Sage Payroll vs Sage HR

Sage Payroll

PAYE, UIF and SDL calculations

Statutory deductions maintained against the current tax year, including the changes that arrive mid year and break spreadsheet payrolls.

Email payslips

Payslips sent directly to employees rather than printed and handed out, which removes the most tedious hour of a payroll month.

Leave management

Leave tracked against South African statutory minimums with balances visible to employees, so the annual leave argument happens less often.

ACB payment files

Produces the bank payment file South African banks expect, so the salary run is a file upload rather than manual capture of every account.

Sage Accounting integration

Posts the payroll journal straight into Sage Accounting, removing the monthly manual journal and the mistakes that come with re keying it.

Sage HR

Leave management

Requests, approvals and balances with a shared calendar, which ends the recurring argument about who is off and how many days remain.

Employee database and documents

Contracts, identity documents and qualifications stored against the employee record with expiry reminders, which helps considerably at audit time.

Performance reviews

Structured review cycles with goals and feedback, aimed at businesses running their first formal performance process rather than at large enterprises.

Shift scheduling

Rosters and shift planning for teams that are not desk based, with the schedule visible to staff on their phones.

Expense claims

Claims submitted with a photograph of the slip and routed for approval, replacing the envelope of receipts that arrives at month end.

Sage Payroll

What it takes to start

Straightforward. Capture the company, the employees and their year to date figures, and the statutory calculations follow. A small payroll is live in an afternoon. Run one cycle in parallel with whatever you are leaving, because opening leave balances and loan balances are where migrations go wrong.

When something breaks

Online and telephone support from Sage, plus the partner network. Because the product is aimed at small employers, the support questions tend to be routine and the documentation covers most of them. Statutory updates arrive without you doing anything, which is the support that matters most in payroll.

Sage HR

What it takes to start

Quick for leave, longer for the rest. Importing employees and configuring leave policies takes a day. Performance cycles and shift scheduling take longer because they encode how you actually manage people, which usually needs a decision rather than a setting. The integration to your payroll should be tested before you rely on it.

When something breaks

Online support and documentation, at a global rather than local level. There is no South African payroll behind it, so questions about PAYE go to whichever payroll you run alongside. That split is worth understanding before you buy, because it decides who you call when leave and pay disagree.

Sage Payroll

• Priced in clear headcount bands, so the monthly figure is easy to predict
• PAYE, UIF and SDL calculations and the statutory updates are handled for you
• Unlimited companies and unlimited users on every band

• Crossing a headcount band raises the monthly fee in a step, not gradually
• HR depth is thin next to a full people system
• Very large or complex payrolls will outgrow it and land on Sage 300 People

Sage HR

• Clean self service that employees actually use
• Modular, so you can start with leave and add performance later
• Mobile app suits teams that are not at a desk

• It is not a South African payroll engine, so you still need one
• Module pricing adds up once you switch several on
• Reporting is lighter than a full HR information system

Sage Payroll

This is built for South African statutory reality rather than adapted to it, which shows in the UIF declaration and the ACB payment file. The band pricing is honest but watch the step when you hire past a threshold. If you run several small companies the unlimited company allowance makes it very good value for a bookkeeping practice.

Sage HR

Treat this as the HR layer, not the payroll. It pairs sensibly with Sage Payroll or a local payroll bureau. Before buying, check how leave balances flow into your payroll run, because a manual re key every month removes most of the benefit you are paying for.

Sage Payroll

A straightforward and fairly priced payroll for a small South African employer, and unusually good value for a bookkeeping practice thanks to the unlimited company allowance.

Sage HR

A tidy HR layer for a growing team that has outgrown leave spreadsheets. Only worth buying if the integration with your actual payroll is clean, so test that before committing.