Recommended Payroll Software Providers
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The emergence of payroll automation software has been a blessing for HR professionals, now spared the tedious task of calculating each employee’s salary every few weeks. However, payroll pains may still arise if you fail to select the right provider for your business.
With so many payroll tools on the market, it can be easy to fall into this trap. But with enough research, and careful consideration of your business needs, you’ll be able to find the perfect product to take the stress out of the payroll process.
To that end, we’ve gathered some of the best payroll software products around and explored their key features and selling points. Use our insights, and consider them in the context of your business, to guide you through the purchase journey for your new payroll software.
Comparing the Best Payroll Software Products
From timesheets and tax remittance to payslips and pay runs, today’s payroll tools automate virtually all parts of the payroll process. But not all payroll tools and made equal, and not all will cater to your business.
Hands-on research with a range of payroll software products led us to identify the following three tools as industry leaders: Homebase, Keypay and Push. Each is incredibly versatile and well equipped to serve a variety of business models and team structures.
Take a look at each product’s basic functionality at a glance in the comparison table, before continuing below for an in-depth analysis of key features and qualities.
| Product | Payroll | Time tracking | Employee scheduling | Labour forecasting | Onboarding | Employee expense claims | Internal comms |
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HomebaseWorkforce management software serving small businesses.
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KeyPayPayroll software serving businesses of all sizes.
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PushWorkforce management software serving businesses of all sizes.
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Homebase
A powerful all-in-one, cloud-based workforce management solution, Homebase is trusted by more than 100,000 businesses globally. Excellent features and a clean interface combine to create a product that’s highly functional and incredibly easy to use for you and your team.
Primarily aimed at small businesses, the software covers all bases when it comes to managing your team, including payroll, scheduling, time tracking, onboarding, internal comms and more. For businesses looking for software that does more than payroll, Homebase is a great option.
Key Selling Points
Homebase has many strengths, but the two below stand out by adding real value to the software where other tools fall short:
1. Strong UX
With workforce management tools that are also used by employees, a strong user experience (UX) is paramount. Choosing to keep it simple with a smooth interface and minimalist design, Homebase excels in this department and takes only a few minutes to get to grips with.
Whether you’re using the software on a computer or as an app on your mobile phone, key business information is stored centrally for optimal ease of access. In just a few clicks, you and your staff can navigate between schedules, timesheets and payslips.
2. Integrations
Integrations (specifically integrations with your accounting software) should play an important part in your purchasing decision; you want to make sure that your chosen software is compatible with your current systems and any others that you may adopt in future.
Homebase offers excellent compatibility with a host of third-party tools, including POS systems like Lightspeed, accounting tools like Quickbooks and even jobs boards such as Google and Indeed to help with your hiring efforts.
key Features
Homebase is packed with great features. Here are six of the best:
- Payroll.
Homebase uses your timesheets to automatically calculate wages and tax remittances. - Time tracking.
Let staff clock in and out on their phone for precise tracking of hours worked ahead of pay runs. - Employee scheduling.
Create smart schedules that conserve labour while meeting customer demand. - Hiring.
Post job ads from the Homebase platform and bring new recruits up to speed with a paperless onboarding system. - Team communication.
Keep team members in the loop with Homebase’s instant messaging platform. - Labour forecasting.
Homebase accounts for salary costs on every schedule for maximum clarity over your labour expenses.
Keen to learn more about Homebase’s workforce management software? We explore the tool in greater detail here.
KeyPay
KeyPay is a cloud-based payroll and employee management tool used by over 200,000 businesses and outsourced payroll providers. With an emphasis on compliance and pay run visibility for your staff, KeyPay covers the stressful parts of payroll so you don’t have to.
Primarily a payroll tool, KeyPay has expanded its offerings in recent years to support additional areas like employee scheduling and time tracking. The result of this expansion is a versatile software product capable of performing a wide variety of HR-related functions.
Key Selling Points
KeyPay is especially thorough when it comes to payroll, which is where its two biggest strengths lie:
1. Automated compliance
KeyPay works closely with the relevant regulatory bodies of the countries it operates in — namely Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK — to ensure compliance obligations are met and wages are paid in full.
