Can We Use Excel for Salary Registers Instead of Handwritten Forms?

I have a query related to the computerized salary register. I am a new joiner, and here, the salary register is maintained by the Accounts department. They believe only handwritten legal documents or forms/formats/registers are acceptable.

Can we maintain the salary register in Excel format (soft copy) to save time?

Regards,
Shoeb

In our company, I maintain all registers in Excel because it is not possible to maintain them in handwritten form for a large number of employees. This method has been accepted by the Labour Department.

Regards,
Shaikh

Even government officials will not insist on a printed format register because they are also adapting to modernization. You can prepare an Excel format or a system-generated salary sheet similar to the salary register format, which should include the form numbers mentioned at the top of the salary sheet as a header. After preparing the sheet, take a printout, obtain the signature of the employee or workmen, neatly file it month-wise, and then obtain the signature of the employer who witnessed the wage payment. Whenever anybody asks about the register, you can produce the file. All the best.

Dear Alok, please note that any format is allowed to be maintained in electronic/digital format under Sec 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. You should take exemption from the concerned authority citing this Section and ensure that such formats are in the prescribed layout as per the applicable rule. The same can be extracted and given to government authorities whenever they demand so. The extract of the said section is given below:

CHAPTER III

ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE

4. Legal recognition of electronic records.

Where any law provides that information or any other matter shall be in writing or in the typewritten or printed form, then, notwithstanding anything contained in such law, such requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if such information or matter is:

(a) rendered or made available in an electronic form; and
(b) accessible so as to be usable for a subsequent reference.

Regards

Maintaining Statutory Registers: Hard Copy vs. Soft Copy

All statutory registers are required to be as per the relevant forms prescribed under the respective Act. They should be in hard copy form as well. However, if you want to keep them in soft copies, you can do so, but only after getting the forms approved by the Labor Department. For that, you have to take a printout of each of the forms and send them to the Labor Department for approval. Once approved, you can maintain the same in soft form. Keep the approval letter for reference by the Department Officials when they visit your establishment.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K