Work out the month's ESIC challan payment and PF challan from your wage register in one Excel file: each employee's share, the ECR account totals, the due dates and what paying late costs, on the 2026 Schemes and Rules rather than the 1952 PF Scheme and the repealed ESI Act. Both are paid within 15 days of the month's end.
Seven sheets. Set the codes and rates once, then the wage month and the register each month.
The wage month, your PF and ESI codes, and every rate and ceiling as a named input beside its source, with drop-downs for the ESI wage base and for the 10% PF rate, which S.O. 3582(E) keeps only for jute, beedi, brick, coir and guar gum units and those under an insolvency plan, not for having fewer than twenty employees as EPFO's older rate sheet says.
One row per employee, copied from the salary sheet you already run: wages under the Code, PF, pension and EDLI wages, each employee's PF and ESIC contribution calculation, and what comes out of pay, with anyone kept in ESI above the limit shaded amber. Only the employee's shares come out of pay, never yours. One hundred rows, loaded with eleven example employees at four workplaces.
The account totals the PF challan asks for, A/c 1, 2, 10, 21 and 22, and a member-wise ECR worksheet with UAN, wages, shares and NCP days in the order of Form VII of the EPF Scheme, for the ECR upload that comes before payment.
Insured persons, ESI wages and both shares for the month, the contribution period it falls in, and a list by IP number to check the portal's figures against before ESIC challan generation.
A tracker that turns a late payment red and works out PF damages, ESI interest and damages and the PF late fee, seven open questions said plainly, and forty-five citations.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) runs attendance, salary and statutory deductions for every branch in one account.
Because both now come from the Code on Social Security. The ESI Act was repealed on 21-Nov-2025 and the 1952 PF Scheme replaced in 2026, and most challan guides still quote both.
PF moved to the EPF, EPS and EDLI Schemes of 2026, published between 29-Jun-2026 and 01-Jul-2026, and the wage ceiling went from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 on 17-Sep-2026, which brought a band of staff in for the first time; enrolling that ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 band is the employer's job. ESI's rates moved into rule 19 of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 on 08-May-2026. The rates are the old ones, but on our reading the wage they apply to is now the Code's, an open question the workbook names.
That wage is all pay except a closed list of exclusions, such as HRA, conveyance, overtime and commission. A special allowance is wages, and if the excluded items pass one-half of all pay, the excess is added back. A PF contribution calculation on basic alone under-pays wherever basic is a small part of the package, and the sums still look right.
The two schemes also behave differently. PF rounds each contribution to the nearest rupee and ESI rounds up. PF tests the ceiling each month, ESI at the start of a six-month contribution period. And ESI's due date, interest and damages still come from its 1950 regulations, which the Code keeps alive for one year only. The workbook does each the way its own instrument says, and names the gaps instead of guessing, the same approach as our labour codes readiness checklist.
The example spans the Pune assembly plant, a Gurugram head office, a Chennai hospital and a retail warehouse in Ahmedabad: one register, two challans.
Enter each person's pay once, and the PF and ESIC calculation in Excel works out both contributions the way each scheme's own instrument prescribes.
| Head | Employee | Employer | On wages | Rounded | Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPF | 12% | 12% less pension | Up to ₹25,000 | Nearest rupee | A/c 1 |
| Pension, EPS | Nil | 8.33% | Up to ₹25,000 | Nearest rupee | A/c 10 |
| EDLI | Nil | 0.50% | Up to ₹25,000 | Nearest rupee | A/c 21 |
| PF admin | Nil | 0.50%, minimum ₹500 | EPF wages | Nearest rupee | A/c 2 |
| ESI | 0.75% | 3.25% | Limit ₹21,000 | Up to next rupee | ESIC challan |
Up from ₹15,000. EPF, pension and EDLI contributions are all worked out on PF wages up to this figure.
Source: S.O. 5109(E), 17-Sep-2026, wage ceiling for Chapter III of the Code on Social Security, superseding S.O. 2702(E)With 0.75 per cent from the employee, each rounded to the next higher rupee, where PF rounds to the nearest.
Source: Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026, rule 19(1), G.S.R. 344(E), 08-May-2026They set the 15-day due date, the 12 per cent interest and the damages. On our reading the year ends on 20-Nov-2026.
Source: Code on Social Security, 2020, s.164(2)(b), in force from 21-Nov-2025 by S.O. 5319(E) as corrected by S.O. 5936(E)Wages under the Code are all pay except the listed exclusions, so a special allowance counts, and excluded pay above one-half of the total is added back. Basic alone under-pays both shares.
PF rounds each contribution to the nearest rupee (para 18(5)). ESI rounds each share up to the next rupee (rule 19). On ₹15,120 that is ₹114 and ₹492, not the ₹113 and ₹491 the nearest gives.
Wages that cross ₹21,000 after a contribution period starts do not take the person out. They stay in until 30 September or 31 March (S.O. 2351(E)).
Pension is 8.33 per cent of wages up to ₹25,000 only, so ₹2,083 at most, unless EPFO has accepted a higher-pension option. For someone not in the pension scheme, the employer's whole 12 per cent goes to A/c 1, where correcting a member's PF record will not fix a wrong split.
Older checklists say the 21st. Regulation 31 says within 15 days of the month's end, and interest at 12 per cent a year runs from the day after.
The ECR challan comes out of the return, and paying it is a separate step. A late PF return costs ₹500 a day up to the month's admin charges, and late contributions draw damages under para 23. Not paying over a share you deducted is punishable with one to three years and a ₹1,00,000 fine (s.133), for the company and the person in charge of it (s.135).
Built before the Code
Built on the 2026 instruments
Fill the register from the month's payroll, check the two challan sheets, and pay both by the 15th, then log the dates in the tracker.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail chains, hospitals and education. General guidance, not legal advice. This workbook is one of our free statutory payroll workbooks, each built from the law rather than from other templates.
Both challans from one register, the ECR totals, a late-cost tracker, seven open questions and forty-five citations. Free.
