Release Notes

The problem it solves: Every year, India payroll teams run the same exhausting cycle. Employees declare investments through emails, spreadsheets, or offline forms. Proofs arrive as scanned attachments or physical documents. Payroll admins reconcile the two manually before TDS finalisation – chasing missing data, decoding inconsistent formats, and answering the same employee queries again and again.

The result is predictable: errors in TDS calculation, audit trails that are hard to defend, and avoidable workload across HR, payroll, and finance.

What we built: A complete, end-to-end India Tax Declaration and Proof Submission Module – built directly into HR Blizz Employee Self-Service and the Payroll Admin Console. Employees declare, upload, and track their tax submissions in one place. Admins configure, audit, and approve from a single dashboard. Every action is logged, transparent, and tied to TDS calculations automatically.

What this means for your team:

• Tax declarations and proof submissions are no longer collected over email, spreadsheets, or paper
• TDS calculations are based on admin-approved amounts – not unverified declarations
• Employees self-serve from declaration through to status tracking, removing repeat queries to HR and payroll
• The entire process leaves a clean, auditable trail – useful at year-end, during audits, and for compliance reviews

How it works – a clear two-phase process: The module replaces the legacy declaration-and-collection cycle with a structured, time-bound workflow that admins control.

Phase 1 – Declaration (typically April): At the start of the financial year, employees declare their planned investments through the ESS portal. No documents are required at this stage – this phase is for planning. Submissions are auto-approved and feed directly into monthly TDS calculations.

Phase 2 – Proof Submission (typically Q4): Later in the year, employees upload supporting documents against each declared investment. Admins review every proof, validate amounts, and approve, reject, or partially approve. The approved figures replace the planned figures and become the basis for final TDS adjustment.

What employees can do

What payroll admins can do

Tax sections covered
The module supports all major investment and income categories under the Indian Income Tax Act:

• House Rent Allowance (HRA): Month-wise rent, landlord PAN, city type
• Section 80C, 80CCC, 80CCD: Life Insurance, PF, ELSS, NPS, LIC Annuity (combined limit ₹1,50,000; additional ₹50,000 via 80CCD(1B) for NPS)
• Section 80D: Health insurance premiums for self, family, and parents (including preventive health check-up)
• Chapter VI-A (Others): Education loan interest (80E), donations, disability deductions (80DD/80U), EV loan interest (80EEB), first-home buyer interest (80EEA)
• House Property: Home loan interest and rental income (self-occupied and let-out)
• Other Income & TDS: Interest income, TCS paid, and previous employment income (Form 12B)

Important to know before activation

Audience at a glance

Available now for all India ESS clients on the current platform version. Contact your Mercans consultant to confirm storage configuration and activate the module for your environment.

The problem it solves: When a record changed via an integration, Employee History showed the source as a generic EIF – Employee Integration File. With multiple integrations potentially feeding the same record, that single label gave no indication of which integration was actually responsible. Audit trails became harder to follow. Root-cause investigations took longer. Discrepancy reviews relied on guesswork or external logs.

What we built: The Source column in Employee History now displays the actual integration file name – not the generic token. You can see at a glance exactly which integration drove a change, whether it was an EIF or an MSS file.

What this means for your team:

• Identify the exact integration responsible for any record change without leaving Employee History
• Resolve audit queries and discrepancy investigations faster – the source is named, not abstract
• Strengthens data governance for organisations running multiple concurrent integrations into the same employee records

What you’ll see

Active now for all HR Blizz users – no configuration required. The new format applies to integration-triggered changes from this release onwards.

The problem it solves: Adjusting a leave balance used to mean changing one number. It worked – but it left no trace of why. Was that +5 days a correction to an entitlement? A reversed taken day? A carry-forward update? The record gave no answer. For HR teams handling audits, disputes, or staff handovers, that opacity created real risk.

On top of that, bulk leave operations – year-end corrections, back-dated approvals, legacy migrations – required separate processes or manual workarounds. There was no single, structured path to load both adjustments and taken leave in one go.

What we built: HR Blizz now lets you adjust leave balances at the component level – not as a single opaque figure. Every change captures a reason, a timestamp, and a source. And a single bulk upload can now carry both balance adjustments and leave taken records in the same file.

