Getting started
People, salary structures and registrations, designed to take an afternoon rather than a project.
Centilio PayEvery branch, reached
CENTILIO PAY / MONEY
What is payroll software, and how will Pay work?
Short answers to what people ask about running payroll, and practical guides that work whatever you use today. Questions about Pay itself are answered as designed, because it has not shipped yet.
not shipped · wave 36 guidesuseful before Pay shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Pay has not shipped. All features, screens and prices are proposals.
Pay has not shipped yet.
Everything on these pages — the screens, the features, the prices — is Centilio Pay as designed. Pay has not shipped: it sits in the third wave of Centilio tools, after Team and Ledger, and there is no app, no beta and no launch date yet. At launch it is designed to run payroll in India only. We would rather set out the whole design and say so plainly than publish a thin page; join the waitlist and you will hear first.
Topics
Start with the question you have.
In short: a program that turns who worked and what they earn into net pay, deductions, payments, payslips and filings, every month, the same way. Cloud versions run in the browser, so the preparer, the approver and the accountant work in one run. Pay is designed as one, India first.
Every month
The review screen, approvals and pay day.
Statutory
PF, ESI, TDS, professional tax and the files each one needs.
Employees
Payslips, declarations and proofs on their phones.
Celia
What it explains, what it flags, and what it never does: pay, file or change a salary.
Billing
Per business, not per employee, with a Free plan for up to five people. All prices are proposed.
Guides
Six guides, useful whatever you run payroll with today.
Practical, short, and not about Pay. They work with any payroll, including a spreadsheet.
How to run your first payroll
The first run is mostly setup. Get the people and the structures right once and the second month is a review.
- Collect each person’s PAN, UAN if they have one, bank account and date of joining.
- Write down each salary structure: basic, HRA, allowances, and what is deducted.
- Register for PF, ESI and professional tax where the law requires it before the first deduction is due.
- Run the first month side by side with your current method and compare every net pay.
- Approve, pay on the day, and send payslips the same morning.
How to set up a salary structure people understand
A structure is a promise in numbers. Keep it short enough that an employee can read their payslip without help.
- Start from the CTC in the offer letter and work down to the monthly gross.
- Set basic first, because PF and gratuity follow from it.
- Add HRA and the allowances you actually intend to pay, not every one that exists.
- Show employer contributions separately, so take-home pay is never a surprise.
- Use the same structure for everyone in a grade, and write down the exceptions.
How to handle a joiner and a leaver in the same month
Most payroll mistakes happen at the edges of employment. Treat both edges as checklists.
- Prorate the joiner’s first salary from the joining date, and start PF and ESI from that month.
- Collect their tax regime choice and declarations in the first week.
- For the leaver, fix the last working day first; everything else follows from it.
- Work out the final settlement: days worked, leave encashment, notice recovery and gratuity where due.
- Issue the final payslip and the relieving papers together.
How to collect tax declarations without the March rush
TDS is only as right as the declarations behind it. Ask early, check twice, and keep the proofs.
- Ask every employee to choose a tax regime at the start of the year, and again when they join.
- Collect investment declarations in April, so TDS is spread across the year.
- Ask for proofs in January, with a clear date, not in the last week of March.
- Recompute TDS when proofs come in, and explain any change on the payslip.
- Keep the proofs with the run they affected, for the day someone asks.
How to check a payroll before you approve it
Approving a run should take minutes, because you are checking changes, not the whole run.
- Compare total gross and net with last month, and ask why if either moved more than you expect.
- Read the list of people whose pay changed, and the reason for each.
- Check joiners and leavers against what you know happened this month.
- Look at anyone with a missing document, such as rent receipts or a bank account.
- Approve, and send your CA the summary the same day.
How to choose a payroll tool
The right tool is the one that is right in your country and that your team will keep current.
- List where your people work, because statutory rules follow the place, not the company.
- Ask how each tool explains a change in someone’s pay, because that is where trust is lost.
- Check who approves a run and whether anyone can pay without approval.
- Find out how the run reaches the books and the bank.
- Count the real price for your headcount next year, not only this year.
Questions
Quick answers.
What does a payroll tool do?
It works out what each person is paid, what is deducted for tax and social security, and what the employer owes on top. It then pays people, produces payslips and prepares the filings the law requires.
How does payroll in the cloud work?
The salary structures, attendance and filings live online rather than on one computer, so the preparer, the approver and the accountant work in the same run from anywhere. Employees reach their own payslips on their phones.
How much does payroll cost to run?
Many providers charge a fee per person paid, often with a base fee, and some quote rather than publish a price. Pay is proposed per business instead: free for up to five people, then one price by band.
What is the easiest way to run payroll for a small team?
Start from a record of who worked and who was on leave, review only what changed, and let the tool compute the deductions and prepare the files. The hard part should be the approval, not the arithmetic.
How does good payroll help employees?
People who are paid right and on time, with a payslip they can read, stop asking payroll questions and start trusting the numbers. A clear explanation of any change does more for that trust than any perk.
Which countries does Pay support?
India at launch, with statutory compliance. Other countries follow by demand.
Does Pay file with the authorities?
It prepares the filings and, where the authority allows, submits them on your approval. Elsewhere the file is ready to upload.
When is Pay available?
Pay is in the third wave of Centilio tools, after Team and Ledger. There is no date yet; join the waitlist and you will hear before the announcement.
Contact
Still have a question?
Pay is still being designed, so the questions you ask now shape it. Tell us how many people you pay, in which states, and what your CA asks for each month; the awkward requirements are the useful ones.
Next for you
What people use with Pay.
The tools Pay sits between. Two of them run today, so you can judge those while Pay is built.
Every Centilio tool shares one record and one login with Pay. About Centilio →
Hear first when Pay opens.
Pay is in the third wave, after Team and Ledger, and it starts with India. Join the waitlist and you will hear before the announcement. Tell us how many people you pay, in which states, and what goes wrong in your month today; that shapes the design more than anything else.