At Zoho Payroll, our commitment goes beyond providing software—it’s about empowering you to focus on what truly drives your business: your people.
This August, we are delighted to introduce a set of updates for our users in India and the UAE, that not only refine payroll processes but also bring more clarity and ease to your daily tasks. From personalised earning calculations to secure handling of employee data, we are dedicated to supporting you every step of the way.
Join us as we dive deeper into these enhancements and discover how Zoho Payroll continues to evolve, keeping your needs at the forefront of our efforts.
Calculate Earnings Based on Percentage of CTC (India - Early Access)
At Zoho Payroll, we understand the complexities you face in managing diverse compensation packages of your employees. To simplify this, we’ve expanded the options we provide for you to calculate the fixed earnings of your employees. Now, you can calculate earnings based on a percentage of the CTC (Cost to Company).

Note: Earnings based on a percentage of CTC can only be calculated for fixed earnings, not variable earnings.
This feature is perfect for scenarios where employees have various allowances and incentives tied to their total compensation.
To do this, go to Settings, select Salary Components, choose an Earning, and set the calculation based on CTC. When you preview an employee’s salary, the calculated values are displayed, offering complete clarity. This ensures fair, transparent, and easy-to-manage compensation.
Calculate Earnings Based on Percentage of Other Earnings (India, UAE - Early Access)
For our users in India and the UAE, we’ve provided the ability to calculate fixed earnings based on other earnings.

Note: Earnings based on a percentage of other earnings can only be calculated for fixed earnings, not variable earnings.

Scenario: Think of Jalal, an employee in the UAE, whose earnings are based on various performance metrics. With the enhanced feature, you can now set his earnings to be a percentage of his bonuses or other performance-based earnings.
To set this up, go to Settings, select Salary Components, choose an Earning, and set the calculation based on earnings.Once these earnings are associated with an employee, you’ll be able to preview the calculation used to derive the earnings. This ensures fair, transparent, and easy-to-manage compensation.

Sample Formula:
Let's take the example of formula used to calculate the Travel Allownce earning below.
Transportation Allowance=(Basic Amount+Travelling Allowance Amount) × 8%
Explanation: In this case, the other earning that was used to calulcate the Travel Allowance earning is the Basic. The Transportation Allowance is calculated as 8% of the sum of the employee's Basic Amount and Travelling Allowance Amount.
Custom Field Support for Loans Module
We’ve introduced custom field support for the Loans module, giving you the flexibility to capture additional loan details that are not available by default in Zoho Payroll.
With this feature, you can now create and configure custom fields for loans, ensuring that every piece of critical information is recorded accurately. Whether you need to track specific notes, collateral details, or unique repayment conditions, custom fields allow you to personalize loan records like never before.
Setting up a custom field for loans is simple:
- Navigate to Settings and select Preferences.
- Go to Loans and choose Custom Field and configure it to fit your needs.
Loans - Custom FieldsOther Enhancements in UAE
Passport Number in Letter Templates
We have introduced the option to include passport numbers as placeholders in various letter templates, such as Salary Certificates, Salary Revision Certificates, Bonus Letters, and Salary Transfer Letters. By including passport numbers, you enhance the authenticity and compliance of your official documents.
To add the passport number to a salary certificate:
- Navigate to Settings > Templates > Salary Certificate > Edit.
- Click Manage Content, then select Insert Placeholders and choose Passport Number.
AL-Ansari Exchange House - SIF Format
We now support the AL-Ansari Exchange House SIF format, a standardised file format for salary information files used by AL-Ansari Exchange House in the UAE. This format simplifies payroll processing by ensuring that salary disbursement data is accurate and compliant with banking regulations.
Enhancements in India
Allow Restricted Type EPF Contribution for Variable Earnings (Early Access)
We now allow variable earnings to be considered for EPF contributions, specifically when the PF Wage is less than ₹15,000.
In many organizations, employees have variable components in their salary, such as bonuses, incentives, or overtime pay. Previously, these variable earnings were not considered for EPF contributions, which could limit the retirement benefits for employees earning less than ₹15,000 in PF wges. By allowing these earnings to be included, we ensure that employees' retirement savings are more comprehensive and reflective of their total income.
Include Conveyance Allowance in New Tax Regime
Conveyance allowances, which are typically provided to employees to cover travel expenses from home to the workplace, can now be included in the new tax regime calculations. This update ensures accurate tax deductions and helps employees benefit from tax exemptions on their travel allowances.
That's all for now!
We're always eager to hear your feedback and suggestions. If you have any feature requests, please share them in the comments below. For assistance, contact us at support@zohopayroll.com.
Stay tuned for more updates from Zoho Payroll!
