From XU Magazine, 
Issue 31

What to do when your payroll needs outgrow Xero?

As businesses scale, growing pains are to be expected. But how do you rethink your payroll process?

This article originated from the Xero blog. The XU Hub is an independent news and media platform - for Xero users, by Xero users. Any content, imagery and associated links below are directly from Xero and not produced by the XU Hub.
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Xero is widely considered to be one of the best accounting software options for small businesses and start-ups. Its ease of use makes it great for beginners and an excellent choice for those with limited accounting experience who are looking for basic financial management features. 

However, as your business grows, you’ll need to identify the right processes, plans and systems needed to scale. Sometimes, tools that worked for years might no longer be the best fit.

If you find yourself managing more than 50 employees using Xero Payroll, it might be time to start looking into another option - especially since Xero isn’t designed to handle much more than just day-to-day payroll processing functions. On top of that, according to Xero’s own account “the more employees added to the product, the worse processing and speed will become when trying to post a pay run.” and last but not least, once you reach 200 users, you’ll be cut off.

Enough reasons to look for a payroll solution that can grow with you beyond these thresholds.


Limitless payroll processing

If you’re on the lookout for a product that can easily support business growth through improved  employee admin and payroll in Australia, it’s hard to go past Microkeeper. 

Australian built, owned, operated and fully supported by the team out of their Victorian HQ, the maximum number of employees supported is virtually limitless.

“Unlike Xero, Microkeeper has been built first and foremost as a payroll system, meaning that it’s purposely made to handle the payroll needs of large businesses and enterprises.” explains

Joel Davis, Microkeeper CTO. “Some of our clients in large scale event and labour hire, run payroll for over 5,000 employees in one go - without running into any problems.”

“Our sales team are often asked what the limit is of the number of employees we can support, but the truth is, while there probably is a number in theory, we’re confident we can manage the payroll process for any business in Australia.” Joel concludes.


Smart software with a human touch

“Without automated processes and integrations in place, the workload for payroll professionals will only continue to increase as your business grows. Especially once your employee count hits that 50+ range. All the additional pressures can lead to errors in your payroll data entry as well as your accounting records being out of sync with Xero, which can cause headaches for everybody involved.” explains Jon Arrigo, Head of Business Operations at Microkeeper.

“Payroll is such a central part of running your business operations, you really can’t afford to make any mistakes. At Microkeeper, we combine the power of technology, and a seriously smart system, with the human touch that’s still needed in payroll. Our clients are assigned an Account Specialist that can tailor our system to their specific needs, awards and EBA’s. They’ll help our clients get to know our product and they’re available to chat over the phone whenever they need an extra hand.” 

How’s Microkeeper different?

With so many software suites out there claiming to be an end-to-end solution, what’s the difference between Microkeeper and the competition?

Aly Garrett, All Aussie Accounting Adventures Podcast Host and multi award winner, explained in a recent webinar: “One of the benefits I’ve seen with Microkeeper, and why we’ve moved clients across to Microkeeper, is that - while with competitors when timesheets and rates get pushed through to Xero incorrectly, you get issues all over the shop - with Microkeeper you can run the whole payroll process through the system end-to-end. Having that one source of truth in Microkeeper makes things so much better from a payroll processing point of view.”

“In our bookkeeping department, we process payroll for thousands of employees each week. Having an end-to-end solution is something that saves us an enormous amount of time. And it just gives us an enormous amount of trust in the Microkeeper system. So that, for us, is the biggest reason why I’d recommend to go with Microkeeper, just the benefit of their full suite system.” 

Power up your payroll

When your payroll processes outgrow Xero, a software partner that can scale with you, all while offering you the automation tools and support you need along the way is the perfect fit. In Australia, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better team than Microkeeper.

Find out what Microkeeper can do for you, book a quick consultation by scanning the QR code below, or check out our website for more information.

Why leave it there?

To put payroll on autopilot

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