Employment Hero Review Australia 2026
Best All-in-One HR + Payroll for Mid-Size Australian Businesses
Employment Hero is the HR-plus-payroll option on the KeyPay engine. HR buyers on current /pricing/ get Essentials $10 (records, leave, onboarding — no payroll) or Engage $14; rostering is a $4 add-on (min $40). Payroll buyers should use classic Payroll Standard $8 (no awards) or Payroll Premium $10 (awards), both with ~10-employee minimums, or OS Lite $20 if they want HR bundled. HeroClear is vendor Payday Super copy. GST is not stated on the dollar cards.
- Best for
- Teams of about 10+ employees that want award payroll plus HR, and will pay the monthly floor.
- Not ideal for
- Micro employers under the 10-user / $80–$200 floors, or anyone who only needs accounting. KeyPay (quote) or Payroller may be cheaper for payroll-only. Rostering-only buyers should price Deputy/Tanda, not Essentials $10.
Some links to Employment Hero may be affiliate links. If you buy or sign up, SoftwareHQ may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That does not change this editorial score. Affiliate disclosure
Overview
Employment Hero is all-in-one hr, payroll and benefits platform for au businesses. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Sydney, NSW, it serves Australian businesses with local data hosting and AU-based support.
Feature highlights
These highlights come from vendor documentation and editorial analysis of public sources. They are not firsthand test results or a claim that every listed capability was exercised in a trial.
- Modern Award Auto-Interpretation
50+ pre-configured Modern Awards with automatic interpretation of penalty rates, overtime, allowances, leave loading, and shift conditions. When the Fair Work Commission updates award rates, Employment Hero auto-applies the changes — no manual rate updates needed. Powered by the KeyPay award engine, this is one of the most comprehensive award interpretation systems in the Australian payroll market.
- HeroClear Super Clearing House
Employment Hero's embedded superannuation clearing house uses Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP) for real-time super payments. Designed for Payday Super compliance (effective 1 July 2026), HeroClear ensures contributions reach super funds within the mandated 7 business day window. Eliminates the need for a third-party clearing house like BPAY or Beam.
- All-in-One HR + Payroll Platform
Combines HR management (onboarding, contracts, employee records, policies), payroll processing (PAYG, super, STP Phase 2), rostering, time and attendance, and leave management into a single platform. Eliminates the need to run separate HR and payroll systems — reducing double entry and admin overhead for growing businesses.
- Digital Onboarding & Employee Self-Service
Paperless onboarding workflows with digital contracts, tax file number declarations, super choice forms, and employment agreements. Employees self-serve via the Employment Hero app — viewing payslips, submitting leave requests, updating personal details, and accessing company policies. Reduces HR admin by automating the hiring-to-first-pay-run process.
- STP Phase 2 ATO Reporting
ATO-recognised Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 software. Each pay run automatically reports wages, PAYG withholding, superannuation, and disaggregated employee details (income types, country codes, tax treatment) directly to the ATO. No manual STP filing or data exports required — compliance is built into the payroll workflow.
- Performance Management & Recruitment (Plus+)
Plus and Unlimited plans include performance review tools with goal setting, 1-on-1 templates, and employee feedback cycles. Unlimited plan adds a full recruitment module with applicant tracking, job board posting, and candidate pipeline management — turning Employment Hero into a complete hire-to-retire platform for mid-size businesses.
AU Compliance Scores
These scores apply to Australian tax, payroll and banking capabilities where they are relevant to Employment Hero. They are SoftwareHQ editorial judgements from public documentation, not firsthand product tests.
Not applicable means this product type is not scored on that dimension (for example BAS lodgement on a CRM). Not supported means the vendor does not offer it. Unknown means we could not verify it from public sources — that is not the same as unsupported.
HR/payroll platform. BAS stays in Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks.
Classic Payroll Standard lists ATO electronic lodgements. employmenthero.com/products/payroll-software/ calls the platform ATO-recognised for STP Phase 2. Vendor copy, not a register extract.
HeroClear pages: embedded clearing inside Employment Hero Payroll for the 7-business-day Payday Super window. Vendor product copy. Classic payroll page still lists super payments at $0.30 per employee; help centre prices HeroClear at $0.20 per employee per batch excluding GST.
Pre-built Modern Awards listed on Payroll Premium (classic) and on OS plans that include payroll. Not on Payroll Standard. Vendor copy, not Fair Work certification.
Not an accounting tool.
Not applicable — HR/payroll only.
When this was checked
Status as of (page snapshot) against a 90-day review target. Checked dates are not updated when the site is rebuilt.
Editorial article date: . That is not proof that pricing, hosting, or compliance was re-checked.
- PricingVerified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
AUD. GST not stated. /pricing/ HR Essentials $10 / Engage $14 min 10 users, payroll not included; rostering add-on $4 min $40; Managed Payroll $20 min $400. pricing-classic Payroll Standard $8 min $80 / Premium $10 min $100. pricing-list Lite/Plus/Unlimited $20/$40/$60 min $200/$400/$600. Unlimited/Elite custom.
- HostingVerified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
AU servers + AWS data centres in the help article. Trust Centre SOC 2 and ISO 27001:2022. Responsible AI page also names Ireland and Canada. Payroll/KeyPay copy names Sydney.
- Bank feedsNot applicable
Not applicable.
HR/payroll only.
- BAS lodgementNot applicable
Not applicable.
