Malaysia Payroll Software: Complete Comparison Guide

Whether you’re looking to expand your business regionally or upgrade from manual payroll, one thing is certain: you need payroll software that integrates seamlessly with your company. You want to ensure that whatever software you use aligns with your current workflow, is compliant, and remains viable in the long term. 

This research states that one in four employees (24%) will look for a new job after the first payroll mistake, while another 25% would look for it after the second payroll issue. So, you see that payroll goes beyond fair compensation and timely salaries. It’s one way to attract quality labor, increase employee retention, and avoid compliance issues — especially in countries like Malaysia with complex labor laws.

Choosing the right Malaysia payroll software for your business is tricky. Each software has its strengths and weaknesses, which can affect your business. That’s why it’s important to refer to payroll software review Malaysia to make sure you are making the right choice based on your company size, HR budget, and specific payroll needs. This piece will guide you on features to look out for and share tips on assessing payroll software review Malaysia to help you make an informed decision.

Why You Need Payroll Software Malaysia

Payroll software in Malaysia goes beyond calculating salaries and making deductions for your Malaysian employees. It ensures your business processes are streamlined for efficiency and accuracy. More reasons include:

1. Compliance penalties 

According to the Malaysian employment law, businesses must comply with a range of mandatory payroll requirements, including contributions to EPF (Employees Provident Fund), SOCSO (Social Security Organization), and PCB (Potongan Cukai Bulanan). 

Failure to adhere to these regulations can result in significant financial penalties. Not only can these fines disrupt your cash flow, but they also damage your business’s reputation with employees and authorities.

Manual payroll systems or outdated software increase the risk of errors in calculations or missed payments, putting your company at risk of costly non-compliance. 

By making an informed decision on your preferred software after reviewing payroll software review Malaysia, these risks are minimized through automated, accurate, and up-to-date compliance management, ensuring you meet all statutory requirements and avoid expensive penalties.

2. Employee trust

Manual payroll processes and spreadsheets give room for errors that can cause unfair compensation of employees. 

Consistent unfair compensation can cause a decline in employee satisfaction and retention. Employees might resign and leave bad company reviews, which can affect your ability to hire labor in the future. Conversely, even if they remain, they could perform less optimally, thus affecting your business output and efficiency. 

Subscribing to automation using payroll software Malaysia will help you avoid mistakes and errors, maintain timely, accurate payment of salaries, and ensure that updates to national labor laws are quickly enacted.

3. Audit readiness

Coursing through tons of paperwork just to provide employee payroll records is time-consuming and highly demanding, especially when it's time for an audit. Inaccurate or disorganized records can lead to delays, legal complications, or worse, failed audits, which can negatively impact your company’s reputation. 

However, with payroll software in Malaysia, you can easily access detailed, organized, and up-to-date records of employee payslips, deductions, salary raises, and other critical data. The software creates a comprehensive audit trail, keeping track of all payroll activities and ensuring that you are always ready for an internal or government audit. 

This eliminates the stress and risk of non-compliance while saving valuable time that could otherwise be spent on more strategic business tasks. 

4. Scalability and flexibility 

With manual payroll processing and spreadsheets, scaling can be a difficult task, as you'll need to expand your HR team once you are set to hire. Unfortunately, this is unsustainable and gives room to errors that affect your company's bottom line.

However, payroll software Malaysia like Omni integrates with your business regardless of its stage and grows with it. Whether you are expanding your business or onboarding new hires, you do not have to worry about compensation and compliance with your new employees.

“If you're a growing company, you should consider Omni. Even with jurisdictions in the US and UK, you can utilize this platform because they can be compliant with the technical laws.”
— Andrei Perevalovi, Head of People Products at Virtual Internships

All you need to do is set up your payroll parameters once, such as employee details, statutory contribution rates, tax deductions, and payment schedules. Then, the system will automatically calculate salaries and overtime, update compliance requirements, and generate reports as you grow. 

This way, you can scale your workforce without scaling your administrative workload. This ensures accuracy, consistency, and peace of mind as your company grows.

