Sage Pastel Payroll vs SimplePay

Sage Pastel Payroll

Statutory PAYE, UIF and SDL

Calculations maintained through the annual update cycle, with mid year adjustments handled rather than left for the administrator to work out.

IRP5 and IT3(a) generation

Produces the certificates in the format required for reconciliation season, which is the single busiest week in a payroll administrator year.

Bulk payslip email

Sends payslips to the whole payroll in one action with password protection, replacing the printing and folding that used to consume a full day.

Leave and loan tracking

Employee loans, garnishee orders and leave balances tracked against the payroll rather than in a side spreadsheet that nobody reconciles.

Sage Pastel Partner integration

Posts the payroll journal into Pastel accounting directly, keeping the ledger and the payroll in agreement without manual capture.

SimplePay

PAYE, UIF and SDL

Statutory calculations maintained against the current tax year, including the mid year changes that catch out spreadsheet payrolls.

SARS e@syFile integration

IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates export in the format e@syFile expects, which turns reconciliation season into an afternoon rather than a week.

Employee self service

Staff retrieve their own payslips, submit leave and update banking details for approval. That removes the most common interruption in a payroll administrator's month.

Leave management

Annual, sick and family responsibility leave are configured to South African statutory minimums out of the box, with room for your own policy on top.

Accounting integration

Posts the payroll journal into Xero and QuickBooks directly, which removes the monthly manual journal and the errors that come with it.

Sage Pastel Payroll

What it takes to start

Desktop installation with an annual update cycle that has to be planned around the tax year. Migration is normally done by a partner and includes employee masterfile, year to date figures and leave. The critical scheduling point is that you do not want to migrate mid tax year unless you have to.

When something breaks

First year support is typically bundled, then it follows the renewal. The deeper safety net is the size of the trained administrator pool, which means cover during leave and a replacement who already knows the product if your payroll person resigns. That is a real operational benefit.

SimplePay

What it takes to start

One of the easiest payroll migrations in this market. You capture employees, opening year to date figures and leave balances, and the product checks the arithmetic as you go. A small payroll is live in an afternoon. Do the first run in parallel with your old system for one cycle, which is standard practice and catches the leave balance errors that always appear.

When something breaks

Support is the reason many bookkeepers stay. It is local, it is staffed by people who understand South African payroll, and the answers are specific rather than scripted. Free online training is included. For a payroll product that matters more than any feature, because the questions arrive at month end and cannot wait.

Sage Pastel Payroll

• Long track record with SARS submissions and annual tax year changes
• Optional modules for employee self service and human resources
• Skills are widely available in the local job market

• No public price, so budgeting means getting a quote first
• Desktop deployment adds backup and remote access work for you
• Annual update cycle has to be planned around the tax year

SimplePay

• IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates export in the format e@syFile expects, which shortens reconciliation season
• Priced per employee with no licence fee, so the cost follows the size of your payroll
• Employee self service removes the most common interruption in a payroll administrator month

• It is payroll and leave, not an HR system, so performance and recruitment need another tool
• A free trial is offered but the length is not published, so you have to ask
• Above five hundred employees or as a payroll bureau you need a separate quote

Sage Pastel Payroll

The reason this product persists is the annual tax year change. Sage ships the update, the payroll administrator applies it and the submission season works. That reliability is worth a lot in a country where the rules move every year. Ask your partner in writing what the yearly renewal covers and whether the tax update is included or billed separately.

SimplePay

This is a South African product built for South African statutory reality rather than a global payroll with a local module bolted on, and the difference shows every February when the tax year changes. PAYE, UIF and SDL are maintained for you, the e@syFile export works, and the support team understands what you are asking without a translation layer. It posts the payroll journal into Xero and QuickBooks directly, which removes the monthly manual journal that causes most payroll to ledger differences. For most South African small employers this is the sensible default.

Sage Pastel Payroll

A dependable compliance tool for employers who want payroll on their own server and value a product their administrator already knows. New employers with no Pastel history should look at cloud payroll first.

SimplePay

The default recommendation for South African small business payroll, and the one most local bookkeepers reach for first. Nothing about it is flashy, which is exactly right for payroll.