Choosing HR and payroll software: ten questions to ask every vendor

Every demo runs on clean sample data. Your business does not. Before you commit, put these questions to any vendor.

1. Which countries' statutory rules are built in, and who updates them when the law changes?
2. Can I see the calculation behind a single employee's payslip, line by line?
3. How do I import my existing employees and salaries - and what does the error report look like?
4. What does payroll approval look like, and is every change recorded?
5. Can managers and employees self-serve without seeing anyone else's pay?
6. How does attendance data reach payroll?
7. What reports can I export for my auditors and for the tax authority?
8. What happens to my data if I leave?
9. Where is data hosted, and how is it backed up?
10. Who do I call when payroll day goes wrong?

Ask to run your own last month of payroll through a trial workspace and compare the results against your current numbers. That single test tells you more than any feature list.