Bundled vs integrated HR and payroll: what Canadian small businesses should know

MyHR integrates with one of Canada’s top payroll providers: Payworks
Some HR platforms bundle payroll into the same system with all the other features. It sounds simple: one log-in, one product vendor, one bill for HR and payroll. But it also means you are now locked into the same system to handle facets of your business that can have very different requirements depending on the size of your organization and the makeup of your workforce.

If you find either set of tools doesn’t suit your business, you have to decide whether to change the whole bundle.

MyHR takes a different approach: one HR system that integrates seamlessly with one of Canada’s leading payroll providers that your business might already be using: Payworks.

The two systems work together as one, but the decisions and vendors stay separate. You have the flexibility to choose the tools that are best for your needs, and you also have access to two teams of experts to help with any payroll or HR queries.

The Canadian SMB payroll landscape explained

There are a lot of payroll providers in Canada, ranging from full-service software offerings to fully managed/outsourced payroll services.

Engaging payroll software is a common early investment for growing businesses, as it helps improve accuracy, efficiency, and compliance with tax and employment regulations. When small business employers look to engage an HR platform to handle people and employment management, they often already use payroll software, so it makes sense to engage a HR system that integrates with your existing payroll. Buying an all-in-one HR and payroll package means ditching the payroll tools you already use.

Leading Canadian payroll software

Payroll solutions MyHR integrates with

Payworks: Complete payroll solution, with over 25 years serving Canadian businesses. Comprehensive payroll, automated remittances, time and attendance tracking, and dedicated Canadian support. Payworks also offers full end-to-end outsourced payroll and hybrid reviews. Over 19,000 customers across Canada.

Outsourced payroll bureaus and managed services

ADP Canada: Full-service payroll and tax filing service, with self-service tools, local compliance, and support in English and French.
BDO Canada: Provides full-service business outsourcing, including data consolidation, local jurisdiction calculations, and compliance management.
Outsource Payroll Solution: Canadian-owned provider specializing in fully managed end-to-end payroll processing, CRA remittances, Employer of Record (EOR) services, and payroll compliance reviews across all provinces.
Paytrak Payroll Services: Full-service payroll company handling payroll processing and CRA-compliant remittances, ROEs, and year-end T4s.
Worklinks: Payroll and payments solutions provider, offering online payroll and fully-managed services, including statutory remittances and year-end forms. .

What does “bundled” HR and payroll software mean?

Bundled software refers to software programs or applications that are packaged and sold together as a single unit. Bundled software can be convenient, providing multiple tools out of the box without the need to deal with multiple vendors.

However, using one product means you not only have a single point of contact, you also have a single point of dependency. The platform may have features that suit your business set-up, but it may also contain features that you do not need (sometimes called “bloatware”), tools that don’t work for your requirements, or you have to pay extra for add-on features - e.g. rosters, time-tracking or HR advice.

Also, if you use a bundled solution and anything changes - e.g. there’s a pricing change, a feature change, or a bug in one part of the system - the whole system is affected, because it's all one product.

What does it cost to switch payroll providers?

A major limitation of bundled platforms is that they are designed to make it harder to break with them. That is fine when every part of the bundle fits your requirements, but it can be a problem when one part doesn't. If you want to swap out one facet, it means changing the whole system and switching vendors.

If, for example, you used the payroll tools in a bundled solution but came to find them inaccurate, inefficient or they didn’t have the specificity your company required, you would need to change the whole payroll and HR system at the same time. That means migrating contracts and employee records (including payroll settings and history, vacation and leave balances, and tax, insurance, and pension plan info), re-installing and learning a new interface, and spending time re-training staff. On top of that you may have to pay cancellation fees for the old platform and set-up costs for the new system(s).

If you use integrated systems, you could swap your payroll software without changing your HR platform (or vice versa), so all the features along with your data, contracts, leave history, and performance records remain intact.

Depth versus breadth when it comes to tools and support

For most businesses, there are a lot of moving parts to payroll and HR, especially if you have shift workers or employees on flexible schedules. Your payroll and HR solution needs to be able to handle your requirements and ensure your pay calculations are accurate, and you meet all your responsibilities under NZ employment and tax laws.

