Zoho Payroll: Product Updates - H1, 2026

Zoho Payroll: Product Updates - H1, 2026

Over the last few months, Zoho Payroll has added updates that make payroll easier to process, review, explain, and manage for businesses. The most important improvements focus on payroll flexibility, gratuity tracking, employee self-service, reporting, regional language support, and payment workflows.

Here's a look at everything that's new:
  1. More precise payroll reporting with Advanced Reporting Tags
  2. Manage payroll by Pay Groups (India, GCC)
  3. Manage contractors in payroll (India)
  4. Support leave salary requests in advance (GCC)
  5. Connect Zoho Payroll with Zoho Analytics (GCC)
  6. Record gratuity accruals in Zoho Books (GCC)
  7. Approve loans with gratuity-based eligibility (GCC)
  8. View a clearer audit trail (GCC)
  9. Use Arabic across payroll and employee documents (GCC)
  10. Import unpaid leaves for gratuity calculation (GCC)
  11. Calculate one-time deductions based on custom formula (India, GCC)
  12. Import previous salary revision history (India, GCC)
  13. Give employees quicker payroll answers with Ask Zia (India, US)
  14. Review negative net pay before approving payroll (India)
  15. Approve eligible direct deposit pay runs closer to payday (US)
  16. Customize semi-monthly pay periods (US)
  17. Edit overtime and double time hours during pay runs (US)
  18. View detailed employee pay summaries (US)
  19. Download pay stubs in bulk (US)
  20. Other enhancements

More precise payroll reporting with Advanced Reporting Tags  

Reporting tags let you classify payroll costs by categories like region, department, or business unit. With standard reporting tags, all options are presented as a flat list, and any option can be selected regardless of other choices made.

Advanced Reporting Tags take this further by letting you structure options in a hierarchy. You can set up tags so that each selection filters what appears next. For example, selecting India as a region can limit the next field to only Indian cities, and selecting a city can then show only the departments within it.

This keeps tagging consistent across your team and ensures payroll costs are always classified in a way that reflects how your organization is actually structured. Reports become easier to filter, segment, and analyse as a result.



Manage payroll by Pay Groups (India, GCC)

Payroll inputs are not always ready for the entire organization at the same time. Attendance may be complete for one location, loss of pay may still be under review for another department, and a specific employee group may have pending inputs while the rest of the organization is ready for payroll.

Pay Groups help payroll teams process payroll separately for specific employees within the same pay schedule. Employees can be grouped by work location, department, employee type, or reporting tag. Once a group’s inputs are ready, payroll can be processed for that group without waiting for every other group to be finalized.

This is useful for organizations where payroll readiness varies across work locations, or departments. It helps payroll teams avoid delaying everyone because one group’s inputs are still pending.



Manage contractors in payroll  (India)

Organizations that work with contractors often need to manage details such as contract terms, pay rate, TDS, payment method, and portal access. Zoho Payroll now lets organizations add and manage contractors along with employees. Contractor profiles can also be synced from Zoho People.

This helps payroll teams maintain contractor details in one place and process payments with the information needed for accurate deductions and records.





Support leave salary requests in advance  (GCC)

Leave salary is the salary paid to an employee during their approved leave period, typically for annual leave. Employees in GCC organizations receive their leave salary before the leave begins so they have access to their salary while on vacation. Zoho Payroll now lets employees request leave salary in advance through the Employee Portal.

Admins can review and approve the request in Zoho Payroll. Once approved, the leave salary can be processed through a regular or off-cycle pay run. Zoho Payroll also adjusts the employee’s salary in the actual leave month so the same leave days are not paid twice. This helps employees receive leave salary when they need it while keeping the later payroll calculation accurate.





Connect Zoho Payroll with Zoho Analytics  (GCC)

Payroll data becomes more useful when teams can analyze it beyond standard reports. You can now connect Zoho Payroll with Zoho Analytics to create custom reports and dashboards. Teams can use this to review payroll trends, study patterns, and bring payroll insights using advanced analytical tools. This is useful for payroll, finance, and leadership teams that need advanced visibility into payroll costs and workforce-related changes.






