12 Cloud Payroll Review: Security, Support and Pricing Explained

If you’re a small business looking for a new payroll software provider, 1 2 Cloud Payroll is a option to consider. It’s a cost-effective full-service payroll provider, that offers transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing. This helps it stand out from the competition, since most payroll software providers are very secretive with pricing, and charge fixed monthly fees.

Besides clear pricing, 1 2 Cloud Payroll offers both payroll and workplace pension features, free mobile payslips, RTI (Real-Time Information), e-filing and benefits processing. These features earnt it a spot in our list of the best cloud-based payroll platforms.

Additionally, 1 2 Cloud Payroll is automatically updated to reflect any changes in legislation, ensuring you’re always compliant, and is very secure, with SSL encryption and regular backups.

What Is 1 2 Cloud Payroll?

1 2 Cloud Payroll is a cloud-based payroll software solution designed specifically for businesses in the UK. 1 2 Cloud Payroll is HMRC-recognised, which means it complies with all the latest UK tax regulations and is updated regularly to reflect any new tax law changes.

1 2 Cloud Payroll offers several built-in solutions that can help UK businesses save time and money, such as:

• Payroll automation
• Workplace pension integration
• Online and mobile access for employers and employees
• Free mobile payslips
• Integrated RTI e-filing

Advantages and Disadvantages of 1 2 Cloud Payroll

Here are 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s main advantages and disadvantages:

1 2 Cloud Payroll advantages

Here are 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s main advantages:

✅Clear pricing

One of 1 2 Cloud Payroll chief advantages is its pricing structure. It offers pay-as-you-go pricing, starting at £5 per month for RTI submissions for one to two employees. Most competitor companies don’t advertise their pricing, and charge block monthly payments that stay the same, regardless of your payroll activity. This makes it a great solution for small businesses with high turnover.

✅Comprehensive payroll tools

Despite offering a pay-as-you-go service, 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s tools are quite comprehensive. Beyond RTI submissions, the platform supports advanced payroll calculations based on holidays, absences, pension enrolment, student loans, and more. It also generates payroll reports automatically, and has a rollback function, which allows you to correct mistakes even after processing payroll.

✅Free training and demos

the 1 2 Cloud Payroll platform is quite simplistic, making it easy to use. But, if you ever get stuck, there are a host of free training videos and demos on the 1 2 Cloud Payroll website, that are accessible to anyone, at any time.

1 2 Cloud Payroll disadvantages

Here are the platform’s main disadvantages:

❌Limited integrations

1 2 Cloud Payroll doesn’t integrate with many third-party platforms. You can export accounting data to Sage accounting, and that’s about it. Most of 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s competitors include at least one more third-party integration, with Iris Staffology being the best, with over 10 accounting and HR software integrations.

❌Limited scalability

The platform has an employee limit of 5,000, which is quite large, but is still less than competitor’s Moorepay and ADP’s limits. Additionally, since 1 2 Cloud Payroll requires a lot of manual data entry, it’s not the best platform for managing a large employee base anyway.

Competitors like Moorepay and ADP are more scalable not just because they can handle a greater number of employees, but because they offer outsourced payroll services as well as payroll software. This means they can do the work of managing large numbers of employees for you, while 1 2 Cloud Payroll can’t.

❌Platform has a dated look

This might not be important to everyone, but the 1 2 Cloud Platform isn’t the nicest to look at. It has a very dated look, which can understandably put some users off. Platforms like ADP or Advanced Payroll are much more contemporary when it comes to aesthetics.

How Much Does 1 2 Cloud Payroll Cost?

1 2 Cloud Payroll’s pricing works on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, so you’ll only pay for the services and scale you’re using. It starts at £5 per month for RTIs for one to two employees.

Below are 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s RTI prices as of July 2024:

Further costs include the following:

• £5 per employee per year to file Form P11D, which is used to report employee benefits in kind
• £10 per year to file Form P11D(b), which is used to report class 1A National Insurance contributions due for the year

If your business is required to pay CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) usage costs, the price for filing monthly CIS300 returns is the same as 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s RTI prices.

