Switching from Keka HRMS in 2026: Migration Checklist and What to Test

Is 2026 the Right Year to Switch Your HRMS?

The decision to switch HRMS is not primarily a technology decision. It is an operational decision that affects payroll accuracy, compliance timelines, and the daily experience of every employee who uses the system. Making it well means understanding when to switch, what to prepare before you do, and how to run the migration without disrupting your monthly payroll cycle.

This guide covers all three. Whether you are leaving Keka because of pricing, because you have outgrown it, because support has been disappointing, or because a new CFO has asked you to cut SaaS costs — the migration checklist below applies.

When Is the Right Time to Switch HRMS?

Timing matters. A poorly timed HRMS switch can disrupt payroll for two months and create compliance headaches that take a quarter to resolve. A well-timed switch is essentially invisible to employees.

Best Times to Switch

After the annual appraisal cycle closes (April or after Q4 appraisals): This is the cleanest switching point because increment letters, revised salary structures, and updated payroll components are already settled. You migrate with a clean, final salary structure instead of one that is mid-revision.

At the start of a financial year (April 1): Switching at the beginning of a financial year means your new system handles the full year of TDS calculations, Form 16 generation, and annual statutory filings. You avoid the complexity of splitting a financial year across two systems.

After a major compliance event has closed: If you have just filed your PF annual return or closed your ESIC half-yearly return, switching immediately after gives you maximum runway before the next major filing deadline.

Worst Times to Switch

Mid-month: Never switch in the middle of a payroll month. You will end up with attendance data in two systems, partial month calculations that neither system handles cleanly, and a support team that is trying to debug both simultaneously.

During peak compliance periods: Avoid switching in March (TDS/Form 16 season), September (ESIC half-year close), and the weeks immediately before major advance tax due dates.

When your HR team is understaffed: A migration requires dedicated time from whoever manages HR operations. If your HR manager is on leave, recently joined, or managing a major hiring drive, postpone the migration until bandwidth is available.

Warning Signs That It Is Time to Move

Some situations make the switch urgent regardless of timing. If your current HRMS is producing compliance errors that your accountant has to manually correct every month, you cannot afford to wait for the ideal timing. Similarly, if statutory due dates have been missed because of software failures, or if employee self-service features have not worked reliably for more than two months, the cost of staying is higher than the cost of switching.

What to Export from Keka Before You Leave

Data portability is your most important concern when switching HRMS. Everything below should be exported and verified before you start the migration process with a new vendor.

Employee Master Data

Export the complete employee master record for every active employee. This must include:

• Full legal name (matching Aadhaar)
• Date of birth and date of joining
• Department, designation, reporting manager
• Employment type (full-time, part-time, contractual)
• PAN number and Aadhaar number (if stored)
• UAN (Universal Account Number for PF)
• ESIC IP number (if applicable)
• Bank account details — account number and IFSC code

Do not assume this export is complete until you have opened the file and verified that no field is blank for employees who should have that data. Missing UAN numbers or bank account details will cause payroll failures in the new system.

Payroll History — Minimum 12 Months

Export month-wise payroll data for the last 12 months minimum. This should include gross pay, each salary component (Basic, HRA, Special Allowance, etc.), each deduction (PF employee, PF employer, ESIC employee, ESIC employer, PT, TDS), and net pay for every employee. This data is essential for accurate TDS calculations in the new system — if TDS has been deducted on part of the year's salary, the new system needs the historical figures to avoid over- or under-deducting for the remaining months.

Leave Balances

Export the current leave balance for every active employee across every leave type — earned leave, sick leave, casual leave, and any company-specific leave types. This is particularly important if your company carries forward leave balances from one year to the next, because a carry-forward balance that is entered incorrectly in the new system will show up immediately on the first leave application and create employee complaints.

PF and ESIC Contribution History

Export your complete PF contribution history — employer and employee share — for the last 24 months. This data is needed if any employee needs to track their PF balance, claim PF, or if there is a future audit. Similarly, export your ESIC contribution data and the challan numbers for each month's filing. These receipts serve as proof of compliance in the event of an inspection.

Previous Compliance Filings

Download copies of every PF ECR file you have submitted, every ESIC monthly return, and every professional tax challan. Store these externally — in Google Drive, a local server, or your accountant's records. You should not depend on your HRMS to store compliance filing history; that data belongs in a location you control regardless of which software you use.

Employee Documents

Download all offer letters, appointment letters, increment letters, and any documents stored in employee profiles. These are legally significant documents that should live in your HR records regardless of software changes.

How to Map Keka Payroll Components to Your New System

Payroll component mapping is the step that most companies underinvest in, and it is the most common source of payroll errors in the first one or two months after migration.

Understanding Component Types

Every salary component falls into one of three categories: earnings (components that add to gross pay), deductions (components that reduce net pay), and employer contributions (costs borne by the employer that do not appear on the employee's payslip but affect the company's payroll cost). Each type is handled differently in every HRMS, and the mapping must be done at this level of detail.

The Standard Indian Salary Structure

A typical Indian SMB salary structure includes:

• Basic pay — 40–50% of CTC under the new wage code
• HRA — typically 40–50% of Basic
• Special Allowance — the balancing figure
• LTA — Leave Travel Allowance, if paid
• Medical Allowance

For employees earning above ₹15,000, PF is deducted on wages up to ₹25,000 (new ceiling). ESIC is deducted for employees with monthly wages at or below ₹21,000. Professional tax varies by state and is typically ₹200/month for employees above the state threshold.

