Barnes-backed PaySauce doubles annual revenue

Payroll software provider PaySauce said recurring revenue in the December quarter nearly doubled from the year-earlier period with payroll customers and employees covered more than doubling.

"It's safe to say we ended the year on a high note," said chief executive and co-founder Asantha Wijeyeratne in a statement, adding that, based on the month of December's revenue, annual recurring revenue hit another milestone of $2 million.

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"While the majority of our customers come from the agricultural sector, this quarter has seen our customer base diversify across a range of rural industries," Wijeyeratne said.

PaySauce's software provides payroll management solutions including mobile timesheets, payroll calculations, banking integration, income tax filing, labour costing and digital employment contracts on a cloud-based software-as-a-service basis.

The company said total recurring revenue in the December quarter rose to $461,400 from $235,400 in the same quarter of 2018, the number of payroll customers rose to 2,434 from 1,171 and the number of employees covered rose to 13,349 from 6,227.

The gross value of payroll processed rose the $160.3 million from $73 million.

On the first trading day of 2020, stock exchange operator NZX queried PaySauce on the increase in its share price from 56 cents on Dec. 24 to 96 cents on Dec. 31, a 71.4 per cent increase, and the company said it was complying with NZX disclosure rules. On Jan. 3 the shares traded as high as $1.40.

The shares ended yesterday at 92 cents.

Late last year, the company said it was planning to raise fresh capital, most likely through a rights issue.

While Andrew Barnes stepped down as chair on December 31, he remains the major shareholder and has committed to at least taking up the rights for his more than 20 per cent stake.

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PaySauce, which targets small to medium-sized businesses, reported an $862,028 loss for the six months ended September, down from a $2.51 million net loss in the same six months last year.

It had negative equity of $2.52 million at Sept. 30 and accumulated losses to that date of $7.03 million.

However, cashflow in the latest six months rose to $4.4 million from $828,976 in the year-earlier six months and it had $11.5 million net cash at balance date.

PaySauce listed on NZX on Dec. 21, 2018 via a backdoor listing through the shell of Energy Mad.

- BusinessDesk