TDS Section 192 across both tax regimes. Form 12BB declarations captured digitally. PF, ESI, Professional Tax and LWF computed on every run. Bank-portal CSV ready for HDFC, ICICI, SBI and Axis. Journal entries auto-posted to the same ledger that runs your accounting and GST. Free plan available; no credit card required to start.
Compliance with Income Tax Act Section 192 (TDS on salary), Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952, the Employees' State Insurance Act 1948, and state Professional Tax acts including the Karnataka Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act 1976 and the Maharashtra State Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act 1975. Slabs and rates updated for FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27.
Fourteen capabilities covering the full payroll cycle — declaration capture, TDS computation, run wizard, statutory liabilities, bank disbursement, challan tracking, compliance calendar, and the audit trail your CA wants.
New and old regime side-by-side. Slabs, 87A rebate, marginal relief at ₹7L, surcharge (10/15/25/37%), 4% health-and-education cess. FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 pre-loaded.
80C, HRA, home loan (Sec 24), NPS (80CCD(1B)), mediclaim (80D), education loan (80E), donations (80G). Attestation workflow with audit trail. Admin approval before TDS uses them.
PF, ESI, PT, LWF, TDS seeded for every new tenant. Custom earnings and deductions. Cross-field amount-XOR-percentage validation. Archive without breaking past runs — snapshot at run time.
Create → Attendance (LOP days, CSV import) → Compute → Review → Approve & Disburse. Period-locked via GSTR-3B proxy. Nothing posts to the ledger until you approve.
Status banner, 5-step horizontal stepper, gross-to-net cascade, anomaly chips (zero attendance, missing PAN, structure drift). The dashboard operations teams actually want.
Salary expense to P&L; PF / ESI / TDS / PT / LWF payables split correctly on the balance sheet; net salary payable cleared on bank UTR. Trial balance reconciles every close.
22-column CSV for HDFC NetBanking, ICICI Corporate, SBI Yono, Axis CIB. MFA-gated, HMAC-signed, audited per download. Surfaces employees missing bank details before the upload.
After the bulk transfer clears, paste in the UTR and bank-paid-on date. Idempotent on same UTR; FOR UPDATE NOWAIT prevents two-admin race. Tracks who confirmed, when, and from which bank account.
Record monthly PF, ESI, PT, TDS challan payments. KPI strip: total challans for FY, total paid, pending periods, latest payment. Reconciles against payable accounts automatically.
PF / ESI 15th, TDS 7th, PT 20th (Karnataka) / last day (Maharashtra). Status pills: upcoming, due soon, due today, overdue, done. Lives on the payroll dashboard.
Karnataka and Maharashtra supported with correct slabs and deadlines. Other states default to Karnataka rule with verify-banner. Per-tenant state in Statutory Settings.
Four echarts: gross payroll trend (12 months), headcount trend, cost by department, pay distribution histogram (5 CTC buckets). For when the founder asks if salary spend is in line.
Bank account numbers AES-GCM encrypted (EncryptedString column). PAN and Aadhaar masked in the UI; reveal requires explicit action. Sensitive exports MFA-gated.
Day-by-day LOP grid for review; CSV import for biometric integrations. Salary prorates automatically; rate-version snapshot stored on every run for replayable computation.
Most small businesses in India run payroll in Excel or a spreadsheet template handed down from the previous accountant. It works until it does not — TDS regime changes, a wage ceiling shifts, the bank rejects the upload, the trial balance stops tying out. Here is how the integrated approach compares.
