ERP
Payroll and CPF (2026): The Gap Every Singapore ERP Leaves You to Fill
Last researched: 2 September 2026. Contribution rates, ceilings, deadlines and penalties are taken from the CPF Board, MOM and IRAS pages cited, checked on that date. Payroll software prices are the vendors’ published Singapore prices on that date.
Every ERP sold in Singapore handles the general ledger, GST and, increasingly, InvoiceNow. Almost none of them handles the one process that touches every employee every month. NetSuite’s payroll module is United States only. SAP Business One, Business Central, Odoo and Xero have no Singapore payroll from the vendor. The only systems in our buyer’s guide with CPF built in are the local ones, Synergix, HashMicro and Deskera. For everyone else, Singapore payroll is a second product, chosen separately, with its own compliance obligations and a monthly journal into the ERP, and it is the line that most often gets left out of the ERP budget until the first CPF submission falls due.
This guide sets out what that second product has to do, using the rates and deadlines that apply in 2026 and the changes already announced for 2027; which payroll products Singapore companies use, what they cost and which ERPs they connect to; and how to plan the integration so that the payroll journal lands in the ledger without re-keying. It is part of our Singapore ERP series; the Singapore ERP buyer’s guide compares the systems, and the cost guide puts payroll next to the other Singapore add-ons.
Key takeaways
- CPF in 2026: 37% of wages for employees aged 55 and below (17% employer, 20% employee), on an ordinary wage ceiling of S$8,000 a month and an annual ceiling of S$102,000. Rates for those aged 55 to 65 rise again on 1 January 2027, with a transition offset for employers.
- CPF is due by the last day of the month and enforced from the 14th of the following month; late payment carries interest of 1.5% a month with a S$5 minimum, and prosecution can follow. The Skills Development Levy is 0.25% of wages, between S$2 and S$11.25 an employee, collected with CPF.
- Employers with five or more employees must file employment income to IRAS under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme by 1 March each year, and must seek tax clearance for foreign employees leaving Singapore. Itemised payslips are compulsory and records must be kept for two years.
- NetSuite, SAP Business One, Business Central, Odoo and Xero do not do Singapore payroll. Synergix, HashMicro and Deskera do. Everyone else runs Talenox, Payboy, JustLogin, HReasily, QuickHR, Info-Tech or a similar product and posts a journal.
- Local payroll is inexpensive: Talenox from S$21.80 a month for five employees and S$4.36 an employee after that; Employment Hero from S$6 an employee. Most are on IRAS’s list of AIS-compatible vendors and on the government’s One-Stop Payroll list.
- The integration is the decision. JustLogin publishes a NetSuite connector; most products publish Xero and QuickBooks connectors; for SAP Business One and Business Central the payroll journal is usually a mapped import or a partner connector, and it belongs in the ERP statement of work.
What Singapore payroll has to do
The reason global ERPs leave Singapore payroll alone is that it is a set of statutory calculations and filings that change every year and are administered by three agencies. The payroll product has to get all of the following right, every month, for every employee.
CPF contributions. Employers and employees contribute to the Central Provident Fund on ordinary and additional wages at rates that depend on the employee’s age and residency status. The rates in force from 1 January 2026 for Singapore citizens and permanent residents in their third year and beyond, on monthly wages above S$750, are set out below (CPF Board, updated 11 August 2026).
| Employee age | Employer | Employee | Total (2026) | Total from 1 January 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 and below | 17% | 20% | 37% | 37% |
| Above 55 to 60 | 16% | 18% | 34% | 35.5% (16.5% + 19%) |
| Above 60 to 65 | 12.5% | 12.5% | 25% | 26% (13% + 13%) |
| Above 65 to 70 | 9% | 7.5% | 16.5% | 16.5% |
| Above 70 | 7.5% | 5% | 12.5% | 12.5% |
Sources: CPF Board, How much CPF contributions to pay, updated 11 August 2026, and CPF Board, New contribution rates from 1 January 2027, 9 June 2026. Graduated rates apply to permanent residents in their first two years and lower rates to wages of S$750 and below.
The ordinary wage ceiling has been rising in steps since 2023 and reached S$8,000 a month on 1 January 2026, with the annual salary ceiling unchanged at S$102,000 (CPF Board, 14 February 2023; Budget 2026 highlights, 5 March 2026). The 2027 increase for employees aged above 55 to 65 will be matched by a CPF Transition Offset that covers half of the employer’s share of the increase, applied automatically (CPF Board, 9 June 2026). Any payroll product you choose in 2026 will have to apply these changes on 1 January 2027; ask how the last rate change was delivered.
