Vertical #9 of Supreme Operating System · ERA 2025
employ.law
ERA 2025 compliance SaaS for the 1.15m UK micro-employers. AI-drafted contracts, commencement-date alerts, payroll, performance reviews, employee portal — all India-QA reviewed. ERA 2025 received Royal Assent 18 Dec 2025 and every UK employer's existing contracts are already non-compliant.
Regulatory hook (the urgency): ERA 2025 commencement dates are now LIVE (6 Apr 2026: SSP day-one, paternity day-one, flexible working day-one) and the 1 Jan 2027 hard deadline (unfair dismissal qualifying period dropping to 6 months) is locked. No adequate compliance tool exists for the 1.15m micro-employer (1-9 staff) segment. employ.law is that tool.
Headline numbers
1.15m
UK micro-employers in scope
£29-99/mo
Three pricing tiers
£858k
Y1 ARR target (2,100 subs)
This folder
CLAUDE.md
System context, regulatory hook, pricing, agent assignments, session rules. The 207-line operating manual.
STRATEGY.html
Market thesis · ERA 2025 timeline · competitive landscape · exit comparables · Y1-3 revenue model.
LANDING_PAGE.html
Customer-facing site. ERA 2025 framing — "your contracts are non-compliant" — plain English, micro-employer first.
RUNTIME_DASHBOARD.html
Operations view: India QA queue, contract pipeline, commencement-date watchlist, payroll runs, system health.
BACKEND_CONTRACT.md
Tech endpoints, DB schema, activation sequence, deploy specs. Owns runtime integration.
SNAP_MANIFEST.json
Component registry: 9 JS modules, 9 n8n workflows, 9 doc templates, 30 env vars, HR Suite activation tracker.
Already built (technical state, 14 May 2026)
| Asset | Count | Location | State |
|---|
| JavaScript snap modules | 9 | snap_modules/ | Pure functions, zero deps · ready to wire |
| n8n workflows | 9 | n8n_workflows/ | ready to import (1 cron auto-active on import) |
| SQL migrations | 2 | ../../db/migrations/003 + 004 | NOT YET APPLIED · Cowork queue |
| HTML doc templates | 9 | ../../templates/employ-law/ | ready to use |
| Railway deployment | 1 | railway/ | Dockerfile + 30 env vars |
Cross-vertical role (donor + receiver)
| Direction | Vertical | Contract |
|---|
| Donor → | payroll.law | 100% reuse · employee + leave + statutory pay schemas. Zero re-entry once employee added in employ.law. |
| Donor → | gdpr.law | Week-4 cross-sell trigger · employees = data subjects → DSAR-ready |
| Donor → | ir35.law | Contract types · SDS generation hook · CEST determination input |
| Donor → | safety.law | 5+ staff trigger fires safety.law H&S policy prompt |
| Donor → | insurance.law | 5+ staff trigger fires EL insurance referral via Supreme Capital |
| ← Receiver | Incorpwise | Every new UK formation → employ.law Starter onboarding sequence |
| ← Receiver | sole.tax | Sole trader hires first employee → Cluster 3 trigger → employ.law trial |
| ← Receiver | aiemployment.co.uk · hrsnap | Top-of-funnel snap calculator → BRG routing_band → employ.law trial |
Pricing tiers
| Tier | Price | What's included |
|---|
| Starter | £29/mo | ERA clause checker · 3 contracts/mo · commencement-date alerts |
| Growth | £49/mo | + disciplinary builder · leave tracker · written warnings |
| HR Bundle | £99/mo | + payroll runner (Staffology) · employee portal · P60s · performance manager |
Architecture decision pending (Craig)
Before Phase 2, Craig decides hosting architecture: (A) n8n standalone on Railway · (B) FastAPI port (translate workflow logic into app.py + PyExecJS) · (C) Hybrid (n8n for doc gen + crons; FastAPI for snap endpoints). Recommendation in BACKEND_CONTRACT.md.
HR Suite activation sequence (Week 1-8)
Week 1: Apply SQL migrations 003 + 004 → set STAFFOLOGY_API_KEY + EMPLOYEE_PORTAL_JWT_SECRET
Week 4: Activate n8n 07_leave_manager (after portal build)
Week 4: Activate n8n 08_portal_manager (after security audit)
Week 5: Activate n8n 06_payroll_runner (after RTI test gate)
Week 8: Flip FEATURE_EMPLOY_LAW_LIVE = true + FEATURE_INDIA_QA = true + FEATURE_SC_REFERRALS = true
Session rules (canonical, from CLAUDE.md)
| Always | ERA 2025 framing — "your contracts are non-compliant", not "best practice" |
| Always | plain English — bakery owner, not HR director |
| Always | micro-employers only Year 1 (no letting-agent features, no enterprise HR) |
| Always | caveat on every AI-generated output — "AI-generated, reviewed by employ.law India QA team" |
| Never | give legal advice — "compliance preparation specialist, not a lawyer" |
| Never | automate disciplinary outcomes or termination decisions — human gate required |