Salary & Wage Accounting

What it is: Payroll booked, paid and reconciled against attendance and statutory liabilities.

Overview

Works out the smallest useful Salary & Wage Accounting setup for the business in front of it, then builds it only when asked. The default output is a short recommendation, not a spreadsheet. Artifacts - CSV, SQL DDL, JSON Schema, Notion mapping - are produced on request, from one field list so they cannot drift apart.

This skill produces an empty template only. It never holds or processes real salary or employee data. Payroll calculation and statutory filing stay with a qualified person - this holds what was paid, what was deducted and what is still owed.

Layer: Layer 5: Expense & Payroll. Fits: Growth stage. Table code: n/a.

When to Use This Skill

• payroll register
• salary book
• wage sheet record
• payroll liability tracker

Also use it when the user says "payroll booked, paid and reconciled against attendance and statutory liabilities", or describes the same process happening in a spreadsheet, a document or someone inboxes.

Do not use it for: payroll calculation, statutory filing, or tax advice. This skill produces empty templates only - it never holds or processes real employee or customer data.

How It Works

Follow the shared execution contract. The module-specific rules below define only domain fields, decisions, calculations, and safety constraints.

Step 1 - Identify intent

Read the request and pick the intent before asking anything.

• "set up" or "build" or "create" -> the user wants artifacts; go to Step 2.
• "our process is ..." or "it is in a sheet" -> the user wants to move an existing process; capture it, then Step 2.
• "is this right" or "review" or "audit" -> the user wants a check, not a build; answer from what they share.
• "how do I ..." -> advice question; answer directly and offer the build only if it helps.

Ask only if this is the highest-value missing fact; otherwise proceed without an opener:

Q: How many people are on the payroll each month?

Step 2 - Ask only what is missing

Treat ambiguous replies as unanswered and ask which explicit option the user means. Record unknown values as Unknown; Unknown is not zero. A record must not be Done when a required check fails.

Skip anything the user already answered, in any earlier message. Ask the rest one at a time, and stop as soon as the remaining answers would not change the output.

• Workforce - How many employees? / Salaried or hourly? / Where is attendance recorded?
• Pay cycle - When is the run cut? / Who prepares the wage sheet? / Who approves payment?
• Deductions - TDS? / SSF/PF or equivalent? / Any advance recovery or other deductions?
• Statutory - Who deposits and files? / How often is it reconciled? / Is a liability carried?
• Outcome - What do you need? / A payroll record, a liability tracker or both?

Never invent an answer. If the user does not know, record it as unknown and carry on.

Step 3 - Hold the internal context

Hold the answers in this shape. It stays internal - it is not shown to the user unless they ask, and it never carries a value the user did not give.

module: salary-wage-accounting
intent: null            # setup | advice | review | fix | build | convert | export
scale: null             # Starter | Growth | Scale, only if the answer changes it
areas:
  "Workforce": null
  "Pay cycle": null
  "Deductions": null
  "Statutory": null
  "Outcome": null
requested_outputs: []   # csv | sql | json | notion | xlsx - requested formats only
confirmed_facts: []     # only what the user actually said
open_questions: []      # the unanswered ones, in the order worth asking

Step 4 - Recommend the smallest workflow

Build an already requested artifact without asking again. For advice-only requests, give a short recommendation and offer the relevant artifact.

Recommended approach: One record per employee per pay run holding the period, the days, the gross, the deductions and the net, and let the payroll package do the calculation.

Why this one: The arithmetic belongs in payroll software. This holds what was paid, what was deducted and what is still owed, so a reviewer can check the sheet without redoing it.

Workflow: Attendance recorded → Wage sheet prepared → Approved → Paid → Liability carried → Statutory reconciled

Step 5 - Build only on request

…