Submission and payment. CPF contributions are due by the last day of the month and enforcement begins if they are not paid by the 14th of the following month. Employers submit through CPF EZPay, the EZPay mobile app, or directly from payroll software under the government’s One-Stop Payroll programme, and pay by direct debit or PayNow QR (CPF Board, Making CPF contributions, updated 7 July 2025; Payment modes, updated 28 August 2026). Late payment attracts interest of 1.5% a month from the day after the due date, with a S$5 minimum; the CPF Board can compound offences at up to S$1,000 each, and a first conviction carries a fine of S$1,000 to S$5,000 and up to six months’ imprisonment (CPF Board, Enforcement and penalties, 5 August 2026).
Skills Development Levy. Employers pay 0.25% of each employee’s monthly wages, with a minimum of S$2 and a maximum of S$11.25, collected together with CPF; late payment is penalised at 10% a year on the outstanding amount (CPF Board, SDL, 2 July 2026).
Foreign worker levies and passes. For Work Permit and S Pass holders, the levy is due by the 17th of the following month, and permits are revoked after two consecutive missed months (MOM, Paying the levy, 8 July 2026). The S Pass levy has been a flat S$650 a month across sectors since 1 September 2025, with dependency ratio ceilings by sector (MOM, S Pass levy and quota, 19 February 2026). Employment Pass qualifying salaries are S$5,600 a month at age 23 rising to S$10,700 at 45 for most sectors, and S$6,200 to S$11,800 in financial services, rising on 1 January 2027 to S$6,000 and S$6,600 at the entry point; candidates must also score 40 points under COMPASS unless exempt (MOM, Employment Pass eligibility, 28 April 2026). Payroll software does not decide any of this, but it has to hold the pass type, expiry and levy for each employee.
IRAS filings. Employers with five or more employees must submit employment income electronically under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme between 1 February and 1 March each year, either from payroll software through IRAS’s API or on myTax Portal; IRAS reminded 123,000 AIS employers of the 1 March 2026 deadline (IRAS, primary). The forms are the IR8A and, where relevant, IR8S and Appendices 8A and 8B. When a non-citizen employee leaves Singapore or ceases employment, the employer must file Form IR21 for tax clearance at least a month before and withhold all money due until clearance is given (IRAS, Tax clearance). IRAS publishes a list of payroll software vendors that support AIS submission, in three categories by level of integration (IRAS, AIS payroll software vendors YA2026, 5 January 2026).
Employment Act records. Employers must give itemised payslips to employees covered by the Act, with payment or within three working days, showing twelve prescribed items; must issue key employment terms in writing; and must keep employment and salary records for two years for current employees and one year after leaving for former ones (MOM, Itemised payslips and Employment records, 14 March 2024).
The One-Stop Payroll programme
The government has been pushing payroll compliance into software rather than portals. One-Stop Payroll is a joint programme of IRAS, the CPF Board, MOM and GovTech under which payroll software submits the annual AIS data to IRAS, monthly CPF contributions, and MOM’s occupational employment and labour survey data, all from the payroll run. The programme publishes a list of 37 ready vendors for the 2026 year of assessment, including Talenox, Payboy, JustLogin, HReasily, Info-Tech, Frontier e-HR, QuickHR, SAP Asia, Unit4, BIPO, AutoCount and Rockbell (One-Stop Payroll, vendor listing, 24 July 2026, primary). Employment Hero, Swingvy, Synergix, HashMicro, Deskera, Odoo and Xero are not on that list. For a buyer the list is the quickest test of whether a payroll product is built for Singapore’s filings rather than adapted to them.
Which ERPs do Singapore payroll
| System | Singapore payroll | What the vendor or partner says |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle NetSuite | No | SuitePeople U.S. Payroll supports US federal, state and local payroll only; international payroll through partners and the Paycheck Journal (Oracle documentation, checked 2 September 2026). JustLogin publishes a direct integration. |
| SAP Business One | No | Holds HR master data only; payroll through country-specific add-ons (partner guide). We found no Singapore payroll add-on named on SAP’s or its Singapore partners’ pages. |
| Dynamics 365 Business Central | No | No Singapore payroll from Microsoft; partners describe configured CPF and SDL workflows or integration to a local product. No Singapore payroll app found on AppSource when we searched it on 2 September 2026. |
| Odoo | No | Singapore is not among Odoo’s official payroll localisations; a partner sells an Employment Hero Singapore connector for Odoo 16 to 19 at US$175 (Odoo documentation and app store, checked 2 September 2026). |
| Xero | No | Xero Singapore recommends Talenox, HReasily and SimplePay (Xero, checked 2 September 2026). |
| Synergix | Yes | Native HR and payroll with IR8A, CPF file export, foreign worker levy and SDL reports, and labour cost allocation to projects (Synergix, vendor). On IRAS’s AIS vendor list. |
| HashMicro | Yes | HRM module with country-compliant payroll (HashMicro, vendor). Not on the IRAS AIS vendor list of 5 January 2026 or the One-Stop Payroll listing of 24 July 2026. |
| Deskera | Yes | Deskera People generates the CPF submission file and IR8A (Deskera, vendor, 2021 help article). Not on the IRAS AIS vendor list of 5 January 2026 or the One-Stop Payroll listing of 24 July 2026. |
Sources: Oracle NetSuite documentation; Emerging Alliance (SAP partner); Intelegain (Microsoft partner); Odoo documentation and Odoo app store; Xero Singapore; Synergix; HashMicro; Deskera. All checked 2 September 2026.
