Pricing

To choose a cloud payroll software for your business, consider the cost of implementing your desired online payroll system. Some cloud payroll software charges are based on employee headcounts and some are based on standardized monthly pricing plans. 

For affordable plans, you may choose from Talenox, Employment Hero, PayrollPanda and altHR. They offer standard plans starting from RM8 per employee per month. However, these plans may only include basic payroll operations that may not be sufficient to cover the area of human resources and payroll altogether. Although some of these cloud payroll software offers additional features as per the all-rounder system as below, it could be integrated with other software. For example, Talenox integrates seamlessly with StaffAny, which is a cloud scheduling and time attendance software to manage your workforces effectively. All the number of working hours captured under time attendance feature will be pushed in Talenox to calculate the monthly payroll and statutory requirements like EPF, Socso, EIS and PCB.

For an all-rounder system, Employment Hero and Swingvy are popular HR and payroll recommendations. They have a robust offering that covers Time & Attendance, Claims, Leave and HR Management. It is a much more direct tool for novice payroll managers to easily manage employees in a central system. The payroll software costs a little more expensive than the standard payroll system but it will help save you money from outsourcing those HR and payroll tasks!

Free trial:

Most online payroll systems provide a FREE demo session and a FREE 30-day trial before you make a decision to adopt the payroll software. Make sure you test out all the payroll features and see how it best fits your specific industry usage in managing your employees.

Modules to look out for :

Based on your niche industries, you need to look out for specific modules that you will frequently use in managing your employees. Here are three important module types:

1. Leave

Every cloud payroll system encompasses the Leave module for employee applications – it has the basic features of leave deductions and tracking.

One distinct and special feature you should look out for is the ability to sync with your calendar. Every manager or team supervisor will find this helpful because you will automatically know who in the company has taken employee leave at which dates. It will be easy for work coordination!

You can find this in Talenox and Swingvy. All they need is a simple calendar access (like Google Calendar) and it will add the employee leave event to your calendar.

Win: Talenox or Swingvy

2. Claims

Have a bunch of receipts or documents for filing and documentation?

You can rely on your cloud payroll software to do easy expense claims. Submitted proofs will be softcopy documented and managers or PICs will only need to approve the claims from the mobile app. BrioHR, Kakitangan, HReasily, Swingvy and altHR have this setup which is convenient for the tedious expense claims you get from your employees.

For multi-currency claims, HReasily and Swingvy is a platform that supports international expense claims because they serve a larger range of countries. It makes the claim process much more convenient if you need to handle employee compensation on international expense claims.

Claims also need to be recorded in accounting reports. Hence, make sure the cloud payroll software also connects with your cloud accounting system for an automated update for accurate accounting.

Win: Swingvy or HReasily

3. Time & Attendance

If you are in the F&B, retail or any services industry that recruits both full-time and part-time workers, you need to consider this module in your payroll software.

The challenge for these industries is in keeping track of employees’ hourly clocking in and out entry and calculating those work hours accurately to convert them into pay. The real struggle is in the never-ending manual data entry in order to keep accuracy.

The cloud payroll software you should look out for is one that allows the integration to the Workforce Management Software you are using. For example, Talenox connects to Deputy, StaffAny and King of Time and runs with flexible payroll options to do automatic calculations. It benefits administration in terms of processing the work hours of dozens of employees manually.

If you’re looking for a software that utilizes mobile apps for Time & Attendance, Kakitangan is your choice. They leverage on cloud technology and use a remote time attendance system (using just the mobile device) to clock in/out, and managers can use the geolocation feature for tracking.

You can leave all complex manual calculations aside and take advantage on the automatic calculations from the payroll software.

Win: Talenox or Kakitangan

Software Scalability – App & Bank Integrations

Finding for the most applicable software by its modules is not enough. You need to also consider the software scalability to integrate with other areas of your business like accounting, time & attendance and POS system.

It will help hand in hand with your business growth as well as the centralization of multiple systems of your business!

1. App Integrations

A strong and powerful cloud payroll software will be able to integrate with other cloud software such as cloud accounting software, cloud scheduling, cloud POS system and also other cloud payroll software!

You need a strong cloud ecosystem support to ensure all areas of your business is in-sync. It can push real time information about your business status (e.g. financial information, daily sales and employee status).

KeyPay has one of the largest app integrations in the areas of cloud accounting, workforce management (time & scheduling), cloud payroll and cloud POS. They have up to 24 app integrations to support and work with your HR & payroll processes.

On the other hand, Talenox wins the strongest integration with Xero – Cloud Accounting Software. They are recognized as the No.1 Xero staff pick in the region! Using the Talenox-Xero integration, you can push all payroll entries directly to Xero and automatically update your bills or journals in Xero for accounting purposes.

App integrations are treated as cloud software solutions that are highly efficient to keep all your business database and information central and accurate.

Win: KeyPay or Talenox

2. Bank Integrations

For a seamless and easy payroll process, you need to have a payroll system that connects with the bank your business is using. This can help you pay your employees faster.

For local SMEs, Kakitangan and PayrollPanda have the largest Malaysian bank integrations. Once you have connected your payroll system with the bank, all bank files will be auto-generated whenever a payroll submission is made. Even statutory payments will be report-generated.

Win: Kakitangan or PayrollPanda

A comparison overview of all top 9 cloud payroll software in Malaysia:

There is no one best cloud payroll software in the market. You can only pick the cloud payroll software that best suits your business operations and industry. Make an informed decision based on the comparison chart above and filter out the kind of payroll software based on your needs!