In this guide 7 sections
Excel works while one person can hold every client’s inputs, due dates and queries in view. Software becomes worth it when attendance arrives in many formats and several staff share the calendar. GullySystem’s Employee Records and Self-Service Software holds records and the closed month. The salary calculation itself stays in payroll software.
What Excel does well for a consultancy
A spreadsheet costs nothing extra, every client can open it, and your team already knows it. For a few clients with fixed salaries and steady headcount, it is often the right tool. Formulas for LOP and arrears can be checked line by line.
The trouble is rarely Excel itself. It is the number of copies. Each client has its own sheet, its own format and a version on somebody’s laptop.
Where the sheets start to break
Attendance arrives as an Excel file, a biometric export or a photo of a muster roll. Names are spelled differently from last month. Someone converts each one by hand before payroll can run.
Then come the challan and return dates, repeated for every client. The EPFO site, for example, describes the ECR as a monthly challan cum return filed online. A tracker kept by one partner works. It works until she is away, and then nobody else can say which client’s return went in and which did not.
- Attendance formats converted by hand each month
- Joiners, exits and revisions arriving after cut-off
- One person holding the filing tracker
- Employee queries landing on personal WhatsApp
- Fees for extra work billed from memory
What software changes, and what it does not
A shared system gives each client a set input format and checks it before payroll runs. Every client’s dates sit on one calendar with filing status. Payslips reach employees on a login, not as attachments.
It does not make the statutory judgement for you. What each return holds, and when it falls due, comes from the official portals and your compliance adviser. Software keeps the figures and records what was filed.
Questions that compare the two honestly
Count the attendance formats your team converts each month. Count the hours spent on payslip and Form 16 queries. Then count the clients whose filing status only one person knows.
If those counts are small, stay with Excel and tighten it. Use one input template, one tracker and a shared folder with locked versions. If they are large, look at software built for many clients, not one employer.
- Attendance formats converted per month
- Employee queries answered per week
- Clients whose status sits with one person
- Billable extras missed last quarter
Moving across without losing a payroll month
Start between cycles. Bring one or two clients across first, ideally ones with clean attendance and a steady headcount, so problems come from the system and not the inputs. Clean their employee master: codes, names as on records, UAN and ESIC numbers, bank details.
Run the first month in both the sheet and the system. Compare outputs line by line before trusting the new one. Add the remaining clients in small groups, and retire a sheet only after a clean month.
Client workload count
List each client on its own row, with columns for attendance format, headcount, filings handled, queries last month and who knows the status. Totals at the bottom show whether the work has outgrown spreadsheets.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Does the software file PF, ESI and tax returns on the portals?
No. It holds the figures and tracks what is filed against each client and date. Uploads on the official portals stay with your team.
Is Employee Records and Self-Service Software a payroll engine?
Not on its own. It holds records, attendance, leave and the closed month, and keeps the payslips payroll produces. The salary calculation runs in your payroll software.
Can client employees download their own payslips?
Yes, once payroll has released them. Each person sees payslips and tax documents on a phone browser login. That takes some queries off your team’s WhatsApp.
Will it make our clients PF and ESI compliant?
No. It stores UAN and ESIC numbers and the attendance behind the month. What is filed, and any notice that follows, stays between the client and their adviser.
Sources
- Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, official site — verified 6 Oct 2026
- Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, official site — verified 6 Oct 2026