The requirements of your business don’t remain static and what you need at sign-up is likely to change as the organisation grows and you take on more workers, some of which could be part-time, on a fixed-term, or independent contractors.

Specialist payroll providers exist to do one thing: ensure your people are paid what they are entitled to, when they are entitled to it. That means ensuring payroll is accurate and legally compliant, including calculating employee compensation, managing pension plan and employment insurance deductions, CRA remittances, and any provincial/territorial taxes, as well as year-end reporting and record-keeping. If you have questions or tricky situations, they have the specific payroll knowledge to provide support (or they charge you extra for it).

Similarly, a specialist HR provider (like MyHR) is solely focused on providing a platform that takes care of the employment lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding new employees, to managing leave and performance, and handling issues that arise. An all-in-one solution backed by the expertise of local HR professionals.

A vendor trying to provide HR and payroll in a single solution has to spread its product and compliance focus across all aspects of the service, rather than focusing on payroll or HR specifically. That could mean you are caught out if the system is clunky or inefficient, it doesn’t provide the tools you need, or the support doesn’t have sufficient expertise to resolve problems or answer complex queries.

Why MyHR’s payroll ecosystem is so powerful for Canadian business

MyHR is uniquely focused on providing a single powerful, easy-to-use HR platform that combines expert human advisory services backed by advanced AI. That means you have one HR platform for employment contracts, onboarding, leave, and performance management, and comprehensive workforce analytics. Our CPHR-certified HR experts are based in Canada and know how to ensure your HR processes are properly tailored to your requirements and fully compliant with local regulations.

We entrust payroll to the experts - with seamless integration with Payworks - giving you the flexibility to combine MyHR with the tools that are best suited to your business.

With a single point of data entry and seamless syncing you’ll save time, while never feeling like you are using isolated systems. MyHR’s integrations aren’t simply automated features, you get the combined expertise of two specialist support teams, further reducing the chance of errors entering your payroll or vacation and leave calculations.

Learn more about MyHR's seamless integration with Payworks.

Bundled vs integrated HR and payroll - FAQs

What payroll providers does MyHR integrate with?

MyHR integrates with one of Canada’s top payroll providers: Payworks.

Is it harder to manage HR and payroll as two separate systems?

MyHR’s integrations ensure you never feel like you are using two separate systems. HR and payroll are automatically synchronized, so any data you enter in one system seamlessly flows to the other. If you make changes in one, they automatically populate in the other.

What happens if I want to switch payroll providers while using MyHR?

Employee profiles, records, contracts, and vacation and leave history all live in MyHR, so switching payroll providers doesn’t mean starting from zero. What changes is the connection to payroll, and how much there is to do depends on whether MyHR integrates with your old and new providers:

If you’re moving from a non-integrated payroll provider to one MyHR integrates with (Payworks), you connect to the new payroll software, link your people, and say goodbye to entering the same data into two separate systems.
If you are moving from an integrated provider to one MyHR doesn’t integrate with, we help you disconnect the integration and provide guidance on using our in-app reporting to help populate the new payroll system (from there, you'll have to manually enter payroll data).
If you are moving between two providers MyHR doesn’t integrate with, you’ll keep entering your payroll info manually, just into your new system instead of the old one.

Does bundling payroll into one platform actually save time?

A bundled HR and payroll platform might seem to save time, but separate software that is correctly integrated works just as quickly, while you have the added benefit of two synchronized systems that are built specifically to handle HR or payroll, with access to two sets of specialists.

Is bundled all-in-one software cheaper long-term than a connected HR and payroll setup?

A bundled software solution can be a cheaper long-term option, but only if the features are perfectly suited to your company’s requirements and you are in the market for both systems at the same time.

If you already use a payroll provider, engaging an HR platform will likely be cheaper than a bundled HR and payroll software. You will also save time and hassle migrating your payroll information, while gaining an integrated solution that works seamlessly with your existing payroll system.

If you are looking for a complete HR and payroll solution for your organisation or you already use a payroll platform that integrates with MyHR’s system and want to sort your HR and people management, book a MyHR demo now.