Datahikes is a Zoho Consulting Partner headquartered in Perungudi, Chennai, implementing Zoho People for Indian businesses and for international companies running Indian entities. This page covers what changes when you implement Zoho People in India specifically: provident fund and ESI configuration, professional tax across states, TDS and Form 16, migration from greytHR or Keka, pricing in rupees, and what it costs. For the implementation method, the migration steps and the project timeline, see our Zoho People Partner page which publishes all of it in full.
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Most Indian businesses that reach a Zoho People Partner in India are not choosing an HRMS for the first time. They are on greytHR, Keka, a spreadsheet system, or an in-house tool built by someone who has since left, and something specific has broken. Usually it is one of three things.
Leave policy and system have drifted apart
The leave policy stopped matching what the system calculates, so balances are corrected by hand every cycle.
Payroll input takes a week to assemble
Attendance and leave live somewhere else, so every payroll run begins with collecting and reconciling data.
A second state or second entity was added
The business expanded and the compliance setup could not follow it across states or legal entities.
Zoho People suits this situation for a reason particular to India. It is built by an Indian company headquartered in Chennai, it is priced in rupees rather than converted from dollars, and it connects natively to Zoho Payroll, which handles Indian statutory processing rather than treating it as a localisation afterthought.
This is the pattern behind most HRMS migration India projects we scope, and it is why businesses look for an Indian HRMS implementation partner rather than a reseller. As a Zoho HRMS partner India side, our work begins with the policy, not the software.
For a business with employees in three states and two legal entities, that combination is materially easier than fitting a foreign HRIS around Indian requirements.
Zoho People payroll compliance in India rests on a division worth understanding before anything is configured. Zoho People is the HRMS and Zoho Payroll is the statutory engine.
The HRMS
Zoho People
Holds employee records, leave, attendance and documents.
The statutory engine
Zoho Payroll
A separate subscription that performs the calculations and produces the filings.
They integrate natively, so attendance, leave without pay, overtime and reimbursements flow into salary processing without a manual step.
Every Zoho Payroll implementation in India we deliver is scoped alongside the HRMS for this reason.
A Zoho People implementation in India that does not configure both together leaves the hardest part unsolved.
| Requirement | What is handled | What needs configuration decisions |
|---|---|---|
| Provident fund | Contribution calculation on the configured wage base, employee and employer split, and ECR file generation for EPFO upload. | Which wage components form the PF base, treatment of employees above the statutory wage ceiling, voluntary contributions, and UAN mapping for existing staff. |
| ESI | Eligibility determination against the wage threshold, contribution calculation, and contribution period handling. | Employees crossing the threshold mid-period, which components count toward the gross for eligibility, and dispensary and branch office mapping. |
| Professional tax | State-specific slab application and deduction. | Every state your employees sit in needs its own configuration. A business in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra needs three, not one. This is the single most commonly missed item on multi-state implementations. |
| TDS | Investment declaration collection, proof submission, tax computation across old and new regimes, and Form 16 generation. | Regime election handling, perquisite valuation, and mid-year joiners with previous employer income. |
| Gratuity | Accrual tracking against continuous service. | Eligibility date calculation where service history was migrated, and treatment of transfers between group entities. |
| Leave encashment and F&F | Encashment calculation and full and final settlement workflow on exit. | Which leave types are encashable, the rate basis, notice period recovery, and asset and advance recovery in the settlement. |
| Shops and Establishments, POSH | Handled through configuration and document management rather than as packaged features. | Register formats vary by state. POSH committee records, mandatory training tracking and complaint case handling are built using Zoho People case management and document modules. |
Provident fund
What is handled
Contribution calculation on the configured wage base, employee and employer split, and ECR file generation for EPFO upload.
Configuration decisions
Which wage components form the PF base, treatment of employees above the statutory wage ceiling, voluntary contributions, and UAN mapping for existing staff.
ESI
What is handled
Eligibility determination against the wage threshold, contribution calculation, and contribution period handling.
Configuration decisions
Employees crossing the threshold mid-period, which components count toward the gross for eligibility, and dispensary and branch office mapping.
Professional tax
What is handled
State-specific slab application and deduction.
Configuration decisions
Every state your employees sit in needs its own configuration. A business in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra needs three, not one. This is the single most commonly missed item on multi-state implementations.
