Payroll & Employer
Payroll Outsourcing Singapore
Full-service payroll across SEA — statutory contributions handled in-country
Monthly payroll processing for SG (CPF, SDL, SHG, WIC, FWL), MY (EPF, SOCSO, HRDF), TH (SSO), VN (SI/UI/HI), and ID (BPJS Kesehatan & Ketenagakerjaan). 12-month minimum term with 1-month refundable deposit. Includes payslip generation, IR8A submission, and audit-ready reporting.
23+ years
of Singapore HR group heritage
Since 2010
Singapore payroll practice — UEN 201009036N
9 entities
across 5 SEA markets
5 currencies
SGD · MYR · THB · VND · IDR
How it works
1
Scope
Confirm headcount, country mix (SG / MY / TH / VN / ID), employment categories (citizens, PRs, foreign-pass holders), salary cycles, and statutory obligations that apply in each market. We map every recurring filing before the first payroll run.
2
Onboard
Migrate employee master data, salary structures, leave balances, and prior-period reconciliations. We integrate with your existing HRIS or work from your spreadsheets — your call. Parallel run for one cycle to validate accuracy before cutover.
3
Run
Monthly payroll in local currency. CPF, SDL, SHG, FWL, and other country-equivalent statutory contributions calculated and remitted. Payslips issued, GIRO files generated, leave balances updated. Variance reports flagged before disbursement.
4
Close
Year-end IR8A and AIS submissions, IR21 tax clearance for foreign employees leaving Singapore, and country-equivalent annual returns for MY / TH / VN / ID. Audit-ready records archived and accessible whenever you need them.
Payroll Outsourcing Singapore — backed by 23+ years of group heritage
Payroll is the most operationally sensitive HR process you outsource — every salary, every statutory contribution, every year-end filing has to land on the day, in the right currency, at the right amount. People Profilers has operated as a Singapore-headquartered HR group for 23+ years, and our payroll practice runs through People Profilers (Services) Pte. Ltd. — incorporated in 2010 specifically to provide manpower contracting and payroll services. We operate nine legal entities across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. That depth means accurate CPF, SDL, SHG, FWL, and IR8A handling on the Singapore side; correct country-equivalent statutory administration in MY, TH, VN, and ID; and multi-currency payroll administered by people who understand each market — not a generic platform applying templates.
What's included in our payroll service
Every Payroll Outsourcing engagement covers three layers — the monthly admin work that produces accurate payslips on time, the statutory contributions remitted at official rates to each regulator, and the year-end filings that close the tax year cleanly. Exact fees are confirmed in the engagement letter before the first payroll run.
Monthly payroll administration
- ✓Payslip generation, distribution, and archiving
- ✓GIRO / bank file generation for salary disbursement
- ✓Variance reports flagged before payroll runs
- ✓Multi-currency support (SGD, MYR, THB, VND, IDR)
Statutory contributions handled
- ✓CPF, SDL, SHG, FWL for Singapore employees
- ✓Country-equivalent contributions in MY / TH / VN / ID
- ✓Foreign-pass workforce (WP / S Pass / EP) included
- ✓Calculated at official rates — no markup, no margin
Year-end + situational filings
- ✓IR8A and AIS annual returns (Singapore)
- ✓IR21 tax clearance for departing foreign employees
- ✓Country-equivalent annual returns in MY / TH / VN / ID
- ✓Optional add-ons: leave portal, expense management
Engagement letters spell out every fee in writing before onboarding. Engagements have a 12-month minimum term with one month's fees held as a refundable security deposit. You remain the legal employer of your team — we administer payroll, contributions, and filings on your behalf.
When Payroll Outsourcing makes sense
Outsourcing payroll is rarely about cost — it's about taking a high-risk, low-strategic-value process off the in-house plate. Three patterns we see most often across the Singapore and SEA markets.
Lean HR or finance team
Small or mid-sized employers where running payroll in-house consumes a disproportionate amount of senior HR or finance bandwidth — and where one resignation could leave the function exposed.
Multi-country SEA workforce
Organisations with employees in two or more SEA markets that need consolidated reporting, local-currency disbursement, and accurate statutory handling without standing up a separate payroll function in each country.
Mixed local + foreign workforce
Employers running payroll for a mix of citizens, PRs, and foreign-pass employees who need accurate CPF, SDL, SHG, and FWL handling — plus IR21 tax clearance for foreign departures — without manually reconciling each category.
You remain the legal employer of your team. We administer payroll, contributions, and filings on your behalf. For a different model where People Profilers becomes the legal employer (typically for testing a new market without incorporating), see our Employer of Record service.
"Our team is spread across Singapore, KL, and Bangkok — three different statutory regimes, three different currencies, three different year-end cycles. People Profilers consolidated all of it into one monthly invoice and one consistent reporting format. The audit trail saves us weeks every year."
— Head of HR, Regional Trading Group
Industries & Functions We Cover
Payroll Outsourcing support spans the same industry and functional breadth as our recruitment practice. People Profilers has operated payroll for clients across every major Singapore and SEA industry for 23+ years — your payroll will be administered by people who understand your sector's pay structures, allowances, and statutory nuances.
