Where do we make the biggest difference?
Not every company benefits from outsourcing payroll. In some cases a well-run in-house solution is cheaper and faster. Below we set out honestly when we make a real difference — and when we will tell you to stay as you are.
Our typical client
Based on our experience, the collaboration works best at companies like these:
50–500 employees
At this size a settlement error already reaches dozens of people, but there is still no separate payroll department to absorb the shock.
Manufacturing, logistics, retail, healthcare
Sectors where working time is not nine to five: multiple shifts, weekends, nights, stand-by duty.
15+ years in operation
Established processes, legacy software, ingrained habits. Not a greenfield project: there is something to take over and understand.
Owner-led decision-making
The owner has a say in HR and administrative decisions. That calls for a partner who can talk to more than just HR.
Manufacturing companies
In manufacturing, pay is not a template but a monthly reconstruction. Uneven working-time schedules, working-time banking, night and afternoon shift premiums, extraordinary work, downtime, holiday settlement at the close of the banking period — together these create the complexity a general accounting firm rarely takes on.
- Closing the working-time banking period and running the end-of-period settlement
- Automated calculation of shift, night and Sunday premiums
- Overtime and time-off-in-lieu handled from the actual schedule
- Monthly headcount and lost-time reporting for management
Retail and trading businesses
In retail, turnover and multiple sites are the main challenge. There are many entries and exits, student and casual work, and store managers are rarely payroll specialists. Most errors here are not calculation problems but data-arrival problems.
- Entry and exit reporting to the authorities on time
- Daily reporting for simplified (casual) employment
- Multiple sites, one uniform data request process and cut-off date
- A one-page, plain-language data sheet for store managers
Companies of 100–500 employees
At this size payroll becomes a risk question: one person knows the whole thing, and if they are unavailable the month stops. At the same time a multi-person in-house payroll department is not yet justified. This is exactly where outsourcing fits — with cover, a documented process and clear responsibility.
- Key-person risk removed: we always have a substitute
- A documented process that stands up during an inspection
- Management reports that are not a raw payroll-system export
- Agreed response times, committed in writing
When do we tell you not to switch?
We are not the right answer in every situation. We prefer to say so at the start rather than in the third month.
- If you have fewer than 20 employees with a simple pay structure and your accountant handles it well and cheaply — with us it would be more expensive, not better.
- If you have just introduced a new HR and payroll system and the team is still learning: let it settle. Two parallel transitions at once never go well.
- If the owner refuses on principle to share pay data with a third party, we respect that. In that case we can help with advisory work at most.
Frequently asked questions
From what headcount is outsourcing payroll worth it?
There is no sharp threshold, but in our experience the balance clearly tips towards outsourcing above 50 employees — particularly where working time is not standard. It is not only a headcount question: the complexity of the work pattern, turnover and internal substitutability weigh just as much.
Can you work with multiple sites?
Yes. In that case we set a data-submission deadline and a responsible person per site, and give local managers a uniform one-page template. The most common source of error is not the calculation but data arriving in ten different formats from ten places.
Can we ask for payroll only, without accounting?
Yes, and most of our clients start that way. Accounting, controlling and HR advisory can each be requested separately, and we can hand the payroll journal to your existing accountant in the format they ask for.
Which payroll software do you use?
We work with the systems commonly used on the Hungarian market, and in several cases we stay in the client's existing system if the data structure is sound. That is one of the questions the first review answers: move or stay.
Let's look at where your payroll stands today.
Thirty minutes is enough to tell whether a change is worth making at all. If it isn't, we'll say so.
