Still using spreadsheets for rosters, timesheets, and payroll?  

The administrative load involved in efficiently rostering staff, preparing accurate timesheets, and ensuring that everyone is paid correctly can be a huge burden on a small business – especially if you are doing it all manually. 

If your business involves shift work or hourly work in hospitality, retail, healthcare, construction, security, or similar fields it can be even more challenging. 

Fortunately, if you’re running Xero as your accounting software, like many small and medium-sized businesses, help is not too far away. 

A variety of compatible apps can make your life much easier, seamlessly integrating with your accounting software to help you avoid costly errors and freeing up your employees’ time to focus on more important issues. 

In fact, Xero functionality is extended with a choice of over 500 third-party apps. 

Below we look at the leading apps available for rostering, timesheets, and payroll: they are in no specific order and all are tried and tested with excellent reviews by users.

Deputy

Deputy is a user-friendly, employee management add-on that is one of the top-rated apps on Xero. 

It bills itself as: “an all-in-one employee scheduling, time and attendance and communication software that seamlessly integrates with Xero.” 

This add-on helps with:

• Finding available staff and creating rosters
• Keeping track of when employees start and end their shifts
• Completing payroll easily and accurately – including overtime, penalty rates, and allowances
• Managing employee leave 

You can easily add new employees and, while Deputy can be scaled for large companies with many employees, it’s equally effective for smaller and medium sized businesses looking for an efficient scheduling and payroll system. 

There is even an unlimited free trial for you to test the software out for as long as you need.

TSheets

TSheets is another top-rated Xero app used by over 40,000 businesses. It is an employee time-tracking and scheduling app that is designed to replace manual spreadsheets and provide seamless payroll. 

In its own words: “accurately track time and schedule your employees, anytime, anywhere, and on any device.” 

This add-on helps with:

• Accurate-to-the-second time tracking from any device wherever you are
• One-click export of data to payroll – removing errors and reducing admin time
• Scheduling employees and alerting employees when new schedules are published or updated
• Payroll reporting in real-time 

This helps any business that must manage and schedule employee work times – especially with a mobile workforce in multiple locations. Restaurants, retailers, and hospitality businesses can especially benefit. 

There is a free trial; You can see their pricing here.

Tanda

Tanda is a user-friendly workforce management software that ensures that staff are paid correctly for the work they do. It also saves time by making rostering easier and more efficient and time and attendance easier to track.

It is aimed at businesses with 15-200 shift and hourly employees, such as those in hospitality, retail, franchise, medical, and enterprise workforces, and integrates seamlessly with Xero.

This add-on helps with:

• Paying staff for the correct hours at the correct rates
• Managing award interpretation using the in-built library of Modern Awards
• Setting up rostering for easier team management
• Accurately managing time clock attendance 

As well as a valuable time saver, some small business users have reported significant reductions in payroll by using Tanda, largely because it replaces the out-of-date and easy-to-manipulate manual clock card system for timesheets. 

A free trial is provided and pricing is available on request.

Smart Payroll

Smart Payroll is, as the name suggests, focused on making payroll easier for the 10,000 plus small and medium-sized businesses that use it. It is well-established and was first released in 2004. 

Integrating easily with Xero as an add-on, all payroll data can be transferred into the accounting system easily in a click or two. 

This add-on helps with:

• Automating the process of transferring payroll data to Xero
• Paying a whole team with one click - using the One Touch Pay feature
• Transferring data without the need to log in to Xero
• Remaining compliant with ATO regulations 

Pricing plans are available from $2.50 per employee per pay, plus a $25 monthly service fee.

KeyPay

KeyPay is another Xero add-on focused on making payroll easier through the cloud. But it also helps with rostering. 

Designed for businesses with 5 or 500+ employees, with single or multiple locations, it is especially useful for accountants, bookkeepers, labour hire companies and payroll bureau providers. 

This add-on helps with:

• Comprehensive payroll functionality that easily exports data to Xero
• Automating conditions such as penalties, allowances, and overtime
• Managing modern award interpretation
• Real-time costed rostering and time-tracking 

A 30-day trial is provided. Pricing plans start at $4/month per paid employee. 

Which add-on suits your business best? 

If you’re still using spreadsheets, it should be clear that there are much smarter ways to be managing things! 

The above apps are all variations on a theme. Ultimately they all make the job of administering staff schedules, time-tracking, and payment so much easier. 

Use the free trials available and see which is the most suitable option for your business. 

If you’re still unsure and would like to discuss which app would best suit your business, taking into account your present accounting software, feel free to get in touch with us here.