Payroll for schools & colleges
Payroll software for schools and colleges
A school pays two quite different groups every month: teachers on academic-year salaries, and drivers, peons, guards and office staff on smaller wages. Swastik Payroll handles both from one register, following your holiday calendar and splitting salary by wing.
The problem
Where school payroll gets complicated
The salary sheet itself is simple. The trouble is everything the office has to remember around it.
- The academic calendar. Summer and winter vacations, festival holidays, exam days and staff meetings mean the working calendar is different from any office's.
- Half days. Early closure on result day or a teacher leaving after the fourth period needs to be marked as a half day, not a full absence.
- Leave balances. Teachers ask how many casual leaves they have left, and the answer usually lives in the principal's register.
- Advances. Drivers and support staff often take an advance before a festival or a family event, recovered over a few months.
- Wing-wise cost. Trustees want the salary bill split into primary, secondary, transport and admin, not one lump sum.
- Revisions at the start of the session. Increments often take effect from April, and earlier months must not be rewritten.
- Cash and bank together. Most teachers are paid by bank transfer, while a few support staff may still be paid in cash.
- PF and ESIC for some, not all. Senior teachers may be above the ESIC wage limit while drivers and peons are below it.
How Swastik Payroll handles it
Set up once for the session, then run each month
Holiday list for the session
Enter the school's holidays for the year. Staff who come in on a holiday, for an Independence Day function say, are marked present on holiday and paid for it.
Leave that teachers can check
Casual, sick, earned, maternity and other leave types, including half-day leave. Casual leave accrues on the 1st of each month and carries forward. Teachers apply online and see their own balance.
Half days and late marks
Half day is its own attendance status. Late-coming rules can deduct leave hours from casual leave once staff cross the limit you set.
Staff advances
Record an advance with one-time or EMI recovery, skip a month when needed, or change the amount for one month. The deduction history is kept.
Wings as departments
Create departments such as Teaching and Non-teaching with sub-departments like Primary wing or Transport. The payment report filters by both.
April increments with history
Each revision is saved as a new salary version from its effective month. Salaries already paid for earlier months stay as they were.
Bus drivers who start their route before the office opens can punch in from their phone. The GPS location is captured and the punch counts only after the office approves it.
Example
A sample month for a school bus driver
This is an illustration with sample figures. A driver on a monthly base salary of ₹12,000 has this August 2026:
- Per-day rate: ₹12,000 ÷ 30 = ₹400
- Absent 2 days: ₹800 deducted
- Came in on 15 August for the flag-hoisting function, marked present on holiday: ₹400 added
- PF set up as 12% of earned base (₹11,200): ₹1,344
- ESIC 0.75% of ₹11,600 = ₹87
- A ₹6,000 festival advance recovered in 3 EMIs: ₹2,000 this month
| Sample salary line | ₹ |
|---|---|
| Monthly base salary | 12,000 |
| Less absent deduction (2 days) | −800 |
| Holiday duty (1 day) | 400 |
| Wages for the month | 11,600 |
| Employee PF | −1,344 |
| Employee ESIC | −87 |
| Advance recovery (EMI 1 of 3) | −2,000 |
| Net salary | 8,169 |
Compliance note
PF and ESIC for schools
Private schools and colleges are treated like other establishments for EPF, and many states have extended ESIC to private educational institutions. Coverage depends on headcount and your state's notification.
EPF
Mandatory once the institution has 20 employees, counting teaching and non-teaching staff together. Employee share is 12% of basic + DA, with EPS on wages up to ₹15,000.
ESIC
Applies to notified establishments with 10 or more employees (20 in some states). Only staff with gross wages up to ₹21,000 are covered, at 0.75% employee and 3.25% employer.
Aided and government staff
Teachers of government or aided institutions may be under a state provident fund or pension scheme instead. Confirm which scheme applies to each group before setting up deductions.
Swastik Payroll prepares the EPFO ECR file and ESIC contribution sheet; filing and payment happen on the portals by the 15th of the following month. Gratuity is not calculated inside the software; use the free gratuity calculator when a teacher retires or resigns.
FAQ
School payroll questions
Can teaching and non-teaching staff have different salary structures?
Yes. Salary components are reusable templates (fixed amount, percentage of base salary or multiplier), so you can build one structure for teachers and another for drivers and support staff and apply each to the right people.
How are vacations handled?
Add vacation days to the holiday list for the session. Staff who are called in during a vacation, for admissions or exam duty, can be marked present on holiday.
Can the principal see leave balances without seeing salaries?
Yes. Staff permissions separate attendance from salary, so a principal or coordinator can manage attendance and leave while salary view and approval stay with the accounts office.
Can teachers get salary slips for a bank loan?
Teachers sign in to view and print their own PDF salary slips for any month, so the office does not have to print them one by one.
We have staff lists in Excel. Do we type them in again?
No. Employees can be imported in bulk from CSV or Excel using the sample file provided, including department, bank details, UAN and ESIC number.
Related
Leave Management
Online requests, approvals and monthly accrual.
Salary Management
Structures, revisions, bonuses, loans and advances.
Employee Management
Profiles, departments, bulk import, permissions.
Gratuity Calculator
Gratuity from basic + DA and service.
ESI Calculator
Eligibility and ESIC contribution.
Salary Slip Format
Every earning and deduction explained.
See your school's salary register in Swastik Payroll
Send us your staff list and this session's holiday calendar. We will show teaching and non-teaching payroll, wing-wise reports and staff advances set up for your school.