File TDS for Contractual Payments Using Form 26Q in Keka

Introduction

If your organization makes payments to vendors, contractors, or professionals, you may need to deduct TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) under various sections of the Income Tax Act. These deductions must be reported every quarter using Form 26Q.

Keka now lets you manage this process end-to-end — right from tracking deductions to generating ready-to-submit Form 26Q files — without needing external tools.

With this feature, you can:

• Track TDS deducted through Keka

• Add TDS data for payments made outside Keka

• Manage challans and map payees

• Generate and download quarterly Form 26Q files in FVU and text format

• Keep a generation history for audits and compliance

Table of Contents

• Before you start
• Step-by-Step Filing Process
• Review TDS & Challans
• Add TDS for Payments Made Outside Keka
• Manage Challans
• Generate Return Files for Form 26Q
• View Generation History

Before you start

Make sure:

• Payroll has been finalized for at least one month in the selected quarter.

• Contractual payments processed in Keka are already considered for TDS automatically.

For payments made outside Keka, you’ll need:

• Payee Name

• Payee PAN

• Nature of Payment

• Payment Amount

• Payment Date

• TDS Amount

• TDS Deduction Date

• CSI file from the bank portal for challan validation

Step-by-Step Filing Process

Go to TDS Management

1. Go to Payroll Admin.

2. Click TDS Management (24Q & 26Q).

3. Select Form 26Q.

   

You'll see a layout similar to Form 24Q, including:

• Legal Entity filter

• Financial Year filter

• Quarter selector (Q1–Q4)

  Note: If your company has only one Indian entity, the legal entity filter is hidden

Review TDS & Challans

After selecting a quarter, you'll see two tabs. In the TDS & Challans tab, you can review monthly deductions with these columns:

Once a quarter is filed, all actions become read-only.

Add TDS for Payments Made Outside Keka

1. Click Add Details under TDS Outside Keka.

   

2. A full-screen form opens where you can:

   • Add payees one by one

   • Delete a payee

   • Import payee details in bulk

   

Fill in:

• Payee Name

• PAN

• Nature of Payment (choose from dropdown)

• Payment Amount

• Payment Date

• TDS Amount

• TDS Deduction Date

Manage Challans

Managing challans is similar to the Form 24Q workflow, with a few differences:

• TDS Deduction Date is not required at the challan level.

• Cess and Surcharge fields are not applicable.

From the Manage Challans section, you can:

• Add new challans

• Map payees to challans (for both Keka and outside payments)

• View a summary of challan-wise mapping

Generate Return Files for Form 26Q

Once all TDS entries are mapped:

1. Click Generate Return Files.

   

2. Upload the CSI file downloaded from your bank portal.

3. Enter your company details and responsible person’s information.

Keka will:

• Generate a .txt file using its internal sandbox

• Validate it and generate a .ZIP file using the official FVU utility

• Allow you to download the ZIP file for uploading to the Income Tax portal.

View Generation History

In the Generation History tab, you can:

• View all previously generated Form 26Q files

• Download .txt or .zip (FVU) files

  

• See timestamps and the user who generated each file

This helps maintain audit trails and ensure compliance.