Record gratuity accruals in Zoho Books  (GCC)

Gratuity is usually paid when an employee exits, but the obligation accrues throughout the employee’s service. When that liability is not tracked in a dedicated account, finance teams may have less visibility into future end-of-service costs.

Zoho Payroll can now calculate the gratuity accrued during each pay run and records it as journal entries in Zoho Books. Organizations can select the gratuity expense and liability accounts to be used, and Zoho Payroll posts the accrual after every approved pay run. This helps organizations stay better prepared for end-of-service settlements instead of treating gratuity only as an exit-time calculation.




Approve loans with gratuity-based eligibility  (GCC)

Zoho Payroll now shows an employee’s eligible loan amount while creating a loan. The amount is calculated based on the employee’s accrued gratuity, after considering any outstanding or already approved loans. This gives admins better context before approving a loan request and helps them understand how much the employee is eligible to borrow.



View a clearer audit trail  (GCC)

Payroll and employee records can change over time. When they do, teams need a clear way to understand what changed. Zoho Payroll now lets admins view different versions of an activity log and compare them. Admins can select two versions and see what was added, modified, or removed. This gives payroll teams better visibility into important updates and makes change review easier.




Use Arabic across payroll and employee documents  (GCC)

Zoho Payroll and the Employee Portal are now available in Arabic. Admins can use Zoho Payroll in Arabic or English, and they can set a preferred language for each employee. Payslips and salary letters can also be generated and sent in both English and Arabic. This helps employees receive important payroll documents in a language format that is easier to read and understand. For GCC organizations with Arabic-speaking admins and employees, this makes the payroll experience more accessible and better suited to daily use.

Import unpaid leaves for gratuity calculation (GCC)

Zoho Payroll now lets admins import unpaid leave details for gratuity-eligible employees while processing a bulk final settlement pay run. During import, admins can map the unpaid leave field, and Zoho Payroll uses those details for gratuity calculation. This helps teams process final settlements in bulk with the leave data needed for gratuity calculations.

Calculate One-Time Deductions based on Custom Formula (IN, GCC)

Custom formulas for salary components already let you calculate earnings using variables. You can build formulas that reference specific components and functions to arrive at the right payout. This is now available for one-time deductions as well, giving you the same flexibility on the deductions side as you have for earnings.
 
To set this up, go to Settings > Salary Components, add a new deduction, set the deduction frequency to One-time, and select Custom Formula as the calculation type.

Info
If you want to try this feature, write to us at support@zohopayroll.com and we'll enable it for you right away.





Import previous salary revision history (India, GCC)

Zoho Payroll now lets admins import previous salary revision history in early access. Admins can choose the year from which they want to import salary history, upload revision details, and maintain a more complete salary record in each employee’s profile. This is useful for organizations that are moving historical payroll data into Zoho Payroll and want employee salary records to include past changes.




Give employees quicker payroll answers with Ask Zia, your AI assistant  (India, US)

Employees often contact HR or payroll teams for routine questions about payslips, leave balances, or other information already available in the Employee Portal.
Ask Zia is Zoho's AI assistant, now available in the Employee Portal. Employees can ask payroll-related questions in plain language and get quick answers based on the information available to them, without having to wait for a response from HR or payroll teams.


Review negative net pay before approving payroll  (India)

Negative net pay needs careful review because it may involve deductions, adjustments, or other pay run changes that exceed an employee’s earnings for the period. Zoho Payroll now gives admins a consent step before approving regular pay runs that include employees with negative net pay. Zoho Payroll lists the affected employees and lets admins review and acknowledge their pay details before approval. This helps admins proceed with pay runs only after reviewing cases that need extra attention.

Approve eligible direct deposit pay runs closer to payday  (US)

If you miss the original approval deadline for an eligible direct deposit pay run, Zoho Payroll will show the available options in the Pending Tasks banner. You can purchase the Next Day Processing Addon to approve the pay run just one business day before the pay date, or switch employees to check payments based on the processing window.  This helps you process payroll at the last minute and pay employees on time without changing the pay date.


Customize semi-monthly pay periods (US)

Not every organization that pays twice a month follows the standard 1–15 and 16–end-of-month cycle. Zoho Payroll now lets US organizations customize semi-monthly pay periods. Admins can choose the start date of the first pay period, and Zoho Payroll automatically calculates the remaining pay period dates. This helps pay schedules match the organization’s actual payroll cycle instead of forcing teams into a standard date structure.



