2025 marks Crystal Payroll’s 20th year in business. It’s a huge milestone that we’re excited to celebrate!
Reaching this milestone has given us a chance to look back—not just on the software we’ve built, but on the people who’ve been part of the journey. Some of our earliest customers have been with us since 2006, and many of them are still using Crystal Payroll today.
To celebrate, we created a short anniversary video that features some of these long-standing clients and their reflections on working with us over the years. A special thank you to Tina and Natalia from Hibiscus Coast Medical Centre, Tony from Highbury Optometrists, Carol from Mulan Malaysian, Julia and Rachel from SBA Birkenhead and Toby from Kingston Accountants for featuring in our video!
If you’ve ever wondered who the people are behind Crystal Payroll—or how we’ve changed over the past two decades—it’s well worth a watch.
Watch the video and hear our story👉
This year, we’ve also been running our 20 Years, 20 Legends campaign to honour 20 of our most loyal clients with a free year of Crystal Payroll and a gift box to say thanks.
Keep an eye out on our social media pages to make sure you catch our next celebratory campaign 👀 (Hint: It’s our birthday… but you’re getting the presents!)
Where It All Began
Crystal Payroll started in 2005 with a simple idea: payroll shouldn’t need to be this hard.
Our founder, Kelvin, saw how often payroll left both employers and employees in the dark. Payslips were unclear. Entitlements were hard to track. The tools available didn’t make things that much easier. Back then, if you weren’t spending countless hours doing your payroll manually on spreadsheets and paper, you were dealing with software that was clunky and desktop-based. Updates were manual, backups were risky, and if something went wrong, there was no easy fix.
We knew there had to be a better way—so we built Crystal Payroll as an online system from day one. That decision made it easier for businesses to manage payroll securely from anywhere, while giving employees instant access to their payslips and entitlements.
And that’s been our mission ever since:
To make payroll clear, simple, and stress-free for Kiwi businesses and their employees.
Growing With Our Customers
Getting started wasn’t easy. We had no investors, no big brand behind us—just a few staff, a lot of determination, and a belief that we could make payroll simpler.
Convincing businesses to trust an online system built using cloud technology in 2005 was a challenge. But slowly, word spread. A few early adopters gave Crystal Payroll a go, and when they found it saved them time and stress, they spread the word. That word of mouth built the foundation for everything that came after.
Crystal Payroll celebrated its 10th birthday with… Cupcakes! It’s been another decade since then.
Over the past 20 years, we’ve grown to support over 10,000 businesses across many industries. From sole traders and small family businesses to major franchises and professional firms, we’re proud to work with all kinds of industries. We’re particularly proud of our RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) features to accommodate for the horticultural industry and their seasonal workers. We were one of the first to offer this in New Zealand, helping make payroll simpler and more reliable for the essential businesses that keep our farms and orchards running.
A throwback photo of our old sales team at a conference in 2012. Our logo has stayed the same with only a modern update to the font.
Built for New Zealand
We understand Kiwi businesses because we’ve been built right here in Birkenhead, Auckland. We stay close to IRD changes, listen to accountants, bookkeepers and customers, and continuously adapt the system to make compliance easier for employers.
Our office has been here in Birkenhead on Rawene Road since the beginning. A beautiful community to have our office in – and our staff love the local eats!
We’ve also built an amazing local support team that picks up the phone, replies to emails quickly, and always takes the time to listen. When our customers call, they speak to someone in our Auckland office who understands how NZ payroll works. We’ll also always ensure our customers can get help from a real person who understands New Zealand payroll.
Our support team’s “Compliments Whiteboard”. Every compliment is appreciated and remembered by our team ❤️
Looking to the Future
We may have 20 years behind us, but we feel like we’re just getting started. The world of payroll is always changing—but our focus remains the same:
Keep things clear. Keep things compliant. Keep helping Kiwi businesses do payroll right.
To every customer, partner, and team member who has been part of our journey—thank you!
Crystal Payroll. It’s so clear.
