The eight questions that come up most often on discovery calls with India IT services owners. The answers are also marked up in FAQPage schema for AI-assistant retrieval.
Frequently asked questions
How is gStride different from Hubstaff or Time Doctor for IT services?
Hubstaff and Time Doctor are global timer-and-screenshot trackers built for SMB remote work. They do not run Indian payroll natively (EPF, ESIC, PT, TDS), they default to screenshot capture which triggers India-team attrition within ninety days, and their utilization model is based on activity rather than client-billable proof. gStride is built for India IT services — productivity intelligence reads outcome signals (calendar, Git, Jira, ticketing) rather than keystrokes, the platform bundles Indian payroll with statutory compliance, and the client-billable utilization dashboard is built for offshore client review without breaking employee privacy. See the full comparison in gStride vs Hubstaff and gStride vs Time Doctor.
Will my US or EU clients accept gStride utilization data for billing?
Yes — the client-billable utilization dashboard exports per-client, per-project, per-engineer hours reconciled against rostered and productive hours, with timestamped logs and a defensible audit trail. Because gStride uses outcome signals rather than screenshot surveillance, the dashboard satisfies US client procurement reviews and EU client AI Act addenda at the same time. Per-feature opt-in monitoring lets you turn screenshot capture on for a specific client engagement that contractually requires it, and off for engagements where it is prohibited under the AI Act. [needs-internal-benchmark]
How is gStride different from a generic monitoring tool?
Generic monitoring tools capture keystrokes and screenshots by default and produce activity scores that confuse motion with output. gStride is a productivity intelligence platform — it reads outcome signals from the tools the team already uses (calendar, Git, Jira, Slack, ticketing) and classifies time as focused, billing-accurate, or capacity-drifting using context rather than surveillance. Monitoring features (screenshot capture, app categorisation, idle detection) are independent toggles per project and per engineer rather than an all-or-nothing setting. India teams accept this; surveillance-default tools produce 90-day attrition spikes. The category framing is documented in our AI time tracking software pillar.
Does gStride handle Indian payroll properly (EPF, ESIC, PT, TDS)?
Yes — Indian payroll is native, end-to-end. EPF at 12 percent employer plus 12 percent employee on basic, ESIC at 3.25 percent employer plus 0.75 percent employee under threshold, professional tax by state, TDS slab calculations, gratuity, statutory bonus, leave encashment, Form 16 generation, and Form 24Q quarterly TDS return preview. Shops and Establishments Act overtime caps are configured per state. You do not need a second payroll vendor for Indian compliance, and you do not need to reconcile timesheets between two systems at month-end.
What about EU AI Act and India DPDP compliance?
gStride is built with per-feature opt-in monitoring, documented retention windows, worker notice at engagement start, and data principal rights (access, correction, erasure) within scope. This maps to deployer obligations under Article 26 of the EU AI Act and lawful purpose under the India Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. EU clients running IT services contracts in 2026 are increasingly asking for this in contract addenda; gStride answers yes by configuration rather than by exception. Honest read on the wider compliance posture is in our GDPR-compliant employee monitoring checklist.
How long does rollout take at 100 employees?
A 100-engineer IT services rollout runs 14 days against a payroll boundary. Week 1: integrations (calendar, Git, Jira, ticketing, Slack) plus client-engagement and rate-card setup. Week 2: Indian payroll mapping (statutory components, PT by state, rate cards per offshore client) plus opt-in monitoring rollout with worker notice. Cut over at the start of week 3 against a fresh payroll period. The full 14-day migration plan from Hubstaff, Time Doctor, or Keka is documented in the migration playbook.
What is the typical cost per employee per month?
Pricing is anchored in INR for India IT services firms — no FX surprise, no per-seat USD bloat. The relevant math is not list price per seat; it is the cost-of-status-quo being replaced. For a 64-employee firm carrying a dedicated workforce analyst function at roughly 48 lakh per year plus three separate tools for time, payroll, and shifts, gStride consolidates the line into a single platform cost below the analyst headcount it replaces. See the ROI calculator for your own numbers. List INR pricing is on the pricing page. [needs-internal-benchmark]
Can we migrate from existing tools (Hubstaff, Time Doctor, Keka)?
Yes — there is a documented 14-day migration playbook covering Hubstaff, Time Doctor, and Keka as source platforms. The playbook is explicit about what data migrates (hours, project mapping, payroll components, client rate cards) and what data does not migrate (legacy screenshot archives, keystroke logs). Honest about the gaps is a feature, not a bug — the cautionary tales of Keka taking six months and Zoho taking a year exist because vendors over-promised on migration. The coverage matrix is also worth reading before signing — it is the honest shipped-vs-roadmap view.