Could This Be The Solution To Your Payroll Challenges? – Employment Hero Review

Overall Rating:

9.0

Ease Of Setup = 8.6

Value For Money = 8.9

Customer Support = 9.0

Features = 9.4

Employment Hero Review [UPDATED 2026] – As a small business, having employees can add administrative tasks that take up a lot of time. Payroll software can help reduce the time these tasks take.

So, in our Employment Hero review we will have a closer look to see if their payroll software can make your life easier, as they claim.

At A Glance

Employment Hero offers a complete payroll system with their Employment Hero Payroll software. This allows you to perform relevant admin tasks quickly and easily.

Pay runs, timesheets, leave requests and payslips can all be managed automatically via this payroll software. This means you don’t need to spend days to make sure your staff gets paid.

What we really like, is that it takes the hassle and stress out of reporting to HMRC. Because the system is compliant with all rules and regulations, you don’t need to worry.

One negative point is the complexity of the system, which can be difficult to navigate if you are new to these things. However, Employment Hero does offer guides and webinars, and they also have a customer support team.

What Features Do Employment Hero Offer?

No Employment Hero review would be complete without having a detailed look at the features they offer. After all, you want to know what you will get for your money.

Here are the most useful features the Employment Hero payroll software offers:

• Automated pay run – you can set up your own rules to meet your needs. Then the pay run can be processed in a few clicks. 
• Import timesheets – if you are paying your staff for the time they worked rather than a fixed salary, your staff can submit their timesheets via the system. They can then be approved through the system too and will automatically be added to the next pay run.
• Manage staff leave – your employees can submit their leave requests via a portal at any time. Once approved, they will be automatically notified. And they can always check their leave entitlement online, and so can you.
• Publish payslips – you can publish payslips via the portal where your staff can access them at any time. So you don’t have to waste time and money printing them out.
• Rota management – this payroll software allows you to budget and allocate shifts and makes them available to staff via the portal. They can also swap shifts with colleagues, which will give them more freedom.
• Reporting – you can submit real time information to HMRC automatically with only a few clicks. This will improve your compliance and ensure you have peace of mind.

These are, in our opinion, the most useful features the Employment Hero Payroll offers you. But if you want to find out more about the features they offer, you can do so on their website.

Employment Hero Payroll is a cloud-based solution, which means everything is in one place and can be accessed from everywhere at any time.

All you need is a device (laptop, computer, mobile) and internet access.

Is Employment Hero HMRC Approved?

Whenever you look into buying software to support the administrative tasks for your business, trust plays a major part. Because you will be sharing a lot of confidential data and using it to communicate with a government body, you need to be able to trust the payroll software you choose.

That’s why, in this Employment Hero review, we looked into whether this payroll software is approved by HMRC. 

Employment Hero is not listed on the official HMRC list of approved payroll software. This could be due to the fact that it is an Australian company.

However, they do comply with HMRC rules, and you can send your payroll reports directly to HMRC via the software.

Fees

Fees are an important part of any review, so we will look in depth at the prices and packages in our Employment Hero review.

Employment Hero offers three payroll packages.

Free

Their basic packages offers you the bare minimum if you have employees:

• Pay runs automated
• Create multiple pay schedules
• Include benefit into payroll
• Generate payslips automatically
• Allows you to integrate PensionSync
• Allowances

For a small business that is starting to employ staff, this is all you need: pay your employees and stay compliant with any laws.

Given that this is a free package, this is great value for money, and will be music to the ears of small cash strapped business owners who want to start hiring staff.

But if you need more features than these basic ones, one of their paid plans might be a better option.

Payroll Premium

The first paid package will cost you £2 per month and gives you everything from the Free packages and:

• Live webchat for support
• Single sign-out
• Multi-PAYE
• Pay conditions engine
• Integrate 3rd-Party apps you already use

This package is reasonable priced, given that you get a complete end-to-end payroll plan for your small business.

Managed Payroll

With their most expensive package, at £12 per month, you can leave it all to them. They will take care of your entire payroll for you, while you can keep an eye on everything through their cloud-based software.

Apart from all the features from Payroll Premium, you also get:

• End-to-end payroll managed for your by Employment Hero
• Reporting to HMRC done by them
• RTI and pension enrolment fully managed
• Declaration of compliance regarding pensions taken care of\

If you need to outsource your complete payroll process, but can’t hire staff for this, than this is an ideal solution. All done for you, but at a fraction of the cost a staff member would cost you.

Integration Into HR Platform

Employment Hero also has an HR platform, which can be integrated with the payroll platform. And while we are reviewing the payroll software, our Employment Hero review would not be complete if wouldn’t also cover this part.

