Most businesses don’t decide against changing payroll providers. They just decide they’re too busy and they’ll “do it later.” 

And later probably seems reasonable. There’s a lot on, the current system “basically” works, and nobody wants to be the person who broke payday. 

So switching payroll providers goes on the list for the next quarter, and the next quarter, and so it goes on. 

But what’s worth knowing is what later actually costs those businesses. Not in some abstract productivity sense, but in hours per month you’re paying whether you switch or not.

The cost of leaving switching payroll providers until later: The short answer

Across the five UK businesses below, payroll processing time fell by between 66% and 90%. One went from 20 hours a month to six. One got three days a month back. One had never run payroll in his life and was live within a day.

These are Employment Hero payroll reviews in the only form that really settles it: named UK businesses, with the concrete numbers that made them switch.

If you’ve never run payroll and can’t justify outsourcing it

David Law runs JD Security, an event and venue security business with 40 employees. They achieved payroll that takes just 30 minutes a week to manage and a saving of £1,500+ a year.

As a UK-wide event security business, JD Security has staff numbers that move week to week, including casual shifts, rotating crews and one-off jobs. 

David used a third-party system that was charging up to £35 a month plus £5 per person, whether or not that person had worked. He knew there was a better way:

“We were paying £30–35 a month plus £5 per person, even if they didn’t work. It just didn’t make sense. We needed something more flexible.”

What finally forced the decision was a letter from HMRC about subcontractor tax compliance. It was the prompt he needed to stop paying for a system that wasn’t working and sort payroll properly.

David and team switched to Employment Hero’s Free Payroll online and ran his first in-house pay run within a day.  

It now takes him under 30 minutes a week, and he’s saving over £1,500 a year on admin costs.

“I’ve never processed payroll before but with Employment Hero, I managed to run it smoothly. It’s an easy software to use so it takes up much less time and it’s saved us lots of money as well.”

What waiting would have cost: £1,500 a year, plus monthly fees for people who hadn’t worked.

If you’ve tried automation before and it created more work

Rohan Simon is CEO of the Medical Defense Society, which provides legal and professional backing for doctors. 

The team at Medical Defense Society now spends 90% less time on payroll since switching to Employment Hero. 

Rohan Simon founded Medical Defense Society in 2017 to give doctors proper legal and professional backing. For years he ran the payroll himself, on top of running the company.

He had already tried automated systems. They came with manual fixes and workarounds that consumed the time they were meant to save, which is its own argument against trying again.

Rohan explains:

“Previously, there were months where I fell short on payroll deadlines, which I hated because employees should always get paid on time. Now, everything is automated. I only need to download the banking file, and that’s it. It’s a game changer.”

What waiting would have cost: more years of running payroll himself, when it could have been running in the background.

If there’s no budget to spend more than you already do

Phil Goodson is CFO at The Booksellers Association, the trade body for independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland.

With around 45 employees, and a small team each covering several roles, Phil wasn’t looking to spend more on managing payroll. 

But with Employment Hero, The Booksellers Association ended up with a system covering multiple HR functions for roughly what a payroll-only platform had been costing them.

Phil describes: 

“We were looking for the best product at the most sensible price and Employment Hero came out on top.”

Payroll processing time fell 75%, returning three days a month.

“With Employment Hero, we now pay for a system that supports multiple HR functions in one, as opposed to paying the same cost for a payroll-only platform. Each month our confidence grows and the system has already saved us a huge amount of time.”

What waiting would have cost: every month of delay was three more days of the same admin, at the same price.

Read how The Booksellers Association reduce payroll processing time by 75%

If you’re worried your team won’t adapt to a new system

Lucy Crawford, HR Manager at Wholesale Domestic, reduced payroll admin from 20 hours a month to just six by switching. 

Wholesale Domestic is a Scotland-based bathroom retailer with 118 staff across showrooms, a warehouse and head office, run by a lean HR team. Payroll sat in one system, HR in another, timesheets in a third, with shift work and mobile staff on top.

Lucy says:

“When our first pay run with Employment Hero went smoothly, I knew we’d made the right call. The whole process was accurate and so much faster. What used to take me 20 hours a month, now takes only six.”

And what else does Lucy love? That her team took to the platform without training, because it resembled apps they already used, not some clunky software add-on.

What waiting would have cost: 14 hours a month (and a three-system problem that costs a lot more to unpick at 118 staff).

If payroll is eating days of every month, not hours

Steve Hutton, Operations Director, HMG Paints, got a three-day payroll process down to three hours.

HMG Paints has made industrial paints for close to a century, for environments as demanding as motorsport and aerospace. Steve Hutton started there at 17 and has watched the business go from paper trails to digital tools. But at 200 employees, with a warehouse and a serious health and safety load, HR itself still ran on paper and Steve knew there was a better way. 

