Must‑have HRIS RFP template in 2025

Choosing a human resources information system (HRIS) today isn’t only critical to your HR organization—it’s what your entire business runs on. 

Your system of record doesn’t just store employee data. It powers onboarding, approvals, access, payroll readiness, analytics, and compliance across HR, IT, and Finance. When the core is fragmented, teams chase spreadsheets and corrections; when it’s unified, work automates itself and leaders trust the numbers.

Use this guide to structure your RFP so you can separate demos from durable capabilities. For each area below, we explain why it matters, what good looks like, and the questions that help vendors prove it. Plus, we’ve put all the questions together in a downloadable template so you can start evaluating HRIS software quickly and effectively.

1. Employee system of record

Your employee record affects everything from payroll to provisioning and analytics. Your HRIS should model this. 

It should capture real-world relationships (like manager, department, cost center, or legal entity), let you add custom fields, and control who sees what with clear role-based permissions. That way, the right people can get the info they need—without exposing data they shouldn’t.

Look for a unified employee record that keeps third‑party tools in sync automatically. For example, when someone changes their location, there should be updates to their payroll taxes and office access. Rippling does this natively, updating every connected system in real time so nothing slips through the cracks.

RFP questions to ask

• Describe your core data model (employees, contractors, org, custom fields). How are relationships (manager, matrix) represented?

• Can you enforce field‑level, role‑based permissions and scoped access for admins, managers, and HRBPs?

• How do HRIS profile changes cascade to integrated apps (SCIM, attribute mapping, webhooks)?

• What audit history, import/export, and bulk update capabilities are available?

• How do you reconcile conflicting edits across systems?

2. Onboarding, offboarding, and lifecycle automation

Lifecycle moments are where risk and toil accumulate. Day‑one delays, missing access, or orphaned accounts hurt productivity and security. 

Your HRIS should orchestrate people, apps, devices, and approvals from one source of truth, using workflows that automatically trigger on any employee attribute (role, entity, location, manager, start date). Rippling does exactly this—because every system is powered by a single employee record, it can automatically grant, update, or revoke access everywhere, without IT or HR chasing manual tasks.

RFP questions to ask

• Which built‑in triggers and actions are available across HR, IT, and Finance? Provide a catalog.

• Can flows be parameterized by role/team/location without code?

• How are terminations handled end‑to‑end (access revocation, device/app deprovisioning, checklists, final pay inputs)?

• Can we test/simulate flows in a sandbox before launch?

• What error handling, retries, and audit trails exist for failed steps?

3. Approvals, policies, and role‑based access

Policies connect speed with control. If approvals live in email or don’t adapt to context, they either bottleneck the business or create gaps. Either someone can’t get their flight to the marketing offsite approved, or an engineer ends up with a corporate card limit far higher than they actually need. In both cases, the process either slows people down or exposes the company to unnecessary risk.

Your HRIS should support conditional, multi‑step approvals that recalculate automatically as attributes change (e.g., the moment someone switches location or cost center). In Rippling, policies and approvals run on the same unified data, so the right rules apply instantly.

RFP questions to ask

• Can we build conditional, multi‑step approvals with SLAs, escalations, and exceptions?

• Do policies re-evaluate automatically on attribute changes (role, grade, entity, location)?

• Is every approval/action tracked with immutable logs and exports?

• Can we time‑box or just‑in‑time grant sensitive access?

• How are policy conflicts resolved and surfaced?

4. Time off and attendance

Time is money and compliance. Poor localization for breaks, overtime, and accruals leads to errors and exposure. 

Your HRIS should capture hours and leave accurately, support attestations, provide mobile self‑service, and sync approved time to payroll automatically to eliminate CSV friction. Rippling unifies time and leave with the core record and payroll, so totals, balances, and rules flow reliably.

RFP questions to ask

• Which PTO/leave rules, break policies, and attestations are supported per jurisdiction?

• Do approved hours and balances flow to payroll in real time with pre‑submit previews?

• What mobile features exist for requests, approvals, location/verification, and certifications?

• How are missed punches and exceptions surfaced?

• Can managers approve from email/mobile without logging into the full admin?

5. Benefits administration and employee experience

Benefits impact every employee—and mistakes here erode trust fast. 

Your HRIS should make it simple to enroll in benefits, update coverage after life events, and keep payroll deductions accurate without extra work. Both admins and employees need an easy experience, whether they’re on web or mobile, with clear reminders and built-in forms. Rippling brings HR, payroll, and benefits together so elections and deductions stay in sync automatically, and employees can manage everything in one place.

RFP questions to ask

• Which broker/carrier connections are supported and what data flows bidirectionally?

• How are elections and deductions reconciled against payroll each cycle?

• What life‑event detection and reminders exist?

• What’s included for ACA and eligibility notices?

• What mobile self‑service and accessibility features are available?

6. Payroll and compensation readiness

Bad or lagging data turns into costly payroll corrections. 

Your HRIS should either be payroll or integrate deeply so rate, location, tax, and deduction changes update payroll in real time. For planning, look for permissioned compensation bands, multi‑currency, and alerts. Rippling’s payroll and comp features live on the same employee record, reducing reconciliation and enabling tight approvals around sensitive pay data.

