Australian businesses are moving away from spreadsheets and manual admin faster than ever – and for good reason. Payroll, HR and compliance have become too complex to manage without the right systems in place. That’s where Employment Hero comes in: an all-in-one platform that brings clarity to the chaos.
When set up properly, Employment Hero saves hours each week, reduces compliance risks and helps business owners focus on running and growing the business.
But what does the platform really do, and how do you get the most out of it?
Let’s break it down.
What Employment Hero Actually Does
At its core, Employment Hero is designed to simplify how businesses manage their people. Instead of juggling onboarding forms in one platform, contracts in another, timesheets in spreadsheets and payroll in separate software, this tool brings everything together in one connected system.
The features of the tool include:
- Digital onboarding and compliant contracts
- Rostering and employee timesheets
- Fully integrated payroll processing
- HR workflows, policies and documentation
- Employee self-service for leave, details and payslips
Many SMEs find that once their workflows are automated, Employment Hero work becomes far more predictable. Hence, this platform becomes a dependable assistant that keeps your HR and payroll processes consistent and on track.
Payroll Management with Employment Hero
Payroll is one of the areas where Employment Hero delivers the most value. Using this tool, key payroll processes that require manual effort are fully automated, including:
- Superannuation (Super)
- PAYG withholding
- Award interpretation
- Leave accruals
- Payslips
- Compliance reporting
But here’s the catch: automation isn’t magic. It only works when the foundations are properly set up. With Employment Hero, your payroll is properly configured so your business can reduce errors and focus on growth instead of manual tasks.
If even one track is misaligned, an incorrect award, a misclassified employee or an outdated rule, the whole payroll cycle derails. Not dramatically, but slowly through recurring errors, mismatched payslips and compliance red flags.
If you are looking to set up or manage payroll tasks within Employment Hero, our payroll outsourcing services can support your entire workflow and keep every pay run compliant.
Employment Hero Integrations That Matter
Seamless integration is one of Employment Hero’s biggest advantages. It connects with:
- Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks
- Time-tracking tools
- Rostering systems
- POS platforms
With the right Employment Hero integrations, data flows smoothly, double-entry disappears, and payroll outputs become more reliable.
But integrations are set up incorrectly?
That’s when timesheets go missing, pay rates don’t sync, and reconciliation becomes a weekly headache. Choosing and configuring integrations early prevents those data problems later.
What Really Impacts Employment Hero Costs
When it comes to budgeting, Employment Hero costs aren’t one-size-fits-all. They vary based on your plan, the number of employees you have, and the level of payroll or HR functionality your business requires. Most pricing structures include:
- Per-employee monthly fees
- Payroll-specific add-ons
- Optional HR and compliance modules
But here’s where many businesses get caught out:
They choose a plan that fits right now, not one that supports their growth over the next 12–24 months. That’s when unexpected upgrades, extra fees or hidden costs start creeping in.
A smarter approach?
Before locking in a plan, assess your award complexity, projected headcount growth, and any integration requirements with systems like Xero or MYOB. Understanding these factors upfront ensures you choose an Employment Hero plan that stays cost-effective—not just today, but as your business evolves.
Common Challenges Businesses Face With Employment Hero
When Employment Hero isn’t configured correctly, businesses often experience:
- Wrong award interpretation
- Timesheet or payslip syncing errors
- Accounting or POS integration issues
- Incorrect employee setup
- Limited internal knowledge of payroll rules
- Delays due to missing or slow employment hero support
These issues compound over time, increasing compliance risks and stretching payroll cycles far longer than needed. At this point, expert help becomes essential.
How We Improve Client Results With Employment Hero
Here’s a quick example of how our support made a difference. A growing Australian business came to us with ongoing payroll errors, award mismatches, and missing timesheet data. Their team was spending hours each week fixing issues instead of running operations.
We recommended implementing Employment Hero as their HRMS to centralise all employee data across multiple entities in one unified system. This immediately simplified cost apportionment by automating the allocation of employee expenses to the correct entity, removing the need for manual calculations.
Read the full case study here: Payroll Processing: Achieving Excellence with Employment Hero
Final Thoughts
Employment Hero can be a genuine game-changer – but only when it’s configured, managed and maintained with the right level of expertise. A well-set-up system can streamline payroll, strengthen compliance, and remove hours of manual admin from your week. A poorly configured setup, on the other hand, can create more issues than it solves.
If you want Employment Hero to actually work the way it’s meant to, we can help you get there.