Every employer in India must issue salary slips to employees. Section 13A of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 requires it. This free payslip template generates professional salary slips with correct PF, ESI, and PT deductions. Updated May 2026. Works for any industry.
Select an employee and the month from a dropdown. The sheet pulls all salary data and generates a print-ready payslip with your company name, address, PF/ESI codes, earnings, deductions, and net pay.
One sheet, all employees. Every row shows one employee's full salary breakup: earnings, deductions, LOP, and net pay. Use it as a payroll register or to review the entire team's salary at a glance.
Store every employee's details in one place: name, designation, department, bank account, PAN, UAN, monthly CTC, and Basic/HRA percentages. The payslip sheets pull from this data automatically.
Enter your company name, address, state, PAN, TAN, PF establishment code, and ESI code. These details auto-populate on every payslip you generate. Set it up once, forget about it.
PF at 12% of Basic (with ₹15,000 wage ceiling logic), ESI at 0.75% employee + 3.25% employer (only if gross is ₹21,000 or below), and state-wise PT slabs. All rates current for FY 2025-26.
A fully filled sample payslip for a ₹50,000 monthly CTC employee in Maharashtra. See exactly what the output looks like before entering your own data. Copy the format or use it as a reference.
Here's a scenario most Indian business owners don't think about until it's too late. An employee leaves, files a complaint with the labour department, and claims they were underpaid. You know you paid them correctly. But can you prove it?
Without a payslip, you can't. The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (Section 13A) requires every employer to issue wage slips before or on the day wages are paid. During a labour inspection or PF/ESI audit, the inspector asks for payslip records. No records? That's a problem you don't want.
Most small businesses in India still create payslips manually in Word. Some don't issue them at all. The owner remembers the salary, transfers it via NEFT, and moves on. That works until it doesn't.
Even businesses that do issue payslips often get the deductions wrong. PF calculated on gross salary instead of Basic. ESI deducted from employees earning above ₹21,000/month (where it shouldn't apply). Professional Tax charged at ₹200/month for a Karnataka employee when the correct slab is ₹200 only for salaries above ₹15,000. These errors add up.
This payslip template handles all of it. Enter employee data once in the Employee Master sheet, and the template generates correctly formatted payslips with accurate deductions. All PF, ESI, and PT rates follow FY 2025-26 rules. Businesses using Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) automate this entire process and publish payslips straight to each employee's app, but if you're not there yet, this Excel template is a solid starting point.
Here's what a generated payslip looks like for an employee in Maharashtra:
Employee PF contribution, deducted from Basic salary every month. Getting this wrong on the payslip means incorrect PF passbook credits and compliance issues during EPFO audits.
Source: EPF & MP Act, 1952, Section 6ESI wage ceiling. Employees earning gross salary above this don't pay ESI. Deducting ESI from higher earners is the most common payslip error in Indian businesses.
Source: ESIC notification, 06-10-2016Levy Professional Tax with different slab rates. Using the wrong state's PT on a payslip means your deductions don't match what's filed with the state government.
Source: Respective State PT Acts, Article 276(2) of the ConstitutionEmployees have the right to see their PF and ESI deductions. A payslip that just says "Deductions: ₹3,500" without splitting it into Employee PF, ESI, and PT isn't compliant. During EPFO audits, inspectors expect itemised payslips.
Some businesses deduct LOP from gross salary. Others deduct from Basic only. The correct method: deduct from gross salary based on actual calendar days in the month. For a 30-day month with 2 days absent, LOP = (Gross / 30) x 2. Not (Gross / 26) or (Basic / 30).
While employer contributions don't reduce take-home pay, showing them on the payslip gives employees visibility into their total compensation. Many employees don't realise the employer pays 12% PF and 3.25% ESI on top of gross salary.
PT is deducted based on the state where the employee works, not where the company is registered. A Mumbai-based company with staff in Bangalore must use Karnataka PT slabs for those employees, not Maharashtra slabs.
Honestly, this is the biggest one. Thousands of small businesses across India skip payslips entirely. Bank transfer done, move on. Until a dispute arises and there's zero documentation to back up what was paid. The Ministry of Labour takes wage record compliance seriously during inspections.
One month the payslip shows 8 components, the next month it shows 5. Different formats make it hard for employees to compare months and create confusion during tax filing. A standard template fixes this permanently.
| Aspect | Manual (Word/Paper) | With This Template |
|---|---|---|
| Time per payslip | 10-15 minutes each | Under 30 seconds (auto-generated) |
| PF/ESI accuracy | Calculated by hand, prone to errors | Auto-calculated with correct rates and ceiling checks |
| Professional Tax | Looked up manually per state | State-wise PT slabs built into formulas |
| Batch processing | One payslip at a time | All employees in one sheet, one click |
| Consistency | Format varies month to month | Same professional format every month |
| LOP deduction | Manual calculation, often wrong | Enter absent days, deduction auto-calculated |
| Audit readiness | Scattered files, hard to retrieve | All payslips in one workbook, sorted by month |
Download the free payslip template and generate salary slips for your entire team in minutes.
Petpooja is India's leading SME business software suite, trusted by 1,50,000+ businesses across restaurants, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. From billing and payroll to task management and procurement, Petpooja helps Indian businesses run better, every day.
Attendo generates payslips for your entire team with one click, calculates all deductions automatically, and puts every salary slip in the employee's app the moment payroll is approved. No Excel needed.
