Payroll Outsourcing in Singapore: Cost and What a Monthly Payroll Service Should Include

Short answer: Payroll outsourcing in Singapore is usually priced per month by headcount, with more for variable pay, claims and extra pay groups. A complete service should cover salary calculation, CPF and SDL submission, MOM-compliant payslips, leave records and year-end IR8A. Raffles Corporate Services publishes payroll from S$150 a month for the first 5 employees on fixed salaries.

When business owners research payroll outsourcing Singapore cost, they usually want two things: a realistic idea of the monthly fee, and confidence that the fee covers the statutory work that carries penalties if it goes wrong. Where we quote prices, they are our own published rates; we do not quote other providers.

Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of experienced Singapore law firms who offer cost-effective and efficient legal service and advice. This article is general information only and is not legal advice.

What does payroll outsourcing in Singapore cost?

Payroll outsourcing is normally charged as a monthly fee based on the number of active employees, plus one-time setup charges and separate year-end fees. Our own rates, as published on our packages page on 11 October 2026, are set out below.

As an illustration of how the published rates combine, a company with 8 employees on fixed salaries would start from S$150 for the first 5 plus 3 x S$30, or from S$240 a month, before any one-time or year-end items. These are starting prices; the final quote depends on the drivers in the next section.

What drives the price of a monthly payroll service?

The fee rises with the amount of judgement and data handling each pay run needs, not just the number of names on the list. The main drivers are:

• Headcount. Each active employee adds calculations, a payslip, a CPF line and an SDL line.
• Fixed or variable pay. A fixed monthly salary repeats with few changes. Variable pay (overtime, commission, shift allowances, hourly or part-time wages) has to be recalculated every month, which is why our variable-salary rate is higher.
• Frequency. Paying more than once a month means more runs, more payslips and more bank files.
• Expense claims. Reimbursing claims through payroll means checking receipts and deciding which items are wages for CPF and tax and which are not.
• Multiple pay groups. Different salary periods, cut-off dates or cost centres for different teams add reconciliation work.
• Foreign employees. Work Permit holders bring foreign worker levy tracking, and non-citizen leavers need tax clearance through Form IR21.
• Leave management. Tracking annual leave, sick leave and no-pay leave, and reflecting deductions in salary, adds monthly work.

Our free tools include a compliance deadline calculator and a company set-up cost calculator that help you plan the rest of your annual compliance budget.

What should a monthly payroll service include?

A complete monthly service covers the full cycle from collecting changes to filing statutory contributions, not just a salary spreadsheet. The work normally runs in this order:

1. Collect the month’s changes: joiners, leavers, salary revisions, overtime, commissions, claims and leave taken.
2. Calculate gross pay, employee and employer CPF, SDL and any self-help group contributions.
3. Send a payroll report to the employer for approval before any money moves.
4. Prepare the bank payment file (or GIRO instruction) for salaries.
5. Issue itemised payslips to each employee.
6. Submit CPF contributions and SDL to CPF Board before the 14th of the following month.
7. Update leave balances and employment records, and keep the payroll reports for year-end.

Self-help group (SHG) contributions for CDAC, MBMF, SINDA and ECF are deducted from eligible employees’ wages and can be paid to CPF Board together with CPF contributions; see our guide to self-help group contributions for how they work.

What CPF, SDL and levy deadlines must the payroll provider meet?

CPF and SDL for a month must be paid by the 14th of the following month, and the foreign worker levy by the 17th of the following month. Missing these dates creates interest, levy penalties and, for CPF, possible prosecution of the company and its directors.

The CPF Board states that contributions are due on the last day of the calendar month, and that enforcement action is taken against employers who fail to pay by the 14th of the following month (or the next working day if the 14th falls on a weekend or public holiday). Late payment interest is 1.5% a month from the day after the due date, with a minimum of S$5. CPF Board may also impose a composition amount of up to S$1,000 per offence, and a first conviction under section 58(1)(b) of the CPF Act carries a fine of S$1,000 to S$5,000 per offence and/or up to 6 months’ imprisonment.

SDL is 0.25% of each employee’s monthly remuneration, with a minimum of S$2 for an employee earning less than S$800 a month and a maximum of S$11.25 for an employee earning more than S$4,500 a month. It is payable for every employee, including foreign employees. Our SDL guide covers the calculation in detail, and our payroll and CPF guide for employers covers contribution rates.

For Work Permit holders, the levy is billed separately by MOM and is due by the 17th of the following month. See our foreign worker levy guide for rates.

What payslip and KET rules does a payroll service need to follow?

For employees covered by the Employment Act, MOM requires itemised payslips with each salary payment, or within three working days of payment. Written KETs must be issued within 14 days after the first day of employment.

