Construction
Payroll software for construction companies
Site engineers and supervisors draw a monthly salary, masons and helpers come through a mestri, and everybody wants an advance before Sankranti. Payroll has to know who is who.
In short
SimpleERP is payroll software for construction companies in India. Site engineers, supervisors and store keepers get monthly payslips with PF and PT, advances are recovered through salary, and labour gangs supplied by a mestri are paid by supplier bill.
Illustration of a payslip with Basic, HRA, provident fund and professional tax lines and net pay of ₹27,660.
A payroll day at Sri Durga Constructions
Sri Durga Constructions has nineteen people on its own rolls: four site engineers, six supervisors, two store keepers, a quantity surveyor, office staff and drivers. On any day another sixty masons, bar benders tying TMT steel, shuttering carpenters and helpers work at the two sites, but they belong to two labour contractors.
The Kompally supervisor works Sundays during a pour and takes a weekday off instead. One driver took ₹15,000 in June for his daughter's admission and repays ₹2,500 a month. Diesel for the generator and tea for the gang unloading cement come out of the supervisors' pockets and come back to them only if the slips survive the month.
SimpleERP runs the monthly payroll for the nineteen, recovers the advance on its own and pays the supervisors' site spends through claims, while the mestri's labour bill is a supplier bill in the books.
Who goes through payroll, and who is paid by bill?
Anyone on your rolls is an employee with a salary structure. Gangs supplied and paid by a labour contractor are the contractor's workers, so you pay the contractor's bill, not the workers.
- ESI as a component where your workforce falls under it, since it is not preset.
- Extra pay for a Sunday pour added as an arrears line before approval.
| Who | Paid through | Lines |
|---|---|---|
| Site engineer and quantity surveyor | Payroll | Basic, HRA, site allowance, PF, PT |
| Supervisor and store keeper | Payroll | Basic, conveyance, site allowance, PF, PT, advance recovery |
| Driver | Payroll | Basic, extra days as an arrears line, advance recovery |
| Masons and helpers from a mestri | Supplier bill to the mestri | Labour charges, TDS by journal |
| Diesel, tea and small site spends | Expense claim | One line per slip with a photo |
How do supervisors get their site spends back?
The supervisor photographs the diesel bill at the pump and adds it to a claim before leaving. The site engineer approves the claim or trims a line, and the accountant reimburses it with the bank transfer, so the slip never has to travel to the office.
- Claim status visible to the supervisor on the phone.
- Claims by employee in the reports, to spot a site spending more than the other.
- Each claim posts to the expense account its category maps to.
Illustration of an expense claim on a phone with a receipt photo and Approve and Reject buttons.
How are salary advances recovered without a notebook?
Record the ₹15,000 advance with a monthly recovery of ₹2,500. Each payroll run deducts the instalment and shows the balance, the driver sees what is left in self-service, and after six months the advance closes itself.
- Advances page with paid, recovered and due per person.
- Holidays per branch when sites follow different calendars.
- Attendance from a phone at the site, or marked by the office.
One system
What it connects to
Construction and contractors
Quotations and SAC-coded invoices, material per site, payroll with advances and site expense claims.
See howGST billing for contractors
Running bills as invoices against the contract's sales order, SAC 9954 lines, and place of supply taken from the site address.
See howInventory for contractors
Cement, TMT steel and finishing material counted per site warehouse, consumption recorded at the month-end count, and shuttering kept as an asset.
See howAccounting for contractors
Running bills, mobilisation advances, retention held by clients and TDS on receipts kept straight in one contractor's ledger.
See howPayroll
Salary structures, monthly runs and payslips with PF, PT and TDS, posted to the books.
See how
Honest limits
What SimpleERP does not do yet
- Income tax (TDS) is not computed; you set the deduction per employee
- No preset ESI or gratuity; add them as components where they apply
- No biometric device integration: attendance is marked on the phone or entered by HR
- No daily-wage or piece-rate payroll for site labour; gangs are paid through the labour contractor's bill
Getting started
Start with payroll
Sign up with your phone
Name, phone number and a password. No card for the seven-day trial, and email is optional.
Tell us about the business
Type your GSTIN and the state fills itself. Accounts, GST rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for you.
Add your people
Add engineers, supervisors, store keepers and drivers with a site allowance in their structures, and record any advance already outstanding.
Run the first payroll
Attendance and leave feed the run; payslips post to the books and staff see them on their phones.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Can we pay masons by the day through payroll?
No. Payroll is a monthly salary run, so daily-wage or piece-rate labour does not fit. Most contractors take their gangs through a mestri; record the mestri's bill as a supplier bill and pay it from payables.
A supervisor works Sunday during a slab pour. How is that paid?
Mark the attendance as worked, and add the extra day as an arrears line on the payslip before the run is approved. If you give a weekday off instead, record it as a compensatory day under the leave type you use for that.
Can supervisors at the site mark their own attendance?
Yes, from a phone browser at the site, through employee self-service. Where a supervisor has no smartphone, someone in the office marks attendance on the sheet instead, and the payroll run reads it the same way.
Do I need ESI for my site staff?
That depends on wages and your registration, so confirm with your CA. SimpleERP has no ESI preset; where it applies, add an ESI deduction and an employer contribution as components on the structures of the people it covers.
Related
Keep reading
Construction and contractors
Quotations and SAC-coded invoices, material per site, payroll with advances and site expense claims.
Read moreGST billing for contractors
Running bills as invoices against the contract's sales order, SAC 9954 lines, and place of supply taken from the site address.
Read moreInventory for contractors
Cement, TMT steel and finishing material counted per site warehouse, consumption recorded at the month-end count, and shuttering kept as an asset.
Read more
See how payroll works in SimpleERP for construction and contractors
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