HOW TO CREATE TEXT FILE AND ECR LOAD PROCESS ON UNIFIED EPF PORTAL
ECR stands for Electronic Challan cum Return. It is a monthly electronic statement that employers must upload through the EPF employer portal.
Approval of the uploaded ECR will result in the generation of a Challan whereby the employer has to remit the fees through online payment.
Step-by-step process for ECR submission as follows:
Step-1: Login into Unified EPFO portal and use your ECR portal credentials.
Step 2: Now go to the ECR / Return Declaration option in the menu bar under the Payments tab to upload the ECR text file.
Step 3: Now in new page click on ECR upload.
In the new page click on ECR File Upload and read all “IMPORTANT NOTE” and ECR Help File. Before uploading ECR text file we need to create it.
Steps to Create Text File
First, open the ECR file excel format and fill in all the details.
Now go save as and choose CSV (comma delimited) in save as type and save the file.
Once the file has been successfully saved as CSV, go to the destination folder and open it with notepad. Now remove the notepad headings and a blank space from the end of the file.
Step 4: Now select the salary month, salary disbursement date and load the EPF ECR text file. Then select the remaining fields like File Type (Select ECR), Contribution Rate, either 12% or 10%, (the default is 12%), add a comment and click the Upload button:
Step 5: After successfully uploading the ECR file, the following message will appear on the screen saying “File validation successful, file processing is in progress and may take longer, please visit again after a while.”
Step 6: Click the Verify button to generate ECR. Once you click the Verify button, you will get a message that you are going to verify the data with the uploaded file, and before verifying, download the ECR statement and then verify, click OK.
Step 7: Now, TRRN will be generated for the loaded ECR (Electronic Challan cum Return) file and the Generate ECR summary sheet by clicking the “Prepare Challan” button.
Step 8: Here, enter the administrative / inspection charges for A / c no. 2. Also, you can EDIT the EDLI contribution for A / c no. 21. Also fill in “Employer details” and then click the “Generate” button Challan “.
Step 9: At this stage too, you can EDIT the challan, if needed. Click the “Finish” button after verifying the amount of challan. Once finished, you can download the Acknowledgement file and the “Challan in-process list” receipt file.
Step 10: Now, you can go ahead and make the payment. Click the “Pay” button to make the payment.