Controls by default
The team applies maker-checker review, access restrictions and segregation of duties on every pay run.
BPO Service
Payroll Outsourcing Services
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Direct answer
Payroll outsourcing transfers agreed payroll-processing tasks to an external team. Actigy BPO offers calculations, payslips, filing support and reconciliations for the jurisdictions in your scope, with documented procedures and maker-checker review. Teams work from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Ukraine. You keep pay policy, approvals, funding and payment release. Pricing is per FTE role, starting with a paid pilot.
Describe your workflow, volume and required coverage. You decide on a pilot after reviewing the written scope.
Defined data-access controls · You own the SOPs · Pilot before you scale
Payroll continuity check: ask who covers cutoffs, reviews exceptions and maintains local instructions when an operator is absent. The BPO attrition rate benchmark provides regional context, not a prediction for your assigned team.
At a glance
Payroll outsourcing at a glance
| Provider | Actigy BPO (Prague; delivery in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Ukraine) |
|---|---|
| Service | Payroll Outsourcing |
| Work in scope | Gross-to-net processing, Payslips & distribution, Statutory filings support, Change & lifecycle processing, Reconciliation & GL postings, Employee query handling |
| Pricing model | Monthly rate per FTE; employees, entities, pay cycles and local complexity determine staffing |
| Engagement | Managed team or staff augmentation |
| Team includes | Trained operators, a Tech Lead, and QA |
| Coverage | Up to 24/7, set per engagement |
| Delivery region | Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Ukraine (Central and Eastern Europe) |
| Controls | Agreed payroll access, segregation of duties and QA; ISO 9001-aligned and SOC 2-aligned, not certified or audited |
| Time to pilot | Agreed after local instructions, access, inputs and parallel-run requirements are ready |
| You keep | Policy, approvals, and final decisions |
What is payroll outsourcing and how does it work?
Managed payroll starts with a defined pay calendar, approved employee inputs and country-specific instructions. The team processes the agreed work in your systems and prepares it for review. Your payroll owner approves pay rules and exceptions, while authorized staff retain filing sign-off and payment release.
In practice, the team receives inputs (hours, changes, new hires, leavers), runs gross-to-net calculations, prepares payslips, supports statutory filings and remittances, reconciles to your general ledger, and answers payroll queries. Every cycle follows a documented SOP with a maker-checker review before sign-off.
Payroll processing is not an employer-of-record (EOR) service. An EOR takes the legal-employer role under a separate arrangement; this page describes operational payroll work, not that role.
| Pay-cycle step | Outsourced team | Your team |
|---|---|---|
| Pay rules and thresholds | Works to them in every cycle | Defines and approves them |
| Inputs: hours, changes, new hires and leavers | Receives and checks them | Sends them on the pay calendar |
| Gross-to-net and payslips | Calculates pay and prepares payslips, with a maker-checker review | Approves the pay run |
| Statutory filings and remittances | Prepares filings and supports submission | Funds payroll and signs off |
| General ledger reconciliation | Reconciles payroll and posts journal entries, with variance checks | Reviews the reconciliation |
| Employee queries | Answers tier-1 queries within SLA | Handles escalated cases |
Capabilities included
Which payroll tasks can the team handle?
The team can run the payroll tasks below within the approved countries, systems and authority limits. The scope should identify who prepares, checks, submits and approves each output. Payroll calculations and filing preparation do not transfer bank authority or replace required local advice.
Gross-to-net processing
Earnings, deductions, taxes, and net pay calculated to your pay rules each cycle.
Payslips & distribution
Payslip generation and secure distribution on the agreed schedule and format.
Statutory filings support
Preparation and submission support for tax and social contribution filings and remittances.
Change & lifecycle processing
New hires, leavers, promotions, and pay changes processed with an audit trail.
Reconciliation & GL postings
Payroll reconciled to the GL with journal entries and variance checks.
Employee query handling
Tier-1 payroll queries answered within SLA, with escalation paths documented.
Off-cycle & bonus runs
Bonus, correction and off-cycle payroll calculations prepared under the same review and approval controls.
