Payroll System Options
There are so many systems out there! Here are a few of our favourites and some info about each along with the pros and cons of each system
They are listed in order of our personal preference here at Prosper based on how the systems operate, calculate and manage annual leave.
Smartly
My absolute favourite and go to software -Smartly is a payroll intermediary – this means once you submit a pay run, they can take one amount of money from your bank account (the gross wages – ie the full cost of the pay run to you), and distribute that to your employee(s), and pay the IRD on your behalf. They also do payday filing for you.
Processing payroll will be quicker using this option, especially where you have a bigger team but does come at an additional cost.
You can see more on their pricing with the link below.
If your team work various hours, Smartly is good in terms of calculating annual leave correctly too.
If you are time poor, or know you won’t remember to pay the PAYE on time, this can be a great option for managing cashflow and also ensuring you don’t get penalised by the IRD for lack of payment.
Smartly do also have the option for you to manually pay your team yourselves.
iPayroll
Works very similarly to Smartly. Pricing is slightly different and they charge per payrun with pricing that differs depending on the frequency of your pay runs, and how often you pay your employees.
Crystal Payroll
Cyrstal payroll offer many different plans and you can add on different features depending on the functionalities you would like to have.
Pricing starts from $19.90 per month, for up to 5 employees.
Xero Payroll
One of the cheaper options depending on your team size and great as a simple payroll solution.
The cost depends on your team size and is part of your Xero Subscription:
Xero Grow: $75/month - 1 employee
Xero Comprehensive: $99/month - up to 5 employees
Xero Ultimate: $113/month - up to 10 employees and $1/month for any additional employees
Xero does your payday filing for you, but you must remember to pay your team manually after processing the pay run, and paying the IRD the employment taxes deducted every month (due 20th of the month following).
The only warning I have against Xero Payroll is a lot of people have issues around annual leave balances including the balances showing what is owed to the employee correctly and what their liability is. Changes to leave entitlements also have to be manually done per employee (ie the increase in sick days owed per year, bereavement leave accruals), unlike the systems below which will update based on the latest laws for you.
PayHero
PayHero makes processing your payroll as easy as it gets! The interface is friendly, it gives you options to effectively calculate annual leave (a major thing done wrong in NZ, even when using payroll software) and it helps automate everything!
The cost at the time of writing this is $19/month plus $4 per employee per month for up to 10 staff.
Disclaimer: this is general information only. Please reach out to Prosper Business for specific advice to your situation.