For a textile or garment business in India, the right payroll software is one that tracks piece-rate wages for karigars, calculates overtime at double the regular rate (as the Factories Act requires), handles daily-wage and monthly-salary staff in the same system, and keeps PF/ESIC deductions accurate across changing state minimum wages. Most tools built for IT companies or retail chains don’t cover even half of that.
After comparing six options, Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) came out ahead for businesses with 15 to 80 staff. greytHR works for smaller shops on fixed salaries. PagarBook is the go-to if you need a free mobile app and nothing else.
How Do These 6 Payroll Tools Stack Up?
| Feature | Attendo | greytHR | PagarBook | Zimyo | SalaryBox | Zoho Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biometric hardware included | Yes (lifetime warranty) | No | No | No | No | No |
| Piece-rate / per-unit pay | Via custom components | Manual setup | Work-basis tracking | Custom fields | Basic | Custom component |
| Overtime calculation (2x) | Via shift rules | Via custom setup | No | Yes | No | Via Zoho People |
| PF/ESIC/TDS compliance | Full | Full | Basic | Full | Basic | Full |
| Multi-location dashboard | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| WhatsApp salary slips | Not available | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Flat annual fee | Free tier + paid | Free + paid | Per employee (min 50) | Free + paid | Per employee |
| Regional language support | Yes (11 langs) | Limited | 10+ languages | Limited | Yes | Limited |
Attendo
A garment business in Surat running a workshop and a retail showroom under the same owner is a common setup. Attendo handles both from one dashboard. The biometric face scanner installs at each site. Piece-rate pay for karigars goes in as a custom variable component. Overtime gets calculated against configured shift rules. PF, ESIC, and TDS deductions apply the correct brackets.
Salary advances (common in textile workshops where workers ask for ₹3,000 to ₹5,000 mid-month) get auto-deducted. Payslips are available in the Employee App, which is the only channel that works for a workforce where most don’t have email addresses. Pricing is a flat annual fee regardless of headcount. Explore features on Attendo or read about how it works for manufacturing setups.
greytHR
The free tier covers up to 25 employees with PF, ESIC, PT, and TDS compliance, leave management, and self-service payslips. Compliance is where greytHR earns its reputation. Statutory updates show up promptly when new minimum wage notifications are issued.
No biometric hardware, though. Piece-rate tracking isn’t native. Communication relies on email and a web portal that tailors won’t open. greytHR is a solid pick for a garment retail showroom in Dadar, Mumbai with 15 salaried salespeople. It’s a harder sell for a manufacturing unit with varied pay structures.
PagarBook
Built for India’s informal workforce. The app supports daily-wage, weekly, monthly, and work-basis tracking from a mobile interface. Selfie plus GPS attendance. Payslips in the Employee App. Over 10 Indian languages, which matters when your workforce includes migrant workers from UP, Bihar, or Odisha.
Trade-offs: PF/ESIC compliance is basic. No overtime calculation. Limited multi-location reporting. Works for a small workshop in Bhiwandi with 12 to 18 workers on mixed pay. Doesn’t scale past 25 to 30 staff with complex structures.
Zimyo
HRMS for mid-sized businesses. Payroll, attendance, leave, performance, expense management. Overtime calculation supported. Custom pay fields for piece-rate. Requires minimum 50 employees to start. Base plan at ₹4,000/month. Makes sense for a mid-sized manufacturer in Ichalkaranji or Erode with 50 to 200 workers, not for a neighbourhood tailor shop.
SalaryBox
Mobile-first, selfie attendance, payslips in the Employee App, advance tracking. Covers the basics for free. No piece-rate tracking, no overtime calculation, basic PF/ESIC. Works for a garment retail shop with 10 salespeople on fixed pay. Doesn’t go deep enough for workshops with per-piece workers.
Zoho Payroll
Makes sense if you already use Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory. PF/ESIC/TDS handled. Attendance needs Zoho People (separate subscription). Piece-rate as a custom component. No WhatsApp payslips, no biometric hardware. Per-employee pricing. Worth it only inside the Zoho ecosystem.
How Do You Pick the Right Tool?
Garment retail showroom, under 25 salaried staff. greytHR’s free tier. Fixed salaries, PF/ESIC compliance, leave management. That’s all you need.
Small workshop or karigar unit, under 15 workers on mixed pay. PagarBook or SalaryBox. Free, mobile-first, regional language support. A workshop in Bhiwandi with 12 karigars on daily wages can track attendance and payments without spending on software.
Workshop plus showroom, 15 to 80 staff, piece-rate and overtime. Attendo. Biometric hardware at each location, piece-rate as a custom component, overtime via shift rules, PF/ESIC, flat annual fee. A garment business in Surat with a 40-person workshop in Sachin GIDC and a 10-person showroom in Sahara Darwaja gets both on one dashboard without per-head charges.
Mid-to-large manufacturer, 50+ employees. Zimyo for HRMS depth. The 50-employee minimum makes it a poor fit for anything smaller.
Already on Zoho? Stay with Zoho Payroll. Ecosystem integration outweighs the limitations.
If you’re still running payroll in Excel, this guide on switching from Excel to payroll software walks through the transition. For multi-location businesses, there’s a separate guide on managing payroll across branches.
Conclusion
Textile and garment businesses deal with payroll complexity that most software wasn’t built for. Piece-rate wages, 2x overtime under the Factories Act, state-wise minimum wage revisions, and a mix of daily-wage, monthly-salary, and per-piece workers all running through the same system. For shops and workshops in that 15-to-80 staff range, Attendo’s flat fee and bundled biometric hardware give you the most coverage without per-head costs eating into your margins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can payroll software handle piece-rate wages for karigars?
PagarBook has work-basis tracking built in, which comes closest to true piece-rate. Attendo, greytHR, and Zimyo let you configure piece-rate as a custom pay component where you set a per-unit amount and multiply by output count. Check whether the software calculates PF on piece-rate income correctly. PF is due on basic wages, and if piece-rate is miscategorised as a bonus, the PF deduction will be wrong.
Is overtime at 2x mandatory for garment factories?
Yes. Section 59 of the Factories Act, 1948 requires that any work beyond 9 hours in a day or 48 hours in a week must be paid at twice the ordinary wage rate. The new labour codes, notified in November 2025, carry forward this 2x requirement. Paying overtime at 1x or 1.5x is a violation, and a labour inspector can mandate back-payment with penalties.
Which payroll software supports regional languages for textile workers?
PagarBook supports over 10 Indian languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali. SalaryBox also offers multi-language support. Attendo supports 11 languages. This matters because a large portion of the textile workforce consists of migrant workers who may not be comfortable with English or Hindi. greytHR, Zimyo, and Zoho Payroll have limited language options. For hour-based and shift-based workers across locations, language support is non-negotiable.
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Avani Joshi is a Content Writer at Petpooja, where she writes about payroll, billing, and the everyday software that keeps Indian SMEs running. She has a knack for taking complicated topics and explaining them in plain language for business owners who don't have time to decode jargon.
