Doing PF and ESI yourself, or getting it done: how to decide

What monthly PF and ESI involves

PF (Provident Fund, also called EPF) gives your staff savings and a pension. ESI (Employees' State Insurance) gives your staff medical care, and pay when they can't work because of sickness, injury or maternity.

If PF and ESI cover your business, there is work to do every month, whoever does it. In short:

• Salaries and staff changes. Finish the salary sheet. Add new staff to PF and ESI, if the rules cover them. Mark the date when staff leave.
• UAN and IP numbers. New staff without a UAN need one (their PF account number), if the rules cover them. New staff get their UAN with a quick face scan on the UMANG app. Each employee in ESI needs an IP (Insured Person) number, their ESI number.
• The ECR. This is the monthly list of each employee's wages and PF, sent to the PF office.
• The ESI contribution. A contribution is the amount paid into PF or ESI each month. Work out the ESI contribution for each employee in ESI.
• Challans by the 15th. A challan is the PF/ESI payment slip. PF and ESI must be paid by the 15th of the next month.
• Records. Keep the challans and receipts, month by month.

For the details of each step, read our Monthly PF and ESI checklist. To see how PF and ESI differ, read PF vs ESI.

Doing it in-house: what you need

If you do PF and ESI yourself, you need:

• A person with time each month. The work must be done in time to pay by the 15th, every month, even in busy months.
• Someone who knows the rules, and checks for rule changes. The rules changed a lot recently. PF and ESI now come from the Code on Social Security, 2020, in force from 21 November 2025. The PF wage limit also changed on 17 September 2026. Read PF wage limit is now ₹25,000.
• Access to the EPFO and ESIC portals. EPFO is the government PF office. ESIC is the government ESI office. A portal is the office's website.
• Help with files. Our free EPF Excel to Text converter can help you make the ECR file. If a file is not accepted, read common ECR upload errors, and how to fix them.
• A backup. Someone who can do the work when your main person is on leave.

Doing it in-house can suit you if your staff rarely change and someone on your team already knows PF and ESI well.

Whoever does the work, these guides can help: 6 common PF mistakes and 7 common ESI mistakes.

Getting it done by a consultant

A consultant does the monthly work for you. Some things stay with you:

• You send the salary details each month.
• You tell them when staff join or leave.
• You pay the challan by the 15th, or ask your consultant if they can pay it for you.
• You keep the confirmations and challans they send you.

Getting it done can suit you if no one on your team has time each month, staff join and leave often, or you are new to PF and ESI. It can also help if your business is growing. Read Your business just reached 10 or 20 staff.

Already work with a consultant and thinking of a change? Read Changing your PF and ESI consultant.

Questions to ask any consultant

Before you choose, ask any consultant a few simple questions:

1. Do you do both PF and ESI? Registration as well as monthly filing?
2. What do you need from us each month, and by which date?
3. How do you tell us the challan is ready?
4. Can we pay the challan ourselves, or can you pay it for us?
5. How do we reach you, and who do we talk to?
6. What happens when our usual contact is away?
7. Which languages can we talk to you in?
8. How do you tell us when the rules change?

Then pick the way of working that suits your business.

How we work

Here is how we work with our monthly filing clients:

1. Call us. We tell you if PF and ESI apply to your business.
2. We tell you which documents we need. You send them.
3. We set up your business and staff. New to PF or ESI? We register you first.
4. Each month, you send salary details and we file.
5. We email you the confirmation and challans.

We get the payment slip (challan) ready in time, so you can pay by the 15th. Or send us the amount and we pay it. New staff get their UAN with a quick face scan on the UMANG app. We guide them. We create IP numbers on the ESIC portal. We also tell you about rule changes.

We work by phone and email. We can visit you if needed, in Mangalore and Bangalore. You can talk to us in English or Kannada, and we can help you in Hindi too.

Our founder, Medu Thirumaleshwara Bhat, worked at EPFO for 35 years. He taught us the PF rules.

See our PF monthly filing and ESI monthly filing services.