With a shared purpose,
The Zoho Payroll Team
Recent Topics
Connecting Portals from different Zoho apps
Hi, I note that Zoho has functionality for customer portals for several of the Zoho apps, like CRM, Projects, Desk etc. Is there any way to connect these portals? It would be great if we could give our customers access to a portal in which they could
Not able to item an item to non taxable via api, despite sending is_taxable as false
Hi everyone, I'm trying to update an item via books api and even when sending is_taxable as false, the item still shows Taxable in zoho, I get no errors as well when I update, any help appreciated in this!
Collection & Payment Mapping Automation
We book Sales Invoices and Purchase Invoices against Same Projects. Both Sales Invoices & Purchase Invoices can have one or multiple Projects mentioning the Project ID. We prefer to Make vendor Payments Once we have received The Collections from Clients
Nested Sub-forms (Subform within subform)
Hi Team, Whether there is any possibilities to add sub-form with in another sub-form like Main Form -> Sub form A ->Sub form B If we tried this, only one level of sub form only working. Any one having any idea about this? Thanks Selvamuthukumar R
Restore Trashed Records Anytime Within 30 Days
Access the recycle bin from the Data Administration tab under the settings page in Zoho Projects, which gives better control over the trashed data. When records like projects, phases, task lists, tasks, issues, or project templates are trashed, they are
Avoiding Inventory Duplication When Creating Bills for Previously Added Stock
I had created several items in Zoho Books and manually added their initial stock at the time of item creation. However, I did not record the purchase cost against those items during that process. Now, I would like to create Purchase Orders and convert
Applying EUR Payments to USD Invoices in Zoho Books
Hello, I have a customer to whom I issue invoices in USD. However, this customer makes payments in both EUR and USD. I have already enabled the multi-currency feature in Zoho Books Elite, but I am facing an issue: When the customer makes a payment in
How to prevent users from editing mail merge templates from Zoho crm
We want users to use public mail merge templates. They should not be able to edit templates but only preview data merge and send emails. We did prohibit "manage mail merge template" in the user profile. But they can still edit the template in the zoho
Customer Addresses cannot be edited/deleted in invoices
In the invoices we have an option to change the customer address and add a new address Now I dont know why for some reason if we add an address through this field, the address doesn't appear in the customer module We cannot delete the addresses added
Custom Fields connected to Invoices, Customers, Quotes, CRM
I created the exact same custom fields in Books: Invoices, Customer, Quotes, and in CRM but they don't seem to have a relationship to one another. How do I connect these fields so that the data is mapped across transactions?
Accelerate Github code reviews with Zoho Cliq Platform's link handlers
Code reviews are critical, and they can get buried in conversations or lost when using multiple tools. With the Cliq Platform's link handlers, let's transform shared Github pull request links into interactive, real-time code reviews on channels. Share
Heads up: We're going to update the VAT Summary table's visibility (UK and Germany Editions)
Hello users, Note: This change only applies to organisations using the UK and Germany editions of Zoho Books. Currently, if you've enabled the VAT Summary table in a template, it will be displayed only in PDFs sent to your customers whose default currency
Partial payment invoicing
Greetings I have questions related to payments and retainer invoices: 1. When I want to issue a partial payment invoice, I can't specify the portion to be paid or already paid, then balance to be shown as Due. 2. Retainer invoice is only available as
Inputting VAT Pre-Registration expenses for first VAT Return
Hi Zoho, I've just registered for VAT and am setting up Zoho to handle calculations and VAT return submissions. I'm struggling to figure out how to input the last 4 years worth of expenses into Zoho so that they're calculated in the VAT module. When I
Anyone else experiencing very slow loading of pages in Zoho Projects?
I reported this yesterday only to be told there are no issues but is anyone else experiencing stupidly slow loading of pages. On our loading screen, it is taking often as long as 60 seconds to load a page and just stays on this screen for ages! Other
Zoho Desk Lookup Field Reporting
Thank you for adding the ability to add additional lookup fields for desk tickets. My question is how do you report against these fields? For example: Associating related accounts to the primary desk ticket account, I am not able to add the lookup fields
Integrating asana will cause notification messages to pop up continuously
When I create or edit a task in Asana, the Asana bot keeps updating messages to group chat, which causes the cliq to keep popping up notifications.
Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk
Hi, Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk to zoho projects?
Entire notebook that had notes has disappeared
I don't know how tf this happened. All I did was uninstall and reinstall the mobile app after fixing a bug I had. After I reinstalled the app, everything was synced back except for one folder which had a bunch of notes in it. None of those notes are in
My site has disappeared from web builder
www.mproperties.uk My site above is still working. However it has completely disappeared from my Zoho sites' web builder. I am therefore unable to edit my site whatsoever. Please help.
