Build a secure payroll management portal that allows an authorized administrator to upload a monthly payroll workbook, validate the payroll data, generate client-branded salary slips for employees, make corrections/re-issue slips when required, and securely store payroll records and generated salary slips.
The system should support both individual and bulk salary-slip generation and provide an audit trail for important payroll actions.
Admin
The primary user of this module is an authorized administrator.
The admin should be able to:
- Log in securely.
- Upload monthly payroll data.
- Validate uploaded payroll data.
- Identify errors before salary slips are generated.
- Generate salary slips individually or in bulk.
- Download salary slips.
- Print salary slips from the browser.
- Correct/re-import payroll data.
- Re-issue selected salary slips.
- Access previously generated payroll records and salary slips.
- Maintain an audit trail of important actions.
3. Functional Requirements
3.1 Admin Authentication & Access
Create a secure admin login system.
Requirements
- Admin login page.
- Secure authentication.
- Only authorized users can access payroll data.
- Unauthenticated users should not be able to access the dashboard or payroll records.
- Session should remain secure.
- Logout functionality.
- Protected routes for all payroll-related pages.
Acceptance Criteria
- Unauthorized users cannot access the payroll dashboard.
- Admin can successfully log in and log out.
- Payroll information is not exposed publicly.
4. Admin Dashboard
Create a simple dashboard from where the administrator can manage the payroll workflow.
Dashboard should provide access to:
- Upload Payroll
- Payroll History
- Generated Salary Slips
- Search/Filter payroll records
- Corrections/Re-import
- Re-issue Salary Slips
- Audit History
Dashboard Information
Where applicable, display:
- Current/selected payroll month.
- Number of employees uploaded.
- Number of successfully validated records.
- Number of records with errors.
- Number of salary slips generated.
- Number of failed/invalid records.
The dashboard should prioritize clarity and ease of use rather than unnecessary UI complexity.
5. Payroll Excel Upload
The administrator should be able to upload the monthly payroll workbook.
Upload Flow
- Admin opens the Payroll Upload section.
- Admin selects or drag-and-drops the payroll workbook.
- System reads the workbook.
- System validates the uploaded data.
- System displays validation results.
- Admin can review errors.
- Only valid data should proceed to salary-slip generation.
Requirements
- Support payroll workbook upload.
- Drag-and-drop upload interface.
- File validation.
- Appropriate error message for unsupported/invalid files.
- Show upload/processing status.
- Preserve uploaded payroll records for future reference.
6. Payroll Data Validation
The system must validate payroll data before generating salary slips.
Validation should cover:
- Required fields.
- Employee information.
- Payroll values.
- Missing data.
- Invalid data formats.
- Arithmetic/calculation inconsistencies where applicable.
- Duplicate or problematic employee records where applicable.
Validation Result
The system should clearly identify:
Valid Records
- Records that can proceed to salary-slip generation.
Invalid Records
- Records requiring correction.
Error Handling
For every invalid record, provide a useful error message so the admin can understand what needs to be corrected.
Example:
Employee ID 1023 — Bank Account Number Missing
or
Employee ABC123 — Salary calculation mismatch
The admin should not be forced to manually identify errors from a large uploaded spreadsheet.
7. Payroll Review
Before salary slips are generated, the admin should be able to review the uploaded payroll data.
Requirements
- Display uploaded employee records.
- Display validation status.
- Highlight invalid records.
- Allow admin to review errors.
- Clearly indicate whether payroll data is ready for generation.
Important
The system should prevent generation of salary slips from invalid/unvalidated payroll data.
8. Salary Slip Generation
The system must generate salary slips using the client's approved salary-slip design/template.
Requirements
- Generate salary slip for an individual employee.
- Generate salary slips for multiple employees.
- Support bulk salary-slip generation.
- Salary slip should follow the provided/client-approved design.
- Generated document should contain the corresponding employee's payroll information.
- Salary slip should be available as PDF.
- Salary slip should be printable from the browser.
Individual Generation
Admin should be able to select an employee and generate their salary slip.
Bulk Generation
Admin should be able to generate salary slips for all valid employees in the selected payroll batch.
