Reckon's customer feedback on response times and hands-on compliance assistance is most excellent and consistently positive of any platform we reviewed, which matters most for the small business owners and first-time payroll administrators who make up its typical user base. Its compliance fundamentals — STP reporting, superannuation, leave tracking, and payroll tax — are handled correctly at a price point that starts at $16 per month, undercutting Xero, MYOB, and Employment Hero for comparable small-team payroll needs.
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PROS
- Easy-to-use interface with a short learning curve, even for first-time payroll administrators.
- Excellent value for money compared to alternatives such as Xero, MYOB, and Employment Hero.
- Strong Australian compliance support, including Single Touch Payroll (STP), superannuation calculations, leave tracking, and payroll tax requirements.
- Customer Support is consistently praised for responsiveness, patience, and real-time assistance.
- Mobile and web access allow payroll management from virtually anywhere.
- Streamlined payroll workflows support timesheets, pay runs, payslip delivery, and government reporting.
- Unlimited employee support available on higher-tier plans.
CONS
- Some users report occasional bugs, glitches, and performance issues that require support intervention.
- Initial employee setup can involve a learning curve for payroll newcomers.
- The user interface feels somewhat dated compared to newer cloud payroll competitors.
- A small number of customers report frustrations with subscription management and pricing increases.
- Some businesses have experienced occasional system slowdowns and timeout issues.
- Advanced workforce management functionality is less extensive than broader HCM platforms.
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Reckon is the least prominent name on this list, which makes it the easiest to overlook and, based on what we found in the research, the most likely to surprise you. Across an unusually wide range of industries, retail, healthcare, law firms, agriculture, trades, customer feedback lands on the same three points with striking consistency: the platform is straightforward to learn, it produces accurate compliance output, and when something goes wrong, the support team picks up and actually helps.
The pricing puts Reckon in a different bracket from most of the competition. At $16 per month for up to four employees, it undercuts Xero, MYOB, and Employment Hero for comparable small-team payroll needs.
Even more impressively, at that price, the platform does not neglect its customer service. Per our user surveys, responsiveness and hands-on assistance are key themes associated with this platform, more so than any other Australian payroll tool we evaluated. Several long-term customers credit the support team directly with helping them navigate ATO and Fair Work requirement changes in real time.
The compliance fundamentals are sound. STP Phase 2, superannuation at the legislated rate, leave tracking across annual, personal, and long service leave, overtime, deductions, allowances, and payroll reporting all run within the platform. Pay runs process correctly, payslips distribute electronically, and government reporting runs from a centralized dashboard. Mobile access covers payroll from wherever the business owner happens to be, which for small operators matters more than it might on a larger team.
Three key limitations we found: 1) occasional software bugs appear in the feedback record and require support intervention to resolve. 2) the interface is less modern than cloud-native competitors. And 3) Reckon is not the answer if your business needs advanced workforce management, rostering, time tracking, or broader HCM capabilities.
Employment Hero
Employment Hero
SAP SuccessFactors
SAP SuccessFactors
Xero
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MYOB Business
MYOB Business
Deel
Deel
Reckon Payroll offers three payroll plans:
- Payroll Essentials: $16/month for up to 4 employees. Includes pay runs, STP reporting, superannuation calculations, leave tracking, payroll reporting, employee self-service app, timesheets, expense claims, and mobile access.
- Payroll Plus: $32/month for up to 10 employees. Includes all Payroll Essentials functionality with increased employee capacity.
- Payroll Premium: $60/month for unlimited employees. Includes all payroll features without employee limits.
New customers may qualify for promotional pricing, with plans starting at $1/month for the first 6 months before reverting to standard pricing.
Australian small businesses that want affordable payroll software with strong compliance tools, responsive customer support, and straightforward payroll processing without the complexity of a full HCM suite.
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