Best HR & Payroll Software for Australian Tradies (2026)

Employment Hero is Australia's leading combined HR and payroll platform — and if you've got five or more employees, it's the most complete solution on this list. What makes it stand out for tradie businesses is its Modern Award automation. Employment Hero uses the KeyPay payroll engine (which it acquired) to automatically apply the correct Award classifications, penalty rates, allowances, and leave entitlements based on the relevant Award. For a building company paying workers under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, that's a significant compliance safety net.

STP Phase 2 compliance is built in. Every pay run automatically reports disaggregated earnings to the ATO — ordinary hours, overtime, allowances, and leave all reported separately as required. Superannuation is calculated and reported automatically, and the platform integrates with most major super funds. Employee self-onboarding, digital contracts, leave requests, and performance management are all included, which makes Employment Hero more than just a payroll tool — it's a genuine people management platform for growing tradie businesses.

The apprentice pay rate handling deserves special mention. Under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, apprentice pay rates are calculated as a percentage of the tradesperson rate — year 1 is 50%, year 2 is 60%, and so on — and these rates are updated annually. Employment Hero automates these calculations, reducing the risk of underpayment and the Fair Work exposure that comes with it. Given that Fair Work underpayment penalties can reach $93,900 per contravention for businesses, this automation isn't a luxury — it's risk management.

KeyPay was, for many years, the standout payroll engine in the Australian market — beloved by accountants and bookkeepers for its exceptional Modern Award interpretation and developer-friendly API. Employment Hero acquired KeyPay in 2022, and the technology is now the payroll engine underneath Employment Hero. However, KeyPay still operates as a standalone white-label payroll platform, used by hundreds of Australian accounting firms and bookkeepers under their own branding.

If your accountant or bookkeeper manages your payroll on your behalf, there's a reasonable chance they're already using KeyPay behind the scenes. The Award interpretation is outstanding — arguably the best automated Award compliance in the Australian market. STP Phase 2 is fully supported, and the platform handles complex pay conditions including shift differentials, tool allowances, travel allowances, and redundancy calculations that many competing platforms get wrong.

For tradie business owners who want to run payroll themselves (without an accountant), Employment Hero is the better path since it wraps the same engine in a more user-friendly interface with HR features included. But if your accountant recommends KeyPay or is already using it, there's no reason to switch — you're already on Australia's best payroll engine.

If you're already on Xero for accounting — and most Australian tradies are — then Xero Payroll is the path of least resistance. It's built directly into the Xero platform, meaning pay runs automatically post journal entries to your accounts, payroll liabilities are tracked in real time, and you never need to export-and-import data between separate systems. For a tradie running a small team, that seamless integration alone is worth a lot.

Xero Payroll is STP Phase 2 compliant and handles superannuation, leave management, PAYG withholding, and employee self-service via the Xero Me app. Modern Award support is functional — you can configure pay templates based on Award classifications — but it's not as deeply automated as Employment Hero. You'll need to do more manual configuration of allowances and penalty rates, and you should verify your Award settings with a BAS agent when you first set up.

For apprentice pay rates, Xero Payroll can handle them with the right configuration, but again, Employment Hero does the heavy lifting automatically. If you have a bookkeeper who manages your payroll, they'll likely be comfortable in Xero Payroll already. For straightforward weekly pay runs with a small, consistent team, Xero Payroll is perfectly adequate — and the accounting integration makes end-of-month reconciliation genuinely easy.

MYOB Payroll is built into both MYOB Business (cloud) and MYOB AccountRight (the desktop/cloud hybrid). If you're already using MYOB for your accounting, adding payroll is a natural extension — same logic as Xero Payroll for Xero users. MYOB is STP Phase 2 compliant, handles Modern Awards, superannuation, PAYG withholding, and leave management, and benefits from MYOB's Australian-based phone support, which Xero and Employment Hero don't offer.

The interface is less polished than Xero or Employment Hero — MYOB has a well-earned reputation for being functional but not exactly a joy to use. That said, it does the job, and many tradie businesses have been running on MYOB for decades without issue. Modern Award support requires some manual configuration, similar to Xero Payroll. For AccountRight users, there are stronger job costing features than Xero, which can be useful for tracking labour costs against specific jobs.

If you're currently on MYOB and your accountant is comfortable there, switching to Xero purely for payroll doesn't make economic sense. MYOB Payroll covers the compliance requirements — just make sure your Award configurations are reviewed by a payroll professional when you first set up.

Deputy isn't strictly a payroll platform — it's primarily a rostering, scheduling, and time tracking tool. But for tradie businesses with variable shift work or multiple job sites, Deputy solves a different problem: making sure the timesheet data feeding into your payroll run is accurate, approved, and mapped to the right jobs. Deputy integrates directly with Xero and MYOB, exporting clean, approved timesheets that your payroll platform then processes.

Where Deputy shines is in the rostering and schedule management layer. You can build rosters, manage availability and leave requests, communicate shift changes to workers via the app, and track time against specific jobs or locations. The platform also has Award interpretation features that flag potential issues before you export — useful for catching overtime or penalty rate triggers before they become underpayment problems. Deputy then hands off to Xero or MYOB for the actual payroll lodgement and STP reporting.

For tradies who have variable crews across multiple job sites, Deputy + Xero Payroll (or Deputy + MYOB Payroll) is a genuinely powerful combination. Deputy handles the complexity of who's working where and when; Xero or MYOB handles the financial reporting and ATO compliance. It's two tools doing what each does best.

Payroller is a free, ATO-approved, STP Phase 2 compliant payroll platform designed for Australian sole traders and small businesses. You can process pay runs, lodge STP data directly to the ATO, manage leave, and handle superannuation for up to 50 employees — entirely for free. The paid tier adds features like detailed reporting and priority support, but most microbusinesses won't need them.

The honest assessment: Payroller is very basic. There's no Modern Award automation — you're responsible for knowing the correct pay rates, allowances, penalty rates, and leave loadings for your employees, and entering them manually. If you're paying workers under the Building and Construction General On-site Award or any other Award, you need to know those rates before you use Payroller. What the platform does is process the pay run and report it to the ATO correctly. The compliance burden of getting the numbers right sits entirely with you.

That's a meaningful limitation — but it also means Payroller is a legitimate, cost-free entry point for a sole trader who's just taken on their first employee, or for a very small business that has simple pay arrangements (flat hourly rate, no shift differentials, no complex allowances) and wants to handle payroll themselves before graduating to Employment Hero or Xero Payroll. It's also a useful backup if your main platform has an outage on pay day.