Statutory filing: Form 16, 24Q, PF ECR & ESIC

Statutory filing produces the government-validatable files you upload each month, quarter or year. WorkRight generates them from your locked payroll runs (Companies Act 2013 §128(1) — only a locked run is exportable), in the real formats the portals require:

• PF ECR — the EPFO Electronic Challan cum Return (EPF Act §6), in the #~# format the EPFO Unified Portal accepts.
• ESIC monthly — the monthly contribution sheet for the ESIC employer portal (ESI Act §39).
• TDS 24Q (FVU) — the quarterly salary-TDS return as an FVU input text file.
• Form 16 Part B — the per-employee Part B PDF. (Part A comes from TRACES once the 24Q is processed; you merge the two before issuing.)

• Role: an HR admin (a company_admin or hr_manager). Filing is not visible to regular employees.
• Plan: the Payroll module must be enabled — see pricing.
• 2FA: generating a filing is a write-once commit and uses step-up two-factor (TOTP), so set up 2FA on your account first.

The payroll for the period must be locked first (see Run your first payroll). Filings are per legal entity, so the entity's registration numbers need to be on file: the PF establishment code for ECR, the ESI employer code for ESIC, and the TAN (plus at least one TDS challan for the quarter) for 24Q and Form 16.

1. Open Payroll → Statutory filings and pick the year.
2. Choose the tab for the file you need — PF ECR, ESIC monthly, TDS 24Q or Form 16. Each shows a grid of periods (months for PF/ESI, quarters for 24Q, the financial year for Form 16) with a status chip.
3. On the period you want, click Generate. You'll be asked for your 2FA code. For 24Q, add the TDS challan details on the filing detail page first.
4. Download the generated file from the period cell or the filing detail page (Form 16 gives a per-employee Part B list).
5. Validate the file in its official utility before you file: the Protean RPU + FVU for 24Q, the EPFO Unified Portal for the ECR, and the ESIC employer portal bulk upload for ESIC.

The actual upload to the government portal (EPFO / ESIC / the FVU + income-tax e-filing) is a step you do outside WorkRight, on the official site. WorkRight gives you the correct, locked-snapshot-derived file; you run it through the official validator and submit it there. Because every file is built from an immutable locked run, regenerating it later gives you the same figures — useful if you need to re-issue.

• There's also a Statutory Exportshub for the CSV registers and returns (ESI half-yearly, PT challan, Bonus Form D, S&E, LWF and more) — same rule: they come from locked runs.
• If a generate is refused, it usually means a month in the period isn't locked yet, or the entity is missing a registration number. Lock the run, or add the number, and retry.
• Always validate in the official utility first — that catches format and master-data issues before the portal rejects your upload.

• Run your first payroll — lock the runs these filings are built from.
• Salary slips & bank disbursement files — the other outputs of a locked run.
• Payroll software for India — what the module covers.