Payslips with PF and ESI deductions, without hiring an accountant

You can give staff proper payslips with PF and ESI deductions without an accountant by letting payroll software do the arithmetic. In Staff Khata you switch on PF and ESI once and set your rates, give each employee a salary structure (basic, allowances and deductions), and then generate payroll for the month — it reads attendance, leave, holidays and loss-of-pay for you, works out each net salary, and produces a payslip PDF with your logo that staff can download themselves. You still decide the rates and the salary structure; the software removes the monthly spreadsheet work, not the decisions.

By Staff Khata. Published 14 November 2026. Updated 14 November 2026. For the PF and ESI rates and limits that apply to you, confirm the current figures with a qualified professional.

How do I give staff payslips with PF and ESI without hiring an accountant?

Set it up once, then run it each month. The one-time setup is two steps: turn on the statutory deductions and give each person a salary structure. After that, a month's payroll is a few clicks.

1. Switch on PF and ESI. In Organization → Company → the Payroll & Tax tab, turn on PF (and set the PF contribution %, usually 12), ESI (and set the ESI contribution %), and Professional Tax if your state levies it. These apply to every payroll run. Staff Khata applies the rates you enter; it does not pick the statutory rate for you, so set them to match current law.
2. Give each employee a salary structure. In Payroll → Salary Management, assign a structure: the payroll cycle (monthly or weekly) and the earnings (basic, HRA, conveyance, medical, other) and deductions (PF, ESI, professional tax). As you type, it shows total earnings, total deductions, net take-home and annual CTC.
3. Run payroll for the month. In Payroll → Run Payroll, pick the month and use Bulk Generate for a whole department. Each salary is built from that person's working days, loss of pay, weekly offs, holidays and paid leave, so the figures start from attendance, not a guess.
4. Share payslips. Click Payslip on an employee's row for a PDF with your logo, the attendance summary, earnings, deductions and net pay in words. Staff with a login see their own under My Payslips in the app, so you are not emailing files one by one.

What does a Staff Khata payslip show?

Section	What it contains
Header	Your company logo and the pay month
Attendance summary	Working days, paid leave, loss-of-pay days, weekly offs and holidays behind the salary
Earnings	Basic, HRA, conveyance, medical allowance, other allowance
Deductions	PF, ESI and professional tax (ESI can be shown combined or separate), plus any policy deduction for late marks or early exits
Net pay	Net payable salary, also written in words; annual CTC shown if you choose

You can download it as a PDF or print it, and the same figures export to Excel or PDF for the whole month.

Can a small business really run payroll itself?

Yes, for the common case: fixed or simple salary structures, PF, ESI and professional tax, salary advances and reimbursements. The software does the repetitive parts — turning attendance into paid days, applying your deductions, and producing the slips. What it does not replace is judgement about the correct statutory rates and limits, which change from time to time and are worth confirming with a professional or on the relevant government site. For heavier compliance — a bank salary-transfer file, a PF ECR file for the EPFO portal, or TDS on salary — Staff Khata has a payroll compliance plan; confirm which paid plan you need for the payroll features you want.

What about advances and reimbursements?

Record a salary advance with the amount, reason and month, and it is tracked against the person's salary. Reimbursements need an attached bill, then you approve and settle them and can generate a slip. Both appear in payroll, including claims staff send from the mobile app.

Who is this for, and who is it not for?

A good fit: Indian businesses with roughly 10 to 500 staff that pay monthly or weekly, deduct PF/ESI/professional tax, and want payslips without a monthly spreadsheet. Payroll is on a paid plan that includes payroll — check pricing for the current tier.

Not a fit, or not enough on its own:

• If your pay has complex variable components or industry-specific rules your CA manages, keep the CA for the rates and use the software for the record-keeping and slips.
• If you want the software to tell you the correct PF or ESI rate or wage limit: it applies the rates you set; the current statutory figures should be confirmed with a professional or the EPFO/ESIC site.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an accountant to run payroll with PF and ESI?

Not for the monthly run. You set the PF and ESI rates and each salary structure once, and the software works out the salaries and payslips from attendance. Confirm the statutory rates and limits with a professional.

Does Staff Khata calculate the salary from attendance?

Yes. Working days, loss of pay, weekly offs, holidays and paid leave flow into each salary, so you are not copying figures into a spreadsheet.

Can employees see their own payslips?

Yes. Staff with a login download any month's payslip from the app or web under My Payslips.

Can I generate payroll for a whole department at once?

Yes. Bulk Generate runs a department's payroll in one step; you can then edit a row, save a draft, or settle paid rows.

Which plan includes payroll?

Payroll needs a paid plan that includes it. See pricing for the current tier, or the payroll and salary management pages.