Payroll software · New Zealand · Head-to-head
Smartly vs Thankyou Payroll
Two New Zealand payroll software options, compared side by side for New Zealand trades.
Which should you choose?
Smartly and Thankyou Payroll are both Tier S: our check found each one's prices published on its own website, so you can compare their costs before talking to sales. The tier is not a quality ranking: weigh the pros, cons, pricing and New Zealand-specific notes below against your trade and region.
Smartly
Tier S · Published pricesNew Zealand payroll software, formerly SmartPayroll, with self-run and Smartly-run payroll plans
Smartly, formerly SmartPayroll, is New Zealand payroll software that pays employees into their bank accounts, deducts PAYE, KiwiSaver and other deductions, and files returns with Inland Revenue. It sells self-managed payroll plans, optionally with people management tools, and Smartly-run plans where its team runs the payroll.
Pros
- + Handles PAYE, KiwiSaver deductions and Inland Revenue filing
- + Choice of running payroll yourself or having Smartly run it
- + Optional people management tools on top of payroll
Cons
- − A monthly platform fee applies on top of per-employee charges
- − Prices exclude GST
- − Charges apply per employee on every pay run, so weekly pay cycles cost more than monthly ones
New Zealand note
Built for New Zealand payroll: PAYE and KiwiSaver deductions and filing with Inland Revenue. Pricing is per employee per pay run plus a monthly platform fee, excluding GST.
Thankyou Payroll
Tier S · Published pricesNZ payroll that files and pays PAYE to IRD for you, free for registered charities
Thankyou Payroll is a New Zealand cloud payroll service founded in Dunedin in 2009 and now based in Wellington; it says it is owned by Generous Ventures, which grew out of the Thankyou Charitable Trust, and puts its profits back into communities. It says it is an IRD-accredited PAYE intermediary: employers transfer the gross payroll to Thankyou, which pays staff, files payday information and pays deductions to IRD. It says over 7,000 organisations use it. RNZ reported on 10 September 2026 that Thankyou Payroll was caught up in a global breach of the Metabase reporting tool that exposed names, IRD numbers, addresses, bank account details and payment histories.
Pros
- + PAYE intermediary service (payday filing and IRD payments) on every plan
- + Published prices with a monthly cap; you pay only for pays you run
- + No setup fee or contract, and nothing to pay until your first pay
- + Free for registered charities
Cons
- − Per-pay fee makes weekly pay runs cost more, up to the monthly cap
- − Gross payroll must reach Thankyou before payday (2 days ahead on the 2 Day plan)
- − Hit by a September 2026 data breach via the Metabase reporting tool, per RNZ
New Zealand note
Thankyou Payroll says it files payday information and pays PAYE, KiwiSaver, student loan and child support deductions to IRD for you on every plan. It calculates ordinary and average weekly pay and relevant and average daily pay for Holidays Act leave, tracks annual and sick leave balances, and posts pay journals to Xero.
More New Zealand options
See all New Zealand payroll software vendors and the rest of the New Zealand directory.