Kaizen #147 - Frequently Asked Questions on Zoho CRM Widgets
Heya! It's Kaizen time again, folks! This week, we aim to address common queries about Zoho CRM Widgets through frequently asked questions from our developer forum. Take a quick glance at these FAQs and learn from your peers' inquiries. 1. Where can I
Trying to trigger email notification based on rollup summary field
Hi there, I'm trying to trigger an email notification via Workflow Rules wherever the rollup summary field "Total Shipments" goes from empty to not empty. However this field is not available from the picklist of options in the Workflow rule. Can anyone
zia data enrichment - switch to webamigo Extension
Hello, I have so far used data enrichment via Zia. Now I have installed the Webamigo extension to expand personal data. Unfortunately, nothing has changed after the installation; are there any additional steps needed to switch from the previous method
Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM
Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile
Export Timeline
With the new Timeline features, it would be really helpful to have the option to export a timeline. When handling customer complaints, having the full breakdown of everything that happens on a module is great but we usually have to send this to another
Interactions Tab in Zoho CRM: A 360° Omnichannel View of Every Customer Touchpoint
Hello Everyone, Hope you are well! We are here today with yet another announcement in our series for the revamped Zoho CRM. Today, we introduce Interactions Tab a new way to view all customer interactions from one place inside your CRM account. Customers
How to resubscribe a contact marked as "Unsubscribed (Marked by Recipient)" without using a form?
Hello, I have a question regarding Zoho Marketing Automation functionality. Is there a way for an administrator to change the subscription status of a contact marked as "Unsubscribed (Marked by Recipient)" back to "Subscribed" without using a form? Ideally,
Linkedin: when Zoho Social is going serious with it?
Hi, it's been said in the past that Linkedin related features in Zoho Social were well behind those of other social networks because of limitations imposed by the platform. Now that we see around my tools (take taplio.com) frankly outpacing ZSocial on
5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ(7/24)
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの藤澤です。 7月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 2ヶ月ぶりに、渋谷にて「リアル開催」します! ▷▷詳細はこちら:https://www.zohomeetups.com/20250724Zoho ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは? Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「Zoho ワークアウト」を開催します。 Zoho サービスで完了させたい設定やカスタマイズ、環境の整備など……各自で決めた目標達成に向け、
How to get fields centered in a form?
Is it possible to center fields in a form? Some of my forms do some don't and it is really not aestheticly pleasing? Any help would be greatly appricated. Thanks, Michael McNeill
Make Packages from multiple sales order of a single customer
Our customers sends orders to us very frequently, some times what customer wants is to ship items from 5 to 6 sales orders in a single shipment. it will be very nice if, zoho can implement this function, in which we can select items from other sales orders of the customer.
Webhooks and Integration
Hey, I was looking to create automation using webhooks or something equivalent of a trigger based mechanism, to connect it as an integration. But I don't find any relevant APIs to setup these webhooks/notifcations for the "Zoho Books". Can anyone please
Zoho Books X Zoho Expense
Hello there, Please can you tell me if it is possible to sync from Books to Expense? I much prefer the Expense reports to that of Books and the Credit Card feeds work via expense and not Books for me. However I find books is much better to deal with the
ABILITY TO LOG INTO CUSTOMER PORTAL
I think it would be very helpful to have a button in Zoho Books to be able to see the customer portal so we can see what they see to help them navigate through the portal. Many times, the customer will call about the portal, but without visibility into
Sort, filter & save views for BOOKS PROJECTS
Thanks for all the updates. Our firm uses the module for simple internal project accountancy. This means we do everything from the Projects Section but this isn't user friendly at all. You can't do anything with customized your own fields which basically
edit input format in custom field - sales order
hi, I want to integrate a custom field (multi line text box) in our sales order. It needs to show upper case and lower case letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens and "/". What do I need to put in the custom format to configure these signs? Thanks, Tina
This transaction type cannot be matched with a line on the statement.
When using the books API https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/banktransactions/uncategorized/${transaction.transaction_id}/match I get this error "This transaction type cannot be matched with a line on the statement." What I'm doing is for the uncategorized
Full Text Customization & Translation in SalesIQ Chat Widget Settings
Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, Greetings, We would like to request an important enhancement to the chat widget customization options in Zoho SalesIQ. Current Limitation: At the moment, only some of the text shown in the chat widget is editable or translatable
Power of Automation :: Quick way to associate your Projects with Zoho CRM
A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate complex tasks and
Timesheets
I wanted to create the timesheets remainder for our team mates who miss out the weekly timesheet entries. While creating the email templates, I couldn't see anything related to timesheets. Since it shows projects Can you help me find and build a one
Next Page