TDS
What is handled
Investment declaration collection, proof submission, tax computation across old and new regimes, and Form 16 generation.
Configuration decisions
Regime election handling, perquisite valuation, and mid-year joiners with previous employer income.
Gratuity
What is handled
Accrual tracking against continuous service.
Configuration decisions
Eligibility date calculation where service history was migrated, and treatment of transfers between group entities.
Leave encashment and F&F
What is handled
Encashment calculation and full and final settlement workflow on exit.
Configuration decisions
Which leave types are encashable, the rate basis, notice period recovery, and asset and advance recovery in the settlement.
Shops and Establishments, POSH
What is handled
Handled through configuration and document management rather than as packaged features.
Configuration decisions
Register formats vary by state. POSH committee records, mandatory training tracking and complaint case handling are built using Zoho People case management and document modules.
This is where Indian implementations get genuinely difficult and where a partner earns the fee. Separate legal entities each need their own establishment codes and their own filing configuration, while leadership usually wants consolidated reporting across all of them. Employees who transfer between group entities need their service continuity preserved for gratuity purposes. Professional tax needs a configuration per state. And the reporting layer has to be able to both separate and consolidate depending on who is asking, which is what Zoho People statutory reports are configured to do at entity and at group level.
Our approach is to configure the entity structure first and validate it against your last three completed payroll cycles before go-live, comparing line by line.
That reconciliation against known-good output is the only reliable proof that the setup is correct, and it is the artefact your auditor will ask for.
Reviewed by your Zoho People Partner in India
Statutory configuration approach reviewed by Sam, founding member and Zoho Solution Architect at Datahikes. Last reviewed .
Zoho People handles HR records, leave and attendance. Statutory calculation and filing is performed by Zoho Payroll, a separate Zoho subscription.
Statutory rates, thresholds and slabs are set by the relevant authority and change periodically. Confirm current figures with EPFO ESIC and your state commercial tax department, and refer to the Income Tax Departmentfor TDS and Form 16 requirements, before relying on them.
These three are the platforms Indian buyers actually shortlist against Zoho People, which is why this comparison sits with a Zoho People Partner in India rather than on a global page. A UK buyer is comparing against BambooHR and HiBob instead.
Zoho People vs greytHR
Payroll-first, India-firstStatutory depth is the core of the greytHR product rather than an adjacent module, and it is free up to a low headcount. If payroll accuracy and filing reliability are your only real pain, it is a legitimate choice and we will say so.
Zoho People wins on breadth and trajectory. greytHR is comparatively narrow beyond payroll and core operations, while Zoho People spans onboarding, performance, learning, timesheets and case management and connects to finance, sales and analytics.
For many Indian businesses the honest answer is Zoho People with Zoho Payroll alongside, which closes the statutory gap while keeping the breadth.
Zoho People vs Keka
Best out-of-the-box experienceKeka has the better out-of-the-box employee experience. The interface is more polished and it packages HR, payroll and engagement into one unified product with less configuration required. If you want something that feels finished on day thirty, Keka often gets there faster.
Zoho People wins on cost, configurability and ecosystem, and Keka pricing is less transparent and typically higher.
Keka is the better product experience. Zoho People is the better platform decision.
Zoho People vs Darwinbox
Enterprise upper endDarwinbox targets the enterprise upper end with strong mobile experience and depth in talent processes. For a two-thousand-person organisation with a dedicated HR technology function it is a serious contender.
Zoho People wins decisively on total cost of ownership and time to value in the thirty to eight hundred employee band.
That band is where most Indian buyers of this software actually sit.
| Criterion | Zoho People | greytHR | Keka | Darwinbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit size | 15 to 2,000 | 10 to 500 | 50 to 1,000 | 500 plus |
| Entry cost | Lowest | Low | Medium | High |
| PF, ESI, PT, TDS | Via Zoho Payroll | Native, deepest | Native, strong | Native, strong |
| Modularity | Highest | Low | Low | Medium |
| Out-of-box polish | Medium | Medium | Highest | High |
| Ecosystem breadth | 45+ apps | HR only | HR only | HR only |
| Customisation depth | Very high | Limited | Limited | Medium |
| Multi-state PT handling | Configured per state | Native | Native | Native |
| Free tier | Up to 5 employees | Up to 25 employees | No | No |
| Non-HR expansion | Yes, whole suite | No | No | No |
Zoho People
greytHR
Keka
Darwinbox
The full seven-step migration method, including the cleansing sequence, dependency ordering and reconciliation controls, is published on our Zoho People Partner page. What follows is what differs in a Zoho People migration India project when the source system is greytHR or Keka specifically.
