Does your HR software work with Sage payroll?

Most HR software works with Sage payroll by sending it a file of hours, absences and pay changes each pay period, rather than through a live connection. The questions that matter are how clean that file is, who checks it, and how much re-keying it still leaves your payroll team.

Sage is a familiar name in UK and Irish payroll teams, so this is often the first question a business asks when it looks at new HR software. This guide explains how the connection works, what goes wrong when HR and payroll sit apart, what to ask any provider, and the two ways HR Duo handles it.

How HR software and Sage payroll connect

Pay data reaches Sage payroll in one of three ways. Someone types it in, it is imported from a file, or a partner app sends it through a connection Sage supports. For most HR and time and attendance systems, the import file is the standard route.

In practice, the HR system exports the hours worked, overtime, absence, and starters and leavers for the pay period in a layout the payroll software can read. The payroll team imports the file, checks the totals and runs pay.

That works well when the file is right the first time. It breaks down when the data inside it has not been checked, which is where most payroll errors start.

What goes wrong when HR and payroll do not talk to each other

When HR, rotas and payroll sit in separate systems, the same problems come up in almost every business:

• Hours get keyed twice. Someone copies totals from timesheets or a rota into payroll by hand, and one slip changes a person's pay.
• Absence arrives late. Sick days and unpaid leave recorded after the cut-off reach payroll a month late, and the correction lands on the next payslip.
• Overtime rules sit in people's heads. Premiums for nights, weekends or bank holidays depend on whoever runs payroll that month.
• Starters and leavers fall between systems. A new joiner is set up in HR but not yet in payroll, or a leaver keeps getting paid.
• Nobody can see who changed what. When an employee queries their pay, there is no single record of which hours were approved and by whom.

Each problem costs a few minutes on its own. Across a year of pay runs and a multi-site workforce, they add up to days of checking and a lot of awkward conversations with staff.

Can you keep Sage and still change your HR system?

Yes. Changing your HR, rota or time and attendance system does not mean changing payroll. Your pay history, tax records and year-end submissions stay in Sage. The new HR system takes over the work that happens before payroll: recording hours, approving timesheets, tracking leave and keeping employee records up to date. It then hands payroll a cleaner file than it had before.

Many businesses take this route first, because it changes one system at a time and leaves payroll untouched until they are ready.

Two ways HR Duo works with your payroll

HR Duo gives you a choice, and both options use the same HR Duo data underneath. You can find the full comparison on the payroll and finance page.

Keep Sage, with payroll reporting

If you're happy with Sage as your payroll provider, there's no need to change it to benefit from HR Duo.
HR Duo’s time and attendance tools bring the workforce information needed for payroll together in one platform. From employee clock-ins and approved timesheets to leave, overtime and shift premiums, your payroll team has a more accurate and consistent view of the figures before each pay run.

With configurable pay rules, automated calculations and pre-validated payroll reports, you can reduce manual data preparation, identify discrepancies earlier and produce exports tailored to your payroll provider's requirements.

That means you can improve the processes behind payroll while continuing to use Sage for payroll processing, subject to your Sage product's import requirements.

Move payroll into HR Duo, with integrated payroll

If you would rather run pay in the same place as everything else, HR Duo's integrated payroll runs the whole pay run inside the platform. HR Duo's integrated payroll supports UK and Irish payroll processing, including RTI submissions to HMRC in the UK and payroll reporting to Revenue in Ireland. For UK employers, it also supports pension auto-enrolment and API submissions to providers such as NEST and SMART Pension.

You can start with payroll reporting and move to integrated payroll whenever you are ready. If you are weighing up HR Duo against Sage's own HR software, our comparison of HR Duo and Sage HR sets out the differences.