RFP questions to ask

• Do HR changes (rate, cost center, location, deductions) update payroll instantly with previews?

• Are compensation bands and ranges permissionable with multi‑currency support?

• Which ERP/GL integrations exist for journals, costing, and dimensions?

• How are retro adjustments handled and audited?

• What accuracy/uptime guarantees apply to payroll processing?

7. Integrations and APIs

Your HRIS should connect seamlessly with the tools your team already uses—like recruiting, SSO, IT tickets, finance, and learning platforms. 

Weak integrations lead to duplicate work and out-of-date records. Look for a system with a wide catalog of ready-to-use integrations and reliable ways to sync data both ways. Rippling offers hundreds of pre-built integrations and makes the HRIS the single source of truth, so apps, access, and updates stay accurate everywhere.

RFP questions to ask

• Share your integration list and for each, what’s supported (SSO, SCIM, lifecycle events, write‑back).

• Do you expose webhooks and bulk APIs with documented rate limits and SLAs?

• Can attribute mapping keep third‑party apps in sync automatically?

• How do you version APIs and communicate breaking changes?

• Do you offer SDKs, app marketplace distribution, and shared sandboxes?

8. Compliance and document management

Employment laws shift constantly, and they’re different everywhere—what’s legal in one city might get you fined in the next. Without the right system, that can mean missed forms, outdated policies, or messy audits that eat up weeks of time. 

Your HR system should do the heavy lifting: flag risks before they become problems, send the right documents for e-sign, and keep records organized so audits are a click away. Security should be built in, not an afterthought. With Rippling, compliance workflows are tied directly to your employee record—so when someone changes roles or locations, the right policies and documents update instantly, records are stored automatically, and you can generate audit-ready reports in seconds.

RFP questions to ask

• What built‑in compliance monitoring exists by jurisdiction? How are owners alerted?

• Do you support I‑9 (including remote) / E‑Verify, and automated reminders?

• Which security certifications do you hold (e.g., SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001)?

• Can we assign, track, and retain documents by policy with e‑signature and expirations?

• How are data privacy requests and legal holds supported?

9. Reporting and analytics

Leaders don’t want to wait on spreadsheets—they need clear, reliable answers right when decisions are being made. But too often, reporting is slow, outdated, or locked behind a BI team’s queue. 

Your HRIS should make it easy for anyone with the right permissions to pull real-time insights, combine HR data with signals from other tools (like IT tickets, learning progress, or productivity apps), and share reports securely. With Rippling, analytics run directly on your single employee record—so when you build a report, it’s already pulling from live, unified data. You can even layer in metrics from connected apps for a complete view of your workforce, without ever touching Excel.

RFP questions to ask

• Can non‑technical users build dashboards that respect data permissions?

• Do you support scheduled delivery, exports, and joins with third‑party app data?

• How are shared metrics (e.g., “active headcount”) governed and versioned?

• Can we create calculated fields and cohort‑based analyses?

• Is row‑level security supported for shared reports?

10. Global HR

As you expand, you shouldn’t bolt on one tool per country. Your HRIS should localize fields, docs, and currencies by work location, support multi‑entity separation, and still allow consolidated reporting. Rippling’s global architecture adapts the data model and workflows by locale while rolling up analytics across entities cleanly.

RFP questions to ask

• How do you localize data, documents, and policies per country/region?

• Do you support multi‑currency comp and consolidated/global reporting?

• What data separation and access controls exist for multi‑entity structures?

• How do you manage regional document templates and translations?

• What global HR expertise or help desk support is available?

How Rippling helps enterprises

Most HR teams today are buried in manual work because their tools don’t talk to each other. A promotion, a new hire, or even a change of address can mean hours of updates across payroll, benefits, and IT systems—leaving plenty of room for error and compliance risk.

That’s where Rippling HRIS comes into play. Rippling fixes this by putting all your employee data in one place. When something changes—like a salary adjustment, a new manager, or a relocation—it updates everywhere automatically, from payroll and benefits to app access and compliance records. That means no more chasing spreadsheets or worrying about missed updates.

With Rippling HRIS, enterprises can:

• Onboard a new hire in 90 seconds—apps, benefits, and payroll are all set up automatically

• Run payroll in minutes with guaranteed tax compliance across every jurisdiction

• Automate compliance tasks, like assigning state-mandated training the moment someone changes locations

• Give employees one simple app for everything—requesting time off, checking pay stubs, submitting expenses, or completing training

• Equip leaders with real-time insights across HR, IT, and Finance—without waiting on a BI team

• Scale globally with location-aware fields, localized documents, and multi-currency support.

Instead of managing a patchwork of disconnected systems, Rippling becomes your single source of truth—automating your HR administrative work, eliminating compliance headaches, and giving employees a seamless, modern experience.

Rippling RFP for HRIS example Employee system of record

Onboarding, offboarding, and lifecycle automation

Approvals, policies, and role‑based access

Time off and attendance

Benefits administration and employee experience

Payroll and compensation readiness

Integrations and APIs

Compliance and document management

Reporting and analytics

Global HR

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