Payroll & HR
Salary Slip Format for Small Business (2026) with Sample
Salary slip format for Indian small businesses in 2026: fields to include, PF and PT lines, a filled Mumbai sample, and how to make slips from attendance.
Facts checked on 2 November 2026.
A salary slip is the one paper every employee reads every month. A good one answers three questions: what was I paid for, what was taken out, and what reached my bank. This guide gives a salary slip format for a small Indian business, a filled sample for a Mumbai employee, the mistakes we see most, and a short summary in Hindi. It is a format guide, not legal advice. Please confirm the points with your CA or labour consultant.
Is a salary slip required?
People Matters reported on 21 July 2026 that, under the new labour code rules, a wage slip must be given on or before payday, on paper or in electronic form. The same report says the provision was not yet operational nationwide and takes effect once the Centre and states notify it. A state-rules tracker says Maharashtra's rules under the codes were still drafts on 6 October 2026. We did not find a form prescribed for the slip. So the law on slips is moving, but giving one every month is sensible anyway: staff need it for loans, rent and tax, and it protects you in a dispute.
The fields to include
- Employer: name, address, and the month the slip is for.
- Employee: name, employee ID, designation, date of joining.
- Identifiers: PAN, UAN for PF and ESI number if covered. Print only the last four digits of a bank account.
- Days: days in the month, days paid, days of unpaid leave.
- Earnings: basic, HRA, other allowances, overtime, and the gross.
- Deductions: PF, ESI if covered, professional tax, TDS, advances and any other recovery.
- Net pay: in figures, and ideally in words.
- Employer contributions: PF and ESI paid by you, shown for information.
- A note: that it is computer-generated, if it is.
A filled sample for a Mumbai employee
This is an example for October 2026. The employee is a man at a trading firm in Mumbai. It is not a real person.
| Item | Amount (Rs) |
|---|---|
| Days in month / days paid | 31 / 31 |
| Basic | 15,000 |
| HRA | 7,500 |
| Special allowance | 7,500 |
| Gross earnings | 30,000 |
| PF, employee 12% of basic | 1,800 |
| ESI | 0 (gross above Rs 21,000) |
| Professional tax (Maharashtra) | 200 |
| TDS | 0 (example only) |
| Salary advance recovered | 1,000 |
| Total deductions | 3,000 |
| Net pay | 27,000 |
| Employer PF contribution (for information) | 1,800 |
Let us check each line against a source.
- PF is 12% of PF wages, which are basic plus dearness allowance plus retaining allowance, not the whole gross (EPFO FAQ copy). Since 17 September 2026 the PF wage ceiling is Rs 25,000, and Rs 15,000 is below it.
- ESI covers people with gross wages up to Rs 21,000 a month, at 0.75% from the employee and 3.25% from the employer (Tally Solutions guide). At Rs 30,000, this employee is outside it.
- Professional tax for a man above Rs 10,000 is Rs 200 a month, and Rs 300 in February (Zoho payroll guide). The state's own rate schedule page is the source to check. A woman earning up to Rs 25,000 pays nothing.
- TDS is shown as zero here only to keep the example short. Your CA decides it for each employee.
In February, the same slip would show professional tax of Rs 300 and net pay of Rs 26,900.
Mistakes we see most often
- Working PF on the whole gross instead of PF wages.
- A flat Rs 200 PT in February, or the same PT for every employee.
- Days paid that do not match the attendance record.
- Recovering an advance without showing it as a line, so the employee cannot see why the net is lower.
- Sending the slip as a phone photo or an editable file. Send a PDF.
- No UAN or ESI number on the slip, which leads to questions later.
- Different slips for the same month because someone edited a spreadsheet after it was sent.
Excel or an app?
Excel is free and flexible, and it works well for five people. It breaks when the headcount grows, when attendance has to be added up by hand, or when two people edit the same file. An app gives you one record of attendance, leave and advances, works out salary from them and makes the PDF. The cost of an app is a monthly fee and a few hours of setup. If you pay five people a fixed amount and nothing changes, stay on Excel. If you have shifts, late marks, overtime or branches, an app earns its keep.
In BecozAI, salary is worked out from attendance, leave, shifts and overtime rules you set. PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS can be switched on in the pay run, staff advances are taken into salary, and each payslip is a PDF that staff can download themselves. We do not provide a free downloadable template, so copy the format above if you want one. BecozAI does not calculate the Labour Welfare Fund and does not make the PF ECR file. Try one real month in the 7-day free trial and compare the slip with your own. See also our Mumbai payroll page, our guide to Maharashtra professional tax and the older payroll guide.
हिंदी में सार
सैलरी स्लिप में कंपनी का नाम और पता, कर्मचारी का नाम और आईडी, महीना, काम के दिन, कमाई (बेसिक, एचआरए, भत्ते), कटौती (पीएफ, ईएसआई, प्रोफेशनल टैक्स, टीडीएस, एडवांस) और नेट वेतन ज़रूर होना चाहिए। पीएफ बेसिक पर लगता है, पूरे ग्रॉस पर नहीं। 17 सितंबर 2026 से पीएफ की वेतन सीमा Rs 25,000 है। ईएसआई ग्रॉस Rs 21,000 तक के वेतन पर लगता है। महाराष्ट्र में पुरुष कर्मचारी का प्रोफेशनल टैक्स Rs 10,000 से ऊपर के वेतन पर Rs 200 महीना है और फरवरी में Rs 300। महिला कर्मचारी का वेतन Rs 25,000 तक हो तो प्रोफेशनल टैक्स नहीं लगता। स्लिप हर महीने समय पर PDF में दीजिए, और नियम अपने सीए या लेबर कंसल्टेंट से पक्का कर लीजिए।
This guide is information, not advice. Please confirm the points in it with your CA or labour consultant.