Inspired by nature's best record-keeper

The smarter way to manage employee benefits on leave

Piñon handles the complexity of LOA and COBRA benefit tracking — so your HR team never has to chase checks, spreadsheets, or missed deadlines again.

FMLA compliant

Encrypted payments

Autopay with stop date

COBRA tracking

Employer / HR admin

Manage LOA rosters, costs & COBRA

Demo: any email/password works

Employee portal

Pay benefits, set up autopay, view coverage

Demo: any email/password works

FMLA & COBRA compliant

End-to-end encrypted

Autopay with stop date

Return-date alerts

Custom reporting

Why Piñon

Everything HR needs for leaves of absence, in one place

Before Piñon, HR teams managed LOA benefits through emails, spreadsheets, and mailed checks. Piñon replaces all of that.

Employee goes on leave

HR enters the record or Piñon pulls it from your HRIS automatically.

Employee pays online

Pay by card or ACH. Autopay stops automatically on their return date.

Alerts keep everyone on track

Return-date reminders, overdue alerts, COBRA deadlines — automatic.

Reports in one click

Balances, costs, payroll-ready exports — available any time.

Our services

Everything covered, from day one of leave to return to work

Purpose-built for payroll and HR professionals — every benefit type, payment method, and compliance requirement.

LOA benefits tracking

Medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA calculated per pay period automatically.

Employee payment portal

Pay by card or ACH. Autopay stops on the return date — no refunds needed.

COBRA management

Election deadlines, full premiums + 2% admin fee, autopay, expiration tracking.

Automated notifications

Return-date alerts at 30, 14, 7, and 3 days. Payment reminders. Grace period warnings.

Custom reporting

Six standard reports or build your own with field picker, filters, and CSV export.

Compliance & audit trail

Termination triggers COBRA notices. Full leave history for audits.

Pricing

Choose how Piñon fits your team

Start with Self-Serve and upgrade to Connected when you're ready to automate. Both tiers include every feature on this page.

Piñon Self-Serve

Self-Serve

For HR teams managing leaves manually. Enter employees as they go on leave — Piñon handles the rest.

$149/month after first 30 days

First 30 days free · Up to 25 active LOA / COBRA employees · $4 per additional employee

HR enters employees manually through Piñon
Full LOA & COBRA benefits tracking
Employee payment portal (card & ACH)
Autopay with return-date stop
Flexible payment plans for employees
Coverage verification letters
Document storage per employee
Payroll reconciliation export
Email support, 1 business day response

Piñon Connected

Connected

For organizations with frequent LOA. Piñon syncs directly with your HRIS — when employees go on leave, they appear automatically.

Tailored pricing based on size & integration scope

Everything in Self-Serve
Direct HRIS sync — no manual entry
Auto-pulls employees with "Leave" status
Auto-populates benefits & premium amounts
Return-date triggers automated autopay stop
Termination triggers COBRA workflow automatically
Dedicated implementation specialist
Priority phone & email support
SSO & advanced compliance reporting

Connected integrates with the systems you already use

ADP

Workday

UKG

Paycom

Rippling

BambooHR

How Connected works

From HRIS to Piñon in four automatic steps

Employee status changes

HR marks an employee as "On Leave" in your existing system.

Piñon receives the update

Secure sync pulls in name, ID, benefits, and return date.

Account is ready

Employee receives login email. Coverage and autopay are set up.

Return triggers stop

When status flips back, autopay stops and the record archives.

What's included

Four features your team will use every week

These aren't add-ons. Every Piñon plan includes the full set of capabilities below.

Flexible payment plans

Employee feature

Employees who can't pay the full amount up front can split into two or three installments — all within the grace period to protect their coverage.

Split a $400 payment over two scheduled charges

Auto-charges on the dates the employee chooses

HR sees "Payment plan active" flag on the roster

Cannot extend past the grace period — safe by design

Coverage verification letter

Employee feature

Employees can download a PDF letter proving their coverage is current — for doctors, pharmacies, or anyone who needs proof.

One-click PDF from the employee portal

Includes name, EID, dates, carrier, coverage tiers

Email directly to a doctor's office or pharmacy

No more "call HR for a letter" requests

Document storage

Both sides

FMLA forms, doctor's notes, return-to-work clearances — all tied to the employee record. Searchable, audit-ready, never lost.

HR uploads to each employee's profile

Employees upload their own paperwork (HR is notified)

Auto-categorized: FMLA, medical, return-to-work, other

Full audit trail with upload dates and uploader

Payroll reconciliation export

Employer feature

One-click export of LOA payments formatted for your payroll system. Drop it into month-end close — no manual data entry.

Select date range and payroll provider format

Payments mapped to employee IDs automatically

Periods covered, deduction amounts, all included

Compatible with ADP, Paychex, Gusto, QuickBooks

Recon export supports ADP Paychex Gusto QuickBooks + Generic CSV

About us

Built for HR teams who deserve better tools

Why "Piñon"?

