What a muster roll is and who must keep one
A muster roll is the statutory attendance record of an establishment: who was employed, on which days they worked, and, in its combined 'muster roll cum wage register' form, what they were paid for those days. It is the document an inspector under the Factories Act, the state Shops and Establishments Act, the Contract Labour Act or the Code on Wages asks to see first, because everything else, wage register, overtime register, PF and ESI returns, is reconciled against it.
Factories, construction contractors, security and housekeeping agencies, and principal employers who engage contract labour all need one. Contractors keep it per site; principal employers are expected to verify it because they remain liable for wages, PF and ESI if the contractor defaults. Small shops and offices keep the simpler attendance register version, covered in the attendance register format template.
State forms differ in numbering and column order (Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and the central rules each have their own), so this template uses the generic columns common to nearly all of them. Compare it with your state's prescribed form before adopting it, and read the muster roll glossary entry for how the term is used across laws.
What is inside: the Muster Roll and Notes sheets
The Muster Roll sheet opens with a header block: Name and Address of Establishment, Name of Contractor (leave blank if direct employment), Name of Principal Employer where applicable, Nature of Work, and Month and Year. The register body then has one row per worker with these columns: Sr No, Name of Worker, Father's or Husband's Name, Sex, Designation or Nature of Work, Date of Employment, then Days 1 to 31.
Each day cell takes a code: P for present, A for absent, H for holiday or weekly off, and L for leave. After day 31 come Total Days Worked, OT Hours, Wage Rate (with a daily or monthly toggle in the header), Wages Earned, Deductions, Net Paid and a Signature or Thumb Impression column for the wage-payment acknowledgement.
Total Days Worked is a COUNTIF on the P cells. Wages Earned multiplies the daily rate by days worked, or prorates a monthly rate on the 26-day divisor when the toggle is set to monthly, and adds overtime at twice the hourly rate derived from the daily wage divided by eight. Net Paid is Wages Earned minus Deductions. The Notes sheet lists the statutory context summarised in the compliance section below, with space to write your state form number and the officer who signs the register.
- Total Days Worked: =COUNTIF(H6:AL6,"P") where H to AL are the 31 day columns.
- Wages Earned (daily-rated): =Days Worked × Daily Rate + OT Hours × (Daily Rate ÷ 8) × 2.
- Wages Earned (monthly-rated): =Monthly Rate ÷ 26 × Days Worked + OT at the same hourly rate.
- Net Paid: =Wages Earned − Deductions; the deductions cell should only carry PF, ESI, advances and other lawful recoveries.
How to use it on site and in the office
Print the blank register at the start of the month, with worker names, father's names and rates pre-filled, and keep it at the site or gate. The supervisor marks P, A, H or L each day in ink; the daily marking is what makes it a contemporaneous record rather than a reconstruction. At month end, enter the codes into the Excel copy and the totals and wages compute.
For contract labour, prepare one register per contractor per site. The principal employer should receive a signed copy along with the wage register and proof of PF and ESI payment before releasing the contractor's bill; the contract labour compliance guide for principal employers lists what to check.
When wages are paid, take the worker's signature or thumb impression in the final column against the Net Paid amount. If wages are transferred to bank, note the transaction reference in the Deductions or remarks area. Keep the signed paper and the Excel PDF together.
- Mark weekly offs as H on the day they fall, so the count of H cells confirms the weekly holiday was given.
- Enter OT Hours from the overtime register, not from memory; the muster roll should agree with it exactly.
- Save one file per site per month; never reuse a file, because prior months must remain unaltered.
How to customise for your state or industry
Insert columns to match your state form. Haryana's combined register, for example, adds columns for the worker's address, category (unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled), and separate columns for basic wage, DA and other cash payments. Maharashtra's form asks for the number of days on which overtime was worked. Add these after Date of Employment or after Wage Rate as needed; the formulas reference named ranges so inserting columns does not break them.
For factories, add a Shift column so the register shows which relay the worker was in; the Factories Act requires the muster roll to reflect the shift schedule notified for the factory. For construction, add Skill Category and link the Daily Rate to a small rate table on the Notes sheet so that a change in the state minimum wage notification updates every row.
Change the codes if your workers know others (for example, WO for weekly off), but update the COUNTIF formulas and legend together. If you already keep a daily-wage labour attendance sheet at site, its total-days column can be pasted straight into this register.
Compliance context: the laws behind the register
Under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 and its rules, contractors must maintain a muster roll, wage register, and registers of deductions, fines, overtime and advances, and issue wage slips. The OSH Code 2020, in force from 21 November 2025, moves the licence and registration threshold to 50 contract workers, but the record-keeping duty continues; where rules are not yet notified, the older forms remain the practical standard.
The Code on Wages 2019 and its rules require every employer to maintain a register of employees, muster roll and wage register, which may be kept electronically, and to issue wage slips. The Factories Act requires an adult worker register and a register of leave with wages; the state Shops and Establishments Acts require an attendance register. Inspectors expect the muster roll to agree with PF ECR filings and ESI contribution records for the same month.
Retention periods are prescribed by each law and state rule; three years is the common minimum, and gratuity and PF disputes make longer retention prudent. The register must be available for inspection at the establishment or site, so keep a printed copy where the work happens, not only on a laptop in head office.
When the paper and Excel muster roll stops working
The register fails in predictable ways: supervisors mark P for absent friends, sheets from remote sites arrive late or not at all, and the month-end typing exercise takes days when you run ten or twenty sites. Principal employers who receive photocopies have no way to verify that the person marked present was actually there.
A digital muster roll records the same fields but captures attendance at source. Attend Mitra marks each worker present with face or selfie verification and GPS within the site geofence, so the P in the register corresponds to a person physically at the location; supervisors can still add or correct entries with approval and an audit trail, and the month's register exports to Excel or PDF in the layout the inspector wants. See muster roll software and the digital muster roll solution for how contractors and principal employers use it, and the contract labour attendance and muster roll guide for a site-level walkthrough.