Example:
March 2026 Payroll → 250 employees → Generate 250 salary slips.
The system should provide a clear generation status.
9. Salary Slip Template
The salary slip should match the client-provided design/template as closely as technically possible.
Client-provided inputs
The client will provide:
- Existing salary-slip template/design.
- Company logo.
- Signature/stamp.
- Letterhead/branding details.
- Payroll spreadsheet/sample data.
These inputs are part of the project assumptions in the SOW.
Requirements
- Correct company branding.
- Correct employee information.
- Correct payroll values.
- Correct salary components.
- Proper formatting.
- Professional PDF output.
- Print-friendly layout.
10. PDF Download
Each generated salary slip should be available as a PDF.
Requirements
Admin should be able to:
- Download an individual salary slip.
- Download generated salary slips in bulk where applicable.
- Open/preview the generated document where applicable.
- Print the salary slip.
The generated PDF should preserve the approved salary-slip design and formatting.
11. Browser Printing
Provide a print option for generated salary slips.
Requirements
- Print button.
- Print-friendly layout.
- No unnecessary dashboard/UI elements in the printed output.
- Salary slip should fit the intended print format.
12. Corrections & Re-import
The system must support corrections when payroll data needs to be changed.
Scenario
If the uploaded payroll workbook contains incorrect information:
- Admin identifies the issue.
- Corrected payroll workbook is uploaded.
- System validates the new upload.
- System maintains the previous version/history.
- Corrected records can be used for salary-slip generation.
Requirements
- Support versioned re-imports.
- Do not silently overwrite historical payroll information.
- Maintain previous upload/history.
- Identify the latest valid payroll version.
- Allow salary slips to be regenerated based on corrected data.
13. Selective Salary Slip Re-issue
The admin should be able to re-issue a salary slip without regenerating the entire payroll batch.
Example
If only Employee A's salary slip has an incorrect employee name or salary value:
- Correct the payroll data.
- Select Employee A.
- Generate/re-issue only Employee A's salary slip.
Requirements
- Individual re-issue.
- Maintain history of previous generated versions.
- New version should be identifiable as the latest version.
- Previous version should remain available in the audit/history where applicable.
14. Payroll History
Maintain historical payroll records.
Requirements
Admin should be able to view previously uploaded payroll batches.
Each payroll batch should have information such as:
- Payroll month.
- Upload date.
- Number of employees.
- Validation status.
- Generation status.
- Version/re-import information.
The system should make it easy to locate historical payroll information.
15. Salary Slip Storage
Generated salary slips should be stored securely for long-term access.
Requirements
- Store generated salary slips privately.
- Associate salary slips with the relevant employee.
- Associate salary slips with the relevant payroll period.
- Prevent unauthorized public access.
- Allow authorized admin users to retrieve previously generated slips.
The SOW specifically requires private long-term storage for payroll sheets and generated slips.
16. Audit Trail
Maintain an audit trail for important payroll actions.
Actions to track
Where applicable, record:
- Payroll upload.
- Payroll re-import.
- Validation.
- Salary-slip generation.
- Salary-slip re-generation.
- Salary-slip re-issue.
- Important data corrections.
Audit Information
The system should maintain:
- Action performed.
- Relevant payroll/employee.
- Date/time.
- User/admin responsible.
- Version/reference information where applicable.
The goal is to provide traceability for payroll-related changes and actions.
17. Data Security
Payroll and employee salary information is sensitive and must be protected.
Requirements
- Authentication-protected access.
- Private storage for payroll files and salary slips.
- No publicly accessible salary-slip URLs.
- Validate uploaded files.
- Restrict payroll functionality to authorized admins.
- Protect employee salary information from unauthorized access.
18. Error Handling
The application should provide clear and user-friendly errors.
Examples
- Invalid file format.
- Missing required column.
- Missing employee data.
- Invalid payroll value.
- Calculation mismatch.
- Duplicate record.
- Failed salary-slip generation.
- Failed PDF generation.
- Storage/upload failure.
Errors should be displayed in a way that allows the admin to understand and resolve the issue.
