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Idea

Xero should allow Australian businesses to add extra payroll employees individually, or in much smaller increments, instead of forcing unreasonable jumps between employee tiers.

Our specific situation is with the Ultimate plan. We have moved from 20 to 21 paid employees, which means we are being forced from Ultimate 20 to Ultimate 50. A business that pays 21 employees in a month should not be forced onto a plan covering up to 50 employees. That is a 30-person capacity jump triggered by one additional paid employee.

We are not objecting to paying more as our business grows. We are objecting to being forced to pay for capacity we do not need, are not using, and may never use.

I am sure other businesses feel the same pinch at different employee limits and across different plans. The issue is not just the Ultimate 20 to Ultimate 50 jump, it is the broader problem of large, inflexible employee tiers that do not reflect how small businesses actually grow.

Other providers, such as MYOB, allow payroll costs to scale by employee count. That is a far more reasonable model. If a business needs one extra payroll place, it should be able to pay for one extra payroll place.

The current Xero structure feels punitive, arbitrary, and very small-business unfriendly. It makes Xero look less like a partner to growing businesses and more like a company taking advantage of customers once they are already embedded in the platform.

Please introduce a fairer option, such as per employee pricing above the plan limit, smaller employee blocks, or intermediate tiers that do not force small businesses into paying for far more payroll capacity than they need.

If Xero is not willing to offer a fairer and more proportionate payroll structure, then businesses like ours will have little reason to remain loyal when other providers offer more flexible pricing.