For any business, big or small, payroll stress is a monthly pain point. Complying with government regulations, ensuring tax and provident fund contributions are in place take a considerable number of hours and investment. It is this very pain that Singapore based startup Gpayroll aims to smoothen by getting SaaS into the picture.

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Sean Kim, CEO of Gpayroll, shares insights on how the startup helps organizations eliminate the pain from their payroll management.

What motivated you to launch Gpayroll?

Gpayroll has started as an in-house venture from i-Admin (started in 2012), one of Asia’s leading Payroll & HR companies. I was the COO of i-Admin then.  Slightly different from other software, payroll software is usually a lot more subject to local statutory and regulations and requires stability through heavy scenario cases.

I selected a group of experts in i-Admin with different domain knowledge and rich experiences to form a task force. But, first few prototypes failed to meet our expectations due to overwhelming information from i-Admin which is more specialized for payroll outsourcing services rather than SaaS for SMEs.

In 2014, a big decision was made to create an independent spin-off of Gpayroll from i-Admin, which allowed us to focus on specific targets of local and regional SMEs and new start-ups. In turn, we could redesign system architect for the newly defined market needs.

Gpayroll then took a lean start-up approach to expedite decision process and development process. Firstly, we learned from our failures of previous prototypes. The experiences taught us not only better technical solutions but also better understanding to provide the best user experiences for SME businesses. Secondly, we had the luxury to inherit system and logic stability from i-Admin system knowhow proven through the last 19 years of services to MNCs. 

Lastly, we successfully built a fully automated process from processing to statutory filing and salary disbursement through partnership and integrations, which has never been achieved in the market. Gpayroll integrated with the top two accounting software on cloud, QuickBooks Online and Xero, which in turn reduces the stress of managing payroll and accounting for SMEs.

Please explain in layman’s terms the Gpayroll product and how it helps organizations with payroll management?

Gpayroll is a SaaS payroll & HR solution that takes away all the pain points you as a business owner or you as an HR manager face every month. You save hours or maybe even days and you can just say goodbye to payroll stress. Also, you’ll be compliant to government regulations such as provident fund and tax contributions. 

Most payroll solutions in the market today solve only half the burden by providing calculations only. This is where Gpayroll stands out. It covers not only payroll calculations but also automates provident funds, tax filings, and salary disbursement.

We understand the business woes of payroll and accounting duties - these two important business functions absolutely have to go hand in hand. As such, with Gpayroll's partnership with Quickbooks Online and Xero, we help take the payroll and accounting duties up a notch. Our clients do not need to worry about manually inputting their payroll data into the system for accounting purposes. Our partnership ensures a seamless integration between both platforms to allow for an easy and quick transfer of payroll data.

We also have add-on HR modules which enhance the efficiency of leave, expenses and time & attendance management. Timesheets, punch cards, claim forms add on to the mountain of paperwork that the HR department and line managers have. Moreover, manual forms might be easily misplaced, resulting in employees not being compensated accurately. Gpayroll’s online tools can keep track of employees’ schedule, absence and claims without any hassle.

What has been the traction like for you in these formative years? 

As we continue to lead the payroll industry in Asia, we are looking to expand our success model to other countries in Asia. Payroll is highly complex in Asia with a different set of statutory regulations, we are constantly looking at how we can work with the local partners and statutory boards to automate payroll with the use of technology. We grow together with our clients and this means that as our clients grow, they will need a more comprehensive solution to cater to their payroll & HR needs. Thus, we look at introducing new online HR modules that are integrated with our existing solutions. This provides a seamless payroll & HR experience in a single platform for our clients.

Our solution, which is charged based on pay per use on a monthly subscription basis, is predominately used by small & medium businesses and we treat every client as our big clients. Aureus Group Pte. Ltd, Colorwash Pte Ltd, Falcon Mobility Pte Ltd, Marechal Electric, Eduvalve, and Biofourmis Singapore are some of our clients.

With a number of players in the payroll space, what are some of the differentiating factors of Gpayroll over its competitors?

Most payroll solutions in the market today solve only half the burden by providing calculations only. This is where Gpayroll stands out. It covers not only payroll calculations but also automates provident funds, tax filings and salary disbursement.

What are your future plans as far as product development and expansion is concerned?

With its launch in Singapore in 2016, Gpayroll received a warm welcome from local SMEs in Singapore. Its success in Singapore quickly led to successful launches in additional four countries including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and China. Gpayroll is working hard for another 5 countries in 2018 and 2019, which include Taiwan, Korea, Macau, Indonesia and Japan.