The HR platform will allow you to manage the full employee lifecycle, including:

• Recruitment
• Onboarding
• Contracts
• Reporting
• Performance Review
• Reward and Recognition

This fully cloud-based HR software, will allow you to make sure your employees are efficient and happy. And because everything is in one place, you will be able to easily find documents and policies.

The HR software will integrate with the payroll software, which means you won’t have to duplicate any information. And changes only have to be made once.

The platform will also give your staff the freedom to change their details, such as address and bank details, which will leave you time to take care of business.

Combining human resources and payroll in one system, might be something you need in the future. So it is good to know that with this provider you have the option to do so.

Customer Support

When you invest in a software, you want to make sure that you will get help if things go wrong. Especially, with something as important as payroll.

So, in our Employment Hero review we have looked at how they support their customers. 

The first thing to say is, that they can only be reached via a ticketing system unless you’re on one of the paid packages. Even then, phone support and live chat are only available on the top package.

This means that it could take some time before you get a reply to your query. However, they do offer a wide range of resources. Including guides, templates and webinars, which will guide you through various processes.

Looking at the reviews, their customer service seems to be good. Let’s have a closer look at the customer reviews.

Employment Hero Reviews From Customers:

Reading customer reviews is a great help when you are deciding if a provider will work for you or not. Therefore, as part of our Employment Hero review, we are also looking at what users of the software have said.

On Trustpilot, Employment Hero has a great 4.2 from over 250 reviews, 81% of which are rated 4 star and above. On Capterra, Employment Hero has an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars based on 240 user reviews. On average, Employment Hero scores:

• 4.4/5 stars for ease of Use
• 4.1/5 stars for customer service
• 4.2/5 stars for features
• 4.3/5 stars for value for money

In addition, 8.3/10 customers are likely to recommend the software to a friend.

Overall, they have good reviews. However, the vast majority of them are from customers in Australia. There’s also a warning on trustpilot that some reviews come from unsupported invitation methods, so make sure you take them with a pinch of salt.

However, the majority of their customers seem to be happy with the service they get. The main issue most customers have is the lack of support. This comes down to the fact that you either have to pay to get support or send an email and wait.

My overall experience with Employment Hero has been good. I’ve been using Employment Hero since 2016, right from their very beginning, and it’s been amazing to see how much they’ve improved over the years. It’s clear that they take customer feedback seriously, which is why I believe it’s so important to keep sharing our experiences. After a five-year break in my career, I returned to work in Australia and switched from another HR system over to Employment Hero and I can see that they have some new features even some of the issues we were facing 5 years ago still there. But overall it’s a great system and the customer support normally is immediate and very helpful.

5-Star review from Christina via Capterra

We have used Employment Hero for a number of years now and it is great for our small business.

It is easy to navigate and you can see all of the important information that you need easily. Our employees also find it an easy platform to navigate which is a big bonus. We have been able to rollout our monthly and quarterly reviews through Employment Hero which we weren’t able to do through other providers when looking elsewhere.

5-Star review from Anna via Trustpilot

This payroll program has made processing payroll fast and hassle-free. It’s accurate, intuitive, and keeps everything organized. Plus, the support team is outstanding — responsive, knowledgeable, and always ready to help. A great tool for any business looking to simplify payroll management!

5-Star review from GL via Trustpilot

Employment Hero TV Advert:

The Advantages

To make our Employment Hero review as useful to you as possible, we have summarised the benefits here.

They offer a free 3-months trial period, so you can try before you buy.

Their packages range from standard to complete to suit different types of businesses. All the packages, their fees are paid monthly, which will allow you to spread the cost over a year. You also pay by employee, which makes it a good option for small businesses with few staff.

The payroll software is completely cloud-based, so you can access it whenever you want, wherever you are. We like this, because it gives you the freedom to work how you want.

Employment Hero has received very good reviews from their customers, which shows that their users are happy.

The Disadvantages

One of the biggest disadvantages to Employment Hero is the lack of support. When you are dealing with such an important task, such as paying your staff, you want to make sure you can get help when you need it.

And while you can pay to get more support, this is not always an option for a small business.

If you have a higher number of staff, Employment Hero could also get quite expensive. So it is worth considering this when you decide on a payroll software.

Some users have also said that it can get quite complex to set up their account, especially when syncing with other systems. And the system is not the easiest to get used to, especially if you have never used payroll software before.

Employment Hero Review – Summary

Now that we have looked at this payroll software in detail, let’s summarise our findings.

The Employment Hero payroll software will definitely make your life easier, as it will automate your payroll tasks and give you time to grow your business.

While there are some disadvantages, given the great reviews they have received, it is a payroll software we are happy to recommend.

If you want to find out more about payroll, read our payroll guide.