Payflow: Payroll Management System
Self-service payroll run management for SME administrators, removing dependency on external payroll bureaus
Background
Payflow's goal was to give SME businesses a self-service payroll tool: running pay cycles, generating payslips, and producing the reports needed for HMRC submissions without outsourcing to a payroll bureau. Outsourced payroll means handing over sensitive employee data to a third party and waiting on their turnaround for every correction, which is friction an SME administrator feels every single pay cycle.
What We Built
An Angular frontend with a NestJS API and MongoDB. The system covers employee record management, payroll run scheduling, payslip generation (PDF output per employee), tax and NI calculation, and payroll reporting exports, giving an administrator everything a payroll bureau used to handle, in-house.
Architecture
Angular CLI frontend with a component-based payroll run UI. NestJS API handling payroll calculation logic, employee data, and reporting. MongoDB stores employee, payroll run, and payslip records.
Results
Payroll outsourced to an external bureau for every pay cycle
Self-service payroll runs, payslips, and HMRC-ready reporting in-house
Outcomes & Lessons Learned
- Self-service payroll run management for SME administrators, removing dependency on external payroll bureaus
- Automated payslip generation per employee per pay period
- Payroll reporting for finance reconciliation and HMRC compliance
Separating the payroll calculation engine from the API controllers as a standalone service module made it straightforward to unit test tax and NI band logic independently of HTTP layer concerns, which matters when a miscalculated band affects real pay.
Questions, answered.
The things people ask us about this project. If yours isn't here, ask us directly, we reply like humans.
Ask us anything→What does Payflow actually replace for an SME business?
An outsourced payroll bureau: self-service payroll runs, payslip generation, and HMRC-ready reporting are handled in-house instead of being sent to a third party for every pay cycle.
How are payslips produced?
PDF payslips are generated automatically per employee per pay period, alongside the tax and NI calculation for that run.
Why was the payroll calculation engine built as a separate module?
So tax and NI band logic could be unit tested independently of the API's HTTP layer, which matters because a miscalculated band directly affects what someone gets paid.
What reporting does the platform produce for compliance?
Payroll reporting built for finance reconciliation and HMRC submissions, so an administrator has what they need for compliance without exporting data into a separate tool.
What was the actual problem with outsourcing payroll that this solves?
Handing sensitive employee data to a third party and waiting on their turnaround for every correction is friction an administrator feels every single pay cycle; running it in-house removes that dependency.
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