In the early days of a startup, paperwork is usually the last thing on your mind. You are busy building, selling, and somehow keeping things afloat. Offer letters, payslips, and HR records often get postponed with a quiet “we’ll do it later.”
But in India, skipping those basics can come back to bite you. Every company, even a small startup or MSME, is expected to follow certain employment and wage rules. The good news is that you can still fix it if you act before someone files a complaint or a labour officer knocks on your door.
What the Law Expects
The Code on Wages, 2019 applies to almost every employer in India. It expects you to:
Pay employees on time, usually by the 7th or 10th of the following month
Maintain records of attendance, wages, and deductions
Provide payslips or wage statements for each pay period
An offer letter is not always legally mandatory, but it is the easiest proof of employment terms. Without it, even a small disagreement about pay or dates can turn into a legal mess.
What Happens If You Are Caught
If your startup has been running for months without proper offer letter generator documentation, the risks are real.
You can be fined for not maintaining records or wage slips (up to ₹10,000 in some cases)
Employees can claim back pay if they believe they were underpaid
Repeated violations under the Payment of Wages Act can lead to prosecution
During a funding or compliance audit, missing payslips or HR records can delay your deal
The fines themselves may not sound huge, but once you add back pay, legal costs, and stress, it quickly becomes expensive.
How to Fix It
Rebuild your records
Gather proof of all salary payments. Use bank transfers, UPI logs, emails, or any message showing that payments were made. Create a simple sheet showing start dates, pay amounts, and dates of payment.
Issue proper offer letters
Draft clean letters today that confirm each employee’s start date, pay, and role. Use the current date on the document but refer to the original joining period. Get employees to sign and acknowledge.
Generate payslips for past months
For salaries already paid, create matching payslips now. It is better to have late documentation than none at all.
Pay any pending dues
If you missed a salary or deduction, pay it and record it properly. Voluntary correction shows good intent if anyone ever questions you.
Put a system in place
Once you have cleaned up the past, automate your HR going forward. Manual Excel sheets and WhatsApp notes will fail as you grow.
How Offrd Helps You Stay Clean
This is exactly why we built Offrd. Most HR software in India was created for big enterprises and later stripped down for smaller companies. Offrd started from the opposite side.
It helps small businesses and startups:
Create offer letters from ready templates
Generate payslips instantly, even for older months
Keep employee records in one place
Switch between pay-per-use or ₹50 per active employee per month, so you only pay when you actually use it
Offrd helps founders get compliant in days, not months. No HR team required.
The Bottom Line
Every founder has ignored HR formalities at some point, but the longer you delay, the harder it gets to fix. If your company has been running for months without offer letters or payslips, take a weekend to clean it up. Document everything, issue what is missing, and set up a simple system for the future.
Because in business, not knowing the law is never a defence, but fixing things before you are caught usually is.
www.offrd.co