5 Best HR and Payroll Software for 2024

1. MHR iTrent: Best for tech and healthcare companies

Employees can make note of any learning modules they are working on in the dashboard of MHR’s self-service portal. Image source: mhrglobal.com/uk/en/itrent

MHR is a specialist in employee learning. I would recommend its software, iTrent, to firms in fast-paced sectors like tech and healthcare. Both experience constant change and upskilling ensures workers can adapt to new technologies, regulations, and best practices.

Currently, over 1,000 UK companies rely on iTrent. Its built-in Learning Management Software (LMS) can be used to host, track, distribute, personalise, optimise, and scale up your corporate training programmes. Key features include:

• New starter onboarding
• System admin support
• HR legislation updates for managers
• Upskilling modules for data analysis

What I like about MHR iTrent:

Salary budgeting: employee wages are rising everyday (the new National Living Wage was an especially big rise this year). iTrent’s unique salary modelling feature helps firms stress test new hires to gauge how a pay change will affect budgets.

Timesheets: iTrent’s mobile workforce management feature lets employees clock-in and out themselves. This data then flows directly to payroll, so consultant staff – or those working to a timesheet – know that their hours are accurately recorded and compensated. By comparison, other brands on this list, namely Moorepay and IRIS, do not offer this feature.

Employee empowerment: gaining buy-in from employees can be difficult if a system proves confusing to learn. iTrent provides pre-recorded training videos and a knowledge base to guide employees through the onboarding process.

Reasons to avoid MHR iTrent:

Recruitment: iTrent does not enable applicant tracking. If I hired a new employee, I would need to manually move their information from my recruitment software to iTrent, adding an additional step to my onboarding process.

Payroll compliance: iTrent is not qualified to give advice on payroll compliance through the iTrent platform. Users will need to hire a third-party expert or auditor to ensure they are up-to-date with tax and legislation changes.

2. Rippling: Best for finance companies

Rippling makes HR and payroll processes like onboarding simple to understand with its desktop walkthroughs

Rippling is a low-cost software that launched in the UK in June 2023, with prices starting at £7 per user, per month. During testing, we were particularly impressed by its automatic alert system. If there is a breach in payroll compliance, we discovered that Rippling will instantly notify users – potentially saving thousands in avoided penalty fees.

Because of this, I’d recommend Rippling to finance and insurance companies. These sectors are specially regulated, meaning compliance is a particularly sticky area that Rippling can help smooth out. Key features include:

• Employee background checks to comply with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations on senior staff qualifications
• Know Your Customer (KYC) checks for finance businesses carrying out thorough checks on the identity and source of wealth of their clients
• Automated leave tracking ensures teams know how to adjust workloads if a key account role or manager goes on leave

What I like about Rippling:

Ease-of-use: one of the key barriers to new tech adoption is the lack of knowledge from those using it. Rippling’s interface is similar to Slack and, thanks to its helpful walkthrough tour and live training features, the platform is easy for new signups to master.

Customisation: Rippling has an open API (a code that allows two software programs to communicate directly) so you can link it with your existing third-party apps. For example, Rippling can integrate with a company’s CRM tool to track customer interactions and link them to employee performance.

Reasons to avoid Rippling:

Trust: vendor data is stored in the US, which could be a security concern for companies with sensitive customer data. However, I was impressed by its long list of security features (including certificates for three international security standards) and I think these should be enough to suit most businesses that don’t require advanced data protections.

3. Staffology Payroll by IRIS: Best for seasonal businesses

The Staffology self-service portal helps part-time employees or those working odd hours understand their payslip.

IRIS is one of the UK’s longest-running private software companies. It invested in a small business-oriented product called Staffology Payroll in 2021, which is a suitable system for seasonal companies like landscapers or tourist-oriented companies.

Staffology’s unique pricing structure is ideal for firms with fluctuating team sizes. It’s also undergone some changes since March 2024 (our last round of research).

Whereas organisations used to pay £1.50 per payslip for the first 19 team members, payslips are now free for this amount of users. Instead, businesses pay a minimum monthly charge of £35 to access the system. Once you reach 20 employees, teams will start to pay £1.75 per payslip over the 19 person threshold (plus the minimum monthly charge).

