What's New in Zoho Payroll 2022 (India)

We are thrilled to bring you all the updates that we were working on over the past months. We have enhanced Zoho Payroll to be intuitive and easy to use so that both employers and employees have a great payroll experience. Here are the significant updates we've brought to Zoho Payroll:

HSBC Direct Deposit

If your organisation has an HSBC corporate account, you can now directly integrate it with Zoho Payroll and deposit salaries directly into your employee bank accounts.

Once you approve the pay run for a particular period, you can initiate the salary payment via HSBC. After the payment is authorized, salaries are transferred to employees immediately. Learn More

Note: NEFT will be the default payment mode for the payments initiated from Zoho Payroll using the HSBC integration. If payments are initiated during non-business hours, the payments will be processed only on the next business day.

Here's a quick video that will walk you through the HSBC Direct Deposit integration.

HSBC integration

Add Non-Employee as Tax Deductor

You can now add a person who is not your employee, such as a third-party accountant or auditor, as a Tax Deductor in Zoho Payroll. The tax deductor will be responsible for remitting your tax to the government. Additionally, you will have to provide details such as the Deductor's name and designation.

To add the tax deductor, go to Settings > Taxes > Select Non-Employee as Tax Deductor.

Adding Non-Employee as Tax Deductor

User Permissions for Approvals

Configure permissions such that only users who belong to roles that have approval permissions will be able to access those related modules.

To configure user permissions for approval: Go to Settings > Users & Roles > New Role. Next, select the modules and the level of access you want to provide for the role.

Approval User Permissions

Updates Related to Proof of Investments

Filter employees who are yet to submit their Proof of Investments. Once you filter the employees, you can also export them in XLS, XLSX, and CSV formats.
If you want to remind your employees to submit their Proof of Investments, you can now send them a system-generated email reminder.
Previously, once admins configured the tax regime, they would not have been able to change it. Admins can now switch between the old and new tax regimes while recording the IT declarations and Proof of Investments, provided you've configured preferences to change regimes.
You can mandate employees to upload attachments while submitting their Proof of Investments.
In addition to uploading Proof of Investments in other formats, you can also upload .zip files.

New Form 24Q Format

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has introduced a new Format for Form 24Q. Zoho Payroll now supports the new format and the text files will be generated automatically in the new format.

Unique Identifiers for Loans

When you record a loan, Zoho Payroll will automatically assign a unique number to the loan. This number will help you to search and find a particular loan quickly.

If you are importing loans, loan numbers are mandatory. So, ensure the files you upload have loan numbers in them. If the imported loan numbers match the existing loans in Zoho Payroll, the existing loan will be updated with the imported details.

Unique Identifier for Loans

View Vehicle and Driver Perquisites

You can view the vehicle and driver perquisites in the Perquisite section of an employee's Salary Details. In this section, you will be able to view the vehicle and driver perquisite that will be added to payroll every month.

To view vehicle and driver expenses, go to Employee > Salary Details > Perquisites.

Viewing Vehicle and Driver Perquisites

Updates to Reports

We've added three new reports: the FBP Declaration Report, Investment Declaration Report, and Proof of Investment Report. These reports will help you view employees' declaration and investment details.

FBP Declaration Report: This report lists the employees who have declared their FBPs. The report also provides the earnings and reimbursement details. You can view the report from any particular date.
Investment Declaration Report: This report lists the employees who have declared their investments. Additional details such as the Total Chapter VI-A amount, total allowance and HRA income amount, and total Direct Tax amount will also be listed in this report. You can view the report from any particular date.
Proof of Investment Report: This report lists the employees who have submitted their proof of investments. You can view the report for any given financial year.

Employee Portal Updates

We've made some changes and rearrangements and introduced new modules to enhance your employee portal experience.

We've now introduced the Documents module in the left sidebar, where your employees can view and download their pay slips and Form 16.
Your employees can view notifications when Flexible Benefit Plan, Reimbursement Claims, Income Tax Declarations and Proof Of Investments are released or locked and when pay slips are released.
View the preview of reimbursement when you upload it.
Employees can now view TDS worksheet and Pay Slip details such as Earnings and Deductions.
Employees can now add claims for their bills from the home page of the employee portal.
If you have any queries related to Section 80DDB, you can use the Learn More link in the Investments module for more details.

Note: The product updates listed above are the significant features and enhancements we've released from January 2022 to October 2022. However, you can view all the enhancements from our What's New timeline. From December, we will inform you about the product updates regularly in this space - as and when they happen.

That's a wrap for now! We are always eager to hear your suggestions so we can help you better. If you have a feature request, please share it in the comments below.

If you require assistance, please write to us at support@zohopayroll.com, and we'll get back to you. Stay tuned for more updates from Zoho Payroll!

Regards,
The Zoho Payroll Team