Labour hire software in Australia is rarely one product. Most agencies run a stack: an applicant tracking system (ATS) to find and place candidates, rostering and timesheets, payroll and client invoicing, and an onboarding layer that makes sure every worker is cleared to work before they turn up on a client's site.
This guide compares eight tools Australian labour hire agencies use today, which job each one does, and when each is the wrong pick, including our own. Every competitor detail comes from the vendor's own website, checked on 2 November 2026. Prices change, so confirm with the vendor before you buy.
Canyou is our product. It's labour hire onboarding software: the step between "placed" in your ATS and "paid" in your payroll, where work rights are checked, tickets collected and forms signed. It doesn't replace your ATS or your payroll, so we've been specific about what the other tools do better.
The five jobs labour hire software has to do
Every placement goes through the same five jobs. Before you compare tools, decide which ones you want in one system and which you're happy to connect.
| Job | What it covers | Typical tools |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find and place | Candidate database, job orders, matching, placements, client CRM | ATS/CRM: JobAdder, Bullhorn, Workforce One |
| 2. Clear to work | Work rights, licences and tickets, TFN and super, contracts, inductions | Onboarding: Canyou, Access Onboarded, onboarding modules in the ATS or payroll |
| 3. Roster and record time | Shifts, availability, timesheets, client approval | Deputy, timesheets in pay and bill software |
| 4. Pay and bill | Award interpretation, payroll, Single Touch Payroll, super, client invoices | Workforce One, FastTrack360, Astute Payroll |
| 5. Stay compliant | Records that keep your labour hire licence and your clients' audits safe | All of the above, plus your own processes |
The jobs overlap, and the gaps between them are where things go wrong. A candidate is "placed" in the ATS on Friday, but nobody checked their visa conditions or asked for their White Card before the Monday shift.
What to look for in labour hire software
Work rights checked, not just recorded
It's against the law to employ someone who doesn't have permission to work in Australia, or to have them work outside their visa conditions. Employers check this through VEVO, with the visa holder's permission (Home Affairs: VEVO for organisations). Plenty of tools let you record a visa expiry date. Fewer run the check and keep the result. Ask each vendor which one they do. Our VEVO check guide for employers explains what a proper check covers.
Tickets and licences tracked after the placement
White Cards, high-risk work licences, forklift tickets and Working with Children Checks expire while your workers are out on assignment. Look for software that ties the right tickets to each role, records the expiry date and chases the worker before it lapses.
A safety induction before the first shift
Both the labour hire agency and the host business have work health and safety duties to the worker, including a safety induction that sets out WHS policies, procedures and practices (Safe Work Australia: labour hire WHS duties). Software can deliver the agency's induction and keep the record. The host's site-specific induction still happens on site.
Awards, timesheets and invoices that agree
Pay and bill is where agencies make or lose margin. Look for award interpretation, client timesheet approval, Single Touch Payroll and invoices generated from the same approved time.
Integrations that actually move data
"Integrates with JobAdder" can mean a full candidate record or a link. Ask what moves, in which direction, and when.
Records for your labour hire licence
As at October 2026, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT run labour hire licensing schemes, and regulators expect you to show you meet your obligations. Our labour hire licence guide covers each state.
Pricing that fits how you hire
Agency software is priced per recruiter, per internal user, per active worker or per onboard. A high-volume casual agency and a small specialist agency can pay very different amounts for the same tool. Work out your monthly numbers before the demo.
The best labour hire software in Australia, compared
| Tool | Main job | Best for | Pricing (public, Nov 2026) | Work rights / licences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canyou | Clear to work | Agencies and employers that need every worker cleared to work before the first shift | From $49/month with 10 onboards; Pro $129; Scale $349 | Checked with Home Affairs / tracked to expiry with reminders |
| Workforce One | Find and place, pay and bill | Labour hire firms, recruitment firms and GTOs wanting one system | Around $140 per internal user/month (+GST), typically 10 users | Visa and work-rights expiry tracking / licence expiry tracking |
| FastTrack360 | Pay and bill | ANZ labour hire and staffing agencies with complex awards | On request | Not listed on the pages we checked |
| JobAdder | Find and place | Recruitment agencies with temp and contract desks | On request; temp placements need Recruiter Essential or above | Right-to-work checks / expiring documents flagged |
| Bullhorn | Find and place | Larger agencies wanting an ATS/CRM with a big partner marketplace | Starter A$99, Core A$165 per user/month; higher plans on request | Right-to-work checks in onboarding / not listed |
| Astute Payroll | Pay and bill | Recruitment and staffing agencies that want payroll and invoicing from timesheets | From $10 per active user/month | Visa and ticket expiry dates / visa and ticket expiry dates |
| Deputy | Roster and record time | Shift-based employers rostering their own staff | From $6.75 per user/month (annual); HR add-on $3.50 | VEVO checks / licence expiry reminders (HR add-on) |
| Access Onboarded | Clear to work | Recruitment agencies that want onboarding and screening inside their ATS | On request | VEVO checks / licences with expiry tracking |
Prices in AUD where the vendor states it, excluding GST unless noted, taken from each vendor's website on 2 November 2026. Sources are listed at the end.