All that’s needed from your end is a quick, five-minute initial set-up, where you provide KeyPay with details about your company’s pay conditions, tax rates and award interpretations. After this, the software does the rest.
2. Employee expense claims
One fairly unique feature is KeyPay’s expense claims system. While most employee expenses are simply deducted from the payroll, those that are ongoing are better served by a dedicated expense management tool.
KeyPay’s self-service expense claims system is accessible from the employee portal and requires only minimal input from management staff. Workers simply upload their receipts to the portal and submit their claims to payroll managers for approval.
key Features
As alluded to, KeyPay’s functionality goes well beyond payroll. Here’s a look at six of the software’s best features:
- Payroll.
Automate the payroll process from start to finish and stay on track with compliance obligations. - Time tracking.
Keep tabs on hours worked with KeyPay’s dedicated clock-in app for time tracking. - Employee scheduling.
Use KeyPay’s intuitive rota builder to craft labour-efficient schedules in mere minutes. - Expense management.
Simplify the expense claims process and keep detailed records for tax purposes. - Onboarding.
Get new staff up and running as quickly as possible with a completely paperless onboarding process. - Leave management.
Let staff submit leave requests directly from their phone and notify them when approved via push notification.
If you’d like to learn more about KeyPay, you can read our in-depth review of the software here.
Push
Push provides all-in-one payroll, HR and workforce management support from an easy-to-use, cloud-based platform. With dedicated tools for onboarding, time tracking, employee scheduling, labour forecasting and more, the software serves as a one-stop shop for managing your team.
A clean user interface creates a shallow learning curve for new users, while automation features free up vast amounts of labour to be used elsewhere. By bringing your employee management processes together, Push can help streamline and scale your business.
Key Selling Points
Here are two great features that separate Push from its competitors:
1. Reporting tools
Most payroll tools come with labour forecasting features, but Push goes one step further with a fully-integrated reporting system that captures your KPIs across various locations. Offering great detail, Push’s reports identify opportunities for you to cut down labour costs.
For best results, you can integrate Push with your POS system. This will allow you to collate sales and expense data, giving you a full overview of your business’ profitability. These insights are key to weeding out problems early and refining your strategy where needed.
2. Compliance visibility
Push stays on top of complex compliance laws so you don’t have to. With expertise in every jurisdiction in which the company operates, Push helps businesses navigate their compliance obligations in a fully automated fashion.
Along with paying your workers, Push also ensures any local, state or federal tax commitments are met on your behalf. Once supplied with necessary information about your payment conditions and tax codes, the software can be left to work its magic.
key Features
Push boasts a long list of value-added features. Let’s take a look at six of the most important:
- Payroll.
Pay your workers on time and in full at the push of a button using Push’s fully automated payroll system. - Time tracking.
Use facial recognition technology and customisable clock-ins to track employee hours and generate precise timesheets. - Employee scheduling.
Create perfectly balanced rotas using Push’s intuitive schedule builder and cut down on labour costs. - Reporting.
Harness historical data and create detailed labour forecasts to better understand your profitability. - Onboarding.
Centralise your employee data and bring starters up to speed faster with a paperless onboarding process. - Team communication.
Send broadcast messages, process leave requests and approve shift swaps from a single, centralised communication channel.
We’ve explored the key features of Push’s payroll and workforce management software in greater detail here.
What are the Benefits of Payroll Software?
Payroll software automates your payroll process from start to finish, tracking your employees’ hours worked and generating precise timesheets from which pay runs can be performed in an accurate and timely fashion. Many payroll software products will also support related workforce management processes like onboarding, employee scheduling and internal communications.
What are Some of the Best Payroll Software Products?
Our research has identified Homebase, KeyPay and Push as the three leading payroll software tools on the market. Homebase is best for small businesses, KeyPay is the best dedicated payroll tool and Push is best for businesses looking for additional workforce management tools beyond payroll.
Which Payroll Software Product is Best for My Business?
When investing in new payroll software, there are five key factors to consider: budget, accounting integration, compliance, business size and additional features. It’s important that your chosen software is compatible with your existing accounting system and can meet payroll compliance laws in your jurisdiction. It should also be suited to the size of your team.
