Pricing Payroll Services: A Guide for SL Accountants
Price payroll services per employee with a monthly floor, and bill statutory filings and one-off work separately. Fee bands to adapt to your own figures.
On this page
- The three pricing models firms use
- Working out your cost to serve
- Setting the minimum monthly fee
- What to include and what to bill extra
- Annual work: T10 and year-end
- Raising prices without losing clients
- How the fee bands fit together at different client sizes
- Frequently asked questions
- Should a bureau charge more for a client with high staff turnover?
- Is per-employee or flat-fee pricing better for a small bureau?
- How much should the year-end T10 work add to the annual bill?
- What should go in the engagement letter about scope?
- Does outsourcing payroll change who is liable if EPF is paid late?
Price payroll per employee per month, with a minimum monthly fee so small clients still cover your cost. Bill statutory filings and one-off work, like a new hire or a leaver’s final settlement, separately. Raise prices once a year, not per client, so no one feels singled out. See the payroll company directory in Sri Lanka for how other bureaus are set up, and outsource payroll or run it in-house in Sri Lanka? for the client side of this question.
The three pricing models firms use
- Per employee per month. A flat rate for each staff member on the payroll, plus a minimum fee. This scales cleanly as a client grows or shrinks.
- Flat monthly retainer. One fee per client, regardless of headcount. Simple to quote. Risky if a client’s headcount grows and the price does not.
- Tiered by service scope. A base fee for payroll only. A higher tier adds statutory filing. A top tier adds HR support. Clients choose what they pay for.
The first and third can be mixed: per-employee pricing, with a service tier on top.
Working out your cost to serve
List what one payroll run actually costs you. Add up staff time per client, software cost per employee, and a share of your overhead: rent, admin, review time. Divide the total by the number of clients you run. That gives a rough cost per client per month. Price above that number, not at it. A slow month should not leave you out of pocket.
Setting the minimum monthly fee
A five-employee client, at a low per-employee rate, can cost more in your time than it earns. Set a floor. A minimum monthly fee applies regardless of headcount. Every client then covers your base cost of taking them on.
What to include and what to bill extra
| Included in the base fee | Billed separately |
|---|---|
| Monthly payroll run and payslips | New hire or leaver setup |
| EPF, ETF and APIT calculation | Final settlement and gratuity calculation |
| Standard monthly filings | A payroll query needing research |
| Annual T10 and Annual Statement of Employer work |
Write this list into the engagement letter so a client knows exactly what the monthly fee buys. See payroll journal entries for Sri Lankan employers for how the postings behind this work.
Annual work: T10 and year-end
The T10 certificate is due to every employee by 30 April. The Annual Statement of Employer, with its schedules, is due the same date. This is a fixed spike in work, across every client, at the same time each year. Bill it as a separate line. Use a flat year-end fee, or a per-employee add-on. Do not fold it into the monthly rate and absorb the cost yourself.
Raising prices without losing clients
Set one review date a year for every client. Do not pick a different date for each. Give written notice before the new fee applies, and set the notice length in your engagement letter. Explain the reason in one line: rising staff cost, a bigger payroll, or added statutory work.
How the fee bands fit together at different client sizes
The bands below are an example to adapt, not a market survey. Put your own figures in each row.
| Client size | Suggested monthly fee | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 employees | Minimum fee | Payroll run, EPF/ETF/APIT, standard filing |
| 11–25 employees | Minimum fee + per-employee rate | As above, at the higher headcount |
| 26–50 employees | Per-employee rate only | As above, no minimum needed |
| Any size, year-end | A separate annual fee | T10 and Annual Statement of Employer work |
Do this automatically in Humanised. Payroll software for accountants has flat monthly plans and no setup fee. It runs every client from one login and posts the salary journal into QuickBooks Online, Xero or Zoho Books.
This is general payroll guidance. Every case is different. For your own case, speak to a payroll practitioner or a lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Should a bureau charge more for a client with high staff turnover?
That is a pricing choice, not a legal one. You can bill each new hire or leaver as a one-off item. That charges more for a client with frequent turnover.
Is per-employee or flat-fee pricing better for a small bureau?
Per-employee pricing with a minimum fee scales more predictably as clients grow. A flat fee is simpler to quote but needs a manual review each time a client’s headcount changes.
How much should the year-end T10 work add to the annual bill?
There is no set figure. Estimate the extra hours it takes across your client base and price it as a separate line, so it is visible rather than absorbed into the monthly fee.
What should go in the engagement letter about scope?
State exactly what the monthly fee covers. Use the included/excluded list above as a starting point. State that anything outside it is billed separately, at your standard rate.
Does outsourcing payroll change who is liable if EPF is paid late?
No. See late EPF: is the employer or the accountant liable? for how that liability works.
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