Payroll software for NZ businesses

Yes – Employment Hero is built for NZ businesses from 5 to 500+ employees, including teams with a mix of full-time, part-time, casual, fixed-term and contract workers. The platform handles different pay rates, allowances, overtime, public holiday pay and complex Holidays Act calculations across multiple sites and pay frequencies – without needing custom configuration for each worker type.

Yes. Employment Hero automatically calculates Average Weekly Earnings (AWE), Relevant Daily Pay (RDP) and Ordinary Weekly Pay (OWP) – the three core Holidays Act formulas – for annual leave, sick leave, bereavement leave and public holidays. Our system applies legislative updates automatically, so your team is paid correctly even when the rules change.

Most NZ businesses are up and running in 2 to 4 weeks. Our implementation team handles data migration from your current provider, leave balance carry-overs, IRD connection setup and parallel pay testing – so you can switch without disrupting payday. For larger teams or complex pay setups, our Managed Payroll service takes the entire process off your hands.

You have two options. With Employment Hero’s payroll software, your business stays the employer of record – we’re IRD-recognised software, so you can run pay and file Payday Filing directly to Inland Revenue from the platform. If you’d rather have someone else handle PAYE, KiwiSaver and IRD payments on your behalf, our Managed Payroll service operates as a PAYE Intermediary and takes care of it end-to-end.

Payroll is included in our Employment Unlimited plan, priced per employee per month. That gives you payroll, HR, hiring and employee experience in one platform – better value than paying for a standalone payroll tool plus separate HR and recruitment software. See our pricing page for current rates.

Yes. Employment Hero payroll integrates directly with Xero, MYOB and NetSuite – your payroll journal flows straight to the general ledger after every pay run, no manual exports. HR data stays in sync because Employment Hero’s payroll and HR sit on the same platform. We also connect with rostering, time and attendance, and accounting tools across NZ – see our integrations page for the full list.

Every plan includes a local NZ-based support team you can reach by phone or email – no overseas call centres, no email-only ticket queues. We also assign a dedicated implementation specialist for your first pay run, and our help centre is available 24/7. Want it fully managed? Our Managed Payroll experts can run your entire payroll process for you, from pay runs to IRD filings.

Employment Hero protects payroll data with enterprise-grade encryption (in transit and at rest), role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits. We use secure cloud servers with disaster recovery in place, and we follow strict access protocols so only authorised users can see sensitive pay information.

Most NZ payroll tools store data – our AI-powered Employment OS runs pay cycles for you. Intelligent automation coordinates employee data across hiring, HR, rostering and payroll in one platform, instead of stitching together separate tools. We integrate with Xero, MYOB and NetSuite for accounting, and every plan includes local NZ support. The result: less double-handling, fewer compliance errors, and one bill instead of three.