Why a general CRM falls short for a payroll bureau
Most CRMs are built around a sales pipeline. A payroll bureau's real work is a calendar of recurring deadlines: weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly and monthly pay runs, each with its own cut-off, approver and quirks. Bolting that onto a sales CRM usually ends with a tracker spreadsheet next to it, and the spreadsheet becomes the real system.
The Payroll Portal starts from the pay run. Every client has a pay schedule, every pay run has an owner, a due date and a status, and every query, document and approval hangs off the right one.
What the Payroll Portal CRM covers
- Client records built for payroll. Pay frequencies, pay dates, contacts, accountant partner, pension provider and notes in one record, with the full history of every pay run.
- Month-end at a glance. Live progress across every pay run, grouped into Overdue, Today, Next 3 days and Later, with a "Start here" list that puts the most urgent job first.
- Tasks and workflow templates. Repeatable checklists for pay runs, new starters, leavers and onboarding, so the process lives in the system rather than in one person's head.
- Emails become tickets. Client emails turn into tickets linked to the right client, so queries are assigned, tracked and answered instead of lost in a shared inbox.
- Onboarding new clients. A structured onboarding flow that collects the details you need before the first pay run.
- Proposals, engagement letters and price reviews. Generate proposals and letters of engagement from templates, track signatures and get reminded when each client's annual price review is due.
- Time tracking. See where your team's time goes by client, so you can spot the payrolls that cost more to run than you charge.
- Accountant partner and client logins. Your clients and partners see their own payrolls, which cuts the "where's my payroll?" emails.
It doesn't replace your payroll software
Your payroll is still calculated and submitted in your payroll software. The Payroll Portal is the operations layer around it: the tracking, the chasing, the approvals and the client relationship. We're starting with BrightPay Cloud, because that's what our own bureau uses, with Xero for billing.
Built inside a working bureau
The Payroll Portal began as the internal system at a working UK payroll bureau, and is still used there every month. Every feature exists because a real month-end needed it. Read how it started.
Questions
What is a payroll bureau CRM?
A payroll bureau CRM is a client relationship and workflow system built around recurring pay runs rather than a sales pipeline. It tracks every client's pay schedule, deadlines, approvals, queries and pricing in one place.
Does The Payroll Portal run payroll calculations or RTI submissions?
No. Calculations and HMRC submissions stay in your payroll software. The Payroll Portal handles everything around them: tracking, deadlines, client requests, approvals, queries and partner visibility.
How is it priced?
We're setting prices with our design partners. Pricing will be based on the number of client payrolls you run, not the number of staff, so growing your team never costs you more.