The tools in detail
Canyou
Main job: clearing workers to work, between the ATS and payroll.
Best for: recruitment and labour hire agencies, and employers in construction, agriculture, aged care and other licence-heavy industries, where "placed" isn't the same as cleared to work.
Onboarding gets them into payroll. It doesn't keep them legal to work. Canyou runs a workflow for each role, so a traffic controller and a warehouse casual each get the right forms, licences and training videos with questions. Workers complete it on their phone from a link or a QR code, with no app or password. Work rights are checked with the Department of Home Affairs, licences are tracked to expiry with reminders to the worker, and the finished employee syncs to Xero, MYOB, Deputy or Cloud Payroll. Sensitive data is stored in Australia and never sold.
If you run Workforce One, matched candidates flow straight into Canyou and their cleared-to-work status syncs back (see the Workforce One integration). If you run JobAdder, approved placements import into Canyou with their details filled in, so nobody retypes them. Astute Payroll is coming soon, with more recruitment and payroll connections on the way.
Fast Labour Hire cut onboarding from 6–10 hours to 15 minutes per worker.
Pricing: Essentials $49 a month (10 onboards, then $3 each), Pro $129 (50 onboards), Scale $349 (200 onboards). Visa checks are $7–$9 each depending on plan. All prices excluding GST. See pricing.
Not the right fit if: you're looking for an ATS, rostering, payroll or client invoicing. Canyou does onboarding and ongoing compliance, then hands clean data to the systems that do those jobs.
Workforce One
Main job: find and place, plus pay and bill, in one system.
Best for: labour hire firms, recruitment firms and group training organisations that want one platform from job order to invoice.
Workforce One, from Adelaide-based Code House, covers recruitment (candidate pipeline, job order templates and job board posting), online timesheets with supervisor approval, award interpretation, payroll with STP Phase 2, invoices generated automatically when payroll is processed, and debtors. It tracks visa and work-rights expiry dates and licence expiries, and has employee and client portals. Its site says most clients have around 10 users at $140 per user per month plus GST, priced per internal staff member, with support included.
Not the right fit if: you want a dedicated roster builder (its workforce management page describes an availability view) or you'd rather keep a specialist ATS. Canyou integrates with Workforce One for agencies that want work rights checked with Home Affairs inside the onboarding step.
FastTrack360
Main job: pay and bill.
Best for: ANZ labour hire and staffing agencies with complex awards, EBAs and contracts.
FastTrack360 is now part of The Access Group. Its pages describe online and mobile timesheets, award interpretation across modern awards and EBAs, payroll aligned with STP and Payday Super, client invoicing on separate cycles from payroll, and branded portals for clients and candidates. It connects to ATS platforms such as Vincere, Bullhorn and JobAdder, and to Access Onboarded for onboarding. Pricing is on request.
Not the right fit if: you want ATS, rostering and onboarding built in. On the pages we checked, those come through connected products.
JobAdder
Main job: find and place.
Best for: Australian recruitment agencies with temp and contract desks.
JobAdder is a Sydney-based ATS and CRM. For temp and contract work it tracks placements through booked, working and finishing, runs right-to-work and background checks, and flags temps when a document is missing or expiring. Its integrations include Astute Payroll, FastTrack360, Deputy and Onboarded, and Canyou connects to it too: approved placements import into Canyou for onboarding. Pricing is on request, annual contracts are standard, and temp placements need the Recruiter Essential plan or above (Recruiter Lite is perm only).
Not the right fit if: you want timesheets, payroll and invoicing in the same system. JobAdder captures the data and syncs it to back office software.
Bullhorn
Main job: find and place.
Best for: larger agencies that want an ATS and CRM with a large partner marketplace.
Bullhorn has a Sydney office and a "Bullhorn for Labour Hire Recruitment" page covering job order matching and bulk assignments. Its onboarding product includes right-to-work checks, and its Recruitment Cloud Workforce Edition adds shift scheduling and timesheets. Starter is A$99 and Core A$165 per user per month (the page doesn't say whether GST is included), with higher plans on request. Its marketplace lists 300+ partners, including Astute Payroll.
Not the right fit if: you want Australian payroll and client invoicing in the same product. We didn't find those on Bullhorn's Australian pages.
Astute Payroll
Main job: pay and bill.
