Collaborate without compromising on payroll security using Zoho Payroll

Welcome to the next session of our Community Learning Series. 

Today we will throw some light on how Zoho Payroll lets you collaborate with your distributed workforce and stay in control of payroll operations without compromising on the security of your employees' data. 

As a Zoho Payroll user, your organisation will possess all the crucial information about your employees like bank account details, personal information, and salary details. Therefore, it is critical that this information stays secure. If it falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to identity theft or worse. This in turn can have adverse effects on your employees' trust and might damage your organisation's reputation. 

To show how you can take control of your payroll operations in a secure way, we'll look at the below organisational hierarchy as an example.

                                        

The following table lists the responsibilities for each role as part of the payroll processing team.  

                                                

From the table above, you can see that only the CEO requires complete access to all the modules. The remaining users need access only to specific modules based on their roles. 

As the payroll admin of the organisation, the CEO can set up multi-level access in Zoho Payroll and allow the users in the organisation to access only selected data and functions. This way the CEO can maintain centralised control yet present the same user interface for all of the staff to get their work done. Distinctive user roles help cross-department staff can work in synergy without compromising the security of payroll data. 

As your organization's CEO or payroll admin, here's how you can assign access for each of your user roles.

Log in to Zoho Payroll.

Under Settings, select Users and Roles. 

                                                     

Refer to our self-help resources for step-by-step guidance on creating multiple distinct user roles.

Once you have created all the roles within your organisation, let's define the permissions for each of the roles. 

Payroll staff:

Let's assume that the responsibility of your payroll staff will be to maintain and update payroll records, validate payroll inputs, and get the pay run ready. 

Your payroll staff will need to collect employee details and payroll inputs submitted through various sources, and then create a pay run with all the information collected. 

They will need access to the following modules:

• Employee module to maintain employee records.
  
• Pay run module to create and edit pay runs. 
  
• Preferences module to collect employee reimbursement and POI data 
  

   

                                               

   

Here you can allow the payroll staff to only view the basic employee details, but not create or edit them. This will ensure they cannot tamper with the employee data. 

In the pay run module, you can decide that they can only create and edit the pay runs, not approve or pay them. When you move on to setting the permissions for the other roles, you'll probably give the payroll admin approval access for any pay run and give the finance team permission to make payments to the employees. Each role has a unique set of permissions based on its duties and position in the hierarchy. 

                                

Now that the different roles have been set, the admin can invite users into the payroll organisation. 

Select Users under Users and Roles and start adding your employees under the different roles you have curated. All they have to do is accept the invitations they receive via email and create a Zoho account using the same email, and they are good to go.

Here's how the users will be seeing Zoho Payroll based on the roles that they've been assigned. 

HR staff:

Can add new employee details while onboarding new staff to Zoho Payroll.

Payroll staff:

Can enter payroll inputs of employees, create and edit pay runs.

HR manager:

Can approve salary revisions, reimbursements and proof of investments. Has access to all reports.

Finance manager:

Can create, edit and delete employee loans and record salary payments. 

External auditor:

Can access payroll, statutory and tax reports. 

So the roles have been created, the users are added, and the admin knows which actions each user can perform. We haven't mentioned user tracking yet, but that's another kind of accountability that's available. If a discrepancy occurs in the payroll system, the payroll admin can check the activity log report to see exactly which actions each user has performed. All of this helps you keep your payroll data safe with Zoho Payroll.

Do let us know in the comments below how you have customised the roles in your payroll organisation. 

Also, check out our previous post on a checklist to follow before hitting pay run here.

Until next time!

• Topic Participants

• Archana

  

• Recent Topics

• Zoho Zoom extension for CRM

  When meetings are booked through Zoho using the Zoom extension, the Zoom link in the invite is a host start link that contains an expiring ZAK token. The invite should instead use a standard attendee join link or a non-expiring host link - why is this

• Stereo audio

  L.S. Is stereo audio supported in Zoho Meetings? I would like to conduct music lessons with Meetings, but the audio needs to be good (if not great!) and stereo, and not too much compressed and such.

• Is Zoho Sites still actively being developed?

  Hello, Is Zoho Sites still actively being developed as part of the Zoho ecosystem? I noticed that the What's New page (https://www.zoho.com/sites/whats-new.html) does not show any updates since Q1 2025. We were considering migrating our website from Squarespace

• Zia should track how customer relationships evolve over time

  Here's a feature idea that I've been thinking about The Problem Zia is great at analyzing individual interactions email sentiment, call transcription, best time to contact. But here's what it can't do: tell you how a relationship has evolved over time.

