PF · ESI · PT · ECR · Free plan

Payroll software built for Indian statutory rules

Indian payroll is not just arithmetic — it is PF at 12% with a wage ceiling, EPS carved out at 8.33%, ESI below ₹21,000 gross, professional tax that changes by state, and an ECR file the EPFO will reject over a formatting error. ADMINFACE handles the statutory layer, not only the salary maths.

No credit card at signup. No trial clock. Your organisation gets its own isolated database.

Payroll run

From salary structure to paid, with an approval trail

Payroll is the process most likely to be audited and most expensive to get wrong, so every step is recorded.

Configurable salary components

Define earnings and deductions to match your CTC structure — basic, HRA, allowances, and anything specific to your organisation.

Bulk payroll runs

Generate payslips for every eligible employee in one action, or run individuals when something needs handling separately.

Approval workflow

Payroll routes through an approval chain before anyone is marked paid, so nobody pushes a run to production alone.

PDF payslips

Generate proper payslips employees download themselves, individually or as a bulk ZIP for a whole month.

PF, ESI and professional tax

Statutory deductions computed with configurable rates and ceilings, and reported per month across the organisation.

EPFO ECR file export

Generate the ECR text file for PF filing, with EPS wages capped and the EPS/EPF split calculated for each employee.

How it works

A payroll month, end to end

1

Configure once

Set salary components, PF and ESI rates, wage ceilings and your professional tax state. These carry forward every month.

2

Attendance closes

Paid days, loss of pay and approved overtime come from the attendance register — no separate spreadsheet.

3

Generate and review

Run payroll in bulk, review the register, and fix anything that looks wrong before it goes anywhere.

4

Approve, pay, file

The run clears its approval chain, payslips publish to employees, and the ECR file exports for EPFO filing.

The statutory layer is the hard part

Calculating gross minus deductions is trivial. What makes Indian payroll difficult is that each deduction has its own base, its own ceiling and its own filing format, and getting any of them wrong creates a liability that surfaces months later.

Provident fund

PF is 12% of basic plus DA from the employee and a matching 12% from the employer — but the employer's half splits, with 8.33% of wages (capped at ₹15,000, so ₹1,250) going to EPS and the remainder to EPF. The wage ceiling is configurable because some employers contribute on actual basic rather than on ₹15,000, but the EPS cap stays fixed at 8.33% of ₹15,000 regardless. That single rule is the most common source of ECR rejections.

ESI

ESI applies where gross is ₹21,000 a month or below — 0.75% from the employee and 3.25% from the employer. The wage ceiling is configurable, and employees who cross it stop contributing. The trap is mid-year crossings, where contribution obligations continue to the end of the contribution period.

Professional tax

Professional tax is a state levy, not a central one, so the amount and the slabs depend on where the employee works. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat and West Bengal all levy it with different slabs; Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab do not levy it at all. The annual total is constitutionally capped at ₹2,500 per person.

ECR files fail on formatting, not on arithmetic. The EPFO's ECR format is a delimited text file with a fixed field order, and it rejects the whole upload over one bad row. ADMINFACE generates it directly from the payroll run, and refuses to produce a file at all if any employee is missing a UAN — which is the other reason uploads fail.

Beyond the monthly run

Payroll is not only the monthly cycle. The surrounding processes usually live in spreadsheets and email, and each one is a place where numbers drift:

  • Salary advances — requested, approved and recovered against future payroll rather than tracked on paper.
  • Expense claims — submitted with approval routing, so reimbursements are auditable.
  • Full and final settlement — a structured exit calculation covering dues, recoveries and final payment.
  • Salary revision history — every pay change kept with its effective date, so back-dated queries have an answer.
  • Tax declarations — employees declare their investments in the system rather than over email.
  • Benefits and family details — held against the employee record where insurance and statutory nominations need them.

Employees serve themselves

Every employee has their own login. They download their own payslips, see their own salary history, apply for advances and submit expense claims without going through HR. Most of the routine load on a payroll team is answering questions that the employee could have answered themselves given access.

What this is not

ADMINFACE handles payroll processing, statutory computation and ECR generation. It is not an accounting package, it does not file your returns for you, and it does not replace a chartered accountant on anything complex. It produces the numbers and the files; a person still submits them.

If you want to check the statutory maths before trusting any system with it, the free EPF and EPS calculator and CTC to in-hand calculator use the same rules, with the working shown.

How we differ

ADMINFACE vs typical HR software

ADMINFACETypical HR platform
CostFree for unlimited employeesPer employee, per month
PF, ESI and PTIncluded, with configurable ratesUsually included, often in a payroll tier
ECR file for EPFOGenerated from the payroll runSometimes manual or an add-on
Approval workflowBuilt in before anyone is marked paidOften only on higher tiers
Attendance sourceSame platform — no import stepFrequently a separate product
Payslip deliveryEmployee self-service, PDF and bulk ZIPVaries; sometimes emailed manually

"Typical HR platform" describes the pricing and packaging patterns common across the category — per-employee monthly billing, feature tiers and time-limited trials. Individual products vary; check current terms with any vendor you are comparing.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does ADMINFACE calculate PF and ESI automatically?

Yes. PF is computed at your configured employee and employer rates against the wage ceiling, with the EPS share carved out at the statutory 8.33% capped at ₹15,000 of wages. ESI is applied at 0.75% employee and 3.25% employer for anyone at or below the gross ceiling. Rates and ceilings are configurable because they change.

Can it generate the ECR file for EPFO filing?

Yes. The ECR text file is generated straight from a month's payroll data with EPF wages, EPS wages, EDLI wages and the contribution split per employee. If any employee is missing a UAN the export stops and tells you who, since the EPFO would reject the upload anyway.

How is professional tax handled across states?

Professional tax is configured per organisation with the applicable state selected, and the deduction is applied in the monthly run and reported alongside PF and ESI. Because it is a state levy with different slabs everywhere, you set it to match where your employees actually work.

Can employees download their own payslips?

Yes. Every employee has a login with their own payslip history as PDFs, plus their salary revision history. HR can also bulk-download a whole month as a ZIP.

Is there an approval step before payroll is finalised?

Yes. Payroll runs pass through a configurable approval chain before anyone is marked paid, so a single person cannot push a run through unreviewed. Actions are recorded in the audit log.

Does payroll pull from attendance automatically?

Yes — attendance, leave and payroll are one system, so paid days, loss of pay and approved overtime carry through without an export or re-keying step. This is where most month-end payroll errors originate.

Is payroll included on the free plan?

Yes, in full, for unlimited employees — including statutory computation, the approval workflow, PDF payslips and ECR export. Payroll is the feature most often gated behind a paid tier elsewhere; it is not gated here.

Explore more

Other things ADMINFACE handles

Run this month's payroll on it

Set up your salary components, import your employees and generate a real payroll run. Free for unlimited employees, with statutory computation and ECR export included.