Best for: recruitment and staffing agencies that want payroll and invoicing driven by timesheets.
Astute Payroll, part of Deel since November 2022, covers timesheets with shift time blocks, a pay rules engine, payroll with Single Touch Payroll and SuperStream, client invoicing, onboarding with online TFN declarations, and visibility of visa and ticket expiry dates. It integrates with Bullhorn, JobAdder, Xero and MYOB. Its FAQ says prices start from $10 per active user per month, with a managed payroll service also available.
Not the right fit if: you want an ATS or rostering in the same product, or need visas checked rather than tracked. Canyou's Astute Payroll integration is coming soon.
Deputy
Main job: roster and record time.
Best for: shift-based businesses rostering their own employees.
Deputy covers auto-scheduling, timesheets, award templates, a payroll add-on with STP Phase 2, and an HR add-on with onboarding, VEVO checks and licence expiry reminders. Lite, Core and Pro plans are $6.75, $8.75 and $13 per user a month on annual plans (AUD, excluding taxes), with a $30 minimum monthly spend on monthly plans. The HR add-on is $3.50 per user a month. There's a free trial of up to 31 days.
Not the right fit if: you're an agency that needs an ATS, client invoicing or a client portal. Deputy is built for employers rostering their own staff. Canyou syncs cleared workers into Deputy if you roster there.
Access Onboarded
Main job: clear to work, for recruitment agencies.
Best for: agencies that want reference checks and police checks ordered from the same candidate link.
Onboarded is now sold by The Access Group as Access Onboarded. It covers candidate registration, VEVO checks, reference checks, police checks through third-party providers, e-signatures, WHS and site-specific inductions, TFN, super and bank details, and licences with expiry tracking. It integrates with FastTrack360, Vincere, JobAdder, Bullhorn and Workforce One. Pricing is on request. We've compared it with Canyou in more detail in Canyou vs Access Onboarded.
Not the right fit if: you want to see pricing and try it before a demo, or you want the worker reminded to upload a renewed ticket long after placement, with clean details synced into Xero or MYOB payroll. Canyou covers the same onboarding for agencies on JobAdder or Workforce One.
How a labour hire stack fits together
Most agencies end up with one of three set-ups:
- All-in-one. Workforce One for recruitment, payroll and invoicing, with Canyou connected for work rights checks, tickets and onboarding.
- ATS plus pay and bill. JobAdder or Bullhorn for recruitment, FastTrack360 or Astute Payroll for timesheets, payroll and invoices, and an onboarding layer between them, such as Canyou, which imports JobAdder placements.
- Small agency or direct employer. Xero, MYOB or Cloud Payroll for payroll, rostering in Deputy, and Canyou for onboarding.
Whichever you choose, check the hand-offs. The worker should be entered once, cleared to work once, and appear in payroll without anyone retyping their tax file number.
Which labour hire software should you choose?
- You want one system from job order to invoice: Workforce One, with Canyou connected if you want work rights checked with Home Affairs inside onboarding.
- You have a recruitment team that lives in its ATS: JobAdder or Bullhorn, paired with FastTrack360 or Astute Payroll for pay and bill. On JobAdder, Canyou imports your placements and clears them to work.
- You need reference and police checks run during candidate onboarding: Access Onboarded.
- You roster your own staff by the shift: Deputy.
- Your workers need visas checked and tickets tracked long after placement: Canyou, alongside whichever ATS and payroll you run. See how it works on our labour hire onboarding software page.
How Canyou handles this
Canyou is built for the step most labour hire stacks leave to email and spreadsheets:
- One link or QR code per role, completed on the worker's phone in about 15 minutes.
- Work-rights checks with the Department of Home Affairs, with a record kept for every check.
- Licence and certification tracking with reminders before anything expires.
- Digital TFN declarations, super choice with automated stapling, the Fair Work Information Statement and electronic signatures.
- Sync to Xero, MYOB, Deputy and Cloud Payroll, and two-way with Workforce One.
- Live Australian support, Monday to Friday.
Try for free (no credit card required, cancel any time) or book a demo and we'll show you a workflow built for your roles. Still comparing onboarding tools more broadly? Our guide to the best employee onboarding software in Australia covers nine more.
Sources (checked 2 November 2026): Workforce One · Workforce One: workforce management · Workforce One: payroll · Workforce One: debtors · FastTrack360 · FastTrack360: pay and bill · JobAdder pricing · JobAdder: temp and contract · Bullhorn pricing (AU) · Bullhorn for labour hire · Bullhorn onboarding · Astute Payroll product · Astute Payroll FAQs · Deputy pricing · Deputy employee onboarding · Deputy document management · Access Onboarded · Access Onboarded: reference checks
This is general information, not legal advice.