| Feature | Excel / generic tool | ReadyBooks |
|---|---|---|
| TDS Section 192 (both regimes) | Manual computation in Excel | Both regimes built in, slab math automatic |
| Form 12BB declarations | Paper forms, attached PDFs | Digital form with attestation + audit trail |
| PF / ESI / PT auto-compute | Formulas the CA wrote five years ago | Statutory components seeded for every tenant |
| Journal entries to accounting | Manual entry in Tally after every run | Auto-posted on approve; trial balance always matches |
| Bank-portal CSV upload | Format the file yourself for each bank | 22-column CSV ready for HDFC / ICICI / SBI / Axis |
| UTR confirmation back into the system | Sticky note in WhatsApp from the bank ops team | Idempotent UTR paste, FOR UPDATE NOWAIT, audit row |
| Compliance Calendar (PF / ESI / PT / TDS) | A calendar reminder, hopefully | Dashboard widget with status pills + deep links |
| Audit trail for every change | Whoever last saved the workbook | payroll_audit_log: who, when, before, after |
| PII encryption at rest | Plaintext bank accounts in the workbook | AES-GCM (EncryptedString) on bank account numbers |
| Price for a 25-employee company | Per-employee per-month + extra modules | Included on paid plans; free tier covers small teams |
Five steps from open to disbursed. Nothing posts to the ledger until you approve the run; nothing leaves the system until you have downloaded the bank-portal CSV.
Pick the pay period (April 2026, for example). The wizard pulls every active employee and their current salary structure. Period-lock checks the GSTR-3B proxy so you cannot run a closed month by accident.
Mark loss-of-pay (LOP) days on the per-employee grid or import a CSV from your attendance / biometric system. Working-days math runs immediately so you can spot zero-attendance anomalies before they reach the payslip.
Every component runs through the engine. Gross → statutory deductions (PF, ESI, PT, LWF) → TDS Section 192 (with the employee's declared 12BB regime) → net pay. Rate-version snapshot saved on the run so historical recomputation stays accurate.
The HMI dashboard surfaces anomaly chips — missing PAN, missing bank account, structure drift, zero attendance — before approval. Drill into any employee's computation; every line item is explainable.
Approve to post the journal entries and lock the period. Download the bank-portal CSV (MFA-gated). After the bank transfer clears, paste the UTR back in to clear Net Salary Payable on the books.
Stop reconciling spreadsheets against bank portals at 1am the day before payday.
TDS Section 192 (both regimes), PF at 12% of basic with ₹15,000 wage ceiling, ESI at 0.75% / 3.25% on gross up to ₹21,000 (₹25,000 differently-abled), Professional Tax per state — every component on every run.
Every salary run posts the journal entries automatically. No more month-end "where is the payroll register, the books do not match" — payroll lives on the same ledger as accounting.
22 columns formatted for the corporate banking portals operations teams actually use. No row-by-row paste, no template juggling, no upload-failed-because-of-column-order.
payroll_audit_log captures every CRUD with before / after JSON. Bank account numbers AES-GCM encrypted. Sensitive exports MFA-gated. The audit trail your statutory auditor and your CA both want.
Most accounting platforms treat payroll as an afterthought — a separate module that emits a CSV you key into your books. ReadyBooks reverses that: the same ledger that runs your accounting also runs your payroll. Every salary run posts Salary Expense to the P&L, splits the statutory liabilities into PF Payable / ESI Payable / TDS Payable / Net Salary Payable on the balance sheet, and clears those liabilities when you record the challan and bank transfer.
For Indian SMBs, this matters more than for businesses anywhere else. Section 192, EPF Act 1952 contributions, ESIC Act 1948 levies, state PT acts, the Form 16 / 24Q TDS return cycle, and the GST implications of any reimbursement component — none of this is optional, and none of it is simple. Getting it right inside the same product that files your GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B is materially easier than running payroll in one tool and accounting in another.
It also fits how Indian CA firms work. The CA who signs off your books wants payroll reconciled, statutory dues paid, challans recorded, and the audit trail visible — all in one place. ReadyBooks gives them a single login that covers accounting, GST, and payroll. No more "send me the payroll Excel separately".
Indian payroll is not a single law — it is a stack of central and state statutes interacting with the Income Tax Act. The four central pieces are TDS on salary under Section 192 of the Income Tax Act 1961, Provident Fund under the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952, Employees' State Insurance under the ESIC Act 1948, and Labour Welfare Fund under state-specific LWF acts. On top of these, every state with a Professional Tax statute (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and others) imposes a monthly deduction with its own slab and deadline.
