Global Payroll Providers for small business

Payroll services can be beneficial for businesses of all sizes, saving time, money and headaches. Crucially, having a professional manage payroll can improve accuracy and reduce the risk of mistakes being made.

But some full-service payroll solutions aren’t necessarily a good fit for small and medium enterprises. They may require a minimum monthly payroll volume, or cost too much for companies that only need basic services.

The good news for SMEs is that there are a host of other providers available. These alternative payroll partners can help you cut payroll costs by providing handy services such as easy batch payments, integration with accounting software and even multi-currency payments. Let’s take a look at a few of the best.

Wise Batch Payment

Wise Batch Payment tool makes it simple and quick to send up to 1,000 payments at a single click. This saves you an enormous amount of time on payroll, especially compared to setting up individual payments. You can even pay employees, contractors and freelancers all over the world with your multi-currency business account.

Want to automate your payroll payouts? Get in touch with the team directly

Services

• Manage payroll in 38 different currencies – see which countries you can and can’t send to here.
• USD global – pay overseas contractors in USD
• Borderless account – hold, send and receive funds all from the one multi-currency account
• Easy integration with accounting software – including Xero.
• Powerful open API – customize services to suit you, from automating payments to connecting business tools

Cost

Wise has no monthly fee, and guarantees the real exchange rate on every transaction. There’s a low, fair fee for sending international payments which varies according to the currency that’s being converted which ranges from 0.35%-3%.

With Wise Business you also can set Auto Conversions. Choose your currencies, the amount to convert, and your desired exchange rate. Wise will then automatically exchange the amount when your desired rate is available. This is a great, easy, and safe way to save money if you need to pay employees or suppliers abroad.

PayPal Payouts

Payouts, the newer version of PayPal’s Mass Payment tool, allows you to easily send money to a group or as many as 5,000 people at once. Once you have a PayPal Business account, you can set up bulk payments by uploading a spreadsheet or using the API.¹

Services

• Pay recipients or manage payroll in 24 major currencies – recipients must have a PayPal account to receive funds
• USD global – pay overseas contractors in the USD
• Integration with accounting software and payroll services including QuickBooks and Xero.
• Industry-standard REST API – using a developer, you can set up bulk payments to suit the way your business works

Cost

PayPal Payouts promises straightforward pricing, with domestic payments costing 2% per payment (capped at 1 USD per payment).¹ It’s much cheaper ($0.25 USD per U.S. transaction) if you use the API. However, if you want to send internationally, fees vary per country and there are additional costs such as exchange rate mark-up which is around 3.75%³ on top of the transfer fee (2%).²

Payoneer

Payoneer is an online transfer service that’s particularly useful for receiving and sending money internationally. Register for a company account (if you have over 5 employees) and you can send multiple transfers.

Services

• Payroll and payments to over 200 countries⁴
• USD global – pay overseas contractors in USD
• Integration with accounting software and payroll services including QuickBooks and Xero.
• Cutting-edge APIs – for seamless integration with your own platforms.

Cost

A great feature of Payoneer is that it’s free to send to another Payoneer users when using your balance. If you’re making international payments to non-users or use another funding source like their local bank accounts, fees range from 1-3% and bank processing fees, landing fees, or intermediary fees may be deducted by their bank or any other payment provider that are not directly associated with Payoneer. There are also currency conversion fees to consider, although Payoneer does base it's conversion rates on the mid-market rate – so that’s a plus.⁵

OFX

OFX’s Multipay tool lets you pay up to 500 recipients at once, in their preferred currencies. Once you’re signed up, you’ll need to upload your payroll document with payment details and the system will automatically generate currency conversion rates for each payment. Approve it, and the payments are sent.

Services

• Payroll and payments in 55 currencies⁶
• USD global – pay overseas contractors in USD
• Integration with accounting software and payroll services including Xero and Saasu
• RESTful API – use the user-friendly OFX interface or your own

Cost

OFX isn’t as competitive as other transfer services when it comes to the exchange rate – it doesn’t give you the mid-market exchange rate (the ‘real’ rate with no mark-up added on top) but it does promise a smaller margin than many banks.⁷ There are no transaction fees, but a clear pricing structure is also a little harder compared to other providers. OFX may charge a flat fee of up to $15 for transfers up to $10,000 in Australia and Canada.⁷ Transfers from the United Kingdom and the United States do not incur a fee. The exchange rates provided by OFX are much more competitive than traditional banks, averaging between 1.72% of the total amount transferred for small values ($1,000), and 0.70% for larger values ($100,000).⁷

Skrill

Money transfer service Skrill doesn’t have a huge uptake in the U.S. and it’s really best for online retailers, but it still has uses for smaller businesses wanting to pay employees and contractors based overseas. You can use its mass ]payment service to send payments to as many as 3,000 people in a single procedure, but it isn’t perhaps as streamlined as other providers.

