Since the Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025, the compliance bar for even a ten person company sits noticeably higher. This guide maps what each layer of software support actually does, the statutory numbers your platform must get right, and which product fits which layer.
When a vendor says compliant, ask which of these they mean. The layers are cumulative, and very few products cover all four.
Every rupee of EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity computed at the current rates, on the right wage base, with the right ceilings. This is table stakes, and it is where spreadsheets quietly go wrong after a rate change.
Appointment letters are now compulsory under the Industrial Relations Code 2020. Payslips, POSH policy, offer letters with statutory annexures, gratuity and settlement letters at exit. The paper trail an inspector or auditor asks for first.
Knowing what falls due when, per state, per registration: EPF and ESI contribution dates, GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, returns for international workers. A tracked calendar with statuses beats a wall calendar and a worried memory.
Actually submitting to EPFO, ESIC, TRACES and state portals. Most SMEs leave this with their CA. A few products automate it, at a price, and taking it in house moves the responsibility onto whoever presses the button.
These are the current statutory figures Indian employers work with. If a demo shows different defaults, walk out of the demo.
| Item | Current rule |
|---|---|
| EPF | 12% employer and 12% employee, computed on wages capped at ₹15,000 under Para 26A. EPS portion capped at ₹1,250 per month. Interest rate 8.25%. |
| ESI | 0.75% employee and 3.25% employer on gross wages. Eligibility ceiling ₹21,000 per month, ₹25,000 for persons with disability. |
| Gratuity | (15 × wages × years of service) ÷ 26, ceiling ₹20 lakh. Fixed term employees qualify after one year under the Labour Codes. |
| Labour Codes | In effect since 21 November 2025. Basic wages must be at least 50% of total remuneration under the Code on Wages 2019. Appointment letters mandatory. Draft Central Rules issued December 2025, not yet final. |
| Professional tax | State specific slabs, deducted monthly and remitted to the state. A multi state workforce means multiple slab tables running at once. |
Figures as published by the relevant authorities and current to July 2026. Rates change, and the pending Central Rules may shift details. Confirm against official notifications or your CA before acting. A detailed walkthrough sits in our statutory compliance guide for India and the ESI and PF compliance explainer.
Offrd builds the statutory rules into the documents themselves. Salary structures auto balance to CTC with Basic at 50% by default, and EPF, ESI, state wise professional tax and gratuity compute inside every payslip and settlement. PIN code entry resolves city, district and state, which is what makes multi state professional tax tractable for a small team.
Layer 2 is the platform's home ground: offer letters with annexures, mandatory appointment letters, payslips, probation, increment and separation letters, full and final settlements with 19 standard deduction heads, and an HR policy generator that walks you through POSH, leave, maternity and IP policies by questionnaire. Form 16 generation is included too: upload Part A from TRACES, generate Part B from the employee's locked tax declaration, combine and send.
Layer 3 arrives through the compliance calendar, a task tracker with per task state, due date and status covering EPF, ESI, GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and international worker returns. It carries its own caution in the product, which we will repeat here in plain sight: the calendar is for guidance, verify with your CA or legal advisor. Layer 4, actual filing, is deliberately left with your CA, who receives EPF format exports and clean payroll history to file from.
greytHR computes statutory payroll on subscription and generates the ECR, PF and ESI files that returns are built from, with the CA pressing submit. The compliance value is real but arrives packaged inside a wider HRMS you pay for whole: add ons bill per user or per recruiter beyond the base plan, setup takes days, and there is no way to pay only for the compliance work a small company actually has in a given month.
RazorpayX Payroll is the one product on this list that files for you, paying and submitting TDS, PF, ESI and professional tax on Razorpay's banking rails. If nobody in your company or your CA's office wants to own filings, it covers that lane. The document and policy side is thinner than a dedicated platform's, which is why many companies pair it with Offrd for layers 1 to 3.
Keka computes statutory payroll competently within a mid market suite that also carries performance management and recruitment. You pay for the suite whether or not compliance is the reason you came. Right past 100 employees with formal HR processes, heavy below that.
sumHR handles statutory payroll computation alongside attendance and leave, with strong biometric device integration. Compliance depth is adequate rather than distinctive. A reasonable pick when hardware attendance leads your requirements and headcount clears the 25 employee billing floor.
A compliance page owes you the limits as much as the features. Three things stay human regardless of vendor.
Interpretation. Whether your contract staff fall under ESI, whether a state's shops and establishments rules apply to your registered office, how the pending Central Rules will land once final. Software encodes settled rules. The unsettled ones belong to your labour law advisor.
Disputes and inspections. When an EPFO notice arrives or an inspector visits, clean records from your software shorten the conversation considerably, but a person still has that conversation.
Final responsibility. Filing deadlines bind the employer, not the vendor. Whichever platform you pick, someone in your company should be able to state, without opening a laptop, when the next EPF contribution is due. If the honest answer today is nobody, fix that before you fix your software. Then pick the layer you need: documents and calculation with an SME platform, filing with a filing product, or both in tandem. The payroll integration guide covers that pairing in detail, and the internship compliance guide handles the intern edge cases most platforms skip.
For statutory calculation, mandatory documents and deadline tracking at SME scale, Offrd computes EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity inside every payslip and letter, tracks due dates in a compliance calendar, and hands your CA filing ready exports. Filing focused products cover the submission layer if you want that off your desk too.
The four Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025. Appointment letters became mandatory under the Industrial Relations Code 2020, basic wages must be at least 50 percent of total remuneration under the Code on Wages, and fixed term employees qualify for gratuity after one year. Draft Central Rules were issued in December 2025 and are not yet final.
No. Software gets the numbers, documents and deadlines right, which removes most day to day risk. Interpretation, disputes, inspections and final responsibility for filings stay with your CA or labour law advisor. Offrd's compliance calendar carries this note explicitly: it is for guidance, verify with your CA or legal advisor.
EPF is 12 percent from the employer and 12 percent from the employee, both computed on wages capped at Rs 15,000 under Para 26A, with the EPS portion capped at Rs 1,250 per month. The EPF interest rate is 8.25 percent. ESI is 0.75 percent from the employee and 3.25 percent from the employer on gross wages, with a Rs 21,000 eligibility ceiling, Rs 25,000 for persons with disability.
Yes. Offrd generates Form 16 from the employee's locked tax declaration: upload Part A from TRACES, generate Part B individually or in bulk, combine, and send to the employee. It needs your company TAN and PAN set up first. Quarterly TDS return filing itself stays with your CA.
Statutory rates built into every document. 50 free credits at signup, no card required, setup in under 2 minutes.
This guide is published by Offrd. We include our own platform in the comparison, ranked on the layer framework stated above, reflecting our reading of the Indian market as of July 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Statutory rules change and the pending Labour Code Central Rules may alter details once finalised. Confirm every obligation with your CA or labour law advisor before acting.
Competitor information comes from vendor pricing and product pages and third party trackers reviewed in July 2026. Public sources change and can contain errors. Offrd has not audited every claim made by other vendors and accepts no liability for buying decisions made on this page. All product names belong to their respective owners, referenced under nominative fair use. Corrections: service@offrd.co.
More buyer guides: HR automation for small businesses · HR tools with payroll integration · onboarding automation