1 2 Cloud Payroll’s pricing vs competitors’

1 2 Cloud Payroll is reasonably cost-effective compared to many payroll providers, with prices for submitting RTI (Real-Time Information) to HMRC starting at just £5 per month.

Here’s how it stacks up:

Thanks to its clear, pay-as-you-use pricing, 1 2 Cloud Payroll is a great solution for small businesses of under 100 employees. Most competitors do not advertise their pricing, and offer a package of services. This can get expensive if you don’t have a lot of employees, but can work out cheaper for medium to large businesses.

1 2 Cloud Payroll Features

1 2 Cloud Payroll’s cloud-based software is robust and customisable, allowing customers to define unique pay periods, manage employee data, set up tax withholding rules, manage deductions, and more.

Additionally, 1 2 Cloud Payroll offers some compelling features, including:

• Automatic HMRC compliance
• Payroll and workplace pension in one process
• Free e-filing of RTI data
• Free mobile payslips
• Pay-as-you-go pricing

Compared to other payroll providers like ADP, Moorepay, and Iris Staffology, 1 2 Cloud Payroll focuses exclusively on UK businesses, provides automatic HMRC compliance, and prioritises a low-cost pay-as-you-go pricing model and an easy-to-understand, user-friendly interface.

1 2 Cloud Payroll Security

Information security is a major concern for every business, and that’s no less true for companies using cloud-based payroll software. Based on our research, 1 2 Cloud Payroll takes customers’ security seriously and has a number of measures in place to protect your data. These include:

• SSL encryption: 1 2 Cloud Payroll uses industry-standard 128-bit SSL encryption to protect your data while it’s being transmitted between your computers and 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s remote servers. This ensures data is safe, secure, and inaccessible to anyone outside your connection.
• Regular backups: 1 2 Cloud Payroll backs up your payroll data regularly, allowing you to recover it in the event of a disaster, data corruption, or loss of physical storage space.
• Access controls: 1 2 Cloud Payroll allows you to control who has access to your payroll data at any given time. You can grant different levels of access to different users, and even block certain users entirely if necessary.

1 2 Cloud Payroll’s security measures appear comparable to competitors like ADP, MHR, and Moorepay, meeting HMRC security standards and including SSL encryption and automatic backups of payroll data.

1 2 Cloud Payroll Support Resources

Payroll processing can be a confusing endeavour, with various forms to file, numerous items to keep track of, and seemingly endless regulations to adhere to. To make the payroll process both easier and more understandable, 1 2 Cloud Payroll offers several support resources for customers to utilise, including:

• Live training and demos: 1 2 Cloud Payroll offers payroll training and demos for clients and their employees. You can log in as either an employer or an employee, and the website will walk you through 1 2 Cloud Payroll’s software and payroll processes.
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): 1 2 Cloud Payroll publishes a list of FAQs on its website, acting as a knowledge base for its payroll software. This resource includes topics such as how to use the payroll account, payments, deductions, workplace pensions, holiday pay, RTI, e-filing, online payslips, and more.
• Email and phone-based support: 1 2 Cloud Payroll can be contacted directly via phone or email. However, they do not specify the opening hours of their customer support team.

1 2 Cloud Payroll’s support resources appear to be lacking in some areas compared to its competitors, with no live chat or knowledge base (apart from its FAQ page).

Competitors like Moorepay and ADP, for example, offer extensive online knowledge bases and help guides, covering not just how to use their platforms, but offering expert advice on common payroll concerns, like how to choose the right payroll schedule.

1 2 Cloud Payroll Scalability

1 2 Cloud Payroll is reasonably scalable, handling as few as one to two employees to 500+. 1 2 Cloud Payroll uses a pay-as-you-go model (mentioned above), with services costing as little as £5 per month and up to £250 per month or more.

However, competitors such as Moorepay and ADP offer the ability to scale well past 5,000 employees. Plus, they offer outsourced payroll services, which 1 2 Cloud Payroll doesn’t. Outsourcing payroll is an option to consider for businesses with over 100 employees, since it can be very time consuming to do it in-house. Since 1 2 Cloud Payroll doesn’t offer this service, it’s slightly less scalable than its competitors.