Services

• Payroll and payments in 40 currencies
• USD global – pay overseas contractors in USD
• Quick, reliable payments
• API interface – for unlimited automated transfers using an HTTPs request.

Cost

Skrill gives you the mid-market rate and promises no hidden fees, plus it’s free to send straight to a bank account. If you’re not sending to a bank account, fees of 1.45% per transaction will apply and you’ll also need to watch out for currency conversion fees of 3.99%. Fees are set to change in January 2020.⁸

Tipalti

Tipalti specializes in automating global mass payments which includes payroll.

Services

• Pay suppliers and manage payroll for recipients in over 190 countries and in 120 currencies
• Multiple payment methods – including PayPal, Check, eCheck, Global ACH, and wire transfer
• Self-service supplier onboarding
• Instant reconciliation, performance tracking and reporting
• KPMG-certified tax module, plus year-end reports.

Cost

Tipalti offers three scaled pricing levels, ranging from $299 a month to $1599 for more advanced functionality.⁹ There are also per-transaction and foreign exchange charges depending on the payment method.¹⁰

Learn More: Tipalti Competitors and Alternatives 2023

HyperWallet

HyperWallet’s Payout Solutions provides a scalable platform for making mass payments. A PayPal service, it promises a full-featured, user-friendly portal to give you full control of payments, and there’s also plenty of support and training to help you find the configuration that works for you.

Services

• A choice of payment methods to multiple currencies
• Multi-currency virtual account
• Self-service portal for employers, contractors and suppliers
• Prepaid MasterCard or Visa for spending
• Fully API-directed payouts.

Cost

HyperWallet doesn’t make its pricing information publicly available, so you’ll need to get in touch to discuss a payment solution that suits your needs in order to find out the cost.

RegalPay

RegalPay is a payments automation software adapter which allows you to make payments – including bulk payments and payroll – directly from your current accounting or ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. This means you can do it all from your desktop, without needing to open a separate website, portal or application.

Services

• Automatic transfers – RegalPay extracts and transmits all payment requests to your bank
• Integration with your existing accounting software
• Daily automatic reconciliation
• Payments to any bank.

Cost

RegalPay doesn’t make its pricing information publicly available, although it is likely that you’ll need to sign up for monthly/annual subscription. The costs for international transfers could be expensive unless you have the right package, so it’s probably best used for payroll within the U.S.

How to do Payroll with Wise

A step-by-step guide

It couldn’t be more straightforward to manage payroll with the Wise batch payments. Here’s how to get started:

1. Set up your Wise Business Account

2. Download a batch payment template file (recommended to open in Microsoft Excel)

3. Fill in your recipients’ transfer details, including names, amounts and currencies

4. Save the file as a .csv

5. Upload the file on the batch payments page

6. Review the transfers, checking that all is ok and you’re happy with the fees

7. Hit ‘send’ and pay for the batch

8. Head back to your account page to track the transfers in real-time, so you can see exactly when each payment is made.

Automate your Payroll with Wise open API

While the steps above are relatively simple, there’s a way you can save even more admin time – particularly if you have a lot of employees on the payroll. You can automate the process using the Wise open API.

This is an Application Programming Interface, giving companies an easy, secure way to access their account, managing everything in one place.

Wise opened its API to help businesses streamline their workflows. By using it, not only can you automate payments — you can also connect your business tools to Wise, and create other intelligent, intuitive ways to manage your finances.

There are no extra charges or premium subscriptions. And it only takes a few minutes to get your tokens. Take a look at the Payouts Guide to get started.

With one of the tools above, you no longer need to dread running payroll each month – nor do you need to shell out for expensive payroll solutions.

Mass payment services can be a great alternative for small and medium-sized businesses, but you need to find a solution that works for you. This could be a simple, low-cost bulk payments tool or a powerful API platform where you can automate and tailor the service to suit you.

Sources used:

1. PayPal:Mass pay
2. PayPay website:Fees
3. PayPal: Terms and conditions
4. Payoneer FAQ
5. Payoneer Website:Fees
6. OFX Website
7. OFX rates and fees
8. Skrill:Fees
9. Tipalti website: Pricing
10. Tipalti FAQ

Sources checked on 2nd-December 2019.