Salary Slip Generator: Create a Payslip Online

What is a salary slip?

A salary slip is the statement your employer gives you for each month's pay. It shows what you earned, what was deducted, and what was credited to your account. Payslip means the same thing. In India most people say salary slip, while the law and most payroll software say payslip.

You need it more often than you expect. Banks ask for the last three months before sanctioning a loan. Landlords ask for it. Visa offices ask for it. Your next employer asks for it during salary discussions. Only your current employer can issue one, so there is no way around it if the company refuses.

Payslip format in India: Form V and every mandatory component · Payslip, in the HR glossary

Is a salary slip compulsory in India?

Yes. Every employer in India must give every employee a salary slip for every wage period. The rule comes from the Code on Wages, 2019 and the rules made under it, in force since 21 November 2025. It replaced the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

There is no size limit. A company with five employees has the same duty as one with five thousand. Paying salary by bank transfer does not remove the duty either. The slip has to follow the prescribed form and go out every pay period, not only when someone asks for it.

What must a salary slip include?

A salary slip has to carry a fixed set of details. You can design the layout as you like, but leaving any of these out makes the slip non-compliant.

• Company name and address, and the employee's name, designation and employee code
• The month and year the slip covers
• Total days in the month, days worked, paid days and loss of pay days
• Rate of wages, and overtime hours with the overtime amount paid
• Every earning head shown separately: basic, dearness allowance, HRA, conveyance, special allowance and any variable head
• Gross earnings for the month
• Every deduction shown separately, split into statutory deductions and other recoveries
• Net salary paid, and the date of payment

Paid days and the itemised deduction list are the two lines most often left out. They are also the first two things anyone checking the slip will look at, because that is where a short payment hides.

What goes on the earnings side?

The earnings side lists every part of the salary separately: basic, dearness allowance, HRA, conveyance, special allowance, and variable heads such as overtime, incentive or arrears.

Basic pay decides most of the other numbers. Under the Code on Wages, basic plus dearness allowance plus retaining allowance must be at least half of total pay. Companies used to keep basic at 30 per cent of gross to reduce PF cost. That no longer helps, because the shortfall gets added back for PF and gratuity anyway.

HRA is tax free only up to the least of three limits, and only in the old tax regime. Conveyance, special allowance and most other fixed heads are fully taxable in both regimes. Keep overtime, incentive, shift allowance and arrears on separate lines, because an employee cannot check a figure that has been merged into another one.

In the Vivekananda Vidyamandir case, decided on 28 February 2019, the Supreme Court held that any allowance paid universally, uniformly and ordinarily to all employees forms part of basic wages under the EPF Act, 1952. So a large special allowance paid to everyone, and not tied to output or attendance, is a PF liability rather than a saving.

CTC breakup in India, with a worked example · Salary allowances: HRA, DA, medical and LTA · Salary calculator

What can be deducted from salary?

Deductions fall into two groups, and the salary slip has to keep them separate. Statutory deductions are PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS. Other recoveries are advances, loan instalments, notice period shortfall, asset recovery and any fine the rules allow.

There is a limit. Total deductions in one wage period cannot cross 50 per cent of the employee's wages. If a loan recovery would take it past that, spread it over the following months instead. A slip showing deductions above half of gross is proof of the breach, and the employee already has a copy of it.

ESI calculation and contribution rates · Income tax on salary: old vs new regime · Professional tax calculator · TDS calculator

Is a digital salary slip valid in India?

Yes. A salary slip sent as a PDF or published on employee self-service is as valid as a printed one, as long as the employee can open it and keep a copy.

Generate it from the payroll record instead of typing it out again, so the slip and the salary register never differ. Keep the company's own copy for as long as the rules require, instead of depending on the employee to keep theirs. And make sure it stays reachable after the person leaves. A slip sent to a work email address is gone the day that account is closed, and ex-employees ask for old salary slips far more often than current staff do.

When should you move from a generator to payroll software?

Use a generator while you are making slips one at a time for a handful of people. Move to payroll software once the same numbers have to be typed twice, first to work out the salary and then to make the slip.

After that the slip should come out of the payroll run itself. Engage calculates PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS in the same run that produces the salary register, then publishes each employee's slip to self-service when the month is locked. The register, the return files and the slips are built from one set of figures, so they cannot disagree with each other.

Payroll management system · Payroll reports every HR team needs · Payroll compliance checklist for India