Cost comparison · UK small businesses

Running payroll yourself vs outsourcing it: the honest maths

Plenty of small employers run their own payroll, and some genuinely should. Here's what DIY actually costs in hours, software and risk, and an honest view of when each side wins.

What DIY actually involves

The job behind "it's just a few payslips"

Every pay period	And alongside it
Collect hours/changes · calculate gross-to-net (tax codes, NI, student loans) · produce payslips · file the FPS with HMRC on or before payday · submit pension contributions · pay HMRC by the 22nd	Starters & leavers (P45s) · statutory sick/parental pay when it happens · tax-code notices · year-end P60s · keeping up when rates and thresholds change every April, and sometimes mid-year

For a typical small team this runs to 2–5 hours a month once you're practised, more in April, more whenever something unusual happens.

Six staff? That's from £65/mo on Essentials, or £120/mo on Managed if you'd rather we run the pension end to end too, with a portal and a named contact. Your choice, not a forced jump.

Side by side

A 5-person team, compared honestly

	DIY	Outsourced to us
Cash cost / month	£0–£30 (HMRC's free Basic PAYE Tools works, but produces no payslips and doesn't run your pension, paid software fixes that for £10–£30)	£45 + £6/payslip = £75 (5 staff, monthly)
Your time / month	2–5 hours of the owner's or a senior person's time	~10 minutes: send changes, approve the run
Who carries the deadline	You, every payday, every month, on holiday or not	We do, filing on or before payday is our job
If it goes wrong	Late FPS penalties start at £100/month for small employers; pension and tax-code errors compound quietly	Checked twice, filed once, and a specialist to fix anything fast
The real comparison	If your time is worth even £30/hour, DIY's "saving" costs £60–£150/month in attention, before any penalty, and before the April scramble

The honest answer

Sometimes DIY genuinely is the right call.

We'd rather tell you that than win a client who shouldn't have switched. If the panel opposite describes you, modern payroll software is good, and you'll likely be fine running it yourself, come back when the team grows.

If it doesn't describe you, the question isn't really "can I do payroll?", it's "is payroll the best use of the hours?"

DIY makes sense when…

✓ It's just you, a director-only payroll with one identical payslip a month.
✓ Nothing changes: no starters, leavers, overtime, sick pay or bonuses.
✓ You actually enjoy it and will keep up with the April changes.
✓ Cash is genuinely tighter than time right now.

Two or more employees, any churn, or statutory pay in the mix? The maths flips quickly. see your exact figure.

Get the hours back.

Tell us your headcount and we'll quote a fixed monthly fee, usually less than the time DIY was quietly costing you.

Get my fixed quote

✓ Questions answered, no sales pitch✓ Fixed fees, published✓ No lock-in✓ Early tax-year rates available