19. UI/UX Requirements
The interface should be simple, professional and admin-friendly.
Important UX principles
- Clear navigation.
- Simple payroll upload process.
- Clear validation status.
- Easy identification of errors.
- Clear success/failure notifications.
- Loading states during file processing and PDF generation.
- Confirmation before destructive/irreversible actions.
- Responsive web interface.
Avoid unnecessary complexity. The primary goal is to make monthly payroll processing fast and reliable for the administrator.
20. Deployment & Setup
The developer is responsible for completing the application deployment/setup required for the module.
Deliverables
- Production-ready application.
- Database configuration.
- File/document storage configuration.
- Environment configuration.
- Deployment.
- Basic setup documentation.
- Go-live checklist.
The SOW specifies end-to-end deployment, a setup guide and a go-live checklist as part of Module 1.
The application is intended to be migrated to the client's own domain within one month of go-live.
21. Testing Requirements
Before submission, the developer must test the complete payroll workflow.
Test Cases
Authentication
- Valid login.
- Invalid login.
- Logout.
- Unauthorized route access.
Upload
- Valid payroll workbook.
- Invalid file.
- Empty file.
- Missing columns.
- Incorrect data.
Validation
- Valid employee records.
- Missing employee data.
- Invalid salary values.
- Calculation mismatch.
- Duplicate/problematic records.
Salary Slip
- Individual generation.
- Bulk generation.
- PDF generation.
- PDF download.
- Browser printing.
Corrections
- Re-import corrected payroll.
- Verify version history.
- Regenerate corrected salary slip.
- Selective re-issue.
Storage
- Retrieve historical payroll.
- Retrieve previous salary slips.
- Verify unauthorized users cannot access private documents.
Audit
- Verify important actions are logged correctly.
22. Acceptance Criteria
The bounty will be considered complete when:
- Admin authentication is working.
- Protected payroll dashboard is implemented.
- Payroll Excel/workbook upload is working.
- Drag-and-drop upload is working.
- Payroll data validation is implemented.
- Validation errors are clearly displayed.
- Invalid payroll data cannot proceed directly to generation.
- Admin can review payroll records.
- Individual salary slips can be generated.
- Bulk salary slips can be generated.
- Salary slips follow the approved client template.
- Salary slips can be downloaded as PDF.
- Salary slips can be printed.
- Payroll corrections/re-import are supported.
- Previous payroll versions are preserved.
- Individual salary slips can be re-issued.
- Payroll history is available.
- Generated salary slips are securely stored.
- Audit trail is implemented.
- Appropriate error handling is implemented.
- Application is deployed successfully.
- Basic documentation is provided.
- End-to-end testing is completed.
- No critical/blocking bugs remain at handover.
23. Developer Deliverables
The developer must submit:
- Complete source code.
- Working deployed application.
- Database/schema changes, if applicable.
- Required environment/configuration documentation.
- Payroll upload functionality.
- Validation functionality.
- Salary-slip generation functionality.
- PDF generation/download.
- Bulk generation.
- Correction/re-import functionality.
- Re-issue functionality.
- Payroll history.
- Secure document storage.
- Audit trail.
- Testing/UAT confirmation.
- Setup/deployment documentation.
24. Client Inputs Required
The client/project team will provide:
- Sample payroll spreadsheet(s).
- Existing salary-slip template/design.
- Company logo.
- Signature/stamp.
- Letterhead/branding details.
- Required employee/payroll fields.
- Feedback and approval during review checkpoints.
These client dependencies are explicitly listed in the SOW.
25. Scope Boundaries
This bounty covers Module 1 — Payroll & Salary Slip Generation Portal only.
The following are outside this bounty:
- Employee Master / Employee Management CRM.
- Employee ID Card generation.
- PF/ESI/PT/TDS statutory filing.
- Third-party HRMS integrations.
- Accounting integrations.
- Biometric attendance integrations.
- Multi-country payroll.
- Multi-currency payroll.
- Major redesigns or new features outside the agreed Module 1 scope.
The SOW specifically excludes statutory filings and third-party HRMS/accounting/biometric integrations.