Edit overtime and double time hours during pay runs (US)

Payroll teams sometimes need to correct overtime or double time hours before finalizing payroll. Zoho Payroll now lets admins edit an employee’s overtime and double time hours while processing a pay run. Admins can open the employee’s payroll details in the pay run and override the hours when needed. This helps teams make corrections inside the pay run flow before payroll is finalized.


View detailed employee pay summaries (US)

The detailed Employee Pay Summary report gives admins a pay-period-wise breakdown of each employee’s payroll data. It includes earnings, benefits, time off, taxes, deductions, and net pay.
This makes employee pay details easier to review, explain, and verify across payroll cycles.


Download pay stubs in bulk  (US, CA)

Zoho Payroll now lets admins download pay stubs for multiple employees at once from the Pay Run page. Admins can choose employees based on their portal status, generate the pay stubs, and download them once they are ready. This makes payroll document handling faster for teams that need to access many pay stub records after a pay run.

Other Enhancements

  1. Employees can now download recent payslips through the WhatsApp Payroll Bot. Payslips are shared as password-protected PDF files with a password hint. (India, GCC)
  2. Organizations can now create scheduled earnings with a biennial frequency. This helps automate earnings that are paid once every two years. (India, GCC)
  3. Organizations can now connect Zoho Payroll with Zoho Practice to collaborate with your accountant or practice team directly from Zoho Payroll. Once connected, a dedicated My Accountant tab will be available to manage client requests and continue payroll-related discussions in one place. (India, GCC)
  4. Organizations can now process off-cycle payroll for employees with an annual pay period. (US)
  5. Admins can now select applicable tax exemptions for employees directly in Zoho Payroll. If employees claim exemptions while completing authorization in the Employee Portal, their selections are synced automatically. (US)

That's a wrap for now! We are always eager to hear your suggestions so we can help you do payroll better. Feel free to share them in the comments below. If you need any assistance, please write to us at support@zohopayroll.com, and we'll help you. Stay tuned for more updates from Zoho Payroll.

With a shared purpose,
The Zoho Payroll Team



      • Sticky Posts

      • Zoho Payroll | Quarterly Product Updates For 2024

        As we navigate through the ever-changing payroll landscape, we bring you the latest updates that span the first quarter of 2024, tailored to meet the diverse needs of employers and employees in India, the UAE, and the US. From useful integrations to refined

      • Introducing Academy 🎉: your go-to hub for all things payroll

        Hello! We're thrilled to launch our newest payroll resource hub - Academy by Zoho Payroll [for India] - the information repository where you can go to learn everything about payroll. Introducing Academy by Zoho Payroll Why did we build Academy? Payroll

        • Recent Topics

        • 【続々公開】Zoholics Japan 2026 セッション情報を更新しました！

          ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは！ Zoholics Japan 2026のセッション情報を続々と公開しています！ 今年は3つのトラックで、Zohoの最新情報やAI活用、製品アップデート、 活用事例など、多彩なセッションをお届けします。 現在公開中のセッション（一部） ・Zoho CRM 製品アップデート ・Zoho CRM Plus 製品アップデート ・Zoho Community セッション ・Zoho Desk セッション ・中堅・成長企業の人事DX ～AI時代に何から始めるべきか？～ ・Zoho

        • Zoho CRM Community Digest - July 2026 | Part 1

          Hello everyone, July is here! The first two weeks brought six CRM updates ranging from privacy-ready webforms to a significantly more powerful Layout Rules engine, two community wins worth a look (a dashboard workaround for spotting leads with no activities,

        • New Ways to Personalize, Organize, and Share Your Notes

          We're excited to introduce a new set of enhancements in Zoho Notebook that make your note-taking experience cleaner, more flexible, and easier to share. With this update, you can create notes that automatically adapt to your device theme, browse your

        • SPAM (and some other) folders missing on three of my Zoho Mail accounts

          I have four email accounts with Zoho Mail. Three days ago, the Spam folder on three of these accounts vanished. It is gone on the Windows and Linux desktops as well as the web-based and Android versions, and I have tried it on multiple machines. The only

