Generally speaking, payroll is done weekly, fortnightly or monthly. However, in India, payroll is mostly processed once a month. In many other countries, payroll is processed weekly.
Coming back to India, some companies start processing around the last week of the month, so that employees will be paid by end of the month. This is normally for companies who are in services sector (like software and MNCs).
Companies in the manufacturing sector start processing around 1st of the month and pay by 5th or 7th of the next month.
For example, payroll for the April month is processed by some companies around 25th of April so that employees are paid by 30th of April. Others may process by 1st of May and pay by 5th or 7th of May. Please note that in either case, this is called as “April Payroll”.
What are the steps involved in a typical payroll processing every month
Payroll processing involves the following broad steps:
Update data of new Joinees
Update data of Resigned employees
Update Salary increment data
Update changes in employee information
Update Loss of Pay or Working Days
Process Payroll
Generate Salary Register
Do Payroll Reconciliation
Distribute Salary to employees
Distribute Payslips
Update Payroll data in accounting software
Generate PF, PT, ESI and IT reports.
Make payments to PF, PT, ESI and IT departments.
Generate other MIS reports