What comes across cleanly
Employee master data, departments, designations and reporting hierarchy export cleanly from both and map to Zoho People without difficulty.
Leave balances export as balances and should be loaded as opening adjustments at a fixed cut-off date rather than replayed as transaction history.
Current-period attendance moves across. Historical attendance should be archived rather than migrated, because the volume slows reporting and the operational value is close to zero.
What does not
Anything statutory. PF, ESI and professional tax configuration cannot be exported and reimported. It has to be rebuilt in Zoho Payroll against your establishment codes and state registrations, then reconciled against the source system output.
Appraisal history often needs a custom form because rating scales rarely match.
Salary structures need rebuilding rather than importing, because the component definitions and their PF and ESI treatment are configuration rather than data.
Run a parallel payroll cycle and reconcile to the rupee against your last completed month before switching the old system off. Not a sample. Every employee, every component. This is the step teams skip under deadline pressure and it is the one that catches a wrong PF wage base or a missing professional tax slab before it reaches every payslip.
Keep the source system in read-only mode for at least one full statutory filing cycle after cutover.
Zoho People pricing in INR works on a per employee per month licence, with a free tier and four paid editions, with a Zoho Payroll implementation in India priced as a separate subscription where statutory processing is needed. Implementation is a one-time cost driven by policy complexity, entity and state count, data volume and integrations rather than by headcount alone. Current subscription and implementation figures, verified by Sam and reviewed quarterly, are published on our Zoho People Partner page.
GST treatment
All figures are exclusive of eighteen percent GST, which registered Indian businesses can normally reclaim as input tax credit, so the effective cost to a GST-registered company is the pre-tax figure.
Billed in rupees
Zoho invoices Indian customers in rupees from an Indian entity, which means no foreign remittance paperwork and no exposure to currency movement on renewal.
Who invoices you
Datahikes invoices from Chennai under GSTIN 33CPOPV6780B1ZH.
Zoho People implementation cost in India is driven by policy complexity, entity and state count, data volume and integrations rather than by headcount alone.
Zoho was built in Chennai. The deepest concentration of Zoho implementation experience anywhere in the world sits within a few hours of Zoho's own headquarters, and certified partner status is awarded by Zoho on the same criteria regardless of where the partner operates. That is why a growing number of US, UK, Gulf and Australian companies decide to hire an Indian Zoho partner deliberately rather than as a budget compromise, and why an offshore Zoho People partner is now a considered choice rather than a fallback.
Certified Zoho partners in the United States typically bill between one hundred and one hundred seventy-five dollars an hour, with full implementations commonly quoted in the several thousand to twenty-five thousand dollar range depending on scope. Indian delivery for equivalent scope and equivalent certification is a fraction of that, because it reflects local operating costs rather than a difference in capability or in what Zoho requires of a partner.
Working-hours overlap
Ask for it in writing in the scope of work rather than accepting a general assurance.
Who attends calls
Ask whether the person scoping the project is involved in delivering it, and whether you will be handed to an account manager after signature.
Data handling
Ask where employee data is stored and processed, and how the partner handles GDPR obligations if you are in the UK or EU.
Contracting and invoicing
Confirm the partner can invoice your entity in your currency and that the contract is enforceable in a jurisdiction you are comfortable with.
Local statutory limits
An Indian partner configures Zoho People globally, but local payroll processing in your country will usually route through Zoho Payroll where available or a local provider. Ask which applies to you.
Published method
Ask to see the implementation and reconciliation method before signing. If it is not written down anywhere, it does not exist.
Companies based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Dubai, Australia and Canada can read the local statutory position on the relevant page, while delivery for all of them runs from the same Chennai team.
Every Zoho People implementation India project carries sector-specific statutory weight, and Zoho People for Indian startups scaling into their first factory or second state hits these earlier than expected. What follows covers only what is India-specific about each sector, which is mostly statutory obligation and workforce structure rather than process design.
Manufacturing
Contract workforce under the Contract Labour Act held separately from permanent staff, state-specific overtime rules, and PF applicability differences across contractor arrangements.
