Payroll
Running payroll on the Bikram Sambat calendar
Nepal’s fiscal year runs mid-July to mid-July on the Bikram Sambat calendar, and BS months vary in length. Payroll software that assumes otherwise produces quiet errors.
Updated August 2026
Nepal runs on Bikram Sambat, roughly 56.7 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The fiscal year begins on 1 Shrawan and ends on the last day of Ashad — mid-July to mid-July in Gregorian terms.
Payroll built on an assumption of twelve equal Gregorian months will mostly appear to work, which is exactly what makes the mismatch dangerous.
The fiscal year is the unit that matters
Income tax in Nepal is assessed over the Bikram Sambat fiscal year. Every annual figure in payroll — projected income, the tax bands, the retirement deduction ceiling, the festival bonus — belongs to that year, not to a Gregorian one.
FY 2083/84 therefore begins in mid-July 2026 and ends in mid-July 2027. An employee’s tax position resets at that boundary, not on 1 January.
BS months are not uniform
Bikram Sambat months vary in length, typically between 29 and 32 days, and the lengths differ from year to year. A payroll system cannot derive a BS date by adding a fixed offset to a Gregorian one — it needs the actual calendar data.
This matters most for anything computed per day rather than per month: attendance registers, leave accrual, unpaid leave, per-day deductions and overtime windows all reference a month whose length is not constant.
What to check in a payroll system
- 1Confirm the tax year runs Shrawan to Ashad, and that annual accumulators reset on that boundary.
- 2Confirm attendance and leave periods follow BS months with their true lengths, not a fixed 30 days.
- 3Confirm the public holiday calendar is Nepali, including the festival period.
- 4Confirm reports can be produced against either calendar, so a local accountant and an overseas parent company can both be served from the same data.
- 5Confirm payslips can show BS dates, since that is what employees recognise.
Working in both calendars
Organisations with foreign investors or overseas group reporting need both. The workable arrangement is a single source of truth in Bikram Sambat, with Gregorian dates derived for presentation and export.
Storing dates in one calendar and converting for display avoids the drift that comes from maintaining two parallel date fields that are updated independently.
Frequently asked questions
When does Nepal’s fiscal year start?
On 1 Shrawan in the Bikram Sambat calendar, which falls in mid-July in Gregorian terms. It ends on the last day of Ashad the following year.
Can payroll software just convert BS to Gregorian with a fixed offset?
No. Bikram Sambat month lengths vary between 29 and 32 days and differ year to year, so conversion requires actual calendar data rather than arithmetic on a constant offset.