• Zoho Surveys

  Dear Zoho Support Team, I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to inquire about the availability and documentation for the Zoho Survey API. Background: I am currently working on a project that requires programmatic access to survey data and

• Zoho FSM API Delete Record

  Hi FSM Team, It would be great if you could delete a record via API. Thank you,

• Duplicate Leads Concerns with Round Robin and Lead Approval Process

  It is great to have the Duplicate Lead Approval Process, there are a few issues with the process that I would greatly appreciate taken consideration in enhancing. It appears that A Lead comes in Lead owner assigned by the Round Robin Check for Duplicate,

• Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

  Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

• Incoming email replies not automatically associating with Deals/Opportunities - Is this possible in Zoho CRM?

  Hello Zoho Community, I'm running a travel agency (B2B and B2C) and we've been struggling with what seems like a basic functionality that we cannot get to work properly. Our use case: We send emails to suppliers (hotels, transportation companies) and

• Writing SQL Queries - After Comma Auto Suggesting Column

  When writing SQL Queries, does anyone else get super annoyed that after you type a comma and try to return to a new line it is automatically suggest a new column, so hitting return just inputs this suggested column instead of going to a new line? Anyone

• New Enhancements to Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator Integration

  Hello Everyone, We’ve rolled out enhancements to the Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM integration to align with recent updates made to the Zoho Creator platform. With enhancements to both the UI and functionality, This update also tightens access control by

• Desk API that can search Merged Tickets

  Is there any method that can still search a ticket that was already merged? zoho.desk.searchRecords - doesn't explicitly mention

• Issue with "Send Email" from Quotes not loading Email Template data

  Hi everyone, I'm currently experiencing an issue when using the "Send Email" option from a Quote record in Zoho CRM. What’s happening: When I go to the Quotes module and select a record, then click Send Email, the attached file (Quote) correctly pulls

• Suggestions for Improved Table Management and Dashboard Filter Controls in Zoho Analytics

  Dear Zoho Analytics Community, I hope you are doing well. I would like to share a few suggestions based on issues I am currently experiencing while working with visualizations and dashboards. Firstly, when I create a new visualization using the Sales-Order

• Introducing Rollup summary in Zoho CRM

  ------------------------------------------Moderated on 5th July'23---------------------------------------------- Rollup summary is now available for all organizations in all the DCs. Hello All, We hope you're well! We're here with an exciting update that

• Zoho Projects and CRM Integration in Analytics

  Hi Team, In Zoho CRM, I’ve integrated CRM with Zoho Projects and associated a project within the CRM. The integration is visible under the Deals module. However, I’m unable to find this data in Zoho Analytics. Does anyone know where this information is

• Cursor lands on disabled fields when tabbing through forms

  As of yesterday, form behavior has changed w/ regard to disabled fields. Previously when tabbing through a form the cursor would skip over disable fields (as would typically be desired). But now the cursor is landing on all disabled fields, in all of

• Permission query

  we have two permission settings i.e 'user permission ' & 'portal user permission' and both have the same setting that we enable for our users, Now those who have access to user permission can see a button on the pivot table, "regenerate" but those who

• Zoho Forms sheet prefil

  I've been using zoho sheet prefill for a week and it was working perfectly, as soon as i deleted the particular sheet and replaced it with another one no matter what I do it cant find the record and i get this message. Could you please assist me to resolve

• "Create Deal" button should default to the currently selected layout/pipeline

  When viewing Deals in Kanban or List view with a specific layout and pipeline selected, clicking "Create Deal" should default to that same layout — not the profile's default layout. Currently it always opens the default layout regardless of context, requiring

• Zoho mail admin panel not opening

• Dynamic Questions in Zoho Forms

  Is it possible to add dynamic questions (like displaying a user’s name) in Zoho Forms? I know this is possible in surveys, but can we implement similar functionality in Zoho Forms?

• Canvas: is it possible to have a fixed header?

  Hello. Does Canvas provide the option to have a fixed header, similar to the standard view? It would also be interesting for other parts of the interface, like the header or sidebar of the tab section. Thanks!

• Removing Related Modules Lookup Fields Assignment / Relationship

  Issue: When creating a related list, I accidently selected module itself creating a circle reference. See attached. Situation: I wish to relating a custom module called "Phone Calls" to Leads and Contacts. Outcome: 1) I either want to remove the this

• Zoho LandingPage pricing update: Essentials plan is now fully free!

