For London businesses with 20 to 500 staff, HR and payroll increasingly deal with the same underlying employee information. Starters, leavers, salary changes, absence and holiday records sit with HR, while payroll uses many of those details to calculate pay. When the systems are separate, the same change may have to be entered twice.
The overlap between HR and payroll data
Every starter, leaver, pay rise or absence creates a potential handover between HR and payroll. If a salary change is updated in one system but missed in the other, the difference can reach the payslip. The problem is often discovered during month-end reconciliation, when correcting the data may already require adjustments to the payroll run.
This has led firms to look at HR and payroll software built around a shared employee record. The objective is not simply to make duplicate entry faster. It is to remove the copying step. Access PeopleHR Evo describes its integrated approach as keeping HR and payroll information in one place, with the aim of reducing manual data input and discrepancies.
For a growing business, the benefit is operational. A change made once can become the source for processes across HR and payroll, reducing the number of points at which information can diverge.
Real Time Information and pension auto-enrolment
Payroll data also has to support recurring statutory processes. Under HMRC’s Real Time Information system, employers report payroll information to HMRC each time they pay employees. The information therefore has to be accurate at the point payroll is processed.
Workplace pensions create another continuing connection between HR and payroll. Employers must assess staff against the relevant eligibility criteria and continue monitoring changes in circumstances. Payroll software may carry out these assessments and handle information such as earnings and pension contributions. Workers can also opt into or out of a pension scheme under the applicable rules.
There is now an additional record-keeping requirement. From 6 April 2026, employers must keep detailed records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least six years. Those records need to show information such as leave taken and holiday pay.
How an integrated system works
An integrated setup gives HR and payroll access to the same employee information. A salary change can be entered once rather than re-keyed. Absence, timesheets and holiday information can feed into processes that affect pay. Payroll can then use the current record for reporting and statutory submissions.
Employees can also access documents through a self-service system rather than relying on HR to provide every payslip or record manually. Reporting can combine HR and payroll information, giving managers a view of staffing costs alongside absence and other workforce data.
Access PeopleHR Evo is built around this model. Its integrated HR and payroll offering brings together employee records, absence, timesheets, holidays and other HR functions, with payroll integration through Access PeopleHR Payroll. Access PeopleHR Evo also states that its system supports pension auto-enrolment and workflow automation through Ripple.
What to check before you buy
There are two main routes to integration. A business can adopt a platform covering both HR and payroll, or connect an existing HR system to its payroll provider. For firms already committed to a payroll contract, the second route may be more practical.
The key question is how the connection actually works. An integration that transfers data automatically is different from one that creates a file for an employee to download, check and import manually. The latter can leave much of the original double-entry risk in place.
Businesses should also check whether the payroll system supports HMRC reporting and whether pension eligibility is assessed automatically. The Pensions Regulator specifically advises employers to check that payroll software can assess staff, calculate contributions, send the required pension data and handle opt-ins and opt-outs.
The change is not being driven by a new idea in HR software. The reporting cycle is getting tighter. Real Time Information, ongoing pension assessment and new holiday-record requirements leave less room for a monthly gap between HR records and payroll figures. For businesses with growing headcounts, keeping the two functions connected is becoming an operational requirement rather than simply a software preference.
Leave a Comment