Typical payroll ranges
- Startup 1-10 employees: Rs. 150 to Rs. 300 per employee/month, often with minimum fee.
- SME 11-50 employees with PF/ESI: Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 per employee/month.
- Mid-size 51-200 employees with multi-state PT: Rs. 80 to Rs. 150 per employee/month.
- Annual Form 16 generation: Rs. 200 to Rs. 500 per employee.
What affects payroll cost
- Employee count and attrition.
- Salary structure complexity.
- Multi-state professional tax.
- PF/ESI included or separate.
- Payroll software availability.
- Full-and-final settlements and reimbursements.
One-time setup versus monthly
- Payroll setup: salary structure, PF/ESI registration, software onboarding: Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000.
- Monthly processing: per-employee or retainer.
- Year-end Form 16 and TDS return: Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 15,000 depending on count.
Questions before quoting
- How many employees and states?
- Is PF/ESI/PT already registered?
- Which payroll software is used?
- Are investment declarations and Form 16 included?
How to use this page safely
Payroll Services Cost in India can depend on financial year, entity type, turnover, location, portal status, notice dates, transaction volume, documentation quality and whether prior filings were done correctly.
Use this page as preparation guidance. Before filing, responding, registering or appealing, share exact forms, notices, portal screenshots, amounts, due dates and prior acknowledgements with a qualified professional.
A strong WorkIndex quote should clearly state scope, assumptions, documents required, expected timeline, exclusions, and whether follow-up, correction filing or notice-response support is included.
How to compare WorkIndex responses
- Ask whether the expert has handled this exact service type, industry and portal workflow before.
- Confirm whether the quote includes filing only, advisory only, or also reconciliation, correction, response drafting and follow-up.
- Prefer experts who ask for records before final pricing instead of quoting blindly.
- For urgent matters, include statutory deadline, notice/order date, current portal status and financial exposure.
- Keep acknowledgement, computation, challan, report, working papers and communication trail after completion.
Keep these ready before requesting quotes
- PAN, Aadhaar, GSTIN, TAN, DIN, CIN, LLPIN, UAN or registration number as applicable.
- Portal login access or screenshots from Income Tax, GST, MCA, EPFO, ESIC, Startup India or other relevant portals.
- Previous filings, acknowledgements, challans, certificates, orders, notices, audit reports and working papers.
- Bank statements, invoices, contracts, payroll records, books export, rent agreements, transaction reports or board/investor documents relevant to the case.
- A short written summary of what happened, what deadline exists, what help you need and whether support can be remote or must be local.
How to get better quotes faster
- Mention whether you need a one-time filing, urgent correction, registration, audit, monthly retainer, appeal, or advisory review.
- Add approximate transaction count, employee count, turnover range, number of filings/years pending, and any notice deadline so experts can size the work properly.
- For accounting and bookkeeping pages, share the software used, number of bank accounts, monthly invoice count, GST status, payroll size and whether old cleanup is needed.
- For audit and diligence pages, share the review period, location count, materiality level, report format expected and who will consume the report: founder, investor, bank, board or tax department.
- For tax and GST disputes, upload or summarise the section/form/order number, demand amount, date of service, due date and current portal status before asking for a fee quote.
FAQs
Is payroll software cost included?
Sometimes yes, often no. Ask whether software licence is separate.
Can I get payroll plus GST plus accounting?
Yes, many experts offer bundled monthly retainers.
What if employee count changes?
Per-employee pricing adjusts; retainer pricing may include bands.
Does WorkIndex show payroll pricing upfront?
Experts can quote after employee count, states and scope are shared.