Professional services
Payroll software for CA firms and consulting practices
Staff accountants on salary, articled assistants on stipend, a company secretary on retainer, and a September where nobody may take leave. One monthly run handles all of it.
In short
SimpleERP is payroll software for CA firms and consulting practices in India. Salaried staff and articled assistants get payslips from attendance and leave, with PF, PT and TDS deductions, and audit travel claims are filed and approved from a phone.
Illustration of a payslip with Basic, HRA, provident fund and professional tax lines and net pay of ₹27,660.
A payroll day at Venkatraman Iyer & Associates
The practice has fourteen people: two partners, a company secretary who comes in three days a week, three staff accountants on salary, six articled assistants on stipend and two office staff. Payroll is due on the last working day, and in September it lands in the middle of tax audit deadlines.
Articled assistants spend half the month at client sites in Sriperumbudur and Oragadam, so attendance is a guess and travel bills come back crumpled in an envelope. Leave requests arrive on WhatsApp and the office manager keeps the balances in a notebook.
In SimpleERP each person checks in from a phone at the client's office, requests leave there, and files the cab and food bills with a photo. On payroll day the office manager generates the run, fixes the one or two exceptions and the partner approves it.
How do salaries, stipends and the company secretary's fee fit together?
Salaried staff and articled assistants run through payroll with different structures. A company secretary or consultant on a monthly retainer is not an employee, so their fee comes in as a supplier bill and is paid like any other professional.
- Components you name, so a stipend reads as a stipend on the payslip.
- Bonus or arrears added to a payslip before approval.
| Who | Paid through | Typical lines |
|---|---|---|
| Staff accountant | Payroll, monthly salary structure | Basic, HRA, special allowance, PF, PT and TDS from their declaration |
| Articled assistant | Payroll, stipend structure | A stipend component, no PF unless you choose it |
| Office manager and front desk | Payroll, monthly salary structure | Basic, HRA, conveyance, PF, PT |
| Company secretary on retainer | Supplier bill, not payroll | Monthly fee with SAC code, TDS by journal |
| Audit travel and client-site food | Expense claim | Cab, train, meals, each with a receipt photo |
Can we hold leave during the audit season?
Leave requests still come in, but the approver sees the dates and the remaining balance and can reject with a reason such as tax audit deadline. Approved leave updates the balance at once, and unpaid leave or absence becomes loss of pay in that month's run.
- Leave types and balances seeded, with half-day leave where you allow it.
- Holidays pasted for the year, so Pongal and Deepavali are skipped automatically.
- Check-in from a phone at a client's office counts as a present day.
Illustration of the daily attendance sheet on a phone with a Mark all present button.
How are audit travel bills reimbursed?
The assistant files a claim with one line per bill and a photo of each. The engagement partner approves it, trimming any line that should be billed to the client instead, and the office manager marks it reimbursed with the bank transfer that paid it.
- Claims by employee and status in the reports, for the partners' monthly look.
- Each step posts its own journal, from approval to payment.
- Recharge to the client by adding the cost as an out-of-pocket line on the fee invoice.
One system
What it connects to
Professional services
SAC-coded invoices with place of supply, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
See howGST billing for CA firms
Fee invoices for audits, returns and retainers with the right SAC code, IGST for clients in other states and TDS-aware receipts.
See howInventory for CA firms
What a practice should track as stock (resold DSC tokens), what it should expense and what it can ignore entirely.
See howAccounting for CA firms
The practice's own books: fee income by type, retainers paid in advance, TDS deducted by clients and a month-end close the partners trust.
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 timesheets, so hours spent per engagement are not recorded or billed
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 salaried staff and articled assistants with their structures, using a stipend component for the assistants.
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
Do articled assistants need PF?
That is for the practice to decide with its own advisers, since a stipend under the articleship rules is not treated the same way as a salary. In SimpleERP the stipend structure simply leaves PF out, or includes it if you decide it applies.
Can the partners' drawings run through payroll?
Partners of a firm usually take drawings and remuneration as the partnership deed allows, not a salary. Record them with a journal or a payment from the partner's capital or current account, and keep payroll for employees.
Will staff see their payslips without asking the office?
Yes. Once the run is approved, each person opens their payslip in self-service on a phone, along with leave balances, attendance and the status of their claims. Partners see everyone; staff see only their own.
Can we pay a small advance to an assistant before Deepavali?
Yes. Record the advance with a monthly recovery amount, and each payroll run deducts it until the balance is nil. The advances page shows what was paid and what is still due for every person.
Related
Keep reading
Professional services
SAC-coded invoices with place of supply, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
Read moreGST billing for CA firms
Fee invoices for audits, returns and retainers with the right SAC code, IGST for clients in other states and TDS-aware receipts.
Read moreInventory for CA firms
What a practice should track as stock (resold DSC tokens), what it should expense and what it can ignore entirely.
Read more
See how payroll works in SimpleERP for professional services
Seven days free. No card. Your first GST invoice in minutes.