The sequence
| Step | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cut-off | Freeze attendance, leave and regularisations for the month; settle pending approvals | Loss-of-pay days come from here |
| 2. Changes | Joiners, exits, salary revisions, one-off payments, recoveries, loans | The commonest source of errors |
| 3. Dry run | Compute without committing; compare with last month, employee by employee | A variance review catches what a total hides |
| 4. Statutory checks | PF wages and ceiling, ESI coverage, PT by work state, LWF month, TDS projection, minimum wages | Wrong deductions are hard to reverse once deposited |
| 5. Approve and lock | Approve the run so the month cannot change behind your back | Payslips and returns must agree with the money paid |
| 6. Pay | Bank advice to the bank; salaries by the 7th of the next month (Code on Wages) | A statutory deadline |
| 7. Payslips | Publish and send payslips | Employees’ record and proof of income |
| 8. Deposit | TDS by the 7th; PF and ESI by the 15th; PT and LWF by the state’s date | Late deposits carry interest and damages |
Where the errors come from
- Attendance not frozen before the run, so LOP moves after payslips go out.
- Mid-month joiners and leavers paid for the whole month, or not prorated the same way as last time.
- A revision entered after the run with a back date, and no arrears line for the months already paid.
- The work state missing or wrong, so professional tax is deducted for the wrong state — or not at all.
- Statutory ceilings not updated when the law changes — the PF ceiling rose to ₹25,000 on 17 September 2026.
In WebHR
WebHR runs this cycle under Finance → Process Payroll: a dry run you can compare, then the run, then approval, which locks the month. It warns about employees whose basic plus DA is under the state’s minimum, produces the bank advice in your bank’s layout, marks salaries paid from the bank’s response file, checks payslips are ready before sending, and signs payslips digitally. The payroll schedule sets the dates.
Due dates
| What | When | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries paid | By the 7th of the following month | Monthly |
If a due date falls on a holiday, the authority’s own rule for the next working day applies. Full compliance calendar
References
Related
Plain-language guidance for HR teams, not legal advice. Checked against the sources above on 29 September 2026; the notification or your authority’s portal is final. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.