With day-one Statutory Sick Pay already in effect, and mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind due in April 2027
Zoho Corporation, the global technology company, has launched Zoho Payroll, a payroll management solution built around the compliance requirements of UK businesses.
The solution handles Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and National Insurance calculations, as well as Real Time Information (RTI) submissions to HMRC. Zoho Payroll also comes with built-in AI capabilities, like Ask Zia Zoho’s AI assistant tool, which payroll teams can use to complete tasks, generate forecasts and identify trends, using plain-language prompts. The AI assistant can also answer employees’ payroll questions.
“Payroll is a critical component of the employee experience, so getting it right is important,” said Prashant Ganti, VP of Global Product Strategy, Finance and Operations Business Unit, Zoho. “However, payroll doesn’t happen in isolation, and because it shares sensitive employee data with other systems, any gap is a compliance risk and a privacy risk. Zoho Payroll offers built-in compliance, with privacy at its core, helping businesses always stay compliant as the rules evolve while keeping their employee data secure. Furthermore, the solution brings payroll, HR, employee expenses and accounting together in a smooth flow, so that businesses can pay their employees accurately and on time.”
UK payroll is undergoing a significant period of regulatory change in recent years. Since April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is payable from the first day of sickness. More changes are expected to be implemented from April 2027 such as benefits in kind which must be taxed through payroll for each pay period instead of reporting it on P11D forms. Moreover, a full payment submission must be made to HMRC on or before payday, and late filing can attract monthly penalties starting at £100 for businesses with up to nine employees.
All these regulatory changes add to the existing compliance obligations of businesses making it more challenging for them to keep up. In fact, findings from a recent study done by Finity, show that 89% of payroll professionals said they had run into payment errors in the past year, and 38% said problems arise every month. Many of these avoidable errors stem from manual processes and disconnected systems, and this is the exact gap that Zoho Payroll is built to close.
The solution’s key capabilities include:
● Automated payroll processing: Weekly, fortnightly, and monthly pay runs with built-in PAYE and National Insurance calculations. Businesses can generate payslips and BACS salary files and set up pay run approvals for advanced requirements.
● RTI reporting: a Full Payment Submission (FPS) generated for every pay run, and Employer Payment Summary (EPS) submissions where required.
● Statutory payments and deductions: All statutory payments such as Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) based on employee eligibility can be managed seamlessly. The solution supports deductions like student loan repayments, Attachment of Earnings (AoE), Benefits in Kind (BiK), and P45 forms for employees leaving the organisation.
● Workplace pensions: businesses can run eligibility checks, auto-enrol eligible employees, handle opt-ins and opt-outs, and postpone pension enrolment when required.
● Payroll administration: employers can manage multiple work locations, with fine-grained role-based access, run activity logs, and set up payroll reminders
● Employee self-service: employees can review payslips, tax summaries and pension information through the self-service portal, available on web and mobile.
● Reporting: P11, P32 and payroll summary reports can be generated, and export them as PDF, XLS or CSV, with password-protected sharing.
Payroll, HR, employee expenses, and accounting in one connected flow
Zoho Payroll connects seamlessly with Zoho Expense (employee expense management solution) to sync approved expenses for reimbursement with salary disbursement. The solution also offers built-in integration with Zoho Books, Zoho’s HMRC-recognised, MTD-compliant accounting solution, where payroll journals are automatically posted for each pay run. Integration with Zoho People, to sync employee records will follow.
