1
The whole picture
NER is one connected payroll control chain
The platform is designed so that employee records, compensation, statutory rules, payroll processing and payslip delivery all feed one auditable monthly workflow.
CompanyUsersPeopleCompensationCompliancePayrollApprovalPayslip
Why it mattersOnce the foundation is configured, the same masters and effective-dated rules are reused every month instead of rebuilding payroll in spreadsheets.
Two payroll routes: NER can either calculate payroll itself, or accept an externally calculated final payroll strictly for review, approval and payslip/output automation. The two routes never mix.
2
Foundation · Company
Set up the tenant and legal company first
A tenant is the customer boundary. Legal entities beneath it hold country, payroll jurisdiction, base currency, payroll frequency and tax-year convention.
Why it mattersPayroll, statutory rules, employees and reporting must always know which legal employer they belong to.
Typical setup: PlatformAdmin creates the tenant and initial administrator. The customer then maintains its own company-level payroll settings.
3
Foundation · Access
Give the right people the right payroll responsibilities
Tenant administrators manage users, custom roles and granular permissions for People, Compensation, Payroll and Compliance work.
Why it mattersPayroll contains sensitive employee and statutory data. NER separates viewing, editing, approval, locking and compliance administration instead of giving every user full access.
Control principle: Maker-checker separation is built into critical workflows such as payroll submission/approval and statutory-rule approval.
4
Master · People
Create the employee and employment foundation
Maintain employee identity, work/personal contact, engagement type, payment treatment, company assignment, department, location, designation and statutory identifiers.
EmployeePermanent person record
AssignmentEffective-dated company and job context
Payment treatmentSalary, stipend, AP or no-payment route
Sensitive dataEncrypted PAN, Aadhaar, UAN, ESI and bank details
Why it mattersPayroll eligibility, company scope, state jurisdiction and statutory treatment all depend on clean employee and assignment data.
Migration help: The Smart Excel Import supports upload → map → validate/compare → review → commit, so a customer need not key every employee manually.
5
Master · Compensation
Define what employees can be paid
Start from NER's Indian standard payroll component catalogue or create company-specific components, then build salary structures and effective-dated employee compensation.
Component catalogueCustom componentsSalary structureEmployee compensation
Why it mattersEach component carries payroll behaviour such as taxable, PF/ESI treatment, gross/CTC inclusion, LOP proration and recurring-vs-variable treatment for annual TDS projection.
Example: Regular Basic/HRA can be recurring while a Performance Bonus is variable, so NER taxes the current bonus without projecting the same bonus into every future month.
6
Master · Compliance
Configure statutory rules once, then version changes
NER's compliance framework handles effective-dated statutory rule definitions, wage bases, calculation parameters, approvals, report definitions, filing evidence and reconciliation.
PF / EPS / VPF / EDLICompany and employee statutory profiles
ESICoverage and contribution treatment
PT / LWFWork-state slabs, fixed or percentage rules
Salary TDSAnnual projection, regime, declarations and YTD true-up
Why it mattersWhen a rate or wage definition changes, administrators create a new effective-dated version instead of editing historical payroll or changing source code.
State rules: Authorised users can define PT/LWF start dates, selected wage components, slabs, percentages, collection months and source notifications, with separate approval.
7
Monthly payroll · Choose route
Every payroll run has one calculation source
At run creation, choose either NER Calculated Payroll or External Final Payroll Import. The selected route is fixed for that run and cannot be crossed later.
NER Calculated PayrollNER uses approved compensation, monthly inputs, statutory rules and TDS projection to calculate the run.
External Final Payroll ImportNER accepts the customer's already-calculated final values and does not recalculate or validate statutory deductions.
Why it mattersThe external route gives immediate payslip/distribution value while the customer migrates toward the more disciplined, automated NER calculation route.
8
Monthly payroll · NER calculation
NER calculates salary and statutory deductions in sequence
For an NER-calculated run, payroll follows a controlled calculation pipeline rather than one opaque formula.
Monthly inputsSalary / LOPPF & ESIPT & LWFTDSVariance review
Why it mattersThe payroll reviewer can see employee-level wage bases, contributions, taxes, warnings and prior-month net-pay variance before submission.
Workflow: Draft → Calculated → Submitted → Approved → Locked. The submitter cannot approve the same run, and locked payroll is immutable through the normal workflow.
9
Monthly payroll · External import
Use NER for control and delivery without pretending NER calculated payroll
A customer may upload its final calculated payroll. NER stores the supplied component values, performs structural/arithmetic integrity checks, and then uses the same approval, lock and payslip workflow.
Why it mattersThis creates immediate operational savings without creating confusion about which system calculated PF, ESI, PT, LWF or TDS.
Hard boundary: NER does not recalculate statutory values on top of an external final payroll and does not represent the imported values as independently validated statutory calculations.
10
Output · Payslips
Turn approved payroll into secure employee communication
Approved or locked payroll can generate password-protected employee payslip PDFs. NER uses a centrally managed sender, company-specific display name and Reply-To address, and logs each delivery attempt.
Approved payrollProtected PDFNER managed senderEmployee emailDelivery log
Why it mattersBoth NER-calculated and externally calculated customers get the same controlled payslip generation and distribution experience.
Current sender model: Customer-authenticated sending domains are deliberately hidden for now. The platform uses one NER-managed Resend sender while each company controls display name, Reply-To, password rule, subject and email message.
11
Operate month after month
The aim is less monthly effort, not more configuration
Most setup work is reusable. Employees, salary components, structures, statutory rule versions and delivery settings persist. Monthly payroll should increasingly become inputs → calculate/import → review → approve → lock → distribute.
What NER is trying to replaceRepeated spreadsheet setup, manual statutory formula maintenance, separate approval trails, hand-created PDFs and one-by-one payslip emails.
Still evolving: Statutory filing exports, Form 16, quarterly TDS filing/reconciliation, bank files, accounting exports, claims and broader employee self-service can build on this same foundation without changing the core payroll chain.