The Staffology Story

It Started with Accounting Software

In 2004 Duane Jackson was a self-employed web developer. At the time the only options for accounting software for his small business were Sage and Quickbooks. Both were clunky and difficult to use.

He decided to build his on software, initially for him to use and then to sell to other businesses.

As he was a web developer he decided to build the software on the web rather than on the desktop as was then the norm.

At the time the phrase “SaaS” or even “Cloud” weren’t used as they are today, but his product – KashFlow – became the first SaaS accounting application in the UK

And a SaaS Revolution

The big guns of the accounting software industry resisted the move to the cloud and wrote off the rise of web applications as “a passing fad”.

But as other SaaS companies started and began to grow quickly they realised that SaaS was here to stay and eventually launched their own offerings.

HMRC also began to digitise much more of the processes around filing VAT, PAYE and other accounting data.

An Early Exit

By 2013 Xero had established a strong foothold in the UK market. Sage and Quickbooks were about to launch much improved versions of their cloud accounting products. It was getting very competitive.

So when IRIS Software made an offer to acquire KashFlow, Duane decided it would make sense to pass his creation on to a well-resourced and experienced company.

A New Venture

Since exiting KashFlow Duane has been involved in an advisory role in many other businesses. Given his background he would regularly be asked if he could recommend a cloud-based Payroll solution that had an API. But he couldn’t find any.

He was initially reluctant to enter the world of payroll software himself.
But in 2018 he asked himself “How hard can it be?”

If he knew the answer to that question he wouldn’t have got started, but thankfully he was naive to the many complexities involved in building a payroll product from the ground up.

Which brings us to today and the release of Staffology – a web-based Payroll application with a comprehensive API and a slick user interface that can be white-labelled.

Growing up

After two years of building the product and getting it in the hands of thousands of customers, Staffology was acquired by IRIS Software Group. This gave Duane the ability to focus on the product whilst his new colleagues take care of the other aspects of the fast-growing business.

Then, in 2022, Staffology and Octopus HR, another IRIS product, merged and Staffology HR was introduced, creating a full service brand for UK businesses.