Unlocking New Levels: Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025
Every year brings its own set of challenges and opportunities to rethink how payroll works across regulations and teams.
In 2025, Zoho Payroll continued to evolve with one clear focus: giving businesses more flexibility, clarity, and control as they grow.
From expanding into new geographies to introducing powerful payroll capabilities and simplifying everyday workflows, this year was about making meaningful progress,one move at a time.
Zoho Payroll's Journey in 2025: A Year of Moves and MilestonesHere’s a look back at the key highlights from Zoho Payroll in 2025.
New Editions
This year marked an important step forward in Zoho Payroll’s journey. We introduced new editions to support businesses operating in different countries, each designed to meet compliance and statutory requirements.
In 2025, we launched Zoho Payroll in the following countries:
- Saudi Arabia
- Oman
- Bahrain
- Kuwait
- Qatar
- Canada
New Features
This year, we introduced several features designed to help you handle complex scenarios with greater ease.
Payroll Processing
1. Multi-State Payrolls (US)
With the multi-state payroll feature, you can onboard employees from different states, pay them all in a single run, and automatically stay compliant with each state’s tax laws. Zoho Payroll supports work locations and employee addresses in all states, automatically applying state-specific tax rules, including reciprocity agreements where applicable.
2. Multiple Pay Rates for Multiple Roles (US)
For employees who perform more than one role (such as working as a customer support representative on weekdays and as a shift supervisor on weekends), you can assign different pay rates for each role. Payroll is calculated based on the hours worked under each role, ensuring accurate and fair compensation.
3. Off-Cycle Payroll (US)
Handle corrections or time-sensitive payouts outside the regular payroll schedule. Off-cycle payroll lets you disburse payments based on a specified pay period without impacting your regular payroll run.
4. Bonus Payroll (US)
Issue bonus payments such as year-end or performance-based payouts outside the regular pay schedule. Bonus payroll does not require a defined pay period, making one-time bonus payments simpler to process.
5. Process Payroll Using Only Time-Off Hours (US)
Process regular payrolls by entering only time-off hours of employees, such as sick leave or vacation, without adding earnings.
6. Yearly Pay Schedule (US)
You can now configure an annual pay schedule for employees who are paid once a year.
7. Formula-Based Earnings for One-Time and Off Cycle Payrolls (IN & GCC)
Use formula-based earning components like Overtime Allowance for one-time payments and off-cycle payrolls when the Pay Type is set to Variable Earning and the Calculation Type is Custom Formula. After creating the payroll, you can manually add employees and enter input values, such as days, hours, or minutes, based on the formula.
Earnings, Benefits & Contributions
1. Variable Earnings Based on % of CTC (India - Early Access)
Calculate variable earnings, such as bonuses, as a percentage of an employee’s CTC. Once created, these earnings can be associated with employees and configured using eligibility-based percentages.
2. Earnings Based on % of CTC Including One-Time Earnings (India - Early Access)
Earnings calculated as a percentage of CTC are now based on the entire Annual CTC, including one-time earnings such as bonuses and one-time payments.
3. Carry Forward & Quarterly Encashment of Reimbursements (India - Early Access)
Carry forward unclaimed reimbursements of your employees and encash them on a quarterly basis. To configure this, go to Settings > Setup & Configurations > Salary Components, select a reimbursement component, and set how unclaimed amounts should be handled.
4. Superannuation Benefits (India)
Superannuation is a retirement fund contributed by employers for their employees. You can now include superannuation as part of employee benefits. To configure this, go to Settings > Setup & Configurations > Salary Components, create or edit a benefit, and enable Consider this a superannuation fund. Once configured, superannuation contributions are included in monthly payroll.
5. Gross Based Salary Support (India and GCC)
Zoho Payroll now allows you to calculate salary starting from the gross amount. You can enter the gross amount first and then distribute it across salary components or add benefits as required. This simplifies salary configurations for gross-based salary structures.
6. Set Up Recurring Scheduled Earnings (India and GCC)
You can now schedule earnings to be paid at regular intervals such as quarterly, half-yearly, annually, or at custom intervals. These recurring earnings can be configured at the organization or employee level and are automatically included in the applicable payroll.
