How to Make a Business Case for HR Software Your C-Suite Will Say Yes to

You’ve identified your pain point, researched solutions, and found the perfect HR tech to slot into your tech stack. The problem? You don’t have the authority to approve the software investment, so you need buy-in from your C-suite.

Unfortunately, SHRM’s research finds that only 18% of HR professionals consider HR tech to be a top priority this year, making it all the more important to build a solid business case. This guide teaches you how to create a proposal your C-suite can’t possibly turn down.

What should you include in a business case for HR software?

As you package your business case together, focus on substance over style. Of course, your presentation should be eye-catching with visual aids to get your point across. But make sure you’ve covered the following key components alongside any fancy graphics:

• Problem statement: Instead of getting sidetracked by the software product’s features, clarify the business problem you must solve. For example, if you wanted to buy a centralized HRIS, you might explain the background as: “We can’t accurately report headcount or attrition trends because our data lives across spreadsheets.”
• Return on investment (ROI): Explain in figures what the business will gain from the new product. Cover benefits like dollars saved, operational agility, risk reduction, and time-to-impact, framing them in business terms to strengthen your case.
• Stakeholder alignment: Show how your proposal aligns with the priorities of each business leader. For example, Finance cares about the ROI of HR software, IT wants to hear about integration and data security, and the CEO is focused on scale and growth.
• Suggested plan of action: Present a clear recommendation for how you plan to move forward. This should be a structured plan demonstrating that you’ve thought beyond the idea and into execution. Your overview should include a proposed solution, a rough timeline, expected outcomes, and next steps.

How to build your business case for HR software in 7 steps

C-suite executives are far more likely to act on software investment proposals that are clearly well-researched and backed by business logic.

To reach that point, work through the following prep steps.

1. Identify the pain points with your current setup

Start by assessing the kit in your current HR tech stack, evaluating where it’s working, and, most importantly, where it’s holding you back.

You can identify pain points by:

• Auditing recent HR processes to spot bottlenecks or manual workarounds
• Reviewing internal feedback from employees or hiring managers
• Looking at missed targets or delays, for example, extended time-to-hire, late compliance filings, payroll errors
• Noting where data gaps exist. Are you struggling to generate accurate reports or answer leadership questions quickly?

Once you’ve gathered this information, group your findings under the most common pressure points, such as:

Onboarding delays and inefficiencies

A slick, seamless onboarding process equips your new hires to quickly add value to your business. If onboarding is inconsistent or delayed, you lose these productivity gains and increase the risk of early attrition.

Alice Burks, Director of People Success at Deel, explains:

Lack of centralized data

When workforce data is spread across spreadsheets, inboxes, and disconnected tools, it becomes difficult to get a reliable snapshot of headcount, attrition, or payroll status. Without a single source of truth, strategic planning and trust in HR’s reporting mechanisms are at risk.

Manual tracking and duplicated work

If your team still enters spreadsheet data manually or jumps between tools or spreadsheets to update an employee record, you’re burning time and increasing the risk of human error.

Ownership is also brought into question, as teams lack visibility into “who” is responsible for updating a particular document, whether that be your merit cycle, your onboarding program, or your training completion records.

Compliance risks

As your business expands, particularly into new regions and jurisdictions, HR compliance becomes increasingly complex. Without embedded HR processes, it’s easy to lose track of your obligations, especially if crucial documentation is scattered across a variety of disconnected folders, drives, and inboxes.

Limited scalability

Scaling HR operations across multiple geographies or business units without scalable tools leads to inconsistent processes, local workarounds, and bottlenecks that don’t show up until something goes wrong.

Inconsistent or frustrating employee experience

When HR systems are clunky, inconsistent, or slow, the employee experience suffers. New hires might wait days for access to tools, or be confused about who to contact for payroll issues or frustration with unclear policies. Over time, these frictions erode trust in HR and contribute to disengagement or attrition.

2. Quantify the cost of doing nothing

Some of your executive stakeholders may be inclined to adopt