Generating ECR using Excel and Notepad

To generated ECR with Excel and Notepad there is a very good screencast made available on EPFO India website, which neatly explains how to generated ECR file for upload to E-sewa. Please go through with it.

A few things to keep in mind while preparing ECR text files are:

• The text file should strictly have 25 Fields.
• This is a delimited file not a fixed width file, which means all the fields(columns) are separated by some delimiter which in this case is #~# and you don't need to fill spaces or zeros.
• The text file should not have header row, only data is required in text file.
• Only if the member  has joined in current month (of which you are generating ECR file), fill details of Form-5 (Father's/Husband name,Date of Birth, Gender, Date of joining)  else leave it blank. The Relationship should be any one of following character ( F / S) [Father / Spouse].
• Only if the member has left the service in current month (of which you are generating ECR file), fill details of Form-10 (Date of leaving, Reason of leaving) else leave blank. The reason should be any one of following character ( C / S / R / D / P ).
• Date should be of format dd/mm/yyyy strictly.
• Check if member is leaving withing same month of joining then the date of leaving should be greater than or equal to date of joining.
• Column 1 (Employee No) is numeric only and should not contain Establishment code i.e. for member with code GJ/AHD/12345/123 Emp no will be 123.
• Column 4 (EPS Wages) will be maximum 6500, if member is not member of Pension Scheme or has crossed 58 Yrs EPS Wages should be 0 (Zero).
• Decimals are not used.
• Special characters (*-/!@#$%^&*()_-) should not be used (period is allowed in name only).

Feel free to ask.

Using E-sewa (screenshots and process flow)

To use E-sewa please read the following documents thoroughly:

• Frequently Asked Question about E-sewa.
• Process flow of How to register
• Process Flow of How to generate ECR and Online Challan
• User Manual of E-return Tool

The above are official documents available on www.epfindia.com.

Broadly to use E-sewa you first need to register at Employer portal (E-sewa) then download latest E-return Tool and feed monthly contribution details and generated ECR text file from the tool and finally upload the text file at E-sewa website and generate online Challan with TRRN Number and submit the same to SBI.

Generating Challans (EPFO Esewa)

Go through the following steps to generate challans.

• Register your establishment with Employer Esewa.
• Download E-return Tool ver 4.0.
• Feed in contribution details of the month of which you are going to generate return/challan.
• Generate ECR (Electronic Challan cum Return) text file from e-return tool.
• 
• Log into the E-sewa Employer Portal.
• 
• Upload the ECR text file under "ECR Upload" page and approve the same.
• Generate challan and remit to SBI Branch. You may check which SBI Branch will accept your Challan through EPFO India website.

EPFO E-return tool version 4.0 released

The awaited e-return tool version 4.0 has been released on EPFO India website on 04-04-2012.
Please download the same from here.
The addition is generation of ECR (electronic challan cum return) and backup/restore data along with other improvements.

EPFO Ahmedabad launches Online Chat support

EPFO Ahmedabad has started Online support through chat scheduled (11am-1pm) on working days.
As seen on their website .

EPFO How to check Claim status online

How to check you claim status online.

EPFO INDIA How to check your PF Balance Online

How to check you PF balance online.

Using e-return Tool Videos

 

INSTALLATTION

ESTABLISHMENT MASTER

 EMPLOYEE MASTER

 Courtesy:  Sanjay(Surat).

EPFO Employer E-Sewa Registration common problem & solutions

If you are not able to register with EPFO E-sewa portal, please go through the following points.

• Is the Establilshment Code No. correct. It is of the form GJ/AHD/123456 or GJ/AHD/2345/A for an establishment remitting contribution in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
• Do not add zeros with Estt code, i.e. use 12345 not 0012345.
• If your Est code has extension use that digit only, i.e. for code No. 2345/A enter 2345 in Code No. and A in extension, do not use '00A'.
• If you have never applied for registration but system shows already registered you may consider sending printed request,auto generated by clicking on the ling (screenshot below), with signature of authorised (for PF) person of the Establishment to reset the details of your est code.

Please feel free to comment/ask.

EPFO Employer E-Sewa (Registration)

Go to the Employer E-Sewa page at http://esewa.epfoservices.in

Choose the State where your establishment is registered.

Enter the code no of your establishment. Note do not add Zeros '0' i.e if your code No.is 1234 it should be entered as 1234 not 0001234 the same applies to extension only if you do have extension with code no enter the character of extension do not add zeros '0', this applies to first time registration only.

Click on Get Detail and details of the Establishment should be displayed below. Verify the details.

Feed the details of the authorised person including Mobile No. (The number should be active and accessible to you to continue with registration.)

Click on GET PIN and you should receive a pin number on the mobile no you have entered.

Feed the pin and click on Register.

On the login page enter the temporary registration details to sign in.

Use the page to create your permanent Log-in detail.

After the login has been created you should receive a sms confirming the same.

Finally login with your permanent login to access the employers page.

Here are the available menus.

EPFO Launches E-sewa

EPFO has launched its new online return filing and online payment facility. More details at here.
Keep in touch for more details on how to register through the portal.

E-return tool in EPFO How to use part3 (Modules)

Part3
Modules

• To use e-return you need to add the establishment whose returns are to be prepared

•  Select the office where returns are to be submitted, enter code no (numeric), enter extension (alphabatical if any) and press "ADD". The message "Establishment Added Successfully" should be received. If you don't receive this message and you are upgrading then there is already a file named for the establishment you are trying to add. You should first remove the file from the app_code folder then "Add" the establishment from screen and then replace the newly generated file with old one.

• After establishment has been added you need to select it from the dropdown list. The code no and extension is now merged by EPFO and this is a 15 digit establishment id, which comprises of Region, Office, Estt Code, Estt Extension and looks like GJAHD0012345000 for establishment 12345 with no extension and is registered in Gujarat (Ahmedabad region) and Ahmedabad office. 

• After clicking on "Open" login box is shown. The first time username password is admin/admin, which should be changed and adding of another user is also recommended, which is allowed to do only dataentry/import of data and generation of returns (described later).

•  When using first time the details regarding establishment is required to be filled in under [MASTER >> ESTABLISHMENT DETAIL]

E-return tool in EPFO How to use part2 (installation)

Part 2
Installation

• Setting up of "dotnet" is required for earlier version of windows.

• Setup Crystal Report: Extract the content of file CrystalReports10_5.zip. Double click on file CRRedist2008_x86.msi (or CRRedist2008_x64.msi if you have 64bit OS). Let the setup complete.

 

•  Next Setup Ereturn software: Double click on setup.exe to start the setup and complete the wizard.

 

• To use the e-return tool for the first time you are required to make some changes in short date format of system. To do so go to control panel and select Clock Language, Region. There select "Change the date time or number format". Either select "English (India)" or change the short date format to "dd-MM-yyyy".

• Congratulation! The software is ready to use.

E-return tool in EPFO How to use part1 (Download)

Part1
Introduction
E-return submission has been initiated in EPFO since last year (2010).
Though not made mandatory (as of now), it is a good feature considering most of employers do have the technology to generated soft copy of returns. This is beneficial as it increases accuracy and  the required time for getting the work done is minimized also the software takes care of provisions of the scheme like calculation of dues in all accounts restriction of pension contribution of non-pension member (above 58 yrs) etc.
The tool can be used to generate returns viz Form-5,10,12A,3A,6A,2,Bank Challan and other few reports.

Where to get
The e-return tool is available free to download from www.epfindia.com.

Keep a watch on the page as the version do change. At present the Ver 3.0 rel(29/07/2011) is available.

Download all files (a-l) and save to a folder.

Overview & download Returns in EPFO

There are monthly and annual returns in EPFO.
namely
Monthly:
Form-5 (New joining details), Form-10 (Left employees) , Form-2 (nomination), Form-12A (monthly dues) and challan (Remittance)

Annual:
Form-6A, Form-3A.
Other than these
Change in ownership Form-5A, authorised signatory changes are also required.

Soft copy of these are available here.