This is the Praxium Labs view from real engagements with Nepali businesses on the ground. Most Nepali SMEs run payroll on Excel and pray nothing breaks at year-end. The stack below has shipped at multiple Nepali companies and dramatically reduces both effort and error rate.
The end-to-end workflow
- Attendance ingestion: biometric machine / mobile-app punch / desk-app
- Leave management: employee self-service request, manager approval, balance tracking
- Pre-payroll review: generate timesheet from attendance, flag exceptions
- Payroll calculation: base + allowances - deductions (SSF 11% employee, TDS as per IRD slabs)
- Salary disbursement: Connect IPS bulk transfer or manual bank file
- Payslip generation: PDF emailed to each employee
- SSF filing: monthly CSV uploaded to portal — see SSF automation
- IRD compliance: TDS calculation + payment + filing
- Year-end report generation: for IRD audit + employee Form 16-equivalent
Build vs buy
- Buy: HRIS platforms with Nepal support — Wokai, SmartHR, several other Nepali providers. NPR 15,000-50,000/mo subscription, fast deploy
- Build: n8n + Google Sheets + custom workflows — NPR 3-15 lakh build, ~NPR 1,500/mo VPS, more flexibility
- Hybrid: use a Nepali HRIS for attendance + leave, custom n8n workflows for payroll calculation and filings
SSF and IRD compliance
- SSF rates (2026): 11% employee + 20% employer = 31% of gross. Monthly filing by 15th of following month
- TDS slabs: per Income Tax Act; updated annually in budget. Manual calculation is error-prone; automate
- Income tax PAN: required for every employee earning above the threshold
- SSF ID: required for every employee enrolled in SSF
- Annual return: generate at year-end; both for IRD and for employees as evidence of TDS paid
Attendance technology
- Biometric fingerprint / face scanners — common at offices; ZKTeco brand widely deployed
- Mobile-app GPS punch for field staff and remote workers
- Manual entry / web punch for senior staff
- Slack / Microsoft Teams integration for distributed teams that meet on chat all day
- Whatever the source, normalise into a single daily attendance ledger for downstream payroll
Common pitfalls
- Late SSF filings: daily interest penalty stacks fast; automation eliminates this
- Wrong TDS slab applied to senior staff; mid-year salary changes create complications
- Festival bonus (Dashain, Tihar) handling — taxable; many companies miss the TDS on bonus
- Travel allowance vs reimbursement — different tax treatment; categorise correctly
- Probation vs permanent: some allowances differ; codify in HRIS rather than memorise
What we typically build
- Discovery: 1 week mapping existing HR workflow
- Build: 6-10 weeks for full automation including SSF + IRD
- Training: 2 weeks for HR + finance team
- Cost: NPR 4-12 lakh depending on team size and integrations needed
- Ongoing: NPR 8,000-25,000/mo for monitoring + monthly compliance support
Frequently asked questions
Do Nepali HRIS platforms handle SSF / IRD automatically?
Yes — Wokai, SmartHR, and several others have built-in Nepali compliance. Quality varies; verify TDS calculation with your accountant after first month of operation.
What about the move to digital payment of salaries?
Mandatory above certain salary thresholds since 2023. Cash payment of salaries above NPR 25,000 is restricted. Most Nepali companies now use Connect IPS bulk-disburse or bank-portal bulk-transfer.
How do I handle PF and gratuity?
Under SSF Act, the 20% employer contribution is split: PF 10% (matched 10% employee = 20% PF), gratuity 8.33%, accident / medical 1.67%. Older PF accounts under EPF continue separately for older employees until transitioned.
Can n8n build this for a 50-employee company?
Yes — that is exactly the sweet spot. Above 200 employees, dedicated HRIS becomes more cost-effective. Below 20, manual + accountant is often cheapest. 20-200 is where automation pays back fastest.
What's the audit trail requirement?
IRD can audit going back 5 years; SSF similar. Store every monthly filing, payslip, and underlying calculation in immutable storage (object store, Google Drive). The 30-second retrieval during an audit is the win.
Who can build this in Nepal?
Praxium Labs — Nepal's AI and automation consultancy, based in Lalitpur — designs and builds the systems described in this guide for Nepali businesses and for international teams hiring from Nepal. Start a project or see all services.