7. Pro-rate Employer & Employee Contributions (GCC)
Calculate employer and employee social security contributions based on the actual number of days employees have worked, allowing for more precise contribution calculations.
Compliance: Taxes and Forms
1. Full Tax Exemptions for Certain Regions (India)
Employees eligible for full income tax exemption under Section 10(26) of the Income Tax Act can now be marked as exempt while creating or editing employee details.
Access Control & Customization
1. Custom Roles (US)
Some users may need full access to Zoho Payroll, while others need limited access based on their role. You can now create custom roles beyond the default options and define exactly what each user can view, create, edit, or delete. For example, a view-only role for financial reporting.
2. Approvals for Pay Runs (US)
Pay run approvals are automatically configured based on user roles and permissions. This ensures every pay run is reviewed before processing.
3. Reporting Tags (US)
Use reporting tags to categorize payroll data with custom labels such as cost centers or work shifts, and filter payroll reports to gain clearer visibility into payroll costs.
4. Audit Trail (India)
The Audit Trail report helps you track all the changes made across your Zoho Payroll organization with timestamps and user details. This is available under Reports > Audit Trail.
New Modules
Along with feature enhancements, we also introduced a new module in 2025 to help businesses manage payroll-related information more efficiently.
Documents Module (US)
The Documents module allows employers to securely store, manage, and organize payroll-related documents in one place.
You can upload employee-specific documents such as ID proofs or offer letters, as well as organization-level files like company policies or compliance records.
New Integrations
WhatsApp Business Integration (India and GCC)
With the WhatsApp Business integration, you can send payroll-related updates and notifications directly to employees through WhatsApp. This helps improve message reach, reduce delays, and keep payroll communication timely and accessible.
Zoho Payouts Integration (India - Early Access)
Zoho Payouts by Zoho Payments lets you deposit salaries directly from Zoho Payroll without logging in to your bank portal. After setting up and verifying your Zoho Payments account, you’ll receive a dedicated payout account to securely fund and process salary payments.
Once enabled, you can initiate payroll payments to multiple employee accounts at once, track transactions, and view payout summaries, all from within Zoho Payroll.
Additional Language Support
As Zoho Payroll expanded into new regions, language accessibility remained a key focus.
In 2025, we introduced:
- Arabic language support for all GCC editions
- French language support for Canada
To switch languages, click your profile icon and select your preferred language from the My Preferences dropdown.
Zoho Payroll also supports bilingual templates for payslips and letter templates, allowing you to present information in more than one language when required.
Beyond the product interface, we’ve also published help documents in these languages.
Other Updates
Alongside major launches and feature updates, we rolled out several smaller yet impactful enhancements throughout 2025 to improve usability, administration, and compliance alignment.
Reminders for Expiring Documents (GCC)
Previously, document expiry reminders could only be triggered for all employee documents, without the ability to narrow them down. You can now choose to trigger document expiry reminders only for specific documents that require tracking, giving you better control over compliance-critical records.
Send Document Expiry Reminders to Payroll Users (GCC)
Document expiry reminders can now be sent not only to employees, but also to Zoho Payroll users, ensuring the right stakeholders are notified on time.
Departments Management (US)
Departments can now be managed from a dedicated settings page. You can create, edit, or delete departments centrally instead of relying only on the employee creation flow.
Mark Organization Tax Details as Applied For (US)
If you’ve applied for your organization’s tax identification details but haven’t received them yet, you can mark the tax fields as Applied For and continue processing pay runs.
Share Screen Recordings with our Support Team (All Editions)
When contacting support, you can now screen-record your issues directly from within Zoho Payroll and share the recording to help our team understand and resolve it faster.
While subtle, these updates play an important role in making everyday payroll tasks smoother.
What's New
While this post highlights the major milestones from 2025, the What’s New page brings all product updates together in one place.
Visit the What’s New pages for:
Looking Ahead
As we move into 2026, our focus remains on expanding coverage, simplifying compliance, and building features that adapt to the real-world needs of growing businesses.
Thank you for being part of Zoho Payroll’s journey. We’re excited about what’s ahead, and the next set of moves still to come.
With a shared purpose,
The Zoho Payroll Team
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