        • Zoho Commerce B2B

          Hello, I have signed up for a Zoho Commerce B2B product demo but it's not clear to me how the B2B experience would look for my customers, in a couple of ways. 1) Some of my customers are on terms and some pay upfront with credit card. How do I hide/show

        • Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

          Greetings all, One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived! Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which

        • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

          Moderation Update: During the initial release of Rich Text fields, it was supported only in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions. We have gradually extended Rich Text fields to all the paid editions of Zoho CRM. Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce

        • Add Large Lists to Choice-Based Field Rules

          Hi, The new Large List is good, but you can't then use the Choice-Based Field Rules with it to limit the Group Choices or Choices? Thanks Dan

        • Email-Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics

          Hello, Enterprise Support Community! We're excited to announce the availability of Email Data Synchronization with Zoho Analytics! This highly requested enhancement allows you to sync email data from Zoho CRM into Zoho Analytics, making it easier to analyze

        • Zoho - shopify sales order - invoicing

          we have integrated zoho with shopify. so now , when an order comes through shopify-it raises a sales order in zoho. And at this time- the inventory goes down in shopify, according to the sale. Then we manually convert the sales order to an invoice, and

        • Enable Replenishments Option not Available

          I'm looking to turn on the replenishment option in Zoho Inventory and I'm not finding settings for it in Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory. This is the tutorial I was following from Zoho. Is there a step I'm missing to have Replenishments be available in Zoho

        • Kiosk Page Refresh

          We have a Kiosk running from a button in contacts to update values and also add related lists, which works great, but when the kiosk is finished the page does not refresh to show the changes. Is there a way to force the contact to refresh/update when

        • [Solution] Analyze, Act and Automate with Drill Actions

          Insights create value only when they lead to action. Traditional dashboards excel at helping you understand what is happening, but acting on those insights often requires manual intervention leaving the dashboard, opening another application, finding

        • Building extensions #6: Handling modal boxes to enhance user experience

          In our previous post, we explored creating custom graphical user interfaces using widgets. In this post, we'll learn about enhancing user experience through modal boxes. What is a modal box, and where is it used? A modal box is essentially a widget interface

        • Improve User Onboarding in Zoho Projects with Zoho DAP

          Rolling out new processes or onboarding new users in the tool comes with a familiar challenge: the employees need guidance at the moment they are doing the work. Traditional training sessions and knowledge sharing often require users to leave the application.

        • Zoho Social API for generating draft posts from a third-party app ?

          Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have a question regarding Zoho Social. I am developing an application that generates social media posts, and I would like to be able to incorporate a feature that allows saving these posts as drafts in Zoho Social.

        • Your CRO data is now on your AI Assistant: PageSense is live on Zoho MCP

          Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho PageSense is now live on Zoho MCP servers. Here is what that means for you. Every answer about your website lives behind tons of data across different modules. Which test is winning. Where visitors bail.

        • Feature Enhancement Request – Bulk Download of Signed Documents in Zoho Sign

          Hi Team, We would like to request a Bulk Download feature for signed documents in Zoho Sign. Currently, Zoho Sign allows users to send documents in bulk using an Excel sheet, but there is no option to download the completed signed documents in bulk. Users

        • delete a user on Zoho Desk

          Kindly I Need help to delete a user on Zoho Desk but I deactivated but not deactivated with licenses so what can I Do?

        • Unable to open Attendance Regularization request, reason?

          Unable to open Attendance Regularization request.

        • What's New in Zoho Inventory | June 2026

          Hello users, June 2026 introduces a range of exciting enhancements to Zoho Inventory. With the full rollout of the Zoho Inventory Windows application, the launch of Terminal Payments, and new tracking combinations in Advanced Inventory Tracking, you can

        • Tax/Vat Number Field As Standard - Customer & Vendor

          Hello, when are you'll going to have the customer & vendor tax/vat number as a standard field under the relevant profile pages? I find it strange that after 6 years of using Zoho Inventory that I still have to use a custom field for a tax/vat number,

