Numbers must number!

Even back in school, I knew accounting just wasn’t my jam. Numbers? Spreadsheets? Please, spare me! Honestly, I’d rather watch paint dry - slowly - than reconcile accounts. So, I chose a life of chaos - technology! (No offense, accountants.)

Fast forward to now: I’m the boss, the staff, the HR auntie, the sales team, marketing guru, personal assistant and – plot twist – accountant. I wear more hats than a milliner at a royal wedding. Which means, yes, payroll is all me. Help.

Let’s talk business banking. If you’re a non-Singaporean living here and trying to open an SME account, good luck lah! I tried HSBC, DBS and OCBC banks, and received more rejections than someone in their late 30s gets on Tinder on a Friday night. It seems that my auntie charm only works on humans, not banks.

Enter ASPIRE: the hero we didn’t know we needed. It’s got all the gadgets for business banking, offering easy onboarding, KYC that doesn’t make you want to cry, SWIFT and SGD payments, currency accounts and, drumroll, seamless integration with accounting tools like Xero.

Xero has a buffet of HR and payroll options, but I opted for SimplePay – because, let’s be real, I need the “for dummies” version. Turns out, it’s a winner. Even I couldn’t mess it up.

The best part? Integration is a breeze. Everything connects with a custom API, so no more hunting for codes or company details buried in old emails. Just add your employee (spoiler: it’s me), key in the monthly pay and start date, tick CPF/SDL if needed, enter the bank account, hit ‘payrun’ - and boom! Payslip done, all the right Singapore deductions included, plus a shiny IRAS tax doc for 2025–26. Adulting made easy.

I was genuinely impressed. The whole thing took me maybe half an hour. How did people do payroll back in the day? Abacus? Smoke signals? And don’t get me started on the UK tax system (yes, I still have to file there, and yes, it’s still a pain in the neck).

Tried any other accounting or payroll tools? Spill the tea with #auntietechs and I’ll give them a go - so you don’t have to!