HR Software for Small Businesses

Sentrient’s HR software for small businesses is an all-in-one Australian HR system that covers recruitment, onboarding, employee records, compliance training, policies, incident reporting, timesheets and performance reviews. It is built so an owner or office manager can run HR without a dedicated department, with courses, policies and forms preloaded on day one. Hiring before that point is covered by our applicant tracking software for small business.

Yes. Sentrient is built and supported in Australia and used by more than 1,000 organisations across Australia and New Zealand. The preloaded courses, policies and forms reflect Australian workplace expectations, and support comes from a local team, so HR software for small business Australia comes with help from people who know Australian workplaces.

A small business needs one employee record per person, online onboarding, a way to assign and track training, policy acknowledgements, a place to log incidents, and a simple performance review process. Small business HR software should do those things in one system. Payroll can sit beside it in Xero, MYOB or KeyPay rather than inside it. For the risk register behind those incident logs, see our risk management software for small business.

No. Sentrient does not process payroll, calculate award rates, lodge Single Touch Payroll, calculate superannuation or build rosters. Small businesses usually keep those in Xero, MYOB, KeyPay or a rostering tool. Sentrient is the HR and compliance layer beside them, integrating at platform level so employee details are entered once. Our workforce management software for small business page shows how that layer runs beside a roster.

Yes. Each employee file holds licences, tickets, first aid certificates, working with children checks and any other credential with its expiry date, and Sentrient sends reminders before expiry. The business remains responsible for checking a credential with the issuing body and for deciding who can do what work.

Record every credential against the employee with its expiry date, set reminders to the employee and their manager before the date, and run the expiring credentials report each month. Sentrient automates the reminders and the report. A lapsed credential still needs a person to act on it, and the business stays responsible for the outcome.

Fair Work treats an employer with fewer than 15 employees as a small business employer. All employers must give new employees the Fair Work Information Statement when they start, give casuals the Casual Employment Information Statement, and keep time and wages records for seven years. Sentrient helps you evidence each step. The business remains responsible for meeting its obligations.

The Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, published by the Fair Work Ombudsman, sets out a fair process for a small business employer with fewer than 15 employees to follow when dismissing someone. Sentrient keeps the records that process relies on: policies acknowledged, warnings issued, reviews held and notes kept. The business remains responsible for following the Code.

Sentrient includes pre-built compliance courses that fit a small workforce: Work Health and Safety, Sexual Harassment Prevention, Workplace Bullying, Privacy, Equal Employment Opportunity, Cyber Security and Internet and Social Media, among others. You can add your own induction or product training. Courses are assigned automatically at onboarding and tracked to completion.

Yes. Any course can be set to recur, for example WHS and sexual harassment prevention annually, so staff are re-enrolled automatically and reminded before the due date. Managers see completion rates on a dashboard and the completion record sits in the employee file as evidence. Course delivery and assessments are covered on our LMS for small business page.

Contracts, personal and emergency details, tax and super forms, licences and certificates, policy acknowledgements, training completions, timesheets, review notes, incident reports and exit records, all in one employee file. It is a small business HRIS that replaces the spreadsheet and the filing cabinet, with documents held securely and retrievable in seconds. Licences, checks and certificates with expiry dates are tracked through our document management software for small business. Equipment issued to each person is tracked in our asset management software for small business, so returns are simple when someone leaves.

Yes. Because training completions, policy acknowledgements, incident reports and credential records are stored against each employee, you can produce a report for a WHS regulator, an insurer, a client or a Fair Work inspector without hunting through email. Sentrient keeps records audit-ready. The business remains responsible for what the records show.

Any staff member can log an incident, near miss or hazard from a phone in a couple of minutes. The report goes to the owner or manager, who records the investigation and corrective action against it. Records support the primary duty of care under WHS laws and notification obligations. Notifying the regulator remains the business’s responsibility.

Usually the same day. Once the offer is accepted, the new starter receives a link to enter their details, sign the contract, acknowledge policies and complete induction training online. The Fair Work Information Statement can be issued in the same pack. Most small businesses finish the paperwork before the first shift.

Yes. Casuals, part-timers, seasonal staff and labour hire workers get the same onboarding pack, training assignments and policy acknowledgements as permanent staff, so nobody is missed. The Casual Employment Information Statement can be included in the onboarding pack for casual staff. Records for every worker sit in the same system.

Yes. Sentrient is cloud-based, so an owner can see training, records and timesheets for every site from one login, and a manager at each location can see only their own team. Announcements, policy updates and courses reach every location at once, with reporting by site.

It helps with the causes you can control. Consistent onboarding, clear policies, regular check-ins and recognition on the community wall all give staff reasons to stay. Sentrient records reviews and feedback so managers follow through, and reporting shows where absence or turnover is climbing before it becomes a problem.

Managers set goals with each staff member, log check-ins and complete structured reviews on a schedule Sentrient reminds them about. Development plans link to courses in the learning module. Everything is recorded, so a new manager can pick up where the last one left off and a difficult conversation has a documented history.

Yes. Sentrient is web-based and works on any phone, tablet or laptop browser, so tradies, drivers, shop staff and remote workers can complete inductions, acknowledge policies, submit timesheets and report incidents from wherever they are. Managers can approve timesheets and check completions from their phone too.

Because it is a small business HR system built to be run by one person, with the courses, policies and forms preloaded, Australian support that picks up the phone, and one employee file that holds everything. It handles the HR and compliance work while your payroll and accounting tools stay where they are.

Owner-managed businesses of roughly 5 to 50 staff in trades, professional services, retail, hospitality, community services and manufacturing. Smaller organisations using Sentrient include St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, Community Action Gympie, Carinya Society and Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick. It suits businesses with fewer than 10 staff as well, because the setup work is already done. Studios and gyms can see the fit on our fitness studio HR software page, and early learning services on our childcare HR software page.

Most small businesses are live within a couple of weeks. Sentrient comes preloaded with courses, policies and forms, so setup is mainly loading your staff, adding your own policies and choosing which courses apply. Our team supports the rollout and trains the person who will run it. There is no IT project.

Pricing depends on the number of staff and the modules you need. We provide a tailored proposal after a short demo so you only pay for what a business your size uses. Ask about contract terms in the demo. Contact us for a quote.

Yes. Book a free 20-minute demo and we will walk through onboarding, records, training and reviews using examples from a business like yours. You will see how much HR admin it removes and whether it fits the way you work. No commitment and no technical setup needed.