What this means for your team:

• Audits move faster – every adjustment is traceable to a specific component, a reason, and a user, with no reconstruction needed
• Disputes are easier to resolve – instead of “the balance changed sometime last month,” you see exactly what changed, when, and why
• Handovers become cleaner – incoming HR or payroll staff inherit a complete, selfexplaining leave history rather than a set of unexplained figures
• Year-end corrections, back-dated approvals, and legacy migrations can all be executed in a single coordinated batch upload

What you can now adjust: Leave balance adjustments are made at the component level. The Total Balance is always calculated automatically – you never edit it directly.

Bulk leave records – one upload, two types of data: The bulk upload screen now accepts both balance adjustments and leave taken records in a single file. You no longer need separate uploads or separate processes for each.

Ideal for:

• Year-end balance corrections across large employee populations
• Back-dated leave approvals that need to be reflected in the system quickly
• Migrating leave data from a legacy system or outgoing payroll provider
• Applying a one-off policy change across your entire workforce in a single batch

Important: How this feature works – read before first use

These are deliberate design decisions, not limitations. Please share these with your HR and payroll teams before using the feature for the first time.

Adjustments are permitted only for the current payroll period, and only while it is in Draft status. Once a period moves to Review, Approved, or Closed, no further adjustments are accepted for that period. Future-dated adjustments are not supported.

2. Total Balance editing has been removed

Direct editing of the Total Balance field is no longer available. All changes must be made through the underlying components. The Total is calculated automatically from those components.

3. Formula-driven leave types are excluded

Leave types calculated by a formula – such as maternity leave tied to gender, or childcare leave tied to dependents – cannot be adjusted through this feature. To change these balances, update the relevant employee attribute. The leave balance will recalculate automatically on the next cycle.

5. Duplicate prevention is built in

The system will not allow you to create a second adjustment for the same employee and leave type (or the same employee, leave type, and dates for Leave Taken rows). If a record already exists, you will be directed to edit it rather than create a duplicate.

Learn more:

• Questions about your configuration? Contact your Mercans Account Manager

User Guide

The problem it solves: When running payroll reports across multiple pay groups — weekly, monthly, bi-weekly — there was no immediate way to confirm which pay group a report belonged to without reading through the data itself. For teams managing several concurrent payroll cycles, this added unnecessary verification steps, especially when reviewing or sharing exported reports.

What we built: HR Blizz now includes a Pay Group field in the headers of all system default reports and GLType reports. The field dynamically reflects the pay group — or groups — associated with the payroll run it was generated from, and appears consistently across every output format.

What this means for your team:

• Identify the pay group tied to any report instantly — at the top of the page, before reading a single line of data
• Multi-pay-group runs display all associated groups clearly, listed together (e.g., Monthly Payroll, Weekly Payroll) — no ambiguity when a report spans more than one cycle
• The pay group header appears identically whether you are viewing on-screen or exporting to Excel or PDF — your exported reports carry the same clarity as what you see in the system

Reports updated:

Supported output formats: On-screen · Excel export · PDF export

Active now for all users — no setup required

The problem it solves: Every extra screen between login and your actual workspace adds friction – especially for payroll teams logging in multiple times a day during busy processing periods.

What we built: HR Blizz now takes users directly to their role-based landing page after login. Intermediate screens for app and entity selection have been removed. Switching between apps or entities remains available within the platform when needed.

What this means for your team:

• Faster access from the moment you log in – no extra clicks to reach your workspace
• Role-based routing means each user lands exactly where they need to be
• No loss of flexibility – switching context within the app remains simple

Best for: All HR Blizz users, with the most noticeable impact for those logging in frequently across payroll processing days.

Active for all users automatically – no configuration required

The problem it solves: Before submitting statutory payroll files, errors are hard to spot when all you have is a raw TXT file. By the time a problem is found, resubmission means delays and potential penalties.

What we built: HR Blizz now provides an Excel download of Form 24Q (Q4) data, organized across multiple sheets – covering employee details, challans, deductions, salary information, and statutory sections. Review everything clearly before generating the final submission file.

What this means for your team:

• Catch errors before submission, not after – structured Excel format makes review straightforward
• Any team member can validate the data, not just those familiar with TXT file formats
• Reduces the risk of rejected filings, resubmissions, and compliance penalties

Best for: India payroll teams managing TDS compliance, particularly during Q4 when year-end salary and deduction data requires thorough verification.

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The problem it solves: In many countries, payslip files need to follow specific naming conventions – often including employee tax numbers or other identifiers. Renaming files manually after generation is tedious and creates inconsistency.

What we built: Payslip filenames in HR Blizz can now be configured to dynamically include HR field values – such as employee tax IDs – based on your required format. Files are named correctly at the point of generation.

