1. Our methodology
Obviously, we believe Onfolk is the best payroll and hr software product on the market for small businesses. However we also do understand the challenges of being a business owner trying to find the best product possible to solve a problem - topically payroll for this article.
In an effort to provide you with objective facts about Onfolk and other ways to run payroll, we followed a research methodology. This way you can expect a realistic view how we fare with other payroll methods.
Our research includes multiple hours spent sifting through our own personal customer interviews and user research notes, and also:
- customer reviews from other products, from Capterra, TrustPilot and Software Reviews.
- Product research for service providers in each category.
2. Different ways to run payroll as a founder
Paying yourself and your team every month means you’ll need to run a payroll in the UK for your company. This process includes:
- calculating salaries, any deductions or additional income to be paid, time-off allowances, pension contributions and relevant employer and employee taxes applicable
- submitting these figures to HMRC and paying your PAYE bill
- updating pension contributions to your pension provider and paying them for the month
- paying salaries to employees.
There are different ways you can run payroll for your company:
- with an accountant or other outsourced provider: an accountant will manage your payroll every month and submit it to HMRC on your behalf.
- with accounting software (eg. Xero or QuickBooks): on top of bookkeeping, accounting software will often offer an add-on feature to enable you to run payroll on your own through their platform. This is typically payroll software for accountants. See our comparison article Onfolk vs Xero.
- with free payroll software (eg. 12Cloud payroll): some payroll softwares may offer a freemium model whereby you can benefit from their free tier and submit payroll figures to HMRC every month.
- with paid-for, payroll-only software (eg. Pento): traditional payroll softwares and more modern payroll products are available on the UK market today, specialising in different types of business (small, medium, enterprise). They’ll offer more powerful payroll features than free payroll and accounting softwares, such as holistic a payroll dashboard.
- or with integrated payroll and HRIS system (Onfolk): similar to payroll-only software, these specialise in offering an all-in-one hr and payroll software experience to business owners to save them time on admin.
Each option comes with its pros and cons in terms of cost, time investment, service offering and level of support you’ll get in case you need help.
3. Onfolk as an integrated HR and payroll software
Onfolk is a payroll company software that offers HR software with payroll integrated to it in order to minimise the amount of admin involved with paying your team and managing their data.
Think effective payroll automation, allowing to run payroll in the UK in a matter of minutes. It is also an official HMRC payroll software, meaning all HMRC reporting is done automatically for you every month.
You get two services for the price of one: payroll and HR under one umbrella.
Some of our most popular features include:
✅ 90% automated payroll every month
✅ HRIS synced with payroll - ideal for small business payroll software
✅ Time off management and annual leave calculations included
✅ Automated onboarding and offboarding
✅ Pensions fully integrated with Nest, Smart Pensions and more
✅ Integrations with accounting softwares such as Xero and Quickbooks
✅ People insights, custom reports and org charts come built in
“Payroll has never been a concern since day one with Onfolk. They take care of everything for you, so you can focus on the important things.”
Valerio Magliulo, CEO, Abatable
4. How Onfolk compares to other ways to run payroll
Below is a guide of how Onfolk compares to other payroll processing methods on the following dimensions:
- cost
- product functionalities
- level and quality of support
- cost/time effectiveness
The “summary” section below gives you a bird’s eye view of the pros and cons of each method too.
Summary (pros & cons)
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Cost
Product functionalities
Level and quality of support
Cost/time effectiveness
1. Our methodology
Obviously, we believe Onfolk is the best payroll and hr software product on the market for small businesses. However we also do understand the challenges of being a business owner trying to find the best product possible to solve a problem - topically payroll for this article.
In an effort to provide you with objective facts about Onfolk and other ways to run payroll, we followed a research methodology. This way you can expect a realistic view how we fare with other payroll methods.
Our research includes multiple hours spent sifting through our own personal customer interviews and user research notes, and also:
- customer reviews from other products, from Capterra, TrustPilot and Software Reviews.
- Product research for service providers in each category.
2. Different ways to run payroll as a founder
Paying yourself and your team every month means you’ll need to run a payroll in the UK for your company. This process includes:
- calculating salaries, any deductions or additional income to be paid, time-off allowances, pension contributions and relevant employer and employee taxes applicable
- submitting these figures to HMRC and paying your PAYE bill
- updating pension contributions to your pension provider and paying them for the month
- paying salaries to employees.
There are different ways you can run payroll for your company:
- with an accountant or other outsourced provider: an accountant will manage your payroll every month and submit it to HMRC on your behalf.
- with accounting software (eg. Xero or QuickBooks): on top of bookkeeping, accounting software will often offer an add-on feature to enable you to run payroll on your own through their platform. This is typically payroll software for accountants. See our comparison article Onfolk vs Xero.
- with free payroll software (eg. 12Cloud payroll): some payroll softwares may offer a freemium model whereby you can benefit from their free tier and submit payroll figures to HMRC every month.
- with paid-for, payroll-only software (eg. Pento): traditional payroll softwares and more modern payroll products are available on the UK market today, specialising in different types of business (small, medium, enterprise). They’ll offer more powerful payroll features than free payroll and accounting softwares, such as holistic a payroll dashboard.
- or with integrated payroll and HRIS system (Onfolk): similar to payroll-only software, these specialise in offering an all-in-one hr and payroll software experience to business owners to save them time on admin.
Each option comes with its pros and cons in terms of cost, time investment, service offering and level of support you’ll get in case you need help.
3. Onfolk as an integrated HR and payroll software
Onfolk is a payroll company software that offers HR software with payroll integrated to it in order to minimise the amount of admin involved with paying your team and managing their data.
Think effective payroll automation, allowing to run payroll in the UK in a matter of minutes. It is also an official HMRC payroll software, meaning all HMRC reporting is done automatically for you every month.
You get two services for the price of one: payroll and HR under one umbrella.
Some of our most popular features include:
✅ 90% automated payroll every month
✅ HRIS synced with payroll - ideal for small business payroll software
✅ Time off management and annual leave calculations included
✅ Automated onboarding and offboarding
✅ Pensions fully integrated with Nest, Smart Pensions and more
✅ Integrations with accounting softwares such as Xero and Quickbooks
✅ People insights, custom reports and org charts come built in
“Payroll has never been a concern since day one with Onfolk. They take care of everything for you, so you can focus on the important things.”
Valerio Magliulo, CEO, Abatable
4. How Onfolk compares to other ways to run payroll
Below is a guide of how Onfolk compares to other payroll processing methods on the following dimensions:
- cost
- product functionalities
- level and quality of support
- cost/time effectiveness
The “summary” section below gives you a bird’s eye view of the pros and cons of each method too.
Summary (pros & cons)
Cost
Product functionalities
Level and quality of support
Cost/time effectiveness
