Run your contractors like a real business.
Most firms hire freelancers on a handshake — no contract, TDS by guesswork, payouts from a personal bank app, IP ownership never written down. JambaHR formalises all of it: signed agreements, automatic TDS, and bank-verified payouts from your own wallet.
Contractor tools are on the Business plan.
194J · 194C
Auto-computed TDS
e-sign
NDA & IP assignment
RazorpayX
Payouts from your wallet
Maker-checker
Two-person approval
No formalisation?
This is how most firms manage contractors today.
Hired on a handshake
Freelancers start work with no signed contract, no NDA, and no clarity on who owns the output.
TDS by guesswork
Is it 194J or 194C? 1%, 2%, or 10%? No PAN? Wrong deductions become your liability at assessment time.
Manual bank transfers
Payouts pushed one-by-one from a personal banking app, with no record of who approved what.
No paper trail
Rates live in chat threads, payments in bank SMS. Nothing to show an auditor, a client, or a contractor.
Mixed into payroll
Contractors stuffed into the salary sheet — accidentally taxed for PF/PT, or accruing leave they should never get.
IP ownership unclear
Who owns the design, the edit, the script? Work-for-hire vs licensed is never written down — until a dispute.
Every one of these becomes your liability. There's a cleaner way. ↓
With JambaHR
From informal to audit-ready.
The same contractor relationships — now with a contract, the right tax, a two-person approval, and a record of every rupee.
Every contractor has a signed engagement with a stated rate and TDS section.
TDS is computed and deducted automatically — what you preview is what's deducted.
Payouts move from your own RazorpayX wallet with a two-person approval.
NDAs and IP-assignment agreements are e-signed and timestamped before the first payment.
Contractors are fully separated from salaried payroll — no PF, no PT, no leave.
Every rate, payout, and signature is on record and exportable.
Everything you need
The full contractor toolkit.
Onboarding, agreements, tax, and payouts — six tools that turn a freelancer relationship into a compliant, recorded one.
Contractors as a real worker type
Set Employment type = Contract and JambaHR routes that person out of salaried payroll automatically. They don't accrue leave, never hit a PF/PT slab, and get a deliberately narrowed self-service view — just profile, bank details, and payout statements.
Engagements & rates
Each contractor gets one active engagement: rate type (hourly / daily / monthly / per-milestone), rate amount, TDS section, payee type, PAN status, and contract dates. It's the contractor's pay profile — the single source of truth for how they're paid.
Automatic TDS (194J / 194C)
You pick the section; JambaHR knows the rates, thresholds, and the no-PAN §206AA penalty rate. A live preview shows gross, rate, TDS, and net per contractor before you submit — no manual tax math, no surprises.
Bank-verified, two-person payouts
Every account is penny-drop verified (₹1 + name match) before it can be paid. Payouts dispatch from your own RazorpayX wallet via IMPS, and maker-checker means a second admin approves before money moves. JambaHR never holds your funds.
Agreements, NDA & IP e-signing
Send a Service agreement, NDA, or IP-assignment doc as a magic link — no login for the contractor. They type their legal name to sign; JambaHR records the signature, IP address, browser, and timestamp as proof. Choose work-for-hire or licensed IP per agreement.
Cleanly separated from payroll
Contractors are paid in their own ad-hoc runs, never the monthly salary cycle. No PF, no Professional Tax, no salary-slab TDS, no Form-16 salary math — but the same secure rails (verification, RazorpayX, approval) your salaried payroll uses.
Tax, handled
You pick the section. We do the math.
TDS rates and thresholds for FY 2025-26 are built in — including the higher no-PAN rate under Section 206AA.
| Section | Use it for | Rate | No TDS below |
|---|---|---|---|
| 194J | Professional / technical / creative fees | 10% | ≤ ₹30,000 per payment |
| 194C | Contract work — Individual / HUF payee | 1% | < ₹30k single & < ₹1L/year |
| 194C | Contract work — company / firm payee | 2% | < ₹30k single & < ₹1L/year |
| 206AA | Any contractor without a PAN | 20% | threshold still applies |
Example: a ₹50,000 creative fee under 194J → ₹5,000 TDS, net ₹45,000. The same number shows in the payout preview before you submit.
Quick guides
Four things you'll actually do.
Onboard a contractor
- 1Employees → Add (or edit) and set Employment type = Contract.
- 2Add their bank account and run penny-drop verification.
- 3They appear on the Contractors page with a Bank verified chip.
Set up an engagement
- 1Contractors → Add engagement, pick the contractor.
- 2Choose rate type & amount, TDS section (194J / 194C), payee type, and PAN status.
- 3Add contract start / end / renewal dates if you have them.
Pay with auto-TDS
- 1Contractors → Pay contractors, select who to pay.
- 2Type each gross amount — a live TDS preview shows net pay per row.
- 3Submit, then a second admin approves the batch to dispatch via RazorpayX.
Send & sign an agreement
- 1On an engagement, click Send agreement; pick type and IP ownership.
- 2Edit the auto-generated body if needed, set an expiry, and Send.
- 3Contractor opens the link, types their name to sign — status chips update live.
Pay your next freelancer the right way.
Signed agreement, correct TDS, two-person approval, full record — in one platform. Free to start; contractor tools unlock on Business.
Get Started Free