Free Payroll Software for UK businesses
Ditch the fees, not the features. Pay your people accurately and efficiently with free comprehensive payroll software.
Automate pay runs, ensure compliance and handle post-payroll tasks with the confidence you’re getting it right—every time.
Customers rate us 4.5
Payroll made simple
Payroll that flexes with your business
Choose which tasks and components to automate and which to manage manually, based on your needs and expertise.
Payroll that’s got your back
Have peace of mind with a GDPR-compliant, HMRC-recognised, RTI-compliant solution in line with all UK regulations and requirements.
Payroll that handles the boring stuff for you
Put repetitive tasks like auto-enrolment, pension submissions and payslip generation on auto-pilot to save precious time.
Free payroll software for UK businesses like yours
Payroll made easy
Define your pay process with a simple step-by-step guide to drive payroll efficiency and accuracy:
- Schedule pay frequency to ensure seamless operational alignment
- Implement warning triggers and automatic contingency pauses for missing information to guarantee robust error prevention
- Automatically lodge with HMRC and pensions to streamline statutory and financial obligations
- Auto-generate BACS files to eliminate manual file creation for seamless payment runs
- Automatically create and notify employees about their payslips to elevate employee experience
Automated compliance that safeguards your business
Prevent costly errors with built-in compliance guardrails and workflows to simplify diligence:
- Automatically assess eligibility and enrol employees in a pension scheme to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements
- Automatically calculate and submit pension contributions to leading UK providers like Nest, Aviva and The People’s Pension via the embedded PensionSync integration, freeing up valuable time and resources
- Automate calculations like 52-week averaging, national minimum wage rates and occupational leave to ensure accurate payments for your employees
- Customise your benefits process and automate payrolled benefit calculations to unlock an efficient benefits experience
Comprehensive reporting that keeps you in control
Effortlessly access employee and company-wide payroll data with user-friendly reports to gain actionable insights:
- Understand profitability drivers and improve strategic decision-making with reports like gross-to-net, pay run variance and pension contributions to provide enhanced financial visibility
- Proactively identify discrepancies and maintain accurate employee records with reports like employee audits, unpaid employee lists, and qualification tracking, ensuring robust employee oversight
- Navigate complex legal requirements and ensure accurate submissions with reports like gender pay gap, RTI submission messages, EPS, and P60 generation to foster HMRC compliance
- Empower stakeholders with timely and relevant data to nurture better alignment and decision-making through automatically generated and scheduled report packs
Employee self-service that frees you up
Share access to documents, information, and tools with your employees and team members to foster autonomy and minimise admin:
- Built-in GDPR compliance ensures appropriate levels of access among different types of employees to safeguard sensitive information and maintaining legal standards
- Intuitive employee portal allows employees to manage their own data and documentation, providing convenience and improving engagement
- EH Work app gives your employees access to crucial payroll information, including payslips and documentation, anytime, anywhere
Hear what our customers have to say
“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.”
Steve Hutton, Operations Director
“Employment Hero Payroll has saved a phenomenal amount of workload for us with automated payroll and approvals. We’ve saved so much manpower, time, and staff resources by moving over to Employment Hero Payroll.”
Matthew Coates, Owner & Director
“Employment Hero Payroll has just made my life measurably simpler and I don’t have any worries about the storage of data, or losing data. It’s all kept securely in the cloud and accessible from wherever I happen to be working.”
Chris Gascoyne, Company Director
“(…) we have been using automated pay runs. It’s a great feature because we literally set up once, put the client’s data in, and it just runs in the background unless something has to be changed or altered.”
Brendon Dallas, Founder & Director
Accounting and payroll integration
Connect Employment Hero’s free payroll solution with the main accounting software solution in the UK market for advanced workflow automation and an even more seamless experience.
Sage 50
Quickbooks
Xero
FAQs
What is free payroll software?
Employment Hero’s free payroll software is for UK businesses looking to manage and automate core payroll and post-payroll tasks like calculations, payslip generation and RTI submissions.
Is Employment Hero’s payroll software HMRC-recognised?
Yes, Employment Hero’s payroll software is HMRC-recognised. Payroll software that is HMRC recognised has been rigorously tested and approved by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). This ensures the software can accurately report PAYE information online in real-time (RTI), enabling businesses to meet their tax obligations and comply with HMRC regulations.
Is Employment Hero’s free payroll software fully cloud-based?
Yes, our free payroll solution is fully cloud based. This means that you’ll experience our continuous efforts to enhance and expand our capabilities as they go live. No need to wait for future version releases.
Is the payroll software compliant?
Employment Hero’s payroll solution is RTI-compliant, HMRC-recognised, GDPR-compliant and holds a triple ISO certification (27001, 27017, 27018). Our system is also kept up-to-date with the latest compliance and legislation requirements and changes such as National Minimum Wage and National Insurance Contribution rates to ensure automation is accurate and compliant.
Are there any number of employee limitations?
No, Employment Hero’s free payroll does not have a limit when it comes to how many employees you can pay, unlike most free payroll software solutions in the market.
What pay frequencies can I run?
Employment Hero’s payroll solutions support all common pay frequencies in the UK, including weekly, fortnightly, 4-weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
Can multiple users access the same payroll account?
Yes, multiple users can access the same payroll account. There are no limits on the number of users you can add to your account.
Does the free payroll solution handle automatic tax (PAYE) and National Insurance (NI) calculations?
Yes, the system is designed to automatically calculate and report Tax (PAYE) and National Insurance (NI) deductions to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) via the Full Payment Submission (FPS) and Employer Payment Summary (EPS).
Furthermore, the software accommodates other statutory payments and deductions, including Pensions, Attachment of Earnings Orders, Salary Sacrifice Schemes, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), and various forms of Parental Pay, such as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
Can I bring data from my previous payroll software solution?
Yes. Switch payroll solutions easily by importing employee time worked, leave taken and other employee details from your current payroll provider or accounting software into Employment Hero.
How do I find support for this software?
Employment Hero’s free payroll solution offers AI-powered tools to help you find the right answer to your queries. You also have access to an extended resource library with articles and videos with step-by-step instructions. Finally, you can raise queries with our expert customer support and they’ll get back to you with the best possible answers.
How do I purchase the software?
All you need to do is to fill out the signup form here and set up your account by completing all the important information that helps the system to be configured in line with how you normally pay your people.
Run payroll, don’t let it run you.
Payroll. Automated. Free. Sorted.