Ciphr Payroll wins Software Product of the Year at CIPP Awards

Payroll, HR, and benefits software provider Ciphr is celebrating a big win at the payroll industry’s longest-running independent awards.

Ciphr Payroll was named the best Software Product of the Year at the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) Annual Excellence Awards 2025; and was also a finalist in the Software Innovation Product of the Year category.

The award recognises Ciphr’s commitment to delivering an innovative “product that is compliant, user-friendly, enables best practice and is well supported”. The judges praised Ciphr for its “structured and client-focused implementation approach”, supported by evidence and testimonials, which “clearly focused on addressing key payroll challenges” for the industry.

Ciphr’s fully cloud-based, API-led, real-time payroll solution, which was introduced earlier this year, has been heralded as a ‘game changer’ for UK businesses looking to simplify their payroll operations. The Reading-based firm has also since launched a new payroll and HR integration. This next-gen integration boasts all of Ciphr Payroll’s key functionality, plus pause/resume data synchronisation and selective processing capabilities to give payroll and HR admins complete, continuous control over their respective data flow.

Sion Lewis, CEO of Ciphr, says: “We’re delighted that Ciphr Payroll has been named the CIPP’s Software Product of the Year 2025. The judges said this was based not only on the product and its real benefits to our customers, but on our approach to implementation and how we support the businesses that rely on our software and services. This is so important, as a great product without a great customer experience is pointless.

“We want to make the lives of people working in payroll as easy as possible. That’s why Ciphr Payroll is designed by payroll professionals for payroll professionals. We pride ourselves on tackling the real problems that payroll professionals face with their payroll technology and legacy systems – such as inefficiencies, lack of automation, poor integration, onerous legislative updates, clunky user experience and reporting gaps.

“This is a fantastic accolade for Ciphr. Thank you to every member of our team who has helped to develop and deliver Ciphr Payroll – you fully deserve this recognition for your hard work and dedication in delivering real value to our customers.”

Standout features of Ciphr Payroll include:
• Seamless data synchronisation via open API integration (including selective data processing for payroll admins)
• Consolidated view of real-time people and pay data (with payroll and HR integration)
• Retrospective parallel run testing for faster implementations
• Automated backpay adjustments, and true average and rolled-up holiday pay calculations
• Branded and customisable payslips
• Multiple pay run capabilities
• Payrolling of benefits in kind
• Built-in compliance presets
• Intuitive navigation and workflows
• Audit reporting and change tracking
• 24/7 access, and full payroll (and/or HR) customer support

For more information, please visit www.ciphr.com/payroll-software.

A webinar showcasing Ciphr’s integrated payroll and HR software took place last month. To watch the video recording, please visit www.ciphr.com/webinars/hr-payroll-integration.

Ciphr is the go-to HR, payroll and benefits software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. More than 1,400 organisations use people management solutions from Ciphr Group, including St Ann’s Hospice, Komplex Group, Bluelight Commercial, Action Against Hunger, AE Partners, Soho Theatre Company, Medstrom Healthcare, Home from Home Care, Amaze Hotels, Coople, Bensons for Beds, Toyota Financial Services, Bunzl, Haygrove, Crisis UK, Social Care Wales, Prudential, Barnardo's, Greater London Authority, the Church of England, Newcastle University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, the Irish Universities Association, Evri, Michelin, INEOS, Shutterstock, Perfetti Van Melle, Allpay, Covéa Insurance, and Jonas.

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Media enquiries:
Emma-Louise Jones, digital PR manager at Ciphr
e: ejones@ciphr.com

Chris Boddice, chief marketing officer at Ciphr
e: cboddice@ciphr.com
Website: www.ciphr.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ciphr

Notes:
Photos to accompany this announcement
• (Pictured left to right) award sponsor Stephen Abbotts from Azets, Paul Graham, senior product manager at Ciphr, Cheri Bartlett, payroll operations manager at Ciphr, Ciera Dolan, director of payroll operations at Ciphr, Julie Lally, MD of payroll at Ciphr, Claire Warner, regulatory analyst at Ciphr, Jason Davenport, CEO of CIPP, and award host Tom Allen (credit: CIPP): https://www.ciphr.com/hubfs/corporate-pr-images/CIPP-Awards-...

• (Pictured left to right) Claire Warner, Paul Graham, Julie Lally, Cheri Bartlett, and Ciera Dolan from Ciphr (credit: Ciphr): https://www.ciphr.com/hubfs/corporate-pr-images/CIPP-Awards-...

Ciphr is the go-to HR, payroll and benefits software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Ciphr is on a mission to strengthen the strategic value of HR and payroll teams. With market-leading tools and support, Ciphr provides the means to automate and streamline processes so HR and payroll professionals can focus on doing what they do best.

The Ciphr Group is a privately held company backed by ECI Partners and headquartered in Reading. Over 230 employees work across the group, which includes Ciphr and Avantus, as well as previous acquisition Marshall E-Learning (now known as Ciphr eLearning).