Payroll - Image credit pixabay/mohamed_HassanSage has announced the launch of Sage People Payroll in the US and the UK. The announcement comes only a week after it launched Sage Payroll in Canada to supplement Sage Accounting. These sound similar, but none of these solutions are the same software. The UK and US products are tightly integrated with Sage People, its powerful HR solution.

Underpinning these announcements is the Sage Digital Network, enabling Sage to integrate solutions across its portfolio. It appears that Sage People now has the API capability to integrate with other payroll solutions. It will be interesting to see if announcements in other countries follow. What is perhaps odd is rather than further develop its own payroll solutions, Sage has chosen to OEM other solutions for each region.

In the US, it has partnered with ADP, the leading payroll provider. It means that Sage will not make the same mistake as Xero did and develop its own payroll system in a country that has different requirements within each state. In the UK, perhaps more surprisingly, it chose to leverage the Brain Payroll solution. This is perhaps because that solution is already multi-tenant in the cloud. The big question is whether it signals a shift away from developing payroll solutions itself.

Jonathan Goldsmith, Head of HR and Payroll at Sage
Jonathan Goldsmith, Head of HR and Payroll at Sage

Jonathan Goldsmith, Head of HR and Payroll at Sage, commented: “Launching Sage People Payroll in the UK and the US is an important milestone for us, delivering on our strategic ambition of being the trusted network for an integrated Payroll and HR solution for mid-sized businesses.”

“Running payroll is not just clicking a button. Due to recent regulatory changes, complexities added by the gig economy, and the global pandemic, it has become one of the most complex business operations from a back-office perspective. It’s the engine room of a business that needs to run seamlessly on a tight schedule. Our new software has been designed to empower teams to collaborate efficiently, quickly and accurately, enabling them to boost productivity and enhance employees’ satisfaction.”

Sage is celebrating the fact that these are two different solutions, integrated to Sage People by highlighting two sets of benefits.

Sage People Payroll UK

Sage People Payroll (UK) offers several benefits:

Simplified workflows: One integrated system, from payroll to annual leave, sickness absence and performance management.

Accuracy and visibility: Offering an end-to-end view of employees’ data and synchronising people and payroll information, processes, and workflows. The risk of errors is reduced significantly, enabling businesses to make payments on time and stay compliant.

Collaboration: The cloud-based system allows data changes to be made by HR and Payroll colleagues simultaneously, allowing speedy collaboration across HR and Payroll teams.

Improved productivity: The software can process data on thousands of employees in minutes, enabling businesses to save up to 30% of the time usually required for processing payroll.

Strategic Insights: The solution enables businesses to access critical analytics regarding costs, areas for potential savings and the gender pay gap.

Pay-on-demand functionality: Allowing employees to request part of their salary before payday, and self-service payslips also give employees more control over their personal finances.

James Proctor, Director of Professional and Managed Services at Phase 3, customer and Sage Partner, said: “Payroll is a critical operational area of any business, helping to provide trusted payments that keep personal finances ticking over.

“Payroll teams can make better and quicker decisions using the power of great technology. As a result, late or inaccurate payments can become a thing of the past, supporting employee wellbeing and maintaining a vital bond of trust between employer and employee.”

Sage People Payroll US

Sage People Payroll (US) offers several benefits:

  • Streamlined pricing: A simple cost based on the number of employees, without payroll processing and base fees.
  • Integrated General Ledger: The solution integrates seamlessly with Sage Intacct as well as other ERP and finance software solutions.
  • Improved decision-making processes: Offering a vast reporting library of 174 built-in, standard reports like labour distribution, pay data, general ledger reports, and more.
  • Up-to-date regulatory requirements: Enabling businesses to tackle complex and challenging tax requirements across Federal, State and local taxes.
  • Automated Admin: Eliminating double entry, workarounds, lengthy manual processes and reducing costly errors using error detection.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean

This announcement is certainly positive for organisations using Sage People in both the US and UK. It delivers them access to leading Payroll solutions in both countries. Both solutions integrate with Sage Intacct, which means that Sage can now offer a complete HR solution integrated with a leading ERP platform.

The question is, what will happen to Sage Payroll? Will it remain a simple solution for smaller companies using Sage Accounting? There is an assumption that the solution also supports multinational companies, but it isn’t clear. Also, when will other integrations emerge in the other countries that Sage operates in?

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