What this means for your team:

• No manual renaming after payslip generation – files come out correctly named every time
• Reduces compliance risk from inconsistent or incorrectly named payslip files
• Supports regional documentation standards without adding manual steps to your process

Best for: Multi-country payroll operations where local compliance standards dictate specific file naming formats.

Contact your Mercans account manager to configure filename variables for your environment

The problem it solves: Payroll teams often need to validate data, answer leadership queries, or share figures before the payroll run is fully finalized – but most systems lock reporting until the close is complete.

What we built: HR Blizz now allows reports to be generated as soon as a payroll run reaches the Result Review stage – for main runs, off-cycle runs, and correction runs alike. Where multiple runs exist in the same period, values are automatically combined into one consolidated view.

What this means for your team:

• Review and validate payroll figures earlier, without waiting for full closure
• No manual reconciliation when multiple runs exist in the same period – the system consolidates automatically
• Respond faster to finance queries, pre-close reviews, or leadership requests

Best for: Organizations with tight reporting deadlines, multi-run payroll periods, or finance teams that need payroll visibility before the close is confirmed.

Available now at the Result Review stage – no additional setup required

The problem it solves: Employees who aren’t assigned to a pay group can slip through payroll processing unnoticed – resulting in missed payments, reporting gaps, and exceptions that surface at the worst possible time.

What we built: HR Blizz now validates pay group assignments before payroll progresses. If an employee isn’t properly mapped, the system flags it before it becomes a downstream problem.

What this means for your team:

• Missed payments due to incomplete setup are caught before processing begins
• Payroll reports stay accurate – unassigned employees don’t create ghost exceptions
• Adds a clear governance checkpoint into your standard payroll workflow

Best for: Organizations with high employee turnover, frequent onboarding cycles, or complex workforce structures where assignment gaps are a recurring risk.

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The problem it solves: Creating a pay group or moving employees between groups has historically required a change request to Mercans – adding wait time and operational friction for routine workforce changes.

What we built: Pay group creation and employee movement are now fully self-service within HR Blizz. Payroll administrators can manage these directly, without raising a request.

What this means for your team:

• Move employees between pay cycles or pay dates immediately when business needs change
• No change requests, no waiting – routine payroll admin stays in your hands
• Reduces operational overhead and support dependency for organizations running multiple payroll calendars

Best for: Organizations managing multiple payroll calendars, growing headcounts, or frequent workforce restructuring where pay cycle changes are routine.

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The problem it solves: When payroll involves split calculations, repayments, or multi-currency conversions, minor rounding differences appear in payroll journals – causing Finance teams to manually chase down small discrepancies at month-end.

What we built: HR Blizz now automatically allocates rounding variances to a designated General Ledger account. Journals stay balanced without anyone touching them.

What this means for your team:

• Month-end close moves faster – no manual journal corrections for rounding
• Finance and Payroll stop chasing cents across reconciliation reports
• Works across all payroll scenarios: split pay, repayments, and currency conversions

Best for: Organizations running multi-currency payroll or managing complex pay structures with frequent split calculations.

Talk to your account manager to enable this

The problem it solves: When a payroll discrepancy surfaces, tracking what changed and when means running separate audit reports, scrolling through pages of records, and losing time during investigations or compliance reviews.

What we built: Change history is now embedded directly inside the employee profile and listing view. One click shows exactly what was updated, when it changed, and who made the change – no separate report, no extra navigation.

What this means for your team:

• Discrepancy investigations that used to take hours now take minutes
• Audit queries can be answered on the spot, not after a report run
• Compliance teams get a clear, timestamped trail exactly where payroll decisions are made

Best for: Teams that handle frequent compliance queries, internal audits, or multi-country payroll where change tracking is a regulatory requirement.

Available now in the Employee Listing and Profile view – no additional setup required

The problem it solves: Manually entering opening balances for employee loans, advances, or recurring benefit deductions one by one is time-consuming and error-prone – especially when managing hundreds or thousands of employees.

What we built: The HR Blizz import template now supports multiple pay elements per employee with opening balances in a single structured upload. Load an entire population’s recurring deductions or loan balances in one go.

What this means for your team:

• Eliminates repetitive data entry when onboarding large employee groups
• Reduces the risk of errors from manual entry across high-volume populations
• Cuts implementation and go-live timelines for organizations with complex benefit structures

Best for: Organizations managing employee loans, recurring advances, or multi-tier benefit deductions at scale – particularly during implementations or workforce restructuring.

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