It's one of the first questions people ask me, and it's a fair one. Before you let someone look under the bonnet of your payroll, you want to know what it's going to cost.
The honest answer is that it depends on your payroll. Two businesses with the same number of staff can need very different amounts of work. So rather than a number that won't fit your situation, here's what actually drives the cost, what you should get for it, and how to tell whether you need one at all.
What drives the cost of a payroll audit
How many people you pay. More employees means more records to check. But headcount on its own is a poor guide.
How varied their work is. Ten salaried staff on Monday to Friday are far simpler than ten people on rosters, shifts, casual hours and changing days. Variable hours are where most Holidays Act issues sit, so they take the most checking.
How many pay types and allowances you have. Overtime, penal rates, commission, allowances and bonuses all affect holiday pay. Each one needs to be set up correctly, and each one needs checking.
How far back the audit goes. A check of your current settings is a smaller job than a review of several years of leave and pay history.
The state of your records. Clean exports and current employment agreements make for a faster audit. Missing agreements, spreadsheets on the side and undocumented arrangements take longer to piece together.
Whether you need help fixing what's found. Finding an issue is one job. Calculating what's owed, correcting settings and communicating with staff is another.
Settings review or full audit?
It's worth knowing there are usually two levels of work.
A settings review checks whether your payroll is set up correctly now: pay types, leave settings, how holiday pay and public holidays are being calculated. It's the quickest way to find out whether there's a problem.
A full audit goes further, testing actual calculations against your pay and leave history. It's the right step when a settings review finds something, or when you already suspect an issue.
Many businesses start with the first and only need the second if something turns up.
How I price my audits
Every audit I do is quoted at a fixed fee before any work starts, based on the size and complexity of your payroll. No hourly meter running, and no surprises at the end.
It starts with a free 15-minute conversation, where we confirm what you need and what's in scope. From there, you'll know the price before you commit.
What you should get for your money
Whoever you use, a payroll audit should give you:
a clear scope agreed upfront
a written report with findings, not just a list of settings
actions in priority order, so you know what to fix first
a walkthrough of the results, so you understand them rather than just receive them
support with the fixes, if you need it
If you come away with a report you can't act on, the audit hasn't done its job.
The cost of not checking
The more useful comparison isn't between audit providers. It's between the cost of an audit and the cost of an error that runs for years.
Payroll mistakes rarely announce themselves. If a setting is wrong, the software applies it correctly, every pay run, until someone leaves, asks a question, or a review is done. By then, it may be several years of underpaid holiday pay, for several people.
Employers are required to put right historical underpayments, and that obligation doesn't disappear with the new leave legislation. Finding an issue early is almost always cheaper than finding it late.
Do you need one?
I've written about the signs you need a payroll audit in more detail, but the short version: if you're relying on default settings, your payroll knowledge lives in one person's head, your business has changed, or you've inherited a setup nobody can fully explain, it's worth a look.
And if you're simply not sure, that's a reasonable answer too. "We've never had a complaint" isn't the same as knowing.
If you'd like to find out what an audit would look like for your business, I'd love to talk it through.
About the author
Karyn Campbell is a New Zealand payroll consultant and founder of Payroll Consult. With 5+ years running her own consultancy and a background in payroll software – including roles across client support, onboarding, and partnership management at a leading NZ payroll provider – Karyn brings a rare combination of technical knowledge and real-world compliance experience. She works with business owners, bookkeepers, and payroll teams across New Zealand, specialising in payroll audits, system reviews, and fixing complex payroll issues for teams that don’t work a typical 9-5.
