HR software for auto and component makers
Line-shift attendance, overtime and incentive pay, PF and ESI applied, and contractor headcount tracking in one system.
What does HR software for auto and component makers do?
It runs attendance, leave and payroll for auto and component makers — applying PF, ESI and TDS to every payslip and generating upload-ready return files, while handling what makes this industry different: line shifts and contractor headcount. PeopleDeck prices this per employee, per month.
Line shifts and contractor headcount
An assembly line runs on shift discipline, production incentives and a contractor workforce beside your own. Payroll has to track all three without mixing them up.
An automotive plant's payroll is discipline made arithmetic. The line runs on shift patterns that rotate by rule; production incentives pay on output the shop floor already measures; skill grades (operator, technician, master technician) carry different structures that workers climb through certification; and beside the permanent workforce stands the contractor layer, gang after gang, whose wages are the contractors' to pay but whose compliance is the principal employer's to evidence. The sector's inspections are among the most demanding in Indian industry, and its unions among the most numerate: a wage register that cannot explain itself line by line does not survive either audience. PeopleDeck computes shift-rotation pay, grade structures and production incentives from plant records, and keeps the contractor evidence — registrations, monthly challans, gate-register alignment — organised the way a labour officer expects to find it.
How PeopleDeck runs it
- ✓ Line-shift attendance with production incentives and overtime
- ✓ Contractor headcount tracked beside your own workforce
- ✓ PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS applied to every payslip — upload-ready return files, never filed on your behalf
- ✓ Self-service payslips, Form 16 data and leave balances for every employee
A month in automotive payroll
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1
Shift rotations drive the calendar
A, B and C shifts rotate crews by the plant's pattern; relay changes and weekly offs follow the rule, not the notice board. Shift allowances attach to the rotation itself, so schedule and pay never argue.
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2
Production incentives compute from output
Line output enters as structured data (per line, per crew, per day) and the incentive scheme computes from it under its published formula. The number the union negotiates is the number the system pays, visibly.
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3
Grades and certifications carry structures
A technician clearing certification moves grades with an effect date; the new structure applies forward and any backdated effective date computes its own arrears. Grade drift (paying old grades on new work) stops.
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4
The run pays the plant and evidences the gate
Permanent wages compute with PF, ESI and grade structures; overtime respects Factories Act limits with flagged exceptions; contractor compliance documents collect against the month; and the wage registers, ECR and returns generate per establishment.
A worked example
A line technician in grade T2 on ₹24,000 gross works a B-C rotation month: 26 shifts, eight of them C-shift at a ₹120 allowance, plus a crew production incentive of ₹1,850 under the published formula. Gross computes to ₹26,810 — above the ESI ceiling, tracked correctly across the contribution period, with PF on basic and the incentive itemised against its output data. The same month he clears T3 certification effective the 16th: the run splits the month across both grades to the day, and the payslip shows the split. At the gate, the stamping contractor's gang of 22 appears in the evidence layer: the contractor's ECR, challan reference and headcount aligned against gate records — ready for the quarter's inspection without a single reconstructed register.
Plant management reads the same records upward: wage cost per line and per shift, overtime concentration by crew, incentive payout against output trend. When the plant head debates adding a C-shift on line 2, the actual premium-and-overtime economics of the existing rotation are a report, and when the union meeting debates the incentive, both sides open the same published arithmetic.
Figures are illustrative, for mechanism only; your structures and rates will differ.
Key terms in automotive payroll
Shift rotation pay
Allowances attached to rotating shift patterns: the C-shift premium, relay-change rules. Attached to the roster, they compute from the schedule that actually ran, not the one printed in January.
Production incentive
Output-linked pay computed under a published formula from measured production. Its credibility with the workforce depends entirely on the visibility of its arithmetic.
Grade structure
The wage structure attached to a skill grade. Certification moves workers between structures with effect dates: the mechanism that keeps skill progression and pay progression synchronised.
Is PeopleDeck the right fit?
Built for you if
- ✓ The plant runs rotating shifts with premium rules
- ✓ Production incentives pay on measured output
- ✓ Skill grades carry distinct wage structures
- ✓ Contractor gangs work beside permanent crews
- ✓ Labour inspections and union scrutiny are regular weather
Not the fit if
- ✕ You want MES or production-planning software. This consumes output data, it doesn't schedule the line
- ✕ All plant labour is contractor-supplied and you want their payroll run here; their payroll is theirs; your evidence of it is what this keeps
Mechanism deep-dives: the payroll engine · attendance & leave · statutory compliance
Switching without a bad payday
Plants switch at a wage-settlement or financial-year boundary, permanent workforce first. Grade structures, rotation patterns and the incentive formula are encoded, then one full cycle runs in parallel against the existing register. In this sector the parallel month is a compliance event in itself: it surfaces overtime beyond caps that was being paid but not flagged, grade arrears never processed after certifications, and ESI treatment wobbling across contribution periods on incentive-heavy months.
The contractor evidence layer starts collecting from the first month (registrations, challans, gate alignment) so the principal-employer file builds itself before the next inspection asks for it. Steady state arrives by the second quarter: wage registers that reconcile to the payslip, incentive arithmetic the union can check, and an inspection posture that answers from exports. The discipline that keeps it: every structural change (grade, scheme, rotation) enters with an effect date and an owner, because in a unionised plant, the history of a number matters as much as the number.
Not your industry?
Running a school or college? Staff payroll belongs inside your ERP: SchoolDeck staff payroll or CampusAlly payroll.
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Frequently asked questions
What does HR software for auto and component makers include?
Attendance and rosters, leave, onboarding to full-and-final, and payroll with PF, ESI and TDS applied to every payslip, plus line shifts and contractor headcount handled natively. Employees get self-service payslips.
Can it track contractor workers separately?
Yes — contractor headcount, wages and contribution records stay separate from your own payroll while remaining visible for principal-employer compliance.
How is PeopleDeck priced?
Per employee per month, in rupees. You pay for the headcount you run, no module bundles, no per-site fees.
Does PeopleDeck file PF and ESI returns?
No; it applies PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS and generates upload-ready ECR and return files. Filing stays with you or your consultant.
How is overtime kept within Factories Act limits?
Hours beyond standard flag as they accrue, quarterly caps track per worker, and the run computes overtime at the statutory rate while exceptions surface for correction — before the register becomes an inspection finding.
Can incentive schemes be revised with union agreements?
Yes — schemes are effect-dated structures; the settlement's new formula applies from its date while past months stand on the old one, which is exactly how a signed settlement expects to be implemented.
How does the gate register align with contractor compliance?
Contractor headcounts from gate records sit beside the contractor's submitted ECR and challans month by month; mismatches flag while the month is current, which is when they can still be resolved.
What about apprentices under the Apprentices Act?
Apprentices run on stipend structures outside PF and ESI per their Act, with records kept registration-aligned — separate from workers by category, visible in headcount planning.
Can multiple plants run under one management view?
Yes, each plant runs under its own registrations with its own patterns and schemes, while corporate reads consolidated cost and compliance across plants; the portal and the inspector see each establishment correctly.
Payroll for auto and component makers, without the spreadsheets.
Per employee, per month: attendance to upload-ready returns.
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