This low per-employee cost is a real benefit if you want to avoid paying for inactive employees during the off-season. That said, due to Staffology’s monthly fee of £35, it would be cheaper for teams with fewer than five employees to invest in Rippling (£7 per month, per user).

What I like about Staffology:

Onboarding: unlike our top-rated brand, MHR, Staffology boasts advanced onboarding and support features. This includes a 24/7 chatbot and a live training course so that you can train staff members to use the platform easily, even if they’re lacking tech experience.

Visibility: like MHR and Moorepay, Staffology also has a mobile app that lets employees access payslips via a self-service portal. This means employees can view pay information, such as how many tips they’ve earned, and other important updates at any time – great if they’re working odd shift patterns.

Reasons to avoid Staffology:

Shift management: staff can’t record their own hours from the Staffology platform. I must flag this would be a significant drawback for workforces that rotate shifts, such as retailers and hospitality businesses with part-time or zero-hours workers.

Payroll reporting: Staffology is not ideal for complex data visualisation or analysis. Our researchers were unable to design a report that shows the differences between an upcoming payroll and the previous one (known as a changes report) or build custom reports.

4. Moorepay: Best for marketing and sales businesses

The Moorepay mobile app lets employees view their payslips, personal data, and other pay information on-the-go.

Moorepay is a goliath in payroll – and its HR provision improved drastically after acquiring Natural HR in 2023. I’d recommend the solution to sales and marketing teams. Its exceptional reporting capabilities are ideal for linking staff performance to remuneration.

These types of businesses need reports that can track and analyse the complexities of employees on a salary, hourly wages, and commission. Moorepay’s custom Report Designer Tool lets SMEs report on bonuses, overtime pay, and labour costs associated with specific projects. Key features include:

• Predictive analytics to analyse cost impact of new hires or pay increases
• Automatic data collection so you won’t have to worry about last-minute edits
• Drag-and-drop functionality for those with limited design experience
• 80 ready-made charts to track everything from gender pay gap to training costs

What I like about Moorepay:

Real-time dashboards: Moorepay gives users access to real-time dashboards so you can get an instant breakdown of your workforce each day, such as how many staff members are absent. Managers can then respond accordingly if absenteeism seems high.

Trust: the Moorepay system is well-known within HR and payroll (we’ve written about it regularly over the past two decades) and has an industry-leading accuracy rate of 99%. It is also CIPP-accredited and ISO 27001 certified. That means all customer data is stored securely and in compliance with GDPR regulations.

Reasons to avoid Moorepay:

Employee benefits: I was disappointed to see that are no ready-made integrations with benefits admin software, which is a drawback for teams that reward employees using perks and other incentives. Those with tech experience can build one using Moorepay’s open AI, however.

Training: Moorepay does not offer live training to help new users get to grips with the software. Businesses might find themselves hit with a lengthy implementation process as employees must train themselves using Moorepay’s pre-recorded webinars and tutorials.

5. ADP UK: Best for managing and paying freelancers

We like that the ADP dashboard displays both weekly payroll information and a personal to-do list for time-poor managers

ADP’s impressive client base includes Coca-Cola and Amazon. While it is predominantly a tool for big business, the software has some niche features that make it ideal for small companies employing a global network of freelancers.

Companies have to be employing at least 25 team members to access ADP, which is why I’d recommend it most to those with many self-employed workers on the books. Key features include:

• International payroll for paying workers in over 140 countries
• AI notifications to nudge time-poor managers about payroll and HR tasks
• Educational resources on payroll tax laws across the globe
• Mobile app for employees to access payslip updates from any location

What I like about ADP:

Training: you’ll likely be stretched for time if you’re managing a large network of freelancers. ADP’s library of live and pre-recorded training materials to help users get a handle on using the software’s advanced features like open AI and custom report building.

Time tracking: ADP Real Time is a time and attendance tracker that’s accessible on any device. Even if team members are digital nomads working poolside in Spain they’ll be able to accurately record their work hours for simplified timesheets and pay calculations.

Reasons to avoid ADP:

Budget tracking: the only report that ADP cannot generate is a changes report (a way to track spending changes between payroll runs). Businesses can use the ADP custom report builder as a workaround for this issue, however.

Support: ADP has no email support option and help is only available via live chat and phone during business hours. In the event of a system error, organisations may struggle to resolve the issue swiftly.