If you're hiring in India from abroad, payroll is the single most outsourced function on the operational stack. The Indian compliance regime is rules-heavy and the documentation requirements are exacting — getting it wrong creates the kind of expensive surprises that catch up at investor due diligence or at the next ROC inspection. The good news: it is genuinely commoditised work, and the right provider takes it entirely off your plate.
What a complete payroll service should cover
- Monthly payroll computation with all the statutory deductions (PF, ESI when applicable, PT, TDS).
- Salary structure design that is Code on Wages 2019 compliant (Basic ≥ 50% of CTC where applicable).
- PF ECR upload and reconciliation, ESIC return, monthly PT remittance, quarterly 24Q TDS return.
- Form 16 (or Form 130 from FY 2026-27) issuance to every employee by 15 June each year.
- Bank-disbursement file in the format your AD bank expects.
- Employee self-service portal for payslips, declarations and tax proofs.
- Onboarding pipeline — UAN setup, ESI assignment, KYC capture, salary structure assignment.
- Exit handling — full & final settlement with notice / leave encashment / gratuity computation.
- Reporting back to your foreign parent in USD / GBP / EUR equivalents with FX rates locked in.
Warning signs of cheap providers
Indian payroll providers range from ₹50/employee/month (suspect) to ₹1,500/employee/month (premium with dedicated consultant). Here is what the bottom of the market is quietly skipping:
- Monthly PT returns aren't filed in every state — only where they remember. Each state's department issues automated late-fee notices that take months to clean up.
- PF ECR is filed but reconciliation against the cleared payslip register is skipped — you discover the mismatch only when EPFO sends a notice 14 months later.
- Form 16 is generated from payslip data but Part A (from TRACES) is never aligned with Part B, so employee tax returns get queried.
- Gratuity provisioning is computed annually instead of monthly, which trips your audit.
- No state-specific Shops Act compliance — employees in states with strict enforcement (Karnataka, Maharashtra) eventually get caught.
- Generic offer letter templates that don't match the state of work, which is unenforceable if disputed.
Why dedicated consultants change the math
FastLegal includes a named, dedicated payroll consultant on every plan — not a ticketing queue. They're a CA-qualified human who knows your salary structure, your state, your tax positions, your edge cases. When EPFO sends a notice or TRACES flags a mismatch, they handle it directly with you, in your timezone. The cost-quality ratio of dedicated-consultant + India-specialist platform beats both the cheap and the premium incumbents.
Evaluation checklist for foreign buyers
- Who is my point of contact? (Named human, not a ticket queue.)
- What's the implementation timeline? (Should be 14-21 days for one entity, one state.)
- Show me your last 3 audit findings from an Indian customer. (If they can't, run.)
- What happens if PT is filed late? (They should absorb the late-fee, not pass it through.)
- Will you handle our PF withdrawal claims for ex-employees? (Should be included.)
- Can the foreign parent see USD-equivalent reports? (Should be one click.)
- What's the offboarding handover document if we leave you? (Should be a complete package — every CSV, every PDF, every credential.)
Pricing that's actually fair
| Provider tier | Per employee per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom of market | ₹50 - ₹150 | Payslip generation + bank file. Compliance partial. |
| Mainstream payroll software | ₹150 - ₹400 | Full compliance stack. Tickets, no named consultant. |
| India-specialist with consultant | ₹250 - ₹600 | Compliance + dedicated CA + edge-case handling. Best fit for foreign buyers. |
| Premium / big-brand | ₹700 - ₹1,500 | Brand premium. Same stack, fancier slide decks. |
Frequently asked questions
How long does implementation take?+
For one entity with under 50 employees, 14-21 working days from contract signing to first cut payroll. Multi-state or 100+ employees: 30-45 days.
Will you file PT in all states where we have employees?+
A real provider will. Check this explicitly — multi-state PT is where the smaller providers cut corners.
Can you handle our existing employee data migration?+
Yes — CSV import is standard. Bring us payroll history, PF UAN, salary structures, and we backfill everything within the first cycle.
What if we already have a US payroll provider — do we use the same?+
Almost certainly not. US payroll providers don't run Indian compliance. You either need an India-specialist (best), or your US provider's 'global' offering (which is typically just an EOR reseller layered on top of someone like FastLegal anyway).
Stop reading circulars. Start running clean payroll.
Every FastLegal plan ships with a dedicated payroll consultant — a real human who runs your PF, ESI, PT, TDS and Form 16 issuance, configured to your salary structure, your state, and your hiring plan. You sign off. We do the rest.