July 2025 Payroll Updates: Smarter, Simpler, More Compliant

July 2025 Payroll Updates: Smarter, Simpler, More Compliant

Over the past month, we've focused on making Zoho Payroll more flexible, compliant, and easier to use—whether you're processing complex payouts, ensuring accurate calculations, or meeting local tax regulations.

Here's what's new:
  • One-Time Payments and Off Cycle Payrolls: Now Support Formula-Based Earnings (India)
  • Earnings Based on % of CTC Now Include One-Time Earnings (India)
  • Authorize Zoho Payroll to File State Taxes on Your Behalf (US)
  • More SIF/Wage File Formats (UAE & KSA)
Plus, stay tuned for a sneak peek at an exciting improvement coming your way next week.

One-Time Payments and Off Cycle Payrolls: Now Support Formula-Based Earnings (India, UAE, KSA)

When processing a one-time payout or an off cycle payroll for employees, you must select a specific earning component, which determines how the payment is calculated.

You can now use formula-based earning components such as Custom Allowance or Overtime Allowance as the earning components in both One-Time Payments and Off Cycle Payrolls, provided the earning component's Pay Type is set to Variable Earning and the Calculation Type is set to Custom Formula.

Since the payout amount is determined by a formula, you're required to provide the necessary input variables used in that formula. These inputs may include days, hours, or minutes, depending on how the formula is defined.

After creating the one-time payout or off cycle payroll entry, you must manually add each employee and enter the appropriate input values, such as the number of days, hours, or minutes worked.



For example:
  • If your formula pays 200 per overtime hour, you must input the number of overtime hours worked for each employee.
  • If your formula is based on days worked for a project, you must enter the relevant number of days for each employee.

Earnings Based on % of CTC Now Include One-Time Earnings (India)

Previously, when fixed earnings such as Basic Pay, HRA, Dearness Allowance, Conveyance Allowance, etc., were set to be calculated as a percentage of CTC, the system used the Fixed CTC as the basis. This Fixed CTC was calculated as Annual CTC – One-Time Earnings.

As a result, only the recurring components of the CTC were considered.

Now, fixed earnings calculated as a percentage of CTC are based on the entire Annual CTC, which includes one-time earnings (such as bonuses or one time payments). This means the earnings derived from percentage calculations will now reflect a higher base value. This change ensures a more consistent and transparent calculation of earnings based on the full value of an employee's Annual CTC, including both recurring and one-time earnings.

Notes
Note: This feature is currently in early access. If you’d like to enable it for your organization, please contact us at support@zohopayroll.com.

Authorize Zoho Payroll to File State Taxes on Your Behalf (US)

Previously, Zoho Payroll could file and pay state payroll taxes on your behalf except for certain departments in the following states:
  • California
  • Colorado 
  • Hawaii
  • Iowa
  • Indiana
  • Massachusetts
  • Minnesota
  • New Mexico
  • North Dakota
  • Oklahoma
  • Pennsylvania
  • Texas
Now, you can authorize Zoho Payroll to handle payroll tax filing and payments for the remaining departments in these states as well. This can be done by granting us Third Party Adminstrator (TPA) Access through the official website or relevant portal of the states listed above. 

To learn how to authorize Zoho Payroll as a third-party access for your state, refer to our TPA setup guide. Once TPA is granted, Zoho Payroll will be able to file and pay state payroll taxes on behalf of your organization.

Other Enhancements

Sharjah Islamic Bank SIF File Format (UAE): If you choose to pay your employees via bank transfer, you can download the SIF file in the Sharjah Islamic Bank supported format from Zoho Payroll. Then, submit it manually to the Wages Protection System (WPS) or through your bank’s website to process the payment.

More Wage File Formats (KSA): If you choose to pay your employees via bank transfer in KSA, you can download the wage file in a format supported by Albilad Bank, AlJazira Bank, or Saudi National Bank from Zoho Payroll. You can then manually submit the file to the Wages Protection System (WPS) or through your bank’s website to process the payment.

Upcoming Change

Later next week, we’re rolling out an improved Settings section in Zoho Payroll. It will feature a cleaner layout, smarter grouping of options, and a built-in search to ensure consistency with other Zoho Finance products.





