Australian payroll software checklist: 6 questions to ask before you buy

Australia’s payroll environment is one of the most complicated in the world. Strada’s 2025 Global Payroll Complexity Index ranks Australia as the world’s third-most complex payroll market (behind France and Slovakia). 

The right payroll software needs to do more than just process pay. It also needs to fit your organisation’s needs today and in the future. In our previous blog, you can use these six steps to help you evaluate your next Australian payroll software. 

In this article, we list down important questions to ask yourself and your team while finding the right payroll software for your business.

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1. Does the payroll support Australian awards and legislation?

When people look at payroll in general terms, they often think simple payroll means it is a small organisation. But what works for a salaried 1000-employee office may not work for a 100-employee multi-site hospitality group managing multiple pay awards. 

Australia operates under 122 modern awards in the Fair Work system. These awards set minimum pay rates and employment conditions that vary by industry and occupation. 

Australian awards checklist: 

• The payroll engine is designed for Australian legislation and awards
• Review how award and rate changes are maintained.
• Check how updates are communicated and applied.
• Test whether the system can handle different employment types, locations and working patterns.
• Verify that the team can see how each pay result was calculated.

Having award interpretation capabilities help turn complex award requirements into clear rules a payroll software can apply to each employee, shift and pay event. 

2. Can it connect HR, rostering, time and attendance and finance?

Payroll operates in conjunction with HR, rostering, time and attendance, and finance. If those systems do not connect, the gaps are usually plugged with spreadsheets, email attachments and manual re-entries, which creates delay and increases the chance of errors.

A two-way sync with HR and payroll can help fill in the gaps without the extra manual work. 

Payroll two-way sync checklist: 

• Confirm employee information can flow from HR to payroll without being entered more than once.
• Check that rosters, clock-ins and timesheets flow into payroll to support accurate pay calculations.
• Verify that payroll outputs can flow into finance in the format your organisation needs.
• Assess whether the system provides useful cost visibility for managers and finance teams.
• Measure whether the integration reduces manual work after the pay run, such as reconciliations or general ledger updates.

For shift-based or project-based workforces, these connections are especially important. Rostering and time capture should feed payroll, while payroll and finance should provide visibility into the cost of the hours, overtime, allowances and penalty rates employees actually worked.

3. How much manual work is required for each pay run?

From the surface, it can look like your payroll operation is running smoothly. But in reality, is there a lot of hidden manual heavy lifting? 

“If your payroll takes three days, where is that time going, and where are those inefficiencies?” Richard Heaton, Solution Consultant for payroll at ELMO Software shares the best way to identify where you’re seeing that time leak.

“Look for where your dead spots are at the inefficiencies. That’s the best place to start,” says Richard. 

With your team, walk through the end-to-end process. Start with onboarding. Then follow an employee through a roster, a timesheet, a pay run, a pay adjustment and the finance hand-off. Note down where someone has to manually check, chase, copy, paste, calculate or reconcile information. 

Common payroll process time drains include:

• Manually interpreting awards in spreadsheets
• Chasing missing or late timesheets
• Entering employee information more than once
• Calculating back pay and other adjustments manually
• Rebuilding payroll information for finance
• Maintaining workarounds that only one person understands

Automation can help remove repetitive handling without removing important human checks. Some ELMO payroll engines can automate parts of the back-pay calculation, subject to the engine and pay-run configuration but payroll professionals always review the end result. This helps shift the role from manual data entry towards oversight, risk management and audit. 

4. Can employees and managers view and manage their own information?

Employee self-service can reduce the hand-offs between employees, HR and payroll. Instead of relying on payroll to enter or update information on their behalf, employees can manage details such as personal contact information, bank accounts, tax and superannuation details in one place.

Managers also need visibility to manage their part of the process. A dashboard can show who is expected to work, who has clocked in and where timesheets are missing. “This means payroll aren’t the ones who are having to chase it so much because everyone’s got visibility,” exclaims Rich. 

“The payroll team can see what they need to see, but it’s also not payroll having to call up managers to say things are missing time sheets.” 

This creates a clearer division of responsibility between individuals and teams. Employees and managers own and maintain their information, HR manages the employee lifecycle and payroll focuses on accurate pay, compliance and oversight.

Payroll employee and manager checklist:

• Give employees access to the information they are responsible for maintaining.
• Use validation to help identify incorrect or incomplete information before the pay run.
• Make it easy for employees to access payslips, leave balances and submit timesheets.
• Give managers visibility of missing time entries, clock-ins and approvals.
• Confirm that the process keeps payroll in control of pay accuracy and compliance.

5. Does it help reduce payroll risk?

Underpayments can result from award complexity, incorrect classifications, missed updates, annualised salary assumptions or time and attendance problems. 

The risk may not be visible until an employee raises a concern or an audit uncovers an issue. The right payroll software can help payroll teams identify unusual results early. 

Payroll risks checklist:

• Use variance reporting to compare pay runs and identify unusual changes.
• Review exception reports that highlight potential errors or compliance issues.
• Check that the system shows what changed and why a pay result was produced.
• Retain evidence of the checks performed before payroll is finalised.
• Keep human oversight in the process, using automation to support judgement rather than replace it.

This helps payroll teams move beyond simply processing pay and spend more time doing more strategic work such as identifying risks early, investigating unusual results.

6. Can it support growth and changing workforce complexity?

Scalability is about more than adding employees. Growth can also mean introducing new awards, sites, entities, projects, shift patterns and integrations. A system that works for a simple salaried workforce may struggle with casual, part-time, field-based or 24/7 shift workers.

Future payroll state checklist:

• Map the workforce changes your organisation is likely to make next.
• Confirm the system can support new awards, locations, entities and pay rules.
• Test whether it can handle casual, part-time, field-based and shift workers.
• Check that costing and reporting can adapt as teams grow.
• Review whether new integrations can be added without creating more manual work.
• Assess whether the platform can remain dependable as payroll complexity increases.

Finding the right payroll software for your business

There is no one perfect or “best” payroll system out there. The right choice depends on your workforce, award complexity, existing systems and plans for growth.

That’s why ELMO starts with your payroll process first, not the product. Our approach is to understand your organisation needs, future state and payroll process. We’ll help you identify the manual time drains, hand-offs and risks before exploring a solution in the context of your business. 

• The right fit for you: Our payroll experts recommend the right engine from our curated network of best-of-breed payroll partners, matched to your industry, scale, complexity and future direction.
• A trusted view of workforce data: Mapped employee data flows between HR and payroll, and intelligent conflict detection surfaces issues for review before the pay run.
• Backed by local experts: Local experts in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand guide you from engine selection through implementation, adoption and optimisation.