Multi-country coordination
A delivery contact coordinating the approved instructions and review owners for each country in scope.
Which companies need outsourced payroll operations?
This payroll service fits:
- CFOs and finance leaders scaling payroll across multiple entities or countries
- HR teams spending too much time on manual, error-prone pay runs
- Companies expanding internationally that need consistent payroll execution
- PEOs, EORs, and accounting firms that need additional delivery capacity
- Businesses with seasonal or variable headcount and fluctuating volume
A pilot can start with one entity or country, with separate readiness checks before others are added.
Scenarios
When should you consider a payroll operations team?
If any of these sound familiar, outsourcing payroll is worth a conversation.
You're expanding into a new country and need a defined payroll process.
The team assesses local instructions, system access, required expertise and client sign-off before proposing the scope.
Your current provider keeps missing pay-run deadlines.
The team documents cutoffs, reconciliations and escalation steps; timely pay also depends on your inputs, approval and funding.
Payroll lives in one person's head - and they're leaving.
The team documents the process and exception owners so a handover does not rely only on one person's memory.
Headcount swings with the seasons and fixed payroll staff is inefficient.
The team flexes capacity up and down with your volume.
Is this payroll service the right fit?
When the service is a strong fit
- You run multi-entity or multi-country payroll and want one delivery team
- You need audit-ready records, controls, and segregation of duties
- You want to keep payroll policy in-house but offload execution
- Your volume rises and falls and fixed payroll headcount is inefficient
- You are replacing a provider that misses deadlines or lacks documentation
When another model may fit better
- You want to buy self-serve payroll software - this service runs the process, it does not sell a SaaS product
- You are a single-employee microbusiness where outsourcing overhead is not justified
- You need a legal employer-of-record rather than payroll processing
- You expect zero-touch automation with no exception handling or human review
Payroll delivery
What supports a controlled payroll process?
Accuracy you can audit
Reconciliations and variance checks catch errors before pay is released, with a documented trail.
Built to cross borders
Confirm country coverage, local-rule ownership and reviewer qualifications before adding an entity.
Transparent staffing cost
Compare the proposed roles, leadership and QA against the same pay cycles and employee volume.
Delivery method
Pilot plan for payroll outsourcing
The team pilots payroll outsourcing on one entity or country before the team takes more pay runs. For multi-country scopes, the pilot includes a parallel run for each country's local rules. The proposal names the team, locations, coverage and controls, and the pilot tests them on your work.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Readiness | Process audit of pay inputs, pay rules, approval thresholds and the pay calendar. SOP and maker-checker steps drafted. Access set up in your payroll and HR systems. |
| Controlled pilot | Pilot on one entity or country, with a parallel run against your current payroll. Higher QA sample during the pilot. Variances reconciled to the general ledger. |
| Scale gate | You approve scale when accuracy, on-time pay and reconciliation results meet the thresholds in the SOP. |
See the full delivery method: How the pilot works
Related services and industries
Services
Industries
Resources
Visibility
Which payroll measures are reported each month?
The team reports the numbers that matter every month and reviews them with you on a fixed cadence. Outsourced payroll should make quality more visible, not less. The QA sample covers completed pay runs, and variances are reconciled to the general ledger before sign-off. The same discipline applies whether you run lean or at enterprise Finance & Fintech scale.
- A QA sample of completed work, scored against the accuracy bar agreed at go-live
- SLA attainment - turnaround and throughput measured against your targets
- Volume, backlog, and exception trends, so capacity stays ahead of demand
- Root-cause notes on any error, with the SOP change made to prevent a repeat
- A monthly business review with your point of contact and the team lead
Engagement model
How is payroll outsourcing priced?
Actigy BPO quotes payroll per FTE role after reviewing employees, entities, countries, pay cycles and exceptions. Compare the cost-to-quality ratio using the same preparation and review scope. Accounting and accounts payable can be separate or combined workstreams, but each needs its own access and approval rules.
