ClearSalary User Guide
Everything you need to run staff salaries, loans and attendance in ClearSalary — for business owners and for staff.
Introduction
ClearSalary is a simple salary ledger for small businesses with a handful of staff. It keeps a running record of each person's salary, any loans you give them, deductions, and the salary slips you pay each month — so you always know exactly what's owed, without a notebook or spreadsheet.
There are two kinds of user:
- The business owner (employer) — adds staff and records everything.
- Staff members — can be invited to log in and view their own salary and loan details, read-only.
You sign in with your phone number and a one-time SMS code — there's no password to remember.
Getting started
1. Sign in
Enter your 10-digit mobile number and tap Send OTP. You'll receive a 6-digit code by SMS — enter it (on most phones it fills in automatically) and you're in.
2. Tell us about your business
The first time you sign in, ClearSalary asks for a few details: your full name, email, whether it's for a home or a business, your business type, and your city, state and country. This is a one-time setup.
The dashboard
The dashboard is your month-at-a-glance view:
- Major holidays this month and next month.
- Payments due this month — the total still pending, plus each staff member who's owed. Tap the total to see the full per-staff breakdown.
- Total amount due next month — a forecast of next month's salaries. Tap it for the per-staff list.
When everyone has been paid for the month, the pending total reads zero.
Adding staff
Open the Staff tab and tap Add Staff. Fill in:
- Full name and an optional role (e.g. Cashier, Driver).
- Phone number — optional. A staff member with no phone simply can't log in themselves; you can still manage their records.
- Salaried or Contract. Salaried staff get a monthly salary and monthly slips. Contract staff have no monthly salary — you use them only to track loans and repayments.
- Monthly salary (salaried only) and a joining date.
- Documents — attach ID or agreement scans if you like.
Inviting a staff member
If you enter a phone number, the Send invite toggle appears (on by default). Adding the staff member opens your phone's share sheet with a ready-made message — send it over WhatsApp or SMS. The invite lets them download ClearSalary and sign in with that number to see their own salary and loan details.
The staff page
Tapping a staff member opens their page, with quick cards:
- Outstanding amount — their current loan balance. Tap to open the Ledger Book.
- Attendance — leaves taken this month and this year. Tap to open the attendance calendar.
- View Ledger Book — the full running record of loans, repayments, deductions and payments.
- Salary Slips (salaried staff) — every month's slip.
Below the cards is Recent activity. To edit a staff member's details, salary or documents, tap the settings icon at the top of their page.
Loans & deductions
This is the heart of ClearSalary, and the two ideas are kept deliberately separate:
- A salary deduction reduces this month's salary (for example, a penalty or a breakage). It has nothing to do with loans.
- A loan is money you advance to a staff member. It's repaid either as cash they return, or by recovering it from their salary when you pay them.
Open a staff member's Ledger Book. It has three tabs:
All
Every entry in date order, with a running loan balance.
Salary → Mark Deduction
On the Salary tab, tap Mark Deduction. Enter the amount, pick a reason and a date. This is deducted from that month's salary and appears as a line on the salary slip. No loans are touched here.
Loan Book → Make Entry
On the Loan Book tab, tap Make Entry and choose:
- Add Loan — money given to the staff member (increases their loan).
- Repayment — cash the staff member has returned (reduces their loan). This does not touch their salary.
Enter the amount, date and an optional note. Recovering a loan from salary is done on the salary slip — see below.
Salary slips
ClearSalary creates a draft slip for each salaried staff member at the start of every month, so nothing is missed. Open Salary Slips from the staff page and tap a month (or use + to create one for a specific month).
What's on a slip
- Basic Salary and any Bonus.
- Deductions — the total, with each reason listed underneath.
- Loan repayment (from salary) — the amount you choose to recover toward their loan this month.
- Net Payable — what you actually pay them.
Below that, a Loan Book summary shows the loan at the start of the month, new loans, cash repaid, the amount recovered from salary, and the final balance.
Marking a slip paid
On a draft, set how much (if any) to recover from the loan, then tap Mark Paid. ClearSalary records the payment, reduces the loan by whatever you recovered, and locks the slip — its numbers are frozen as a permanent record.
Attendance
Open Attendance from a staff member's page to see a calendar:
- Green — a day worked.
- Red — marked on leave.
- Grey — an upcoming day (you can mark these too).
Tap any day to toggle it on or off leave. The counts of leaves this month and this year appear on the staff page and on the salary slip. Marking attendance is instant.
Staff members see their attendance read-only.
Documents
Attach a staff member's ID, contract or other files when adding them, or later from Edit Staff. Tap any document to view it inside the app, or share it.
Settings
- Account — edit your name, email and business details. Your phone number is fixed. You can also request to suspend and delete your account here.
- Currency symbol — sets how amounts are shown everywhere.
- Language — ClearSalary is available in more languages. These are a beta feature translated with AI tools, so there may be mistakes — we'd love your feedback at support@clearsalary.in.
- Privacy policy — how your data is handled.
For staff members
If your employer invites you, you can use ClearSalary to keep track of your own pay:
- Download ClearSalary and sign in with the same phone number your employer added.
- You'll see your salary, loan balance, salary slips and attendance — for yourself only.
- It's read-only: only your employer can add or change entries. This just gives you a clear, honest view of what you've been paid and what's outstanding.
Help & support
Stuck, or spotted something that looks wrong? We're happy to help — write to us at support@clearsalary.in and we'll get back to you.