Under MOM’s itemised payslip rules, a payslip must show items such as the employer’s and employee’s full names, date of payment, basic salary, salary period, allowances, other additional payments, deductions (including employee CPF), overtime hours and pay where applicable, and net salary. Soft or hard copies are acceptable. On termination or dismissal, the payslip must be given together with the outstanding salary. Payslip records must be kept for the latest two years for current employees, and for ex-employees the last two years must be kept for one year after they leave.

MOM’s KETs page lists the terms that must be stated in writing, including job title, start date, working arrangements, salary period, basic salary, fixed allowances and deductions, overtime rate, leave types, medical benefits, probation and notice period. MOM’s WorkRight guide states that KETs are required for employees hired for a continuous period of 14 days or more, within 14 days after the first day of employment.

Does outsourced payroll include IR8A and the Auto-Inclusion Scheme?

Year-end employment income reporting is usually priced separately from the monthly fee, because it is a once-a-year exercise per employee. Under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS), employers submit employees’ income information to IRAS electronically between 1 February and 1 March.

According to IRAS, AIS submission is mandatory under section 68(2) of the Income Tax Act 1947 for employers who have 5 or more employees in year 2026, who have received a “Notice to File Employment Income of Employees Electronically”, or who were registered for AIS on or before 1 March 2026 and remained registered. Our IR8A and AIS guide explains the forms and appendices.

When a non-citizen employee stops working for you, goes on an overseas posting or plans to leave Singapore for more than three months, IRAS requires you to notify it at least one month in advance and to withhold all monies due to that employee from the date you become aware. This tax clearance (Form IR21) is also a separately priced item.

What is usually charged as extra in payroll services fees in Singapore?

Anything that happens once, once a year, or outside the regular pay cycle is normally billed separately. Ask any payroll service provider in Singapore to confirm in writing which of these are excluded from the monthly fee:

• CPF employer account application and payroll setup for a new company.
• Bank GIRO setup for salary payments.
• IR8A and AIS submission at year-end, and any Appendix 8A (benefits in kind) work.
• IR21 tax clearance for non-citizen leavers.
• Back-dated corrections, including CPF adjustments for earlier months.
• Work pass applications and renewals. These are handled by our associated MOM-licensed agency, Little Big Employment Agency, and are not part of payroll.

What are the red flags in a cheap payroll package?

A low monthly fee is only cheap if the provider still carries out the statutory work correctly and on time. Watch for these signs when you outsource payroll as a small business in Singapore:

• The fee covers “salary calculation” only, and CPF and SDL submission is left to you.
• No approval step: the payroll is processed without a report for you to check first.
• Payslips that leave out MOM-required items, or are not issued on time.
• No written scope stating which year-end and one-off items are excluded.
• No explanation of who is responsible for late CPF interest caused by the provider’s error.
• Payroll data sent by unprotected spreadsheet or personal messaging accounts, with no data protection terms in the contract.

How is employee data protected when you outsource payroll?

A payroll provider handles NRIC numbers, bank details, salaries and medical leave, so it acts as your data intermediary under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA). You remain responsible for that data as if you processed it yourself.

The PDPC’s Advisory Guidelines on Key Concepts explain that, under section 4(3) of the PDPA, an organisation has the same obligations for personal data processed on its behalf by a data intermediary as if it processed the data itself. Ask for access controls on the payroll system, encrypted file transfer, a named contact, a retention and deletion policy, and a breach notification clause. If your company has not yet appointed a data protection officer, see our guide on what every company must do under the PDPA.

Frequently asked questions

Is payroll outsourcing worth it for a company with fewer than 5 employees?

Often, yes. The statutory steps (CPF and SDL by the 14th, itemised payslips, KETs and year-end reporting) are the same whether you have 2 employees or 20, and our published fee covers up to 5 active employees from S$150 a month on fixed salaries.

Is SDL payable for foreign employees too?

Yes. CPF Board describes SDL as a compulsory levy for all employees working in Singapore, including foreign employees. If you use auto-computation in CPF EZPay, SDL is computed only for Singapore Citizen and Permanent Resident employees, so the SDL for foreign employees has to be entered manually. A good payroll provider checks this every month.

Who pays late payment interest if the provider submits CPF late?

CPF Board charges the employer. Whether you can recover it from the provider depends on your service agreement, so make sure the contract deals with it.

Can the payroll provider pay salaries directly from its own account?

In a typical set-up, the provider prepares the bank or GIRO file and the company approves and releases the payment from its own account, which keeps control of payments with you.

Last reviewed: 11 October 2026. The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services.