Professional services
Payroll software for accounting firms and consulting practices
Staff accountants and graduate trainees on salary, a bookkeeper on contract, and an October where nobody may take leave. One monthly run handles all of it.
In short
SimpleERP is payroll software for accounting firms and consulting practices. Salaried staff and graduate trainees get payslips from attendance and leave, with tax and superannuation set per person, and audit travel claims are filed and approved from a phone.
Illustration of a payslip with Basic salary, Allowances, Bonus and net pay of 4,440.
A payroll day at Whitlam and Ng Accountants
The practice has fourteen people: two partners, a bookkeeper who comes in three days a week, three staff accountants, six graduate trainees and two office staff. Payroll is due on the last working day, and in October it lands in the middle of tax return deadlines.
Graduate trainees spend half the month at client sites in Geelong and Ballarat, so attendance is a guess and travel bills come back crumpled in an envelope. Leave requests arrive by chat message and the office manager keeps the balances in a notebook.
In SimpleERP each person checks in from a phone at the client's office, requests leave there, and files the cab and food bills with a photo. On payroll day the office manager generates the run, fixes the one or two exceptions and the partner approves it.
How do salaries and the bookkeeper's fee fit together?
Salaried staff and graduate trainees run through payroll with different structures. A company secretary or consultant on a monthly retainer is not an employee, so their fee comes in as a supplier bill and is paid like any other professional.
- Components you name, so a study allowance reads as one on the payslip.
- Bonus or arrears added to a payslip before approval.
| Who | Paid through | Typical lines |
|---|---|---|
| Staff accountant | Payroll, monthly salary structure | Basic, allowance, income tax withholding and superannuation |
| Graduate trainee | Payroll, monthly salary structure | Basic, income tax withholding and superannuation |
| Office manager and front desk | Payroll, monthly salary structure | Basic, travel allowance, withholding and superannuation |
| Bookkeeper on contract | Supplier bill, not payroll | Monthly fee as a service line |
| Audit travel and client-site food | Expense claim | Cab, train, meals, each with a receipt photo |
Can we hold leave during the audit season?
Leave requests still come in, but the approver sees the dates and the remaining balance and can reject with a reason such as tax return deadline. Approved leave updates the balance at once, and unpaid leave or absence becomes loss of pay in that month's run.
- Leave types and balances seeded, with half-day leave where you allow it.
- Holidays pasted for the year, so Christmas and Easter are skipped automatically.
- Check-in from a phone at a client's office counts as a present day.
Illustration of the daily attendance sheet on a phone with a Mark all present button.
How are audit travel bills reimbursed?
The assistant files a claim with one line per bill and a photo of each. The engagement partner approves it, trimming any line that should be billed to the client instead, and the office manager marks it reimbursed with the bank transfer that paid it.
- Claims by employee and status in the reports, for the partners' monthly look.
- Each step posts its own journal, from approval to payment.
- Recharge to the client by adding the cost as an out-of-pocket line on the fee invoice.
One system
What it connects to
Professional services
Service invoices with the right tax, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
See howInventory for accounting firms
What a practice should track as stock (resold hardware security keys), what it should expense and what it can ignore entirely.
See howAccounting for accounting firms
The practice's own books: fee income by type, retainers paid in advance, tax withheld by clients and a month-end close the partners trust.
See howPayroll
Salary structures, monthly runs and payslips with your earnings and deductions, posted to the books.
See how
Honest limits
What SimpleERP does not do yet
- Income tax withholding is not computed from government tables; you set the deduction per employee
- Social security, pension and end-of-service amounts are components you set, not statutory calculations
- No biometric device integration: attendance is marked on the phone or entered by HR
- No timesheets, so hours spent per engagement are not recorded or billed
Getting started
Start with payroll
Sign up with your email
Name, email and a password. No card for the seven-day trial.
Tell us about the business
Pick your country and, if you are registered, type your tax number. Accounts, tax rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for that country.
Add your people
Add salaried staff and graduate trainees with their structures, and the bookkeeper as a supplier.
Run the first payroll
Attendance and leave feed the run; payslips post to the books and staff see them on their phones.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Do graduate trainees need the same deductions as staff?
Usually yes, since they are employees, but check any training scheme rules with your adviser. In SimpleERP a trainee has their own structure, with or without a component, as you decide.
Can the partners' drawings run through payroll?
Partners of a firm usually take drawings and remuneration as the partnership deed allows, not a salary. Record them with a journal or a payment from the partner's capital or current account, and keep payroll for employees.
Will staff see their payslips without asking the office?
Yes. Once the run is approved, each person opens their payslip in self-service on a phone, along with leave balances, attendance and the status of their claims. Partners see everyone; staff see only their own.
Can we pay a small advance to a trainee before Christmas?
Yes. Record the advance with a monthly recovery amount, and each payroll run deducts it until the balance is nil. The advances page shows what was paid and what is still due for every person.
Related
Keep reading
Professional services
Service invoices with the right tax, quotations, a CRM pipeline, expense claims and payroll.
Read moreInventory for accounting firms
What a practice should track as stock (resold hardware security keys), what it should expense and what it can ignore entirely.
Read moreAccounting for accounting firms
The practice's own books: fee income by type, retainers paid in advance, tax withheld by clients and a month-end close the partners trust.
Read more
See how payroll works in SimpleERP for professional services
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