Payroll operations for growing US companies
Actigy BPO fits employers that have an approved payroll system and advisers but need help preparing each payroll run. The team can process agreed employee changes, check inputs, prepare reconciliations and track exceptions. You keep pay policy, funding and payment release. Jurisdictions and filing support must be approved in the written scope.
More employees or states create more payroll changes
Use an agreed change log for new hires, terminations, work locations and time inputs. For multi-state payroll, your qualified adviser or payroll platform determines the applicable tax and registration setup. Actigy BPO can operate the approved process; it does not replace tax advice or make unapproved jurisdiction decisions.
Payroll records and the general ledger disagree
Reconcile payroll registers, deductions, employer costs and approved payments to the ledger. Escalate unexplained differences before correction. Combine this work with bookkeeping and month-end support when the same missing records affect both processes.
Software subscriptions, employer-of-record services and managed payroll operations are different purchases. Confirm which party calculates, approves, files, funds and releases each item before comparing quotes.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is payroll outsourcing?
Payroll outsourcing is delegating the execution of payroll - calculations, payslips, filings, and reconciliations - to a specialist provider while your team retains control of pay policy, approvals, and funding. The team runs the operation to your rules with documented SOPs and maker-checker controls.
Is outsourced payroll data secure?
Review the proposed payroll access, segregation of duties, logs, retention and transfer arrangements before launch. The team can document these controls in the scope and data-processing terms. ISO 9001 and SOC 2 alignment is not certification or an audit report, and the actual setup needs your security review.
Can the team handle multi-country payroll?
Actigy BPO offers multi-country coordination, but confirm each country, payroll system, local-rule owner and qualified reviewer in the proposal. Country coverage is not established by the team's delivery location. Test the approved rules in a parallel run before adding live pay cycles.
Does outsourcing replace our payroll software?
No. The team operates within your existing payroll and HR systems rather than replacing them. If you do not have a system, the team can recommend options, but the service is process execution and controls - not a software license.
How is payroll checked for accuracy?
The team uses documented procedures, maker-checker review, ledger reconciliations and variance checks before client sign-off. Record errors and their causes, then track whether approved procedure changes reduce repeats. Review does not eliminate every payroll error.
How fast can payroll onboarding happen?
The team agrees a timeline after reviewing country rules, source data, access, training and parallel-run requirements. The plan should identify who supplies each dependency and how readiness is checked before live payroll. There is no standard start date for every setup.
How much does payroll outsourcing cost?
Actigy BPO quotes monthly FTE rates for the proposed operations, leadership and QA roles. Employee volume, countries, entities, pay frequency and exceptions determine staffing. Ask for training, transition and review costs as well as the recurring fee.
Should you outsource payroll?
Actigy BPO fits recurring payroll preparation that needs managed input checks, reconciliations and exception handling. Compare payroll outsourcing fees with your staff time, software and review costs for the same pay cycles. If your software already handles a small, straightforward workload, another team may add little value. You retain pay policy, approvals and funding in either model.
What should you check before a payroll pilot?
Use these six questions to review the proposed payroll scope.
Start with a paid pilot
Use the parallel run to test calculations, variance handling and approval timing before live cutover.
Staffing-based pricing
Check how an extra country, entity or pay cycle changes the staffing and review assumptions.
You own the documentation
Keep current country instructions, reconciliations and exception logs available for handover.
Clean exit
If you end the engagement, the team returns current documentation and supports the handover.
Data protection
Confirm employee-data access, retention and transfer controls, including who can prepare versus release payments.
Time zones
Agree staffing around payroll cutoffs and the availability of your approvers, including local holidays.
Outsource the process. Keep control of the outcome.
Tell us what process you want to outsource. The team will assess scope, complexity, staffing model, and delivery cost.
Describe your workflow, volume and required coverage. You decide on a pilot after reviewing the written scope.
Scope a pilot
What happens next
The team reviews the workflow before proposing a written scope. You decide whether to start a paid pilot after reviewing it.
Thank you. Your request was received. The team will review the workflow before discussing next steps.