5. Save time 

You are often on the defensive side with manual payroll processing. Basically, you are waiting for errors to occur before digging through records and spreadsheets to find a trail. 

However, with payroll software, your systems are built for efficiency, which ensures that errors do not arise. And if they do arise, they can be quickly trailed and resolved.

This saves your admin team a lot of time, thus freeing them to focus on business growth initiatives while employees are fully compensated.

Things to Look out for in Payroll Software Review Malaysia

When comparing payroll software, a good place to start is by looking at payroll software review Malaysia. It’s not just about choosing the one with the most features - you need a solution built to handle local compliance requirements, operational efficiency, and future growth. 

1. Statutory compliance

At the core of any good payroll system in Malaysia is automatic statutory compliance. When going through payroll software review, Malaysian HR teams should focus on whether the software can seamlessly manage monthly deductions and contributions for: 

• Monthly tax deductions (PCB)
• Employees' Provident Fund (EPF)
• Social Security Organization (SOCSO) 
• Employment Insurance System (EIS) 

This ensures you stay compliant with Malaysian labor laws and avoid costly penalties without needing manual calculations or constant updates.

2. Local leave policies and overtime handling

Next, ensure that potential platforms can manage leave entitlements and overtime pay accurately when browsing payroll software review in Malaysia.

This is because Malaysia’s labor laws around leave entitlements and overtime pay are specific and can change regularly based on legislation updates. Your software should be able to manage various types of leave (annual, medical, parental) and calculate overtime according to statutory requirements, ensuring employees are paid fairly and correctly.

3. LHDN reporting and payroll file generation

A crucial part of payroll processing is tax reporting. Therefore, when it comes to payroll software review, Malaysian HR teams should assess whether the software can support direct reporting to Malaysia’s tax authority, LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri). 

Look for systems that generate necessary payroll files like e-CP39 for monthly tax submissions and EA Forms for annual employee income reporting, making it easier to stay audit-ready and meet tax deadlines without extra administrative burden.

4. Multi-bank payments, payslips, and approval workflows

Managing payments for a diverse workforce means handling salaries across different banks and juggling various payment methods.

Good payroll software offers multi-bank payment capabilities and generates professional digital payslips for employees.

It also supports approval workflows — so managers can review and approve payments securely before disbursement, thus keeping errors minimal.

5. Employee self-service portal and audit trail logs

Modern payroll software should empower employees with self-service portals, allowing them to access payslips, tax forms, and leave balances without HR intervention. 

Meanwhile, audit trail logs track all changes and activities in the system, providing a clear record for compliance reviews and internal audits.

6. Integration with accounting, HRIS, and time tracking systems

To avoid data silos and double entry, payroll software review Malaysia HR professionals should take into account is whether the software integrates easily with your existing accounting platforms and HRIS. 

This software should also integrate with time-tracking systems to automatically calculate salaries, overtime pay, deductions, and bonuses and avoid errors. This improves overall workflow efficiency and reduces human error. It also ensures a single source of truth across your company’s payroll operations.

7. Security and data protection security

Last but definitely not least, ensure the payroll software review Malaysia accurately assesses the security of the platform. 

Your payroll data is sensitive, so it needs robust protection. Payroll software in Malaysia, like Omni, offers advanced security measures like encryption and multi-factor authentication to keep your data safe; this is a better option than traditional methods. 

Omni implements an AES-256 encryption standard (the same as what banks use) to protect the transmission of data to our site. Our servers are located in physically secure, ISO 27001-certified data centers, and we apply end-to-end encryption to ensure maximum protection of your employee data.

Top 3 Payroll Software Review Malaysia 

Omni 

Designed for modern, growing businesses in Malaysia and across the APAC region, Omni offers comprehensive payroll software built for companies managing teams across multiple countries. 

Multi-country payroll and compliance

Omni supports payroll processing in over 10 countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, and other APAC regions. With built-in support for multi-currency payment and integration with local tax systems, Omni ensures accurate, cross-border payroll each time. 