HR/payroll. BAS is in the accounting product.
- GST handlingNot applicable
Not applicable.
Not an accounting tool.
- Modern AwardsVerified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
Pre-built Modern Awards listed on Payroll Premium, not Payroll Standard. Vendor copy, not Fair Work certification.
- Payday SuperVerified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
HeroClear documented for Payday Super 7-business-day window. Vendor copy. Help: $0.20/employee/batch ex GST.
- STP Phase 2Verified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
ATO electronic lodgements on Payroll Standard. Payroll product page: ATO-recognised STP Phase 2. Vendor copy.
- SuperannuationVerified
Verified — checked 8 September 2026.
HeroClear $0.20 per employee per batch ex GST; classic page still lists $0.30 per employee for super payments.
Pricing (AUD)
All prices below are in Australian dollars and exclude GST. Verified — checked 8 September 2026. Source: employmenthero.com/pricing.
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Users: 10
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Users: 10
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Monthly: 80
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Monthly: 100
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Monthly: 200
- Minimum Users: 10
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Monthly: 400
- Minimum Users: 10
- Employees: unlimited
- Minimum Monthly: 600
- Minimum Users: 10
Estimate first-year cost for Employment Hero
Observed price changes
Recorded when a listed price changed. This is not a complete vendor timeline.
- Observed classic payroll SKUs Payroll Standard $8 (min $80) and Payroll Premium $10 (min $100). OS Lite/Plus/Unlimited $20/$40/$60 still on pricing-list. Current /pricing/ HR Essentials $10 / Engage $14 do not include payroll.
- Payroll Standard · $8 → $8 · Observed classic payroll SKUs Payroll Standard $8 (min $80) and Payroll Premium $10 (min $100). OS Lite/Plus/Unlimited $20/$40/$60 still on pricing-list. Current /pricing/ HR Essentials $10 / Engage $14 do not include payroll. GST not stated on cards.
- Prior record: OS Lite/Plus/Unlimited $20/$40/$60 per employee/month with $200/$400/$600 minimums.
- HR + Payroll · $10 → $12 · HR + Payroll bundle increased from $10 to $12/employee/month
- Payroll · $6 → $8 · Per-employee rate increased — Payroll plan from $6 to $8/employee/month
- Payroll · $5 → $6 · Simplified pricing — removed Starter tier, consolidated to Payroll and HR + Payroll
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Published HR SKUs: Essentials $10 and Engage $14 per employee/month (min 10 users)
- Published payroll SKUs: Standard $8 and Premium $10 per employee/month on the classic price list
- Digital onboarding on Essentials+ (help centre, 30 Aug 2026)
- Pre-built Modern Awards on Payroll Premium (vendor copy)
- HeroClear documented for Payday Super inside payroll
- Trust Centre: SOC 2 and ISO 27001:2022 / 27017 / 27018
Cons
- Three overlapping price lists — easy to compare the wrong SKU
- HR Essentials $10 does not include payroll or in-plan rostering (rostering is $4 extra, min $40)
- Minimums ($80–$600 / 10 users) punish teams under ~10 people
- GST not stated on the dollar cards
- No BAS/GST/invoicing — needs Xero or MYOB
- Super batch fees ($0.20 ex GST HeroClear or $0.30 on the classic page) sit on top of seat price
How this review was made
Reviews separate vendor documentation, editorial analysis and firsthand records. They are not interchangeable.
- Vendor documentation — Public pages from Employment Hero and other sites. Recorded HTTP(S) URLs are listed under Sources. A source URL is a document we recorded, not a claim that every sentence on this page was checked against that URL.
- Editorial analysis — SoftwareHQ's written verdict and scores for Australian buyers. The header score is an editorial assessment, not a user-review average, not a lab result, and not a number derived from how many evidence records exist.
- Firsthand records — This review has no firsthand observation records, trial walkthroughs, or screenshots from a logged-in SoftwareHQ account. Missing tests stay not tested.
This page does not rank products by speed or security from documentation or from evidence count.
Checked by SoftwareHQ Editorial Team. There is no named author profile for this page; attribution stays with the SoftwareHQ editorial team. How we test and the editorial policy for scoring, independence and affiliate rules.
Sources
Public pages recorded when this review was compiled. They are not a checklist that every claim was verified, and they are not evidence of hands-on product testing.
- Employmenthero pricing
- Employmenthero Pricing Classic
- Employmenthero Pricing List
- Employmenthero Payroll Software
- Employmenthero Heroclear Super Clearing House
- Employmenthero 360001054196 Employment Hero S Security Measures And Single Sign On Sso Processes
- Employmenthero 15084112983183 What S Changing With Superannuation Processing Fees Faqs
- Trust official site
- Employmenthero 17426648519695 Onboard A New Or Existing Employee
- Employmenthero 17426656561935 Set Up Rostering In Employment Hero
- Employmenthero 17427108096015 Understand Timesheet And Rostering Costs
Employment Hero Alternatives
If Employment Hero doesn’t quite fit your needs, consider these alternatives for Australian businesses:
- Xero — Australia's most popular cloud accounting platform. From $37/mo inc GST.
- MYOB — Australia's original business management platform. From $35/mo inc GST.
- KeyPay — Cloud payroll built for AU accountants and bookkeepers.
- Payroller — Simple payroll for AU small business. Free plan available.
- Deputy — Rostering, time tracking, and workforce management. From $6.75/user/mo ex GST.
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