Why a Dated Checklist Beats a Good Memory
Payroll compliance in India is a calendar problem before it is a calculation problem. Most of the arithmetic is settled: 12% PF, 0.75% and 3.25% ESI, a state PT slab. What breaks is timing. The PF ECR is filed on the 18th because the payroll executive was on leave; the TDS challan for March is paid on 10 April instead of 30 April because nobody remembered March has a different date; the Karnataka PT return is missed entirely because the company only had a Mumbai calendar. Each miss carries interest, damages or late fees, and each is invisible until a notice arrives.
A single checklist, organised by frequency and owned by a named person, removes the dependence on memory. The list below covers central statutes plus the state-level items that vary. Where a date is given, it is the general rule; a handful of states and specific situations differ, so confirm your state's version once and record it on your own copy.
This checklist assumes a private-sector establishment covered by EPF and ESIC with employees in one or more states. If you are a security agency, add PSARA record-keeping to it; if you engage contract labour, add the principal employer items from contract labour compliance for principal employers.
- Most payroll penalties arise from missed dates, not wrong formulas
- Organise obligations by frequency: monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annual
- Assign an owner and a backup for every line
- Keep a state-specific version for each state where you employ people
Monthly Obligations: PF, ESI, TDS, PT and LWF
EPF: file the Electronic Challan-cum-Return (ECR) and pay contributions by the 15th of the following month. Employee 12% of basic plus DA; employer 12% split into 8.33% EPS (on wages up to the ceiling) and 3.67% EPF, plus 0.5% EDLI and 0.5% administrative charges. From 17 September 2026 the wage ceiling is ₹25,000, so September 2026 payroll applies the ceiling on a split basis: ₹15,000 for 1–16 September and ₹25,000 for 17–30 September. Update the wage master before the September run, not after.
ESIC: pay contributions by the 15th of the following month for employees with gross wages up to ₹21,000 (₹25,000 for persons with disability); employee 0.75%, employer 3.25%; employees earning up to ₹176 a day are exempt from the employee share. Remember the contribution-period rule: an employee who crosses ₹21,000 in, say, June keeps contributing until the April–September period ends. TDS on salary: deposit by the 7th of the following month, except March, which is due by 30 April. Professional tax: deduct per the state slab and pay per the state's schedule, which may be monthly, quarterly or annual.
Labour Welfare Fund is the item most often forgotten because its schedule is irregular. LWF is a state levy with small fixed contributions from employee and employer, collected half-yearly in some states (typically June and December) and annually in others, with rates and applicability that differ by state. Put it on the monthly checklist as a 'check whether due this month' line so it is never skipped. See the labour welfare fund glossary entry for how the schedule works.
- PF ECR and payment: by the 15th of the following month (₹25,000 ceiling from 17 Sep 2026)
- ESI contribution: by the 15th of the following month; contribution periods Apr–Sep and Oct–Mar
- TDS on salary: by the 7th of the following month; 30 April for March deductions
- Professional tax: state slab, state schedule; separate registration per PT state
- LWF: state-specific, half-yearly or annual; check applicability every month
Quarterly and Annual Obligations
The quarterly item is Form 24Q, the TDS return for salaries, filed for each quarter of the financial year. Its accuracy matters beyond the return itself: the fourth-quarter 24Q carries the salary-wise annexure that feeds Form 16 Part A on TRACES, so a mismatch between 24Q and your payroll register becomes an employee's Form 16 problem in June. Reconcile challans to the return before filing every quarter.
Annual items cluster around the financial year close. Form 16 must be issued to every employee from whom tax was deducted by 15 June following the financial year; the Form 16 guide for employers walks through the TRACES flow. Statutory bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act is payable within 8 months of the close of the accounting year, at a minimum of 8.33% and a maximum of 20% of wages, for employees earning basic plus DA up to ₹21,000 a month who worked at least 30 days. Gratuity is not an annual payment, but the provision or fund contribution should be reviewed annually using the 15/26 formula on last-drawn basic plus DA.
Two annual events are operational rather than filing-based. Minimum wages and VDA are revised by most states twice a year, commonly in April and October; the wage master must be updated within days of each notification and arrears paid where the notification is retrospective. And the holiday list for the coming year should be published before it begins, as many state Shops and Establishments rules require the list to be displayed and, in some states, filed.
- Form 24Q: quarterly TDS return; reconcile challans and salary annexure before filing
- Form 16: issue by 15 June following the financial year
- Statutory bonus: pay within 8 months of the accounting year close; 8.33%–20% of wages
- Gratuity: review provision or fund annually; payable within 30 days when due
- Minimum wage / VDA: update masters in April and October (or per state); publish the holiday list annually
Registers and Records You Must Be Able to Produce
Inspectors ask for registers, not dashboards. Under the Codes and the state rules still in force, an establishment should be able to produce a muster roll (daily attendance), a wage register (monthly earnings and deductions per worker), an overtime register (hours and wages paid at the overtime rate), registers of fines and of deductions for damage or loss, an advances register and a leave register. Factories add the register of adult workers and the leave-with-wages register under the Factories Act. Security agencies add the PSARA register of guards and supervisors.