The Clark's nutcracker caches up to 100,000 piñon pine seeds across thousands of locations — and remembers where nearly all of them are, months later. We named our platform Piñon because that's exactly what we do for HR teams: track every detail of every employee's benefits during leave. And just like the nutcracker stops when the season ends, Piñon's autopay stops when the employee returns.

The team

Meet the founders

Neha Gundara

Founder & CEO

Bio coming soon.

Sophia Hasan Ahmad

Chief Financial Officer

Bio coming soon.

Our values

How we build

Clarity over complexity

LOA is complicated enough. We strip away everything that doesn't need to be there.

Compliance first

Every feature is built with FMLA, COBRA, and HIPAA in mind.

Respect for employees on leave

People on leave are in difficult situations. We design with empathy.

Privacy by design

Sensitive health and financial data with end-to-end encryption.

We'd love to hear from you

General inquiries

hello@pinonbenefits.com

Response within 1 business day

Customer support

support@pinonbenefits.com

Priority for urgent coverage issues

Demo & sales

demo@pinonbenefits.com

Free 30-day trial available

Business hours

Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm ET

Urgent support available outside hours

Send us a message

First name

Last name

Company

Topic

Message

Dashboard

On LOA

$1,830

Payments received

$627

Outstanding

COBRA enrolled

Active alerts

Marcus Williams returns in 3 days

Autopay stops automatically on return date

Priya Patel overdue — $448

18 days past due · Grace period ends in 42 days

Linda Gomez COBRA deadline in 5 days

Election + payment due Jun 1

James Torres returns in 14 days

Autopay stops Jun 4

Roster snapshot

Johnson, Sarah M.

FMLA · Returns Mar 15

$179 due

Williams, Marcus

Medical leave · Returns May 24

Urgent

Patel, Priya R.

Parental leave · Returns Jun 10

$448 due

Torres, James

STD · Returns Jun 4

Current

LOA roster

Last name	First	EID	Department	Leave type	Returns	Balance	Status
Johnson	Sarah	EMP-001	Finance	FMLA	Mar 15, 2025	$179	Due
Williams	Marcus	EMP-002	Operations	Medical	May 24, 2025	$0	Returning
Patel	Priya	EMP-003	Engineering	Parental	Jun 10, 2025	$448	Overdue
Torres	James	EMP-004	Engineering	STD	Jun 4, 2025	$0	Current

COBRA management

Enrolled

$3,840

Monthly premiums

$2,580

Received

$1,260

Outstanding

Last name	First	EID	Term date	Expires	Monthly	Balance	Status
Gomez	Linda	EMP-088	Apr 15, 2025	Oct 15, 2026	$1,285	$1,285	Pending
Chen	Robert	EMP-072	Feb 28, 2025	Aug 31, 2026	$860	$0	Current
Park	Diane	EMP-055	Jan 10, 2025	Jul 10, 2026	$695	$0	Current

Reports

Standard reports

Active LOA roster

Benefits cost summary

Outstanding balances

Return date timeline

Employer liability

Payment status

Payroll reconciliation export

One-click export of LOA payments formatted for your payroll system.

ADP

Paychex

Gusto

QuickBooks

Sarah M. Johnson

EMP-001 · FMLA · Jan 15 – Mar 15, 2025

Days remaining

Days left

$179

Due Jun 1

$537

Total paid

Autopay

Your alerts

Return date in 15 days (Mar 15)

Confirm return or request extension

Autopay Jun 1 · stops Mar 15

$179.00 to •••• 4291

Coverage

Medical

$162.50/pp

Dental

$12.00/pp

Vision

$4.50/pp

Total/period

$179.00

Coverage verification

Need proof of coverage for a doctor or pharmacy? Download a verification letter or email it directly.

Payments

Due Jun 1, 2025 — $179.00

Autopay scheduled · or pay now manually

Payment options

Pay full amount now — $179.00

Charges your default card on file (Visa •••• 4291).

Set up payment plan

Split into two or three installments. Plan must finish within your 30-day grace period.

Installment 1

$89.50

Jun 1

Installment 2

$89.50

Jun 15

Autopay & cards

Autopay settings

Automatic payments — Active

Charges your card each period · stops on your return date

Autopay stop date: March 15, 2025
Matches your expected return date. No payment will be charged on or after this date.

Cards on file

VISA

Visa ending in 4291

Exp 09/27 · Default

Default

Mastercard ending in 8847

Exp 03/26

Documents

Sarah M. Johnson — 4 files

FMLA-Certification-Johnson-Sarah.pdf

2.4 MB · Uploaded Jan 12 by HR Admin

FMLA

Doctor-Note-Recovery-Update.pdf

880 KB · Uploaded Feb 3 by Sarah Johnson

Medical

Return-to-Work-Clearance.pdf

1.2 MB · Uploaded Mar 8 by Sarah Johnson

Return-to-work