When your clients use Employment Hero's HR platform, their employee data can sync seamlessly into your payroll system, making life easier for everyone. This guide explains how it works and how we'll support you both through the process.
The Three-Way Partnership
Here's how the relationships work when your client adds HR to the existing payroll setup you provide:
Employment Hero ↔ You
We maintain our existing contract and relationship for payroll services. You remain in full control of payroll processing for your clients.
Employment Hero ↔ Your Client
We establish a separate contract for HR services. Your client becomes our HR customer with their own direct relationship with us for this service.
Partner ↔ Client
Your payroll service relationship continues as normal, but now with the added benefit of seamless data flow from their HR system.
How the Integration Works
The good news? The technical setup is straightforward:
- You retain full control - Payroll processing, pay runs, and final payroll decisions remain entirely in your hands
- Your workflows stay familiar - The integration enhances rather than disrupts your existing processes
- Data comes to you cleanly - Employee information, leave requests, and timesheets arrive in your payroll system ready to use
What Changes (And What Doesn't)
What stays the same:
- You process payroll as usual
- You maintain direct client relationships for payroll matters
- Your payroll timings and processes remain under your control
- You handle all HMRC reporting and compliance
What improves:
- Employee data arrives pre-validated from HR
- Leave requests come through systematically
- Timesheets integrate automatically (if your client uses this feature)
The Collaboration Element
When HR and Payroll are connected, there will be times when you will need to coordinate:
System Changes: When your client wants to use new HR features that affect payroll (like expense management or different leave types), you must establish a strong working relationship and recognise the impacts on each other's working processes. During implementation, we will assist in your understanding of these elements, but post-implementation, you will need to work together to manage these changes.
Data Questions: If there's ever a discrepancy between HR and payroll data, you must work together to identify whether the issue originated in HR or payroll to ensure faster resolution. While we provide focus sessions during the implementation stage to help you understand these processes, ongoing data reconciliation is your joint responsibility.
Technical Considerations Made Simple
User Access: Someone needs admin access to both systems to maintain the connection. We'll help you determine what works best for your setup - whether that's giving your client some payroll access, you having HR admin access.
Data Flow: Employee information flows into your payroll system, but you remain the final authority on pay calculations and processing.
Known Limitations: Currently, leaver processing and some leave types require manual coordination between systems - we're transparent about these.
Making It Work Smoothly
Here's the revised section with your requested changes:
Making It Work Smoothly The key to successful HR-payroll integration is communication between the payroll and HR clients. We've found these approaches work best:
- Initial Planning Session: The partner client should focus on understanding the payroll platform first. Post-implementation, ensure your workforce is comfortable and processes are working smoothly before considering HR referrals. When you're ready to explore referring clients for HR services, reach out to discuss the possibilities with your partner CSM.
- Phased Client Selection: Start by offering HR to clients with simpler needs who won't significantly impact payroll processes - for example, clients not using timesheets or clients where you don't provide leave management and balance tracking services. Gradually progress to more complex clients with timesheets, intricate leave accruals, and other complexities. This isn't just about which features they use, but how complicated they make the overall process. It's a learning curve, and it's important to progress at a pace that allows your whole team to develop confidence.
- Regular Reviews Between Partners: Particularly in the first few months, periodic check-ins between the payroll and HR clients help identify process improvements and ensure smooth collaboration.
The goal is to make this feel like a natural extension of the great service you're already providing, with Employment Hero supporting the process every step of the way.