Common Mapping Mistakes

The most frequent mapping error is treating PF as calculated on Basic only when the previous system was calculating it on Basic + other allowances (or vice versa). Confirm the exact PF base definition before migration and match it exactly in the new system. Similarly, confirm whether your HRA is calculated as a flat amount, a percentage of Basic, or a percentage of CTC — these three methods produce different numbers, and the new system must use the same method as the old one.

Variable Pay Components

If your company pays performance bonuses, project incentives, or sales commissions through payroll, map these separately. Variable components typically have different tax treatment, different PF applicability, and different payment frequencies. Document each variable component explicitly before the migration.

Running Parallel Payroll — Why It Is Not Optional

Running parallel payroll means processing the same month's payroll in both your old system (Keka) and your new system simultaneously, then comparing the outputs before making any actual salary payments from the new system.

How to Run a Parallel Payroll

Choose a month where attendance data is clean and there are no exceptional payments — no bonuses, no arrears, no full-and-final settlements. Process the complete payroll in Keka as you normally would. Then, in your new system, enter the same attendance data, run payroll, and generate the output report.

Compare the following for at least 10 employees across different salary bands:

• Gross pay
• PF deduction (employee share)
• PF contribution (employer share)
• ESIC deduction (if applicable)
• Professional tax
• TDS deduction
• Net pay

Acceptable Variance

A ±₹1–₹2 difference per component per employee is acceptable and is usually caused by rounding differences in how the two systems handle fractions of a rupee. A difference of ₹5 or more in any component for any employee requires investigation before you go live. Common causes of larger differences include different PF base calculations, different LOP (Loss of Pay) formulas, or a salary component that was missed during the mapping exercise.

Sign-Off Before Going Live

The parallel payroll must be signed off by the person who owns payroll accountability — typically the Finance Head or CFO, not just the HR manager. This sign-off documents that the new system has been validated and creates a clear handover point.

Post-Migration Checklist — 30 Days After Going Live

The first 30 days after switching HRMS require active monitoring even when the parallel payroll validated correctly.

PF ECR File From the New System

Generate your first PF ECR file from the new system and have your PF consultant or accountant verify it before submission. The file format must be exactly correct — even minor formatting errors cause the EPFO portal to reject the file, which then requires a revised submission and delays the challan payment.

ESIC Challan Generation

Verify that the new system is generating ESIC challans correctly for all eligible employees. Cross-check the total ESIC liability figure against your manual calculation for the month.

Employee Self-Service Access

Confirm that every employee can log in to the self-service portal, view their payslip, and see their correct leave balance. The first question employees ask after a system switch is whether their leave balance is right. If it is not, fix it immediately — leave balance disputes erode trust in the new system very quickly.

Leave Policy Configuration

Verify that leave accrual is happening correctly in the new system. Check that annual leave is accruing at the right monthly rate (total annual leave ÷ 12 months), that leave encashment limits are configured, and that leave carry-forward rules match your company policy.

Why Companies Are Switching to PeopleVio in 2026

PeopleVio has positioned itself specifically as the migration destination for companies leaving Keka, Greythr, and Darwinbox at the 50–200 employee scale. The product decisions reflect this: the onboarding process is designed around data migration rather than greenfield setup, the compliance engine is pre-configured for Indian statutory requirements rather than requiring manual setup, and the support model includes a dedicated migration manager for the first 90 days rather than a ticket queue.

For companies concerned about compliance continuity during migration, PeopleVio's approach is to run a dedicated parallel payroll validation service as part of onboarding — the PeopleVio team runs the comparison and flags discrepancies before you go live. This reduces the risk of the migration to near zero for companies with standard payroll structures.

Frequently Asked Questions About Switching HRMS

How long does switching HRMS take?

For a company with up to 100 employees and a standard salary structure, the full migration — from kickoff to live payroll in the new system — takes two to four weeks. The largest time component is typically the parallel payroll validation, which takes one full payroll cycle. Companies with more than 100 employees, multi-state payroll, or complex variable pay structures should plan for four to six weeks.

Will employee data be safe during migration?

Employee data security during migration depends on how the migration is conducted. Data should be transferred through secure, encrypted channels — never via unencrypted email or public file-sharing services. The new vendor should provide a data processing agreement (DPA) that covers the handling of employee personal data in compliance with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA). Ask for this document before sharing any employee data.

Can I switch HRMS in the middle of a financial year?

Yes, and it is done more often than vendors suggest is ideal. The key requirement is that the new system receives accurate year-to-date TDS figures for every employee so that TDS for the remainder of the year is calculated correctly. This data comes from your payroll history export and must be entered carefully. If this step is done correctly, mid-year switches are operationally clean. If it is skipped or done hastily, TDS errors will appear at year end when Form 16 is generated.

What happens to historical payroll data after switching?

Your historical payroll data should exist in three places after switching: your exported files (which you retain permanently), your previous HRMS (until your contract ends, at which point you should request a final export), and your new HRMS (where you import the last 12–24 months of history for operational use). The original exported files are your permanent record and should be stored in a location that is not tied to any HRMS vendor.

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Planning your switch? Book a free migration consultation with PeopleVio. We will review your current payroll structure, identify any migration risks, and give you a realistic timeline and cost — with no obligation to proceed.