  Hello Everyone, We have updated the Zoho LandingPage pricing structure. The Essentials plan, previously priced at $9 per month for 1,000 visitors, is now fully free, and the visitor limit has been increased to 5,000. With this change, users can start

• ZOHO.CRM.UI.Record.open not working properly

  I have a Zoho CRM Widget and in it I have a block where it will open the blocks Meeting like below block.addEventListener("click", () => { ZOHO.CRM.UI.Record.open({ Entity: "Events", RecordID: meeting.id }).catch(err => { console.error("Open record failed:",

• Zoho Survey – Page Skip Logic Not Working

  Hi everyone, I'm experiencing an issue with the page skip logic in Zoho Survey. Last week, it was working fine, and I haven’t changed anything in the settings. However, today the skip logic is not working at all. I also tried testing it with different

• Introducing a smarter, faster, and more flexible charting experience

  Hello Zoho Sheet users, We're delighted to share the latest news about a major update to charts in Zoho Sheet! The new version supports dynamic data ranges, granular styling options, faster loading, and other interesting enhancements that allow you to

• Zoho Form URL displays incorrect name

  Hi, I have a form I created called "Design Request form". It displays this way everywhere I look. However, in the URL, it shows up as "DesignJobRequestFormFINAL011325PROOFV1B" and I'm not sure why. I can't find where to fix this. Does anyone have any

• Introducing Radio Buttons and Numeric Range Sliders in Zoho CRM

  Release update: Currently out for CN, JP, AU and CA DCs (Free and standard editions). For other DCs, this will be released by mid-March. Hello everyone, We are pleased to share with you that Zoho CRM's Layout Editor now includes two new field formats—

• Finding rhythm through poetry

  Poetry has long been a powerful form of expression, discovery, and reflection. For many, it is a way to pen down their thoughts and experiences. The "poetic license" allows writers to shape their words with rhythm and flow. This year, on World Poetry

• Zoho Desk Ticket SLA Level

  Hello, we have 2 levels of SLA escalation for our Tickets. Is there a way to display on the ticket information the level of SLA escalation the ticket currently on? I am aware that we can see in the ticket history the level of escalation that has been

• Allow Font Size 11 in Editors...

  That is basic functionality...

• 【まだ間に合う！】Zoho ユーザー交流会 | AI活用・CRM・Analytics の事例を聞いて、ユーザー同士で交流しよう！

  ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 3月27日(金)に東京、新橋で開催する「東京 Zoho ユーザー交流会 NEXUS」へのお申し込みがまだの方は、この機会にぜひお申し込みください！（参加無料） ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー イベントの詳細はこちらから▷▷ https://www.zohomeetups.com/tokyo2026vol1#/?affl=communityforumpost3 ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

• Where is the scheduled report in New UI?

  Hi Team, Seems there is not such a field in New UI, hence I have to switch to old UI to handle request..

• Building a Simple Raspberry Pi + Keypad IoT PoC with Zoho Flow

  I want to share a simple IoT PoC I recently built that connects a Raspberry Pi to Zoho Flow and Zoho Creator. The goal was to send PIN input data from a hardware keypad to Zoho and trigger a servo and buzzer for visual/audible feedback. This can serve

• What's New in Zoho Billing | January 2026

  Excited about the latest enhancements in Zoho Billing? Our January updates bring an intelligent AI assistant, smarter subscription management, and improved tax compliance, saving you time and reducing manual work. Dive into the details below to see how

• Is there a way to sell in a practical method multiple subscriptions of the same product? i.e. domain names

  In evaluating Zoho Billing, a hurdle to adopting it is that Zoho Billing does not seem designed to support businesses that sell multiple subscriptions of the same product. In our case, we need to sell and manage several domain names per client. Am I right

• Update P_Leave: code: 7052 "Employee_ID": "Enter Employee ID"

  Hi, Zoho People - Update Leaves Can someone assist? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ col = Collection(); col.insert("recordid":id); col.insert("Date_Check_Approval":zoho.currentdate); info zoho.people.update("P_Leave",col.toMap());

• Can't change form's original name in URL

  Hi all, I have been duplicating + editing forms for jobs regarding the same department to maintain formatting + styling. The issue I've not run into is because I've duplicated it from an existing form, the URL doesn't seem to want to update with the new

• Next Page