Best Payroll Software for Australian Tradies (2026)

KeyPay — now branded Employment Hero Payroll — is the standout choice for any tradie business that employs people on Modern Awards. We're talking the Building and Construction General On-site Award, Electrical Award, and Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award. These Awards are complex: penalty rates, overtime, industry allowances, tool allowances, travel allowances, shift differentials. The Award interpretation engine here is best-in-class.

For a building contractor paying a team under the Building and Construction Award, this automation is the difference between sleeping at night and waking up to a Fair Work inquiry. The system automatically applies the correct classification, the correct allowances, and the correct penalty rates based on when and how the employee worked. You don't configure this yourself — it's pre-loaded.

STP Phase 2 compliant out of the box. Integrates natively with Xero, MYOB, and major job management platforms including simPRO and AroFlo. Super processing is included. If you employ more than two people on a Modern Award in the trades, this is the payroll platform to use.

If you're already using Xero for accounting — and you probably should be — Xero Payroll is the path of least resistance. It's built natively into the Xero platform. No separate integration, no data syncing headaches, no subscription stacking. One system handles your books and your payroll.

STP Phase 2 compliant, handles single-touch payroll lodgement directly to the ATO, and processes super through their clearing house. The UI is clean and the learning curve is minimal if you're already comfortable in Xero. Where it doesn't match Employment Hero/KeyPay is Award interpretation — it handles standard scenarios well, but complex Award allowances and unusual overtime arrangements may need manual input.

For a business with straightforward payroll — a few employees on standard wages without complex Award allowances — Xero Payroll is ideal. It's already included in your Xero subscription, so the marginal cost is zero.

Same logic as Xero Payroll: if you're on MYOB for accounting, use MYOB Payroll. It's integrated, STP Phase 2 compliant, and handles standard payroll scenarios competently. Super processing is included. Award interpretation is functional but not as automated as Employment Hero/KeyPay — you'll still need to verify complex allowances manually.

MYOB's interface is more dated than Xero's, and for new businesses setting up from scratch, Xero is generally the better accounting platform to start on. But if you're already embedded in MYOB and switching platforms is more hassle than it's worth, MYOB Payroll does the job.

Payroller is the free payroll option for Australian small businesses. The free tier handles STP Phase 2 lodgement for up to 4 employees — enough for very small operations or a sole trader paying one or two staff. It's not going to replace Employment Hero for Award complexity, but for a business that just needs to meet STP obligations without paying $100 a month, it works.

The interface is simple by design. Set up employees, run a pay run, lodge with the ATO via STP. That's most of what it does. If your payroll is straightforward — standard wages, no complex Award allowances, no multi-classification scenarios — Payroller is perfectly adequate and the price is right.

Deputy is primarily a workforce scheduling and time tracking platform, but its payroll processing capability is strong enough to warrant inclusion here. The key strength: Award-compliant timesheets flow directly into payroll calculations, eliminating the double-entry of recording hours in one system and processing pay in another. This is a real operational improvement for businesses with variable rosters and shift workers.

Deputy's Award interpretation is baked into its time tracking layer — so when an employee clocks out after a long day, Deputy is already calculating whether overtime rates apply. This flows directly into the payroll run. Integrates with Xero, MYOB, and Employment Hero/KeyPay for businesses that want to use Deputy for scheduling and another platform for payroll finalisation.