Payroll provider Paysauce has ambitious growth plans

Paysauce chief executive Asantha Wijeyeratne. Photo/Supplied.

A payroll provider backed by the man who launched the four-day week is hoping a reverse listing on the stock exchange will help propel its ambitious growth plans.

PaySauce, which is chaired by businessman Andrew Barnes, will find out on Thursday if its bid to take the place of Energy Mad on the NZX gets approval from the ecobulb company's shareholders.

Co-founder and chief executive Asantha Wijeyeratne, said it saw the listing as an opportunity to get publicity in a way that a small Lower Hutt based company might never otherwise get.

"This a fantastic opportunity to get some limelight."

Wijeyeratne set up PaySauce in January 2015 and started selling its software two years ago focusing on helping farmers be compliant with paying the minimum wage.

"We found that the greatest opportunity was in agri."

It now has a significant portion of that sector on the books and is looking to target retail businesses next.

With around 1000 clients Wijeyeratne said some were large firms with over 100 employees but its focus was small businesses with one to 20 staff.

Wijeyeratne comes from a business background and is an accountant by trade.

In 2004 he founded SmartPayroll which used a payroll solution under licence from Datacom.

He sold this business to Datacom in December 2013.

He met technology guru Troy Tarrant a few years ago when he was looking at developing a free app.

"He built what I was looking for in three weeks."

Wijeyeratne saw the potential to do a lot more for small businesses and decided to go into business with Tarrant.

He and Tarrant own around half of PaySauce while Barnes has a 23 per cent stake and the remainder of the company is owned by friends, family and private investors.

Wijeyeratne says it is not just great technology the business is focused on but customer retention and an ongoing response to solving problems for small business.

"If you look at the payroll market both in New Zealand and beyond. For a long time it has been dominated by a handful of "dinosaur" businesses - as a result, there has been very little innovation."

While the timing of the listing is a bit earlier than he expected it will come ahead of big payroll changes in April being introduced by the Inland Revenue.

Currently, businesses have until the 20th of the following month to file their payroll information with the IRD but after April 1 it will have to be done within two days of payment.

Wijeyeratne said many small businesses were still using paper-based systems but it was going to nearly impossible for businesses to be compliant without using a software provider after the change.

He says Paysauce is about making people's lives easier focusing on the pain points of payroll and looking at ways to resolve them.

"It a completely different way of looking at it. That is the freshness we bring to the market."

If it gets approval the reverse listing will go ahead on December 21.