IT and software services
High proportion of employees crossing the ESI wage threshold mid-year, shift allowances and their PF treatment, and rapid onboarding volume during hiring waves.
Staffing and recruitment
Client-wise employee segregation with separate statutory registration per entity, high onboarding and exit volume, and full and final settlements at scale.
Retail and hospitality
Multi-state Shops and Establishments registration, high attrition driving continuous onboarding, and part-time and hourly employment types with different statutory treatment.
Healthcare
Round-the-clock shift patterns with night differentials, credential and licence expiry tracking, and mandatory statutory training with audit trail.
Construction and real estate
Site-wise attendance across scattered locations, large daily-wage workforces alongside salaried staff, and BOCW compliance obligations.
Our team works as a Zoho People Partner in India from Perungudi in Chennai, and most of our on-site work happens across Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, our Bangalore engagements come largely from technology firms scaling past spreadsheet HR, while Hyderabad implementations skew toward pharmaceutical and IT services organisations with shift-based workforces. Financial services and media drive demand in Mumbai, and Pune projects are dominated by automotive and engineering firms where shift configuration carries most of the complexity. Delhi implementations frequently involve multi-state statutory setups because so many businesses operate across the NCR boundary into Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, while our Kolkata clients sit mostly in trading and manufacturing and Kerala engagements often involve a significant overseas workforce component. Businesses evaluating the wider Zoho platform rather than HR alone usually start from our Zoho Partner India page.
Zoho People handles HR records, leave, attendance and documentation. Statutory calculation and filing is performed by Zoho Payroll, a separate Zoho subscription that integrates natively. Together they cover provident fund with ECR generation, ESI, state-wise professional tax, TDS with Form 16 and gratuity accrual. Implementing Zoho People in India without configuring Zoho Payroll alongside leaves the compliance layer unsolved.
Neither is better in every respect. greytHR has deeper native statutory handling and is free up to twenty-five employees. Zoho People is broader, more configurable, cheaper at scale and connects to more than forty other business applications. If payroll accuracy is your only problem, greytHR is a legitimate choice. If HR requirements will get more layered over three years, Zoho People with Zoho Payroll is usually the stronger platform decision.
Employee master data, hierarchy, leave balances and current-period attendance export cleanly and map across. Statutory configuration does not export and must be rebuilt in Zoho Payroll against your establishment codes and state registrations. Load leave balances as opening adjustments at a fixed cut-off rather than replaying history, archive historical attendance rather than importing it, and run a parallel payroll cycle reconciled to the rupee before switching the old system off.
Yes, but professional tax requires a separate configuration for each state, and each legal entity needs its own establishment codes and filing setup. This is the most commonly missed item on multi-state implementations. We validate the configuration against your last three completed payroll cycles before go-live.
Yes. As a Zoho People Partner in India we deliver from Chennai to clients in the United States, United Kingdom, UAE, Singapore, Australia, Canada and more than twenty countries. International companies engage us either for their Indian entity specifically or for global Zoho People delivery at Indian rates. Working-hours overlap and invoicing arrangements are agreed in the scope of work.
Yes, substantially, for equivalent scope. Certified partners in the United States typically bill between one hundred and one hundred seventy-five dollars per hour, so businesses increasingly hire an Indian Zoho partner for equivalent work. Indian delivery reflects local operating costs rather than a difference in certification or capability, since Zoho awards partner status on the same criteria regardless of geography. What you should check is working-hours overlap, data handling and who actually attends your calls.
No. Published figures are exclusive of eighteen percent GST. Registered Indian businesses can normally reclaim it as input tax credit, so the effective cost to a GST-registered company is the pre-tax figure. Zoho invoices Indian customers in rupees from an Indian entity.
Sam or Jay, both founding members. Datahikes does not employ salespeople, so the person who scopes your project is involved in delivering it.
Datahikes is a Zoho People Partner in India delivering implementation for Indian businesses and for international companies running Indian entities, delivered from Chennai with statutory configuration validated against your existing payroll output. Book a scoping call and you will speak to Sam or Jay directly rather than to a salesperson, which is what engaging a Zoho People consultant in India should mean.
Bring your leave policy, your employee count and the states you operate in, and you will leave the call with a realistic view of scope and cost.
Book a scoping call