Banking & Financial Services
Variable compensation, deferred bonus accruals, equity-linked payments, MAS-regulated workforce
Technology & SaaS
Stock option administration, multi-country contractor payroll, mixed local + remote workforce
Manufacturing & Industrial
Shift differentials, overtime calculations, FWL for foreign workforce, WICA insurance coordination
Energy & Resources
Field allowances, rotation pay, multi-currency expat compensation, project-based headcount cycles
Consumer Goods & Retail
Commission structures, retail shift patterns, seasonal headcount, frontline + corporate split
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Clinical shift loading, on-call payments, professional indemnity coordination, mixed staff categories
Real Estate & Construction
Site allowances, project-based payroll, large foreign-worker payroll, FWL category tracking
Logistics & Supply Chain
Driver schedules, 24/7 shift loading, dispersed workforce, mixed pass-holder categories
Media & Communications
Freelancer + permanent mix, project bonuses, talent fee processing, multi-currency contractor pay
Frequently asked questions
Who is the legal employer when I outsource payroll to People Profilers?
You remain the legal employer of your team. People Profilers acts as your payroll administrator — we process payslips, calculate statutory contributions, remit them to the relevant authorities, and prepare year-end filings on your behalf. The employment relationship between you and your employees is unchanged.
This is the defining difference between Payroll Outsourcing and our Employer of Record service. Under EOR, People Profilers becomes the legal employer of the worker — that's a different commercial and legal arrangement, used when clients want to hire in a market without setting up a local entity. Under Payroll Outsourcing, your entity remains the employer; we handle the administrative load.
Singapore Payroll Outsourcing is delivered through People Profilers (Services) Pte. Ltd. (UEN 201009036N), incorporated under SSIC 78102 (Manpower Contracting) and 78101 (IT Manpower) — the appropriate framework for providing payroll and manpower services.
Can you process payroll for our foreign-pass employees and handle FWL?
Yes. Payroll Outsourcing covers your full Singapore workforce — citizens, permanent residents, and foreign-pass holders (Employment Pass, S Pass, Work Permit). For foreign-pass employees we calculate and remit Foreign Worker Levy at the appropriate tier and category, alongside CPF for local employees and SDL across the entire workforce.
When a foreign-pass employee leaves Singapore, we prepare and file IR21 tax clearance with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS — Tax Clearance for Foreign and SPR Employees), coordinating with you on the final salary payment hold pending clearance.
This is a meaningful operational difference from our EOR service — under Payroll Outsourcing, you are the employer of your foreign-pass employees and we administer their payroll on your behalf. There is no MOM concern because we are clearly not employing them.
Which countries can you run payroll in?
People Profilers operates nine legal entities across five SEA markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. We can administer payroll in all five jurisdictions, using the locally licensed entity for each country.
Each engagement is run in the local currency — SGD, MYR, THB, VND, or IDR — with statutory contributions calculated and remitted at the rates set by each country's regulator. Consolidated reporting across countries is standard, so finance leaders running multi-country teams see one set of numbers in one format.
How does the engagement and pricing work?
Every Payroll Outsourcing engagement is documented in an engagement letter before the first payroll run. The letter sets out the scope (headcount, countries, employment categories, payroll cycles), the fee structure, payment terms, and the statutory filings included.
Fees are transparent and itemised — administration fees for the monthly payroll work, separate line items for any one-time setup or add-on modules (leave portal, expense management), and pass-through statutory contributions at official rates with no markup.
Engagements have a minimum term of 12 months. Payroll setup is a meaningful operational investment for both parties — employee master data migration, salary structure validation, statutory registration verification, and a full parallel-run cycle before live cutover. The 12-month minimum reflects that commitment on both sides. One month's fees are held as a refundable security deposit for the duration of the engagement, returned at the close of the relationship or applied against the final invoice.
How do you handle data security and employee privacy?
Payroll data is among the most sensitive HR data we handle, and we treat it accordingly. Employee master data, salary information, and bank details are stored in access-controlled systems with audit logging. Payroll processing follows documented procedures with segregation of duties between input, review, and disbursement.
We comply with Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act and the equivalent personal data legislation in Malaysia (PDPA), Thailand (PDPA), Vietnam (PDPL), and Indonesia (PDP Law). Data residency, retention periods, and cross-border transfer protocols are documented in the engagement letter.
Year-end filing records and statutory submission archives are retained for the period required by each jurisdiction's regulator — typically five to seven years — and accessible to you on request.
What does the transition look like if we move from in-house payroll to your service?
Most clients are running their first payroll with us within four to six weeks of engagement, depending on workforce size and country mix. The transition steps are: employee master data migration; salary structure validation; leave balance import; statutory registration verification; one parallel-run cycle where we process payroll alongside your existing process and reconcile to the cent; then cutover.
The parallel run is the most important step — it surfaces any data inconsistencies before they become live payslip errors. We coordinate with your HR and finance leads throughout, with weekly check-ins during the transition period.
If you decide to bring payroll back in-house at any point, the same data and process work in reverse — documented handover, archived records transferred, and statutory continuity preserved.
Explore our other services
Need something different? Browse our other broad service categories.
Build strong teams with confidence. Our recruitment solutions connect you with the right talent, at the right time, using a consultative approach that prioritises long term fit and performance.
Simplify workforce management while staying compliant. Our employer and payroll solutions reduce administrative burden and allow you to focus on growing your business.