EPF Calculator

From EPF contributions to EA form submissions, Omni takes the stress out of Malaysia payroll compliance. Country-specific payroll calculators and automated tax filings mean you can reduce manual work while ensuring compliance with local regulations. 

“Payroll calculations that used to take three to five working days can now be done in half the time with Omni.”
— Tengku Mohaizad, Group Head of HR Asia, Inspire Brands Asia

See how: Inspire Brands Asia saves up to USD$60,000 annually with Omni! 

Employee self-service

Our employee self-service portal gives your team easy access to payroll essentials. Employees can view digital payslips, update personal and bank information, and manage tax forms, all without going through HR.

Customizable approval workflows route changes to the right person, while integrations with your team’s favorite tools like Slack make manager approvals effortless.

Payroll integration

Omni seamlessly integrates with accounting software like Xero and time-tracking tools, allowing payroll data to flow effortlessly between systems. No more relying on manual data entry and disconnected workflows.

Learn more about Omni’s integrations

Real-time payroll reporting and analytics

Omni goes beyond simple payroll processing with its real-time reporting capabilities that empower HR and finance teams to monitor key metrics and make informed decisions every step of the way. 

Aside from tracking payroll costs, Omni provides insights into pay equity and compensation trends to help businesses ensure fairness and compliance.

With monthly payroll reports, Omni ensures that payments are made accurately and necessary contributions such as EPF, SOCSO, taxes and other deductions are deducted correctly, helping teams verify that everything is in order before payments are processed. 

Find the pricing plan that works with your budget

Payroll Panda 

This payroll software is known for its ease of use. It offers a simple and intuitive interface that makes payroll tasks easy to navigate.

It also offers detailed reporting and generates payslips and relevant forms for employees, like the EA form, thus ensuring audit readiness and transparency. Payroll Panda also integrates with HR tools like Jibble and Zoho People to ensure proper time tracking and accurate calculation of deductions and overtime pay.

Payroll Panda, however, does not support the multi-user model, which might cause challenges for larger organizations or businesses looking to scale. Also, some users complained that they had difficulty making edits to submitted payroll.

Kakitangan

Kakitangan is an ideal payroll software for small and medium enterprises in Malaysia. With a simple user interface, beginners can easily get started.

It offers a suite of HR services such as E Payroll, E Leave, E Claim, E Attendance, HR Premium, and HR Sifu. However, Kakitangan has a tricky pricing model where you are charged based on the number of employees you have and the number of services you choose as add-ons.

On the pricing page, it has a toggle bar that you can move, which reads from 3+ to 400,+ denoting the number of employees you have. Below, you have the modules with a checkbox. For example, if you have 15 employees and you checked E Payroll and E Leave as the modules you wanted, you'd be charged RM 205 monthly. Meanwhile, if you have 3 employees or less, Kakitangan lets you use the E Payroll, E Claim, and E Claim module for free

While this works for small businesses or freelancers, businesses with larger employees and complex needs will find it difficult to compare prices without contacting Kakitangan.

Confident Payroll Starts with Omni

As we’ve highlighted, taking into account payroll software review Malaysia is important to making a well-informed decision. 

Payroll software in Malaysia offers a range of benefits, from streamlining payroll processes to ensuring compliance with changing regulations. By moving to an automated solution, you are not only saving time but also gaining greater flexibility, accuracy, transparency and control over your payroll management.

With Omni, you get a comprehensive solution built for businesses like yours. Trusted by many
Malaysian businesses, Omni helps to: 

• Automate payroll processing to save time and reduce errors.
• Ensure compliance with automated EPF and SOCSO deductions, tax reporting submissions and more.
• Giving your team instant access to payroll essentials through employee self-service portals.
• Track payroll costs, pay equity, and compensation trends to make informed decisions.
• Seamlessly integrates with accounting software and time-tracking tools for smooth data flow. 

Make the switch to Omni today and discover how it can help you save time, reduce payroll costs, and ensure payroll accuracy and compliance. Book a demo with our team today to learn more.

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