The payroll products Singapore companies use
| Product | Published Singapore price | Accounting and ERP integrations stated | IRAS AIS list / One-Stop Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talenox | Payroll S$4.36 an employee a month, minimum S$21.80 for the first five; full suite S$7.63 an employee, minimum S$38.15 (prices include GST); Pro plan on quotation | Xero, QuickBooks Online | Category A / Yes |
| Payboy | Modular, by calculator; PSG pre-approved | Xero, QuickBooks Online, Financio | Category A / Yes |
| JustLogin | Essential, Growth and Enterprise plans on quotation, from five employees | Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite | Category A / Yes |
| HReasily | Not published on HReasily’s own site; an independent review quotes about S$4.30 an employee for payroll and S$10 for the full suite | Xero, QuickBooks; NetSuite through Workato | Category B / Yes |
| QuickHR (Enable Business) | Quotation; PSG pre-approved | Xero | Category A / Yes |
| Info-Tech | Quotation; PSG pre-approved; also an InvoiceNow access point | Not stated on pricing page | Category A / Yes |
| Employment Hero | Payroll Standard S$6 and Premium S$8 an employee a month, with monthly minimums of S$100 to S$200 | Not stated on pricing page; Odoo connector sold by a partner | Category B / No |
| Swingvy | Payroll add-on S$5 an employee a month on the Premium plan | Xero | Category C / No |
Sources: Talenox, Payboy, JustLogin, hr.software review of HReasily (24 May 2026), QuickHR, Info-Tech, Employment Hero, Swingvy, all vendor pages checked 2 September 2026; IRAS AIS vendor list YA2026, 5 January 2026; One-Stop Payroll vendor listing, 24 July 2026. IRAS notes that its listing is not an endorsement. On IRAS’s list, Category A means the software complies with all 24 of IRAS’s recommended controls, Category B with 10 of them, and Category C with none.
Two things stand out. Payroll is cheap next to the ERP: a 25-person company pays Talenox about S$110 a month, and even the fuller HR suites are a few hundred. And the published integrations are to Xero and QuickBooks, because that is where the volume is. Only JustLogin publishes a NetSuite connector; nobody in the table publishes a SAP Business One or Business Central connector on its pricing page. That is the gap the ERP partner has to close.
How the journal gets into the ERP
The integration between payroll and ERP is one monthly journal: gross salaries and allowances to expense, employer CPF and SDL to expense, employee CPF and other deductions to liabilities, net pay to the bank clearing account, and the levies and statutory liabilities to their own accounts, split by department or cost centre if the ledger needs it. JustLogin’s NetSuite integration is a good description of what a proper connector does: pay items, CPF and other statutory contributions, and approved expense claims posted to NetSuite with configurable general ledger mapping, by pay-run month, in one click (JustLogin, vendor, checked 2 September 2026).
Where no connector exists, there are three options, in descending order of quality. The ERP partner builds or supplies a connector, which is common for Business Central and SAP Business One partners who have done it before; ask for a reference. The payroll product exports a journal file mapped to the ERP’s chart of accounts, and someone imports it monthly, which takes minutes if the mapping is maintained and hours if it is not. Or the finance team re-keys a summary journal, which is where errors and late CPF postings come from. Whichever option you use, three things belong in the ERP statement of work: the account mapping, including cost centres; the treatment of accruals for bonuses and leave, which most payroll products do not post; and who fixes the mapping when the chart of accounts changes.
Two data flows go the other way and are often forgotten. Headcount and cost-centre changes originate in HR and need to reach the payroll product; and the Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit records, with their levies and expiry dates, need to sit somewhere that the month-end process can see. A payroll product on the One-Stop Payroll list handles the statutory submissions itself, so the ERP does not need to.