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

    • Option to Disable Knowledge Base Section in Feedback Widget Popup Hello Zoho Desk Team

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, How are you? We are actively using Zoho Desk and would like to make more use of the Feedback Widget. One of the ways we implement it is through the popup option. At the moment, the popup always displays the Knowledge Base section,
    • Transaction Locking with the dynamic date

      Is it possible to dynamically update dates on transaction locking. We want to lock transaction x days from today
    • Zoho Devops

      We have a Zoho one account which we have integrated with an SAS educational product, sold on a subscription model, using webhooks and API calls. We make some use of custom fields and cross module lookups and relationships. We utilize CRM, Books and billing
    • Fuel up your sales with the Zoho SalesIQ + Bigin integration

      Hi everyone! We’re happy to bring you the all-new Zoho SalesIQ + Bigin integration. With this, every prospect from your website instantly becomes a contact in Bigin, complete with transcripts and follow-up tasks, so you never lose a lead again. Let's
    • Dealing with API responses where integers have more than 16 digits

      Hi there How do I deal with an api response contaning an int or float with more than 16 digits (before any decimal places for a float). I constantly receive the response "Unable to cast the 'BigInteger' value into a 'BIGINT' value because the input is
    • Add a 'Log a Call' link to three dot icon in Canvas

      Hi, There's a three dot element when creating a canvas called 'More'. I would like to modify this to add a link that says 'Log a Call' in order to quickly record the details of a cellphone call. I'd also like this to be a simple 'contact' selection and
    • ZohoSign and ZohoBooks Integration/Workflow

      Hello All, We utilize ZohoSign for signatures on tax eFiles. We utilize Dynamic KBA. Additionally, we use ZohoBooks for invoicing for these services. Is there a way to accomplish the following: Send a copy of the Tax Return, Invoice and eFiles in one
    • Collaps Notes

      There are times when long/large notes are added to a record i.e. Accounts or Deals etc. Currently, the full note is displayed in the notes related list section. It would be great if by default only 5 to 10 rows of the note are displayed when the note
    • Introducing AI-powered Assessments & Zoho's native LLM, Zia

      We’ve shipped a cleaner, faster way to create assessments in Zoho Recruit. 🚀 Instead of manually building question banks or copying old templates, you can now generate ready-to-use assessments in just a few clicks, all tailored to the role you’re hiring
    • Ability to Reset Visitor Fields During an Active Chat Flow

      Hello Zoho SalesIQ Team, We hope you are doing well. We would like to propose a feature enhancement to Zoho SalesIQ regarding the management of visitor fields within Zobot flows. Use Case: Our bot asks the visitor to provide information about a 3rd person
    • The Social Wall: August 2025

      Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.
    • External ID in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone! We know that Zoho CRM allows you to integrate third-party apps and manipulate data through APIs. While you integrate a third-party application, you may want to store the third-party reference IDs in Zoho CRM's records. To meet this need
    • New in Zoho Chat : Search for contacts, files, links & conversations with the all new powerful 'Smart Search' bar.

      With the newly revamped 'Smart Search' bar in Zoho Chat, we have made your search for contacts, chats, files and links super quick and easy using Search Quantifiers.   Search for a contact or specific conversations using quantifiers, such as, from: @user_name - to find chats or channel conversations received from a specific user. to: @user_name - to find chats or channel conversations sent to a specific user. in: #channel_name - to find a particular instance in a channel. in: #chat_name - to find
    • Aggregating the First Value in the Group By of a dataset

      Hi I am trying to get the following Aggregate Formula to work in my chart, but cannot seem to get the right format. I have a series of data that I am running an include_groupby and want to SUM only a column in the first row of each group. So for example.
    • New in Cadences: Option to Resume or Restart follow-ups when re-enrolling records into a Cadence, and specify custom un-enrollment criteria

      Managing follow-ups effectively involves understanding the appropriate timing for reaching out, as well as knowing when to take a break and resume later, or deciding if it's necessary to start the follow-up process anew. With two significant enhancements
    • Is it possible for contacts to "Re-enter" a workflow in Zoho Campaign?

      We are currently working on a way to automatically add users to from one list to other lists based on specific criteria, but can't seem to find a native way of doing this so we are trying to use Workflows to do this. So, for example, if a user's status is set to "Active," then they should be added to the list "Active Users." If the same user's status is then set to "Paused," they should be added to the list "Paused Users" and removed from the list "Active Users." This works fine for the first go
    • Admin Control Over Profile Picture Visibility in Zoho One

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, as per Zoho’s design, each user can manage the visibility of their profile picture from their own Zoho Accounts page: accounts.zoho.com → Personal Information → Profile Picture → Profile Picture
    • How can I track which zoho users are actively using Zoho CRM

      I have several licenses of Zoho CRM. We now need to add a new user. I could purchase a new license, but before I do, I would like to see if any of our existing users are not actively using the license assigned to them. How can I determine the activity
    • Seriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM

      In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiple
    • Track Zoho Campaign and Workflow sales impact

      I am attempting to measure the performance of our marketing workflows and campaigns by comparing the date each campaign was sent to a contact with the purchase date of the contact. For example, if Contact A was sent Email A on 9/1 and made a purchase
    • Zoho / Outlook Calendar sync

      The current Marketplace -> Microsoft -> Meetings integration needs 2 changes. 1. The current language for the Two-Way sync option should be changed. It currently states, "Sync both your Zoho CRM Calendar and Office 365 Calendar meetings with each other."
    • Tables for Europe Datacenter customers?

