This is managed payroll, not a per-employee bureau. Our team owns award interpretation, rate correctness, superannuation timing and STP accuracy, with analysts processing and CA-qualified seniors reviewing before anything is submitted, under registered BAS Agent 26298194.
If you want processing at $8 a head with no review, we are the wrong provider. Payroll sits inside a monthly finance function at $2,500 to $6,000, on Xero or Employment Hero only.
A bureau runs the cycle from the inputs you supply. If your classifications are wrong the output is wrong and the liability stays with you. Managed payroll means the provider owns the classification decisions, checks rates against the applicable award, and tells you when something looks wrong before the run goes out. Most cheap per-employee pricing is processing.
Since 1 July 2026 superannuation must be received by the fund within seven business days of payday, calculated on qualifying earnings, with the ATO clearing house closed. The quarterly buffer that let errors be found before payment was due has gone. We build the payment pathway with clearing house and fund processing time inside the window, not around it.
In most businesses under $20 million, payroll belongs to an office manager or the founder as one task among eight, and the classifications live in their head. When they leave, the next run is a guess. You get a team, written classification decisions and a review layer, so the knowledge does not walk out the door.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, processed by your dedicated analyst, reviewed by a CA-qualified senior, and submitted only after you approve. You see the figures before the money moves, every cycle.
Onboarding is where most compliance problems start. TFN declarations, superannuation choice and the stapled fund check are done properly rather than skipped, because paying into a default fund without checking the stapled fund is a compliance failure that can attract additional charges.
Clients typically see payroll queries answered the same day, which matters because a rate question on Tuesday cannot wait until Friday when the run is Wednesday.
We interpret the award, we do not ask you for the rates. Classification decisions are documented so they survive staff changes on both sides, and where a classification is arguable we set out the options rather than picking one quietly.
Classification is driven by duties actually performed, not the job title on the contract, so an employee whose role has grown may have moved up a level without anyone changing their pay. That is the most common cause of systemic underpayment, because the error applies to every run and compounds for years.
Clients typically get a written classification review in the first month, including anything that looks wrong historically.
Superannuation is calculated on qualifying earnings, which is broader than ordinary time earnings and brings in items your software may not be mapping correctly. Getting the pay item mapping wrong now shows up within days rather than at the end of a quarter.
We build the payment calendar from the date the fund must receive the money, allowing for clearing house and fund processing, and monitor that it landed rather than that it was sent.
Clients typically move from a quarterly habit to a payday rhythm without a single late contribution.
Every pay event is reported through Single Touch Payroll with gross pay disaggregated into its components, which is what allows the ATO to check withholding and superannuation at a granular level. Incorrect pay item mapping creates reporting errors rather than presentation problems.
Payroll tax is a state tax with different thresholds, rates and grouping rules in each jurisdiction, and it is where multi-state employers most often get caught. We confirm the current position with the relevant revenue office each financial year rather than working from last year's numbers.
Clients typically get a written payroll tax position covering every state they employ in, before the first lodgement.
Leave accrual and entitlements tracked properly, with the liability visible on your balance sheet rather than discovered when several people take leave at once. Long service leave accrues under state legislation with different rules in each jurisdiction, and portable schemes apply in some industries.
Final pay is one of the most error-prone calculations in payroll, because each component attracts different tax and superannuation treatment. Getting it wrong creates an underpayment and a withholding error at the same time.
Clients typically get leave liability quantified in the first close, often for the first time.
If we find an underpayment, we quantify it, work out how far back it goes, calculate the shortfall including superannuation and interest, and set out a plan before anyone communicates with staff.
Intentional underpayment of wages has been a federal criminal offence nationally since 1 January 2025, which raises the stakes on handling a discovery properly rather than quietly. The sequence matters: scope first, then the numbers, then the disclosure decision, then the conversation with employees.
Clients typically get a documented remediation position within a fortnight of discovery, including whether disclosure is the right call.
Our experts will discuss your business, your finance pain points, and the services we can offer
We take your requirements and send a fixed proposal with pricing options within 24 hours. Free, no obligation
We will schedule a kick off meeting, give access to our online communication and project management tools
Deliverables start in week one and we take the function off your plate, so you get time back to run your business the way you want
30 minutes with our team.
We'll review your current finance setup, compare the full cost of an internal hire against our embedded team, and show you exactly what your finance function should cost at your stage of growth.
You'll leave with a clear view of what's working, what's missing, and where you'd save.
No lock-in contracts. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Prefer to book directly? Grab a time here.
Managed payroll sits inside a monthly finance function, typically $2,500 to $6,000 per month depending on headcount, pay frequency, award complexity and entity count.
Bureaux price per employee per pay run, and those two models diverge sharply once you have casuals on variable hours. We are not selling the bureau model, so if a low per-head rate is what you want, a payroll bureau is the right product and will be cheaper. What you give up is the review layer, and the liability for wrong inputs stays with you either way. Market ranges are in our payroll outsourcing cost guide.
Managed payroll sits inside a monthly finance function, typically $2,500 to $6,000 per month depending on headcount, pay frequency, award complexity and entity count.
Bureaux price per employee per pay run, and those two models diverge sharply once you have casuals on variable hours. We are not selling the bureau model, so if a low per-head rate is what you want, a payroll bureau is the right product and will be cheaper. What you give up is the review layer, and the liability for wrong inputs stays with you either way. Market ranges are in our payroll outsourcing cost guide.
You are. The obligation to pay correct wages under the Fair Work Act and correct superannuation under the superannuation guarantee rules sits with the employer and cannot be transferred to a provider.
What outsourcing changes is who does the work and who checks it. That is exactly why the review layer matters and why we run one, and it is also why we will not take on payroll built on a platform we cannot properly review. If a provider tells you they take on the liability, ask what happens contractually when the Fair Work Ombudsman writes to you rather than to them.
Superannuation must now reach the employee's fund within seven business days of payday, calculated on qualifying earnings, with a longer twenty business day window for a new employee's first contribution.
Three practical consequences. The clearing house sits inside your seven-day window now, so processing time has to be planned rather than assumed. The quarterly buffer that let errors be found before payment was due has gone. And qualifying earnings is a broader base than ordinary time earnings, so pay item mapping needs reviewing rather than inheriting. Detail in our Payday Super guide.
We interpret them. Classification and rate decisions are documented so they survive staff changes on both sides, and where a classification is arguable we set out the options rather than picking one quietly.
This is the main thing that separates managed payroll from processing. Software calculates accurately from what you tell it, and neither Xero nor Employment Hero decides whether a casual has crossed into a higher classification or whether an allowance is superable. Common failures are in our piece on award classification errors.
Xero Payroll and Employment Hero, where we are a Gold Partner. If you are on something else and open to moving, we handle the migration.
If you are not moving, we are not the right provider, and that includes Chris 21, SimPro, Business Central, Wiise and comparable platforms. We have declined this work rather than take it on, because payroll built on a system we cannot properly review is worse for you than the arrangement you already have. A comparison of the two we do use is in Employment Hero versus Xero Payroll.
Yes, including registration, monthly lodgement, apportionment where employees work across borders, and annual reconciliation in each jurisdiction.
Grouping is the part that catches growing businesses. Where entities are grouped under a state's rules, the threshold applies to the group's combined Australian wages rather than to each entity, so four entities each under the threshold can be well over it together. Thresholds and rates change, so we confirm the current position with each revenue office. See state by state payroll tax thresholds and rates.
