IndiaAuditLens
Import another tool's return file or payroll export
Bring a quarter's challans and deductee rows from a statement TXT made in another return tool, or salary payments from a payroll export, into IndiaAuditLens without retyping them. You see every change before anything…
By IndiaAuditLens product team · Updated 2026-10-16
Before you begin
Add the client's TAN under Client → TAN Registrations; the file's TAN must be one of them. Keep the exact file you import: the TXT as the other tool made it, or the payroll export as received. Check that the file is the regular statement for the form, quarter and year you mean to fill.
What can be read
A regular statement TXT in the Protean format: Forms 138, 140, 143 and 144 from tax year 2026-27 (file layout 1.x). The Form 138 TXT for Q4 is not read until its layout is published; import Q4 salary from a sheet instead. 24Q, 26Q, 27Q and 27EQ for FY 2025-26 and earlier years. A 24Q Q4 file's annual salary details (Annexure II) are kept as filed; they are not recalculated. A payroll export, or another tool's Form 138 or 24Q salary sheet, as CSV, XLSX or XLS.
Correction statements and TRACES consolidated files are not read. Records the register has no place for (for example section 194P records) are counted as not kept.
Import a return TXT
Open the client, choose Returns → TDS/TCS, and select the TAN and financial year. For tax year 2026-27, open a return, choose More sources, then click Import TXT on Return file (TXT). For FY 2025-26 or earlier, open the form and quarter and use Read return file under Fill this year's register from the return file; the file must be for that form and quarter. Choose the .txt file. Read the review (below), then click Save.
The file must be for the TAN and year you have open, and the TAN must be one of the client's registrations. Any other file is refused with the reason.
Import a payroll export or salary sheet
In More sources, click Import payroll on Payroll export. On a Form 138 return you can also use Import workbook with another tool's salary sheet. For a 24Q of FY 2025-26 or earlier, use Import payroll on the quarter's page. Match each field to a column of the file. IndiaAuditLens suggests matches from common column names and applies a layout remembered for this TAN. If the sheet has no salary-code column, choose the code for every row. If it has only the pay month, choose the day salary was paid. IndiaAuditLens does not guess either. Leave Remember this layout for this TAN ticked to skip…
Each payment goes to the quarter of its payment date. The platform's own Form 138 workbook (with Employees and Payments sheets) still imports directly, as before.
Read the review
The review names the return, quarters, year and file, and shows one state:
Ready: rows to save and none refused. Needs attention: some rows cannot be imported; the others can still be saved. Complete: everything in the file is already saved. Blocked: the return is prepared, in review or filed here; use a correction instead.
Each figure opens its list:
To add: rows not yet in the return. To change: saved rows whose amount, tax, date or other fields differ, shown field by field. Facts the file does not carry stay as they are. Already saved: identical rows, left alone. Not imported: refused rows, each with its reason (for example an invalid PAN, or a date outside the quarter). Saved, not in file: rows in the return that the file does not have. They are counted, never removed.
After you save
The notice says how many rows were added and changed, and which challans and employees were created or changed. The save is refused if the file or the return changed after the review; read the file again. Rows are only added or changed; nothing is deleted. A quarter that is prepared, in review or filed here is not changed by an import. Open the return's Data and Challans steps and complete anything the file did not carry (for example facts a Form 143 or 144 row needs) before you prepare the return.
Expected result
The register holds the file's rows and challans for the quarters in the file, every row that could not be imported is listed with its reason, and nothing already saved is deleted. The return is not validated or filed: prepare, review and validate it as usual.