      It's been over a year now for the launch of Zoho Tables - and still not available für EU DC customers. When will it be available?
    • Field Dependency Not Working on Detail Page in Zoho Desk

      Hi Support Team, I’ve created field dependencies between two fields in Zoho Desk, and they are working correctly on the Create and Edit layouts. However, on the Detail page, the fields are not displaying according to the dependencies I’ve set — they appear
    • What is a line break code for zoho?

      Hi, I am archiving data by adding values from a single line field from one form to a multi-line field in another form. So I need a code/function that starts a new line on that multi-line field so it does not just keep adding it on the same line. Example, doing something like this means that it will be on a same line. archive.field1 = archive.field1 + input.Field1 I need a code so the input.Field1 can just start on the next line. Instead of "value 1, 2,3,4,5" It will be: "1 2 3 4 etc.".  something
    • Automatic Project Owner change

      Is there a way to change Project Owner automatically once a specific Milestone in a project is marked as completed. Different Teams are working on projects in our Org, they have their own Milestones to complete and so we transfer the project from team
    • Button to add product to cart

      Is there a way to have a button on a page, that when clicked, will add Qty 1 of a product to the cart?
    • Problem with Submit Button Design

      I have made a template to apply to my forms and under the button controls, I have it set to "standard" and yet it's still filling the container. This is super frustrating and looks weird. Why do we not have full control over button size? How can I fix
    • Zoho CRM- Authorize your Microsoft Teams account issue

      Hi, I tried to link Zoho CRM with Teams and I got the following message: Clicking "Authorize now" sent me to the following page, Microsoft tried to start a session but, after 3 seconds the page closed and nothing happened. I get the same message each
    • Passing the CRM

      Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I have a zoho form that has a CRM lookup field. I was hoping to send this to my publicly to clients via a text message and the form then attaches the signed form back to the custom module. This work absolutely fine when
    • Is there a way to associate an email in ZOHO Main to a Vendor record in ZOHO CRM

      My situation is as below, I have a vendor in ZOHO CRM lets say "Vend A" and an associated contact, "Cont A" If Cont A sends me an email using the email I've registered in the contact record the standard OOTB email sync will work. But the vendor has some
    • Adding a developer for editing the client application with a single user license

      Hi, I want to know that I as a developer I developed one application and handed over to the customer who is using the application on a single user license. Now after6 months customer came back to me and needs some changes in the application. Can a customer
    • Kaizen #207 - Answering your Questions | Advanced Queries using COQL API

      Hi everyone, and welcome to another Kaizen week! As part of Kaizen #200 milestone, many of you shared topics you would like us to cover, and we have been addressing them one by one over the past few weeks. Today, we are picking up one of those requests
    • Présentation de SecureForms dans Zoho Vault

      Soyons francs : demander à quelqu’un de transmettre un mot de passe ou des informations sensibles n’est jamais une tâche facile. On attend, on relance, parfois de nombreuses fois. Et quand l’information arrive, elle se retrouve souvent dispersée dans
    • Introducing Connected Records to bring business context to every aspect of your work in Zoho CRM for Everyone

      Hello Everyone, We are excited to unveil phase one of a powerful enhancement to CRM for Everyone - Connected Records, available only in CRM's Nextgen UI. With CRM for Everyone, businesses can onboard all customer-facing teams onto the CRM platform to
    • Zoho CRM in Microsoft Power Automate Custom Connector

      Hi everyone, I’m building a Power Automate flow that integrates Microsoft Bookings with Zoho CRM. The goal is to automatically create a meeting (event) in Zoho CRM whenever a new appointment is booked via Microsoft Bookings. To achieve this, I created
    • Granular Email Forwarding Controls in Zoho Mail (Admin Console and Zoho One)

      Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? At present, the Zoho Mail Admin Console allows administrators to configure email forwarding for an entire mailbox, forwarding all incoming emails to another address. This is helpful for delegation or backup purposes,
    • Sales order & purchase order item links for item details

      This is fantastic for checking lots of things, I use it a lot. It would be great to see it extended to invoices & bills On another note, may as well throw in my favourite whinge ..... Wish you guys would get the PO receive differences sorted urgently,
    • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

      Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if
    • Problem with Email an invoice with multiple attachments using API

      I have an invoice with 3 attachments. When I send an email manually using the UI, everything works correctly. I receive an email with three attachments. The problem occurs when I try to initiate sending an email using the API. The email comes with only
    • Zoho Workdrive - Communication / Chat Bar

      Hi Team, Please consider adding an option to allow admins to turn on or off the Zoho Communication Bar. Example of what I mean by Communication Bar: It's such a pain sometimes when I'm in WorkDrive and I want to share a link to a file with a colleague
    • Next Page