The Codes move these toward consolidated electronic registers, but the content requirement is unchanged: who worked, when, for how long, what they were paid and what was deducted. The most common gap is the overtime register. Many companies pay overtime as a lump sum and cannot show the hours behind it by day and worker. The second most common is a muster roll that does not match the wage register, because attendance was edited after the salary was computed.
Wage slips are also a record. The Code on Wages requires a wage slip to every employee, and it should show the days paid, LOP, each earning and each deduction. Keep the slips, or the data that regenerates them, for the retention period your state prescribes. The salary slip format explained article covers the fields that must appear.
- Muster roll, wage register, overtime register, fines and deductions registers, advances, leave
- Factories: register of adult workers and leave-with-wages register
- Security agencies: PSARA register with names, addresses, photographs and salaries
- Wage slips for every employee every month, retained per state rules
- Muster roll and wage register must agree; lock attendance before payroll
State-Specific Items and the Documentation Trail
Beyond PT and LWF, each state adds its own operational compliance. Shops and Establishments registration must be renewed on the state's cycle, and the registration certificate displayed. Some states require annual returns under the Shops and Establishments Act, or under the Minimum Wages or Payment of Wages frameworks as they transition to the Codes. Contract labour registration and licences follow their own thresholds. Where you operate in several states, the honest answer is that you need a compliance line per state per obligation; the state-wise professional tax slabs article shows how much just one levy varies.
The documentation trail is what converts a compliant payroll into a defensible one. For each month, retain the attendance data as at the payroll cutoff, the payroll register, the bank file and its acknowledgement, each statutory challan with its receipt, and the filed returns. Store them so that a query about a single employee's PF for a given month can be answered in minutes with the attendance, the register line and the ECR line.
Penalties under the Codes and the older Acts include interest on late payment, damages for delayed PF and ESI contributions, late-filing fees for TDS returns and prosecution in serious cases. The amounts change and depend on the period of delay, so do not budget for them; budget for never incurring them. Every rupee of damages traces back to a missed line on this checklist.
- Shops and Establishments registration renewal and display; annual returns where required
- State returns under wage and minimum-wage frameworks during the transition to the Codes
- Retain attendance snapshot, payroll register, bank file, challans and returns per month
- Interest, damages and late fees apply to every missed deadline; treat them as avoidable
The Printable Checklist, by Frequency
Copy the list below into your compliance tracker and add the state-specific lines for each state where you employ staff. Mark each line with an owner, a backup and the evidence file that proves completion.
- MONTHLY: attendance cutoff locked; payroll run approved; salaries paid by the 7th (Code on Wages monthly-wage timeline); TDS deposited by the 7th; PF ECR filed and paid by the 15th; ESI paid by the 15th; PT deducted per state and paid per state schedule; LWF checked for applicability; wage slips issued; new joiners registered on EPFO/ESIC; exits marked with date of leaving
- QUARTERLY: Form 24Q filed and reconciled to challans; PT quarterly return where applicable; review of employees crossing ESI or PF ceilings
- HALF-YEARLY: LWF payment in half-yearly states; ESI contribution-period review (Apr–Sep, Oct–Mar); minimum wage / VDA revision check (April and October in many states); contract labour half-yearly return where applicable
- ANNUAL: Form 16 by 15 June; statutory bonus within 8 months of year close; gratuity provision review; holiday list published; Shops and Establishments renewal; annual returns under applicable Acts and Codes; PT annual return and entity enrolment payment; appointment letters on file for all employees
How Attendance-Linked Payroll Cuts the Misses
Look at what goes wrong on the list above and most of it starts upstream of payroll. A wage register that does not match the muster roll, an overtime register that cannot be produced, a September PF computation on the wrong ceiling because attendance came late and the run was rushed. When attendance flows into payroll automatically, with a lock date, the payroll team spends its time on the deadlines rather than on chasing data.
Attend Mitra keeps the attendance record, LOP, overtime hours and approvals in one place, applies EPF, ESIC, PT and TDS settings in the payroll run, and produces payslip PDFs, the salary register and a bank NEFT file. It does not file your PF, ESI or TDS returns or generate Form 16; those still go through EPFO, ESIC and TRACES. What it does is give you an accurate, locked dataset on the 26th so the filings on the 7th and 15th are a matter of uploading, not reconciling. Follow the payroll process steps for India to see where each checklist item sits in the monthly cycle, and use the attendance-to-payroll preparation guide to set the cutoff discipline.
- Lock attendance on a fixed date so muster roll and wage register always agree
- Keep overtime hours, approvals and consent as data, not as a lump-sum payment
- Generate registers and slips from the same dataset used for statutory computations
- Use the software for accurate inputs; filings still happen on EPFO, ESIC and TRACES portals