        • Zoho CRM - Feature Request - Conditional Lead Conversion

          Hi CRM team, My feature request is to allow admins to create some conversion logic in the Lead Conversion settings. It is a common case where we want to convert a Lead to a Commercial or Residential Deal layout. Layout rules are not ideal because the

        • Zoho CRM Approval Process based on Field Update

          Hello, In current structure, Zoho CRM send records to approval based on record creation and edit.  I think, it should be to set approval process trigger based on any field update in record. When the user update any field, the record can assign to approval

        • Free webinar: Automate signature workflows with Zoho Sign and Zoho WorkDrive

          Hi there! Are you still storing and managing physical paperwork before and after signing? This traditional method is bulky, costly, and impractical at scale. Attend our free webinar to learn how you can connect Zoho Sign, our digital signature app, with

        • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

          When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.

        • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

          Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,

        • Leave request problem on mobile phones

          Hello, When any employee attempts to submit a leave request on an Android or iOS phone, the error shown in the attachment appears. How can we solve this problem?

        • [Webinar] Digitizing forms and form-based workflows

          Live webinar on August 13, 2026 | Time: 2 PM IST | 2 PM EDT Hi, Struggling with paper forms, manual data entry, disconnected approvals, and form data that never reaches the apps that need it? Join our live webinar to learn how Zoho Writer's fillable templates

        • Multi-currency and Products

          One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There

        • Price Book in foreign currency

          We have many customers who buy in foreign currency (USD), where our base currency is our local currency (AUD). It would be normal (it is in Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory etc.) to assign a currency to a price book, but I cannot find this option in Zoho CRM

        • Assign Price Book to Accounts (again!)

          I can see this topic has been bumping about for over 10 years and unfortunately Zoho hasn't seen the need (or use case) in CRM to be able to assign an account to a price book to automate quoting (amongst other things). Strange given they DO assign price

        • Remove "Subject" as a required field on quotations

          Not sure why, but Zoho has made 'Subject' a system defined required field. I'm not entirely sure why subject would be required as a key field (i.e. you cannot deactivate it or change it from required). It doesn't make much sense on many product quotations,

        • Approve records efficiently: Useful enhancements to My Jobs module and Approval process in Zoho CRM

          Dear Customers, As you might know, approval process is a process automation tool that allows you to automate approvals in your organization and My Jobs is where you approve requests from a single point of view. Here's how you'd go about it: You’d add

        • Text/SMS With Zoho Desk

          Hi Guys- Considering using SMS to get faster responses from customers that we are helping.  Have a bunch of questions; 1) Which provider is better ClickaTell or Screen Magic.  Screen Magic seems easier to setup, but appears to be 2x as expensive for United States.  I cannot find the sender id for Clickatell to even complete the configuration. 2) Can customer's reply to text messages?  If so are responses linked back to the zoho ticket?  If not, how are you handling this, a simple "DO NOT REPLY" as

        • Need complete Zoho Commerce theme ZIP example and safe staging workflow

          I want to build a complete custom Zoho Commerce storefront through Edit Code, including: • Global header and footer • Responsive homepage • Category, search and filter pages • Product cards and product-detail pages • Cart and checkout wrapper • Mobile

        • Add Support to Upload Inventory Items with Categories or Enable Separate Upload for Inventory Categories

          Currently, Zoho Inventory does not support uploading new items along with their parent and sub inventory categories using the item import feature. This creates challenges for businesses with structured inventory hierarchies when trying to upload items

        • i need active of my whatsapp business number in zoho

          i am waiting from 3 days for active of my whatsapp business account in crm ,its too late to configure.its just showing account details i can't able to know its connected or not anything else

        • Sub-Form Padding in CSV Export

          Hi, When you use the Sub-Form, and for example you have a Date Field on the Main Page, then Option 1 and Option 2 fields on the Subform, when you export this to CSV the Date column will only have the Date in 1 row, the first row, it would be nice to pad

        • Integrate your Outlook/ Office 365 inbox with Zoho CRM via Graph API

          Hello folks, In addition to the existing IMAP and POP options, you can now integrate your Outlook/Office 365 inbox with Zoho CRM via Graph API. Why did we add this option? Microsoft Graph API offers a single endpoint to access data from across Microsoft’s

        • Next Page