Three Singapore buyer scenarios
A 20-person services firm moving from Xero to Business Central. Keep Talenox or whichever product is in place; it already files CPF and AIS. The work is the journal. Ask the Business Central partner whether they have a Talenox import mapped for another client, and if not, get the CSV mapping built and tested before go-live. Budget one day of partner time.
A 120-person distributor with 30 Work Permit holders implementing SAP Business One. Payroll is a real system here: levies, dormitory and pass data, shift allowances and overtime. Info-Tech, QuickHR or JustLogin are the usual choices at this size, all PSG pre-approved and on the One-Stop Payroll list. Run the payroll selection alongside the ERP selection, not after it, and make the SAP partner responsible for the journal connector in the contract.
A regional group on NetSuite with 40 staff in Singapore and 200 across ASEAN. The Singapore entity can use JustLogin with its published NetSuite connector. The regional question is whether to run one HR platform across countries with local payroll engines underneath, which BIPO and similar providers offer, or separate local products with separate journals. Either way, NetSuite’s Paycheck Journal is the landing point, and the mapping should be designed once for all entities. Our NetSuite in Singapore guide covers the rest of that system’s Singapore setup.
Questions to ask
To the ERP partner: which payroll product do your Singapore clients use, and can we see the journal posting from it into the ERP?
To the payroll vendor: are you on IRAS’s AIS vendor list and the One-Stop Payroll list, and how did you deliver the 1 January 2026 CPF changes?
To both: who owns the general ledger mapping after go-live, and what happens to it when the chart of accounts changes for SFRS(I) 18 in 2027? Our implementation guide covers that change.
Frequently asked questions
Does NetSuite do Singapore payroll?
No. SuitePeople Payroll is United States only. Singapore customers use a local product such as JustLogin, which publishes a NetSuite connector, and post the payroll journal.
What are the CPF rates in 2026?
37% of wages for employees aged 55 and below, 17% from the employer and 20% from the employee, on an ordinary wage ceiling of S$8,000 a month. Lower rates apply above 55, and the rates for ages 55 to 65 rise on 1 January 2027.
When is CPF due?
By the last day of the month, with enforcement from the 14th of the following month. Late payment carries 1.5% a month interest with a S$5 minimum.
Do I have to file employee income with IRAS?
Employers with five or more employees must submit under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme by 1 March each year. Most Singapore payroll products submit directly.
Which ERPs include Singapore payroll?
Synergix, HashMicro and Deskera. NetSuite, SAP Business One, Business Central, Odoo and Xero do not.
How much does Singapore payroll software cost?
From about S$22 a month for five employees on Talenox and S$4.36 an employee after that; S$5 to S$8 an employee on Swingvy and Employment Hero; quotation for JustLogin, QuickHR and Info-Tech.
Sources
- CPF Board, How much CPF contributions to pay, updated 11 August 2026. Primary source.
- CPF Board, New CPF contribution rates from 1 January 2027, 9 June 2026, and Budget 2026 highlights, 5 March 2026. Primary source.
- CPF Board, CPF monthly salary ceiling to be raised to S$8,000 by 2026, 14 February 2023. Primary source.
- CPF Board, Making CPF contributions, updated 7 July 2025; Payment modes, updated 28 August 2026; Enforcement and penalties, 5 August 2026; Skills Development Levy, 2 July 2026. Primary source.
- One-Stop Payroll, About and Vendor listing, 24 July 2026. Primary source.
- MOM, Paying the foreign worker levy, 8 July 2026; S Pass levy and quota, 19 February 2026; Employment Pass eligibility, 28 April 2026; Itemised payslips and Employment records, 14 March 2024. Primary source.
- IRAS, 123,000 AIS employers to submit employment income data by 1 March 2026; AIS payroll software vendors YA2026, 5 January 2026; Tax clearance for foreign employees. Primary source.
- Oracle NetSuite, SuitePeople U.S. Payroll, checked 2 September 2026. Vendor documentation.
- Odoo, Payroll localizations and Employment Hero Singapore connector, checked 2 September 2026. Vendor and partner.
- Xero Singapore, Payroll, checked 2 September 2026. Vendor.
- Synergix, Human resource management; HashMicro, HRM; Deskera, Singapore payroll compliance, 6 April 2021. Vendors.
- Emerging Alliance, SAP Business One payroll selection guide and Intelegain, Business Central and Singapore compliance. Partners.
- Talenox, Pricing; Payboy, Pricing; JustLogin, Pricing and NetSuite integration; QuickHR, PSG; Info-Tech, Payroll software; Employment Hero, Pricing; Swingvy, Payroll. Vendors, checked 2 September 2026.
- hr.software, HReasily review, 24 May 2026. Independent review site.
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
