Turn your number of paid employees, an illustrative per-employee monthly price range and a monthly base fee into a low and high monthly software cost.
Use this estimator to get a first monthly budget for payroll and HR software before you ask for quotes, or to sanity-check a quote you already have. It answers one question: what will the software cost each month for the people I actually pay?
How to fill it in. Count everyone who receives a pay cheque in a typical month, including part-time and seasonal staff, because most per-employee prices count anyone paid in the period. Pick a software type from the menu, or type the per-employee range from a vendor's current price page. In the fixed field, enter the monthly base fee plus any fixed add-ons, averaged per month (for example a year-end slip fee of $120 a year adds $10 a month).
Formula. Low estimate = employees × low price per employee + fixed monthly costs. High estimate = employees × high price per employee + fixed monthly costs.
Worked example (illustrative). A café group pays 18 people and is looking at payroll with basic HR records. At an illustrative $6 to $14 per employee per month plus a $50 base fee, the estimate is 18 × $6 + $50 = $158 to 18 × $14 + $50 = $302 a month, before GST/HST. Over a year that is roughly $1,900 to $3,600.
Limits. The menu ranges are placeholders to show the arithmetic, not survey data or any vendor's price. The tool does not add per-pay-run fees, one-time setup, migration, renewal increases, exchange-rate moves or sales tax. For those, see the three-year total cost guide and the renewal and FX buffer calculator.
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