Get the sequence right before you hire your first employee.

Ongoing compliance work is forgiving of a slow start — a gap can usually be found and closed. Setup decisions are less forgiving: registering in the wrong sequence, missing a threshold that was crossed quietly mid-year, or treating a second state's obligations as identical to the first, all compound the longer they sit unaddressed. Getting this right once, before the first hire, is cheaper than unwinding it during a later inspection or a BGV.

• Entity-and-location applicability mapping — which registrations trigger for this specific entity type, state, industry and headcount, established before the first hire rather than assumed.
• Registration sequencing — the actual order these need to happen in, since some filings expect an existing entity record and others expect an existing payroll record.
• Multi-state setup — a new office, factory or warehouse in a second state usually means a fresh state-level check (Shops & Establishments, Professional Tax, Labour Welfare Fund), separate from what already applies at the first location.
• Payroll and statutory system setup — the compliance calendar and register set built in from day one, instead of retrofitted after the first year has already passed.
• First-year compliance calendar — a defined calendar for the obligations that apply from incorporation, and a marker for the ones that only trigger once a headcount or turnover threshold is crossed.
• Documentation baseline — the record set established now so that a later background check, audit or inspection does not surface a gap that traces back to setup.

Reviewed by: Shobhit Kesarwani, independent EPFO and employer-compliance practitioner · Last reviewed: September 2026
Sources: EPFO, ESIC, MCA, Shram Suvidha, and the relevant state labour department. Thresholds, rates and due dates change by notification — confirm against the official source at the date you act.