Price increase from April2024

I have been using Reckon Payroll since STP Phase 1 was introduced. While the system is not the fastest nor most intuitive, it was good value and get the job done. My needs are simple... purely STP compliance. My business has only 1 permanent employee and up to 12-15 casual staff (mainly students) per week. They have short hours and most work for only a few months in a year. With such a high staff turnover, I can have up to 25 casual employees when I run EOFY summary report. The new price model is based on 4 $12),10 ($25) or or unlimited ($50) employees per month. Based on my current usage, my cost will increase from $12 to $50 per month, an increase of more than 400%! This cost is too high for a small business with low $ turnover. I can probably stomach this cost if the model is aligned to ATO's STP introduction for less than 20 employees or greater than 20 employees. Even then, it's a 200% increase for me.

Reckon.... would you consider changing the pricing model? No business with high turnover casual employees will be able to cope with this price increase. I've already started looking for alternatives but can be persuaded to linger on for longer if the price is right.

What do other users feel? Fair increase?

Comments

FionaBrand

Hi Kenl90,

I have found the price increases over the last few years to be high. My monthly fee has doubled in 3 years, with zero benefits.

Whilst I understand there have been upgrades behind-the-scenes, they have made no difference at all for my small business. In fact, the new payroll system has made it harder to do pay runs rather than easier.

One of the main reasons I signed up to Reckon One is the modular aspect, where I can turn on and off different modules. The new pricing structure takes away those benefits. It does feel like Reckon One is moving away from being a good fit for small businesses.

If you find any alternatives, feel free to list them!

Rav

Hi @kenl90

Admittedly I'm not across the finer details of the new plan structure just yet but from the perspective of the overall value proposition, I think there's a bit more to it than just the employee count in each tier as there are also additional inclusions for customers to utilise on that premium payroll plan such as timesheets, advanced reporting through our analytics powerhouse; Reckon Insights, expense claim functionality and a fair bit more. Obviously your use-case for certain features/functionality may vary but I believe as a total package there's a fair bit in it for both new & existing users.

Out of curiosity though, are all of your casual employees all active at the same time or do you terminate them immediately after the few months they work comes to an end?

Would be keen to understand a bit more on how you use the software when it comes to these particular employees and your workflow etc.

FionaBrand

Hi Rav,

It doesn’t matter what additional functionality is included in each plan. If you don’t use it, you’re still paying for it.

kenl90

Hi Rav, I do agree with Fiona....I do not need any new functionality other than that which helps me comply with STP and to pay correctly (award rates and SGC). Before STP, I was doing all these via spreadsheet and it works very well.

My casual employees are ALL high school and university students. Students have exams, holidays and other extra curricular activities which limits their hours work to between 2 to 6 hrs a week (Yes, that 's all they do in a week). While almost all of them prefer to remain, their circumstances dictates the length of their stay. E.g. University students will leave once they find permanent position or return to their home country, hence the high turnover. So, in any 1 week period, I may have 10-12 active employees working a total of 40 to 50 hrs. Yep, that's all... it's equivalent to 1.5 FTE. In other words, I will have an equivalent of 2.5 employees if they are all full-timer. Therefore, Reckon's new pricing model will disadvantage my kind of business significantly. So, over a 1 year period, I may have up to 25 employees in my books, which I have to report to the ATO at the EOFY. This means, I will have to subscribe to the $50 a month plan :(

I'd rather continue with Reckon but cost may force us to leave this platform. As it stands, I've lined up with 2 other companies for a demo of their products.

FionaBrand

Hi Kenl90, good luck finding another platform!

kenl90

@FionaBrand Against all odds, I did find another platform. I trawled through the ATO website and evaluated 2 suppliers. The solution I have now implemented is simple, faster, cheaper, and provides excellent support. I don't think it's appropriate for me to list my new supplier on Reckon's Community site. I've done 2 pay runs to date and it has been straightforward.

Reckon has been a good supplier for many years. Thank you. Unfortunately, cost is the main driver for my small business. Although Reckon offered me a great discount for the next 6 months, I had to turn down that offer because it was still more than 100% of what I was paying.

Thanks, Rav and co for your support.

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