Mounika Garlapenta

Mounika writes Merik's guides on payroll, attendance, leave and HR, for owners and office admins who run these themselves without an HR department.

Every guide shows the date it was published and, where it has changed, the date it was last updated. Questions or corrections: merik.msk@gmail.com. Merik on LinkedIn.

Guides by Mounika Garlapenta (50)

• A monthly review that takes 20 minutes
• An attendance policy template you can actually enforce
• Appointment letter template for India: every clause explained
• Attendance regularisation: fixing a wrong day without breaking trust
• Biometric vs GPS vs manual attendance: which should you use?
• Building a company holiday calendar that payroll can use
• Common payroll mistakes small businesses make
• Contractor or employee? Classifying workers correctly
• CTC vs in-hand salary, explained
• DPDP Act for employers: what to do with employee data before May 2027
• Employee exit and full & final settlement
• Employee onboarding checklist for small businesses
• Employee self-service: what it means and why it matters
• EPFO wage ceiling raised to ₹25,000: what changes in your payroll
• Face recognition attendance: accuracy, privacy law, and whether you need it
• Free attendance app for a small business: what "free" should include
• From attendance to payroll, without re-keying
• Geolocation attendance for field and multi-site teams
• Gratuity calculation in India: formula, eligibility, examples
• How many leaves should a small business offer in India?
• How to calculate late marks and half-days fairly
• How to generate salary slips for your team without a template
• How to run payroll without an accountant
• How to track employee attendance without spreadsheets
• HRMS vs payroll software vs attendance app: which do you need?
• Hybrid work attendance: tracking office days, WFH and remote fairly
• Income-tax Act 2025 is live: what changes for salary TDS
• India's new labour codes: what changes for small business payroll
• Leave carry-forward and encashment, explained simply
• Loss of pay, calculated properly
• Minimum wage revisions: the twice-a-year payroll check
• Moonlighting and dual employment: a policy for small businesses
• Notice period recovery and buyout: how to calculate it, what you can deduct
• Overtime calculation in India: the rule, the formula, the records
• Paid vs unpaid leave, managed simply
• Payroll compliance checklist for Indian small businesses
• Payroll software for a small Indian business: a 10-point checklist
• Payslip format: what every payslip must show
• Return-to-office attendance policy: office days you can actually enforce
• Running a salary hike cycle without guesswork
• Salary advance and festival advance: a policy you can copy
• Sick leave vs casual leave: what's the difference?
• Statutory bonus in India: who gets it, how much, by when
• Structuring departments and designations as you scale
• The four-day work week in India: what the codes allow and how to run it
• The HR & payroll compliance calendar for a small Indian business
• What to check before you upload your whole team
• WhatsApp attendance groups: why they fail and what replaces them
• Why your Excel attendance sheet breaks at 15 employees
• Work from home policy: what to include and how to track it

Also from Merik: guides by Sanjay Kumar Garlapenta, Co-founder. More about the company on the About page.