Getting one of these wrong has direct cash impact. Late TDS deposit attracts interest under Section 201(1A) (1% per month on under-deduction, 1.5% per month from deduction to deposit) and a late-filing fee under Section 234E of ₹200 per day until the 24Q quarterly return is filed. Late PF deposit attracts damages under Section 14B (up to 100% of the dues for chronic default) plus interest under Section 7Q. Late ESI deposit attracts interest at 12% per annum plus damages. State Professional Tax penalties vary by state but typically run 1.25% to 2% interest per month plus a flat penalty. None of these are theoretical risks — every payroll team has a story.
ReadyBooks tracks each deadline on the Compliance Calendar. PF and ESI on the 15th of the next month, TDS on the 7th of the next month (TDS for March is due 30 April), Professional Tax on the 20th (Karnataka) or last day (Maharashtra). The widget links directly to the screen where you record the challan, and once recorded the corresponding liability account in the ledger clears automatically.
Section 192 requires the employer to deduct income tax at source on every salary payment, based on the employee's estimated annual income. The estimate uses the salary structure, the projected attendance, and the investments / deductions the employee has declared via Form 12BB.
Under the new tax regime (default from FY 2023-24), the slabs for FY 2025-26 are: 0% up to ₹3,00,000, 5% from ₹3,00,001 to ₹7,00,000, 10% from ₹7,00,001 to ₹10,00,000, 15% from ₹10,00,001 to ₹12,00,000, 20% from ₹12,00,001 to ₹15,00,000, and 30% above ₹15,00,000. The Section 87A rebate gives up to ₹25,000 off the computed tax if total income is up to ₹7,00,000 — and marginal relief at the ₹7,00,000 threshold ensures the marginal tax on the next rupee never exceeds 100%. A 4% health-and-education cess applies on the total tax. Surcharge applies above ₹50,00,000 total income (10%), ₹1,00,00,000 (15%), ₹2,00,00,000 (25%), and ₹5,00,00,000 (37% under old regime, capped at 25% under new regime).
Under the old regime, the slabs are: 0% up to ₹2,50,000 (₹3,00,000 for seniors), 5% from ₹2,50,001 to ₹5,00,000, 20% from ₹5,00,001 to ₹10,00,000, 30% above ₹10,00,000. Standard deduction of ₹50,000 applies (₹75,000 under new regime). HRA exemption under Section 10(13A), Section 80C deduction up to ₹1,50,000, NPS additional under 80CCD(1B) up to ₹50,000, mediclaim under 80D, home loan interest under Section 24, education loan under 80E, and donations under 80G all apply. Section 87A rebate is ₹12,500 up to ₹5,00,000 income.
The TDS engine in ReadyBooks applies all of this per employee, per pay period. Every run snapshots the rate version so that a recomputation six months later (for a corrected declaration, for example) uses the slabs that were in force at the time of the original run.
The Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 applies to every establishment with 20 or more employees (and to many below the threshold by voluntary registration). The statutory contribution is 12% of basic wages from the employee and a matching 12% from the employer. The employer share is split: 8.33% goes to the Employees' Pension Scheme (capped at ₹15,000 of basic wage) and 3.67% to the EPF. There is no upper limit on the employee share — many employees and employers contribute on full basic above the ₹15,000 ceiling on a voluntary basis.
ReadyBooks seeds PF at 12% of basic capped at ₹15,000 by default. At the salary structure level, you can override to full-basic for voluntary contribution. Employer admin charges (0.5% on wages, with a minimum) are tracked as a separate liability that posts to the ledger on every run.
Employees' State Insurance (ESI) applies up to a gross wage of ₹21,000 per month (₹25,000 for differently-abled employees). Employee contribution is 0.75% of gross; employer contribution is 3.25%. Above the wage threshold, ESI stops applying to that employee but continues for already-contributing employees until the end of the half-yearly contribution period (April-September or October-March).
