letters tab.
- Pick a Template.
- Click Preview to check it with this employee's real data.
- Tick Email it to the employee if you want to send it.
- Click Generate letter.
PunchMe then:
- Saves the letter to the employee's Documents with the type Letter, already approved.
- Sends the employee a push: "New letter: Offer letter. Open Profile → Documents to view or print it."
- If you ticked email and the employee has an email (work or personal), emails a View letter link.
Each letter gets a short reference number printed at the top.
Sharing letters
- Email link: works for 30 days, with no login needed. After that it shows "This link is invalid or has expired". Generate the letter again to send a fresh link.
- Employee app: the employee opens Profile, Documents, taps the letter, then Print / PDF or the share button.
- Dashboard: click View in Issued letters, then use your browser's Print, Save as PDF.
Turning it on or off
There is no on/off switch. Letters is available to anyone with letters.manage. Hide it from someone by removing that permission from their role.
Changing it midway
- Editing or deleting a template does not change letters already issued. Each letter is a saved snapshot.
- Changing the logo, signature or signatory only affects letters you generate after the change.
- If an employee's details change, generate the letter again. The old one stays in their documents until you delete it.
- If you delete all templates, PunchMe does not add the defaults back. Create new ones with New template.
Limits and edge cases
- A placeholder with no value prints as a blank line
________. For example,{{last_working_day}}is blank until a last working day is set. - Generating a template that uses
{{ctc}}or{{monthly_gross}}withoutpayroll.viewfails with "This letter shows salary — it needs payroll.view". - Letters are saved as print-ready A4 HTML pages, not PDF files.
- Letter text is plain text. Formatting like bold or tables is not supported.
- Template text: up to 20,000 characters.
Related
Common questions
How do I give an employee a PDF of their letter?
Open the letter and use Print, Save as PDF in the browser, or Print / PDF in the app. You can also tick Email it to the employee so they get a link they can save themselves.
Why does my letter show a blank line instead of a value?
That field is empty on the employee's record, or there is no salary structure yet. Fill it in, then generate the letter again.
Can I fix a typo in a letter I already issued?
Not in place. Fix the template, generate the letter again, then delete the old one from the employee's Documents tab.
Why can't the Office Manager role issue a relieving letter?
Issuing letters needs letters.manage, which the Office Manager role does not have by default. Without it, the Issue relieving letter and Issue experience letter buttons don't show on the Onboarding tab. Add it to the role in Team & roles.
Does the email link need the employee to sign in?
No. The link is signed and expires after 30 days. Anyone with the link can open it, so it is sent only to the employee's own email.