Overtime and deductions were calculated by hand from printed timesheets, which delayed payments. Holiday requests came in on paper, so leave balances were frequently wrong. Managers had no live view of their own teams.

Monthly payroll took three days. It now takes three hours which means a huge 80% less time on payroll admin.

Steve says:

“Employment Hero has allowed us to go from a three-day process down to a three-hour process. That hands back so much invaluable time.” 

What waiting would have cost: roughly two and a half days of someone’s month… every month.

Watch Steve’s story and read the full case study.

Switching payroll provider? Four things our implementation team wants you to know 

These five customer stories tell you that switching works. 

They don’t tell you what the middle feels like, how long the process takes, and what’s involved… and that’s usually what people actually ask about.

So we asked Phil Harbage, Senior Implementations Consultant at Employment Hero some of your top questions, including what customers sometimes get wrong, what he’d advise them to do before kick-off, and what actually makes a migration run overtime.

1. What’s the one thing customers consistently underestimate?
   • “The biggest thing is understanding how the pension scheme works and the impact it has on employees’ net pay. They just feel it’s deducted from the employee’s payslip, not how it’s deducted and the calculation method behind that deduction.”
2. What makes a migration go badly? Not generically — what specifically?
   • “Bad or missing data — payroll is only as good as the data that feeds it.”
3. What’s the most common thing people get wrong in the parallel run?
   • “Just thinking about the net pay balance… when everything must balance. Sometimes people assume everything matches — but employer NI, pension contributions and irregular elements like commission can still be wrong underneath.”
4. What do you wish customers did before kick-off?
   • “Know your data, know your pain points and know what improvements you are looking for when moving payroll providers. Avoid a lift and shift as much as possible as that transfers your pain points from one system to another.”

What actually protects your first pay run (and the ones after it) 

Two different fears, and they need two different answers.

The first pay run is protected by people, not software. Switching payroll provider? Then process the same period in both systems and compare the outputs line by line for one cycle; net pay, tax and NI, pension contributions and any irregular elements. 

Our switching guide covers this and more tips on how to run it.

Everything after that is a different fear, because the real risk in payroll isn’t the switch. It’s month seven, when nobody’s checking as carefully any more.

That one isn’t solved by being careful. It’s solved by having fewer places where something can go wrong — and three of the five businesses above weren’t replacing payroll alone. Wholesale Domestic had payroll in one system, HR in another and timesheets in a third. HMG Paints still ran HR on paper. The Booksellers Association ended up with HR included for what payroll alone had cost them.

One employee record feeding one pay run means fewer places for something to be wrong: less to reconcile at the switch, and less to catch in month seven.

And whatever the system does, you still approve every submission. Human-in-the-loop by design, with no hidden automation and no black-box decisions. All AI interactions are covered by our AI Services Statement.

When is “not now” the right answer?

There really aren’t many good reasons to wait, but here are two to consider: 

1. If you’re mid-contract, you’re mid-contract. But don’t wait for the renewal date to start thinking; that’s how businesses re-sign for another year because the alternative wasn’t ready in time. Work out your notice period now. Most HR and payroll contracts require 60 to 90 days, which puts the decision a quarter before the date in your diary.
2. If you’re mid-year on something complex, like multiple pay frequencies, a custom build or a TUPE in progress, wait for a clean boundary.

If none of those apply, the question isn’t whether to switch. It’s calculating the cost of leaving it another quarter. 

What do UK businesses say about Employment Hero payroll?

If you want to read more Employment Hero payroll reviews, the UK case study library covers businesses from 10 employees to several hundred, across retail, manufacturing, professional services and the public sector.

For independent reviews rather than ours, see G2 and Capterra for payroll ratings with verified reviewers. 

What makes this year different

From 1st January 2027, unfair dismissal rights apply from six months rather than two years. That means far more of your people can bring a claim — and in an unfair dismissal claim, it’s the employer who has to show the dismissal was fair.

What that looks like in practice is evidence: a probation record, documented check-ins, a written reason, dates. If those live across a payroll system, a spreadsheet and someone’s inbox, you’re assembling them under time pressure while someone else is building their case. With one system? You’re exporting them: Job done. 

Want the process, not just the proof? 

Our step-by-step guide to switching payroll providers in the UK covers realistic timelines, what to migrate, the mistakes to avoid and what to ask a provider before signing.

Ready to see it? Book a demo and we’ll use your payroll structure, not a generic example.

Customer results are specific to each business and reflect their own setup and starting point. Employment Hero helps you stay on top of UK payroll legislation and HMRC requirements. It doesn’t replace professional advice.