Professional Tax (PT) is state-specific. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and a few others have PT acts; Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and the rest do not. Slabs vary by state but typically range from a few hundred rupees to ₹2,500 per month per employee. Karnataka PT deadline is the 20th of the next month; Maharashtra is the last day of the month. ReadyBooks supports Karnataka and Maharashtra out of the box; other PT states default to the Karnataka rule with an in-app banner so you can verify the slab.
Labour Welfare Fund (LWF) is state-specific and applies in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and a few others. ReadyBooks seeds the state-specific LWF rate and cadence — for example, Maharashtra ₹25 employee + ₹75 employer half-yearly (June + December), Karnataka ₹20 + ₹40 annual (December), Delhi ₹0.75 + ₹2.25 half-yearly. LWF is intentionally not on the Compliance Calendar because annual / semi-annual cadences do not fit the next-month-by-N model.
Form 12BB is the declaration every employee submits to the employer at the start of the financial year (Rule 26C of the Income Tax Rules). It covers the investments and deductions the employee wants the employer to consider when computing TDS — Section 80C investments (PPF, ELSS, life insurance, NPS employee, tuition fees, principal on home loan), HRA exemption (rent paid, landlord PAN if annual rent crosses ₹1,00,000), home loan interest under Section 24 (lender PAN, loan account), NPS additional under 80CCD(1B), mediclaim under 80D, education loan under 80E, and donations under 80G. Form 12BB also requires attestation that the declaration is correct.
ReadyBooks captures all of this digitally. Employees fill out a guided React Hook Form + Zod form; admins review and approve before the declaration feeds into the TDS calculator. Every change is audited with timestamps and before / after JSON, so a year-end audit can reconstruct exactly what the employee declared and when.
Form 16 is the TDS certificate the employer issues after the financial year ends — by 15 June of the assessment year, per Rule 31. It covers total salary paid, statutory deductions, the regime selected, declared investments, and total TDS deducted and deposited. ReadyBooks tracks every input Form 16 needs, so generation is a templating task on top of data already captured. Full Form 16 PDF generation is part of the TDS compliance roadmap, alongside the 24Q quarterly return and Form 27A acknowledgement.
Four real-world archetypes spanning startup, services, manufacturing, and CA practice. The same product covers each because payroll, accounting and GST share one ledger.
Engineering-heavy team on the new tax regime; founders on the old. Form 12BB declarations capture both regimes in one screen. TDS computed correctly across mixed regimes on every run. Bank-portal CSV uploaded to ICICI Corporate every 30th. Total payroll cycle: under an hour.
Salary structures vary by grade — five band-level templates with per-employee overrides. HRA / 80C declarations roll up cleanly from Form 12BB. PF and ESI computed for everyone under the wage ceilings; voluntary PF above the ceiling toggled on at the structure level for senior staff.
Three shifts; biometric-attendance CSV imported into the LOP grid. Maharashtra Professional Tax (last day of month) deadline tracked on the Compliance Calendar alongside PF and ESI. Bank UTR confirmation closes net salary payable; cash flow forecast updates immediately.
Five small-business clients on payroll. Multi-client dashboard shows compliance status across all of them in one screen. Bulk filing of TDS and PF challans during the first week of every month. Articled-clerk role lets juniors prepare runs; partner approves before posting.
Free plan available for small teams — TDS, PF, ESI, Form 12BB, run wizard, payslip PDFs, and journal entry posting are all included. Paid plans unlock the bank-portal CSV export, the Compliance Calendar widget, executive insights charts, SES-backed payslip email automation, and the manufacturing and CA workflow add-ons. No credit card is required to start.
Payroll fits into a broader Indian accounting + GST + compliance stack. Explore the connecting modules.
GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, e-invoicing, e-way bills — built on the same ledger. The period-lock that protects payroll runs is the GST period-lock. Read more
Trial balance, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow. Payroll journal entries post here automatically. Read more
Multi-client dashboard, bulk filing, articled-clerk roles, Tally migration — the CA workflow that wraps payroll, accounting and GST together. Read more