Employment Hero
Employment Hero is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform for Australian businesses - onboarding, leave management, timesheets, payroll processing, and compliance, with payroll journals posting to Xero automatically after each pay run
Everything on this page comes from integrating, troubleshooting, and reconciling Employment Hero with Xero - across businesses with different team sizes, award structures, and payroll complexity. This is what we have learned
What Employment Hero does
Features
Full HR suite covering recruitment, onboarding, contracts, policies, performance reviews, and compliance. Payroll handles Australian modern awards, STP, super, and tax calculations Employee self-service portal and mobile app for leave requests, payslips, and personal details. Reduces the admin load on business owners and managers
HR management
Employee records, contracts, policies, and compliance documents all in one place. Onboarding workflows take new starters from offer letter through to first day with digital signing and self-service
Payroll processing
Automated pay rate calculations, tax, super, and STP lodgement. Handles modern awards including penalty rates, overtime, and allowances. Multiple pay runs can process simultaneously in the background
Time and attendance
Rostering, shift management, and clock-in via mobile app. Timesheets feed directly into pay runs. Works best for businesses with standard shift patterns - variable rosters are more challenging
Leave management
Employees request leave via the app, managers approve, balances update automatically. Leave accruals feed into payroll and sync with Xero. Critical that accrual rules match your award obligations
Compliance and reporting
STP Phase 2, superannuation lodgement, and Australian tax compliance built in. Scheduled reports can be built and sent automatically. Local legislative reporting included
Employee self-service
Staff access payslips, update banking details, submit leave, and view rosters from the mobile app. Reduces the volume of "can you check my payslip" requests that hit your inbox
Best for
- businesses wanting HR and payroll in one platform rather than separate tools
- companies with complex onboarding needs - contracts, policies, inductions
- employers needing modern award interpretation and STP compliance
- businesses with 10-200 employees where the HR overhead justifies a platform
Integration mapping
Shared data between Xero and Employment Hero
Payroll
Reference Data
Getting started
How to connect Employment Hero to Xero
Authorise Employment Hero with your Xero organisation, map your pay categories and chart of accounts, then configure employee records and payroll settings
Before you start
- confirm you have Xero Advisor access - a Standard user cannot authorise the integration
- have your Xero chart of accounts ready - you will need wage expense, PAYG liability, superannuation liability, and net wages accounts set up before connecting
- if migrating from another payroll system, have your year-to-date figures ready for each employee - getting opening balances wrong creates problems at EOFY
Connect to Xero
- in Employment Hero, go to Payroll Settings Integrations under Business Management
- select Xero from the list of available services
- click Connect to Xero - you will be redirected to Xero to authorise
- select the correct Xero organisation and confirm access
Map your payroll accounts
- map each payroll component to the correct Xero account - wages expense, PAYG withholding, super guarantee, super salary sacrifice, net wages, and any deductions
- if you use Xero tracking categories for departments or cost centres, map those too - payroll journals will split by tracking category
- choose whether journals post as Draft (for your bookkeeper to review) or Published (auto-approved)
Run a test pay and verify
- process a test pay run for a single employee or a small group
- confirm the payroll journal appears in Xero with the correct account codes, amounts, and tracking categories
- check that gross wages + PAYG + super + deductions reconcile in the journal - the debits and credits should balance
- if posting as Draft, approve the journal in Xero and confirm it flows through to your P&L and balance sheet correctly
Things to know
What to watch out for
Employment Hero's HR features are strong but the payroll and Xero integration have some well-documented pain points - go in with your eyes open
Leave accrual accuracy
The most common complaint from users is leave balances not calculating correctly, especially for employees with variable hours or non-standard work patterns. If your team does not work fixed hours, verify accruals manually for the first few pay periods
Support is self-service first
Getting personalised support can be difficult. The platform defaults to chatbots and knowledge base articles. If you need someone to talk to on payroll day when something is wrong, this is a known friction point - plan accordingly
Setup is substantial
Full payroll setup takes 5-6 hours minimum. Employee records, pay rates, leave entitlements, super funds, and tax settings all need to be configured before you can run your first pay. Do not leave this to the week before payroll is due
12-month contracts
Employment Hero typically locks you into a 12-month contract. If the platform does not work out, you are paying for it until the contract expires. Trial thoroughly before committing
Multi-entity means multi-subscription
If you run more than one entity, you need a separate Employment Hero subscription for each. This adds up quickly for group structures and is worth factoring into your cost comparison
Pricing
What Employment Hero costs
Pricing model
Per employee per month - HR and payroll are separate subscriptions
What the subscription excludes
Around $100 per employee for onboarding, 12-month contracts, and per-entity billing for group structures