Spreadsheets are free, flexible and understood by everyone in the office. Tally and Busy are what your CA already knows. Both of those are real advantages, and we have marked them as such. Read the rows, not the column headings.
| Spreadsheets | Tally / Busy + separate payroll | Emplora | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost at 9 employees | ₹0 | ₹18,000 / yr + payroll | ₹0 |
| Cost at 150 employees | ₹0 in licence, weeks in labour | ₹54,000 / yr + payroll | ₹7,350 / mo |
| Flexibility to model anything | Unbeatable | Limited | Structured by design |
| Your CA already knows it | Yes | Yes | Learns it in one session |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes | No |
| EPF / ESIC ceilings applied automatically | By hand | In the payroll add-on | Built in |
| Professional tax by state | By hand | Configured per install | Built in |
| Attendance feeds payroll without retyping | No | Usually not | Yes |
| Payslips emailed with delivery status | No | Add-on | Yes |
| Employee self-service | No | Rarely | Included |
| Double-entry journal from payroll | Rebuilt by hand | Posted manually | Automatic |
| Audit trail of who changed what | None | Partial | Every write |
| Role-scoped access | File-level at best | Fixed roles | Roles you define |
| Import an unknown spreadsheet layout | Copy-paste | Fixed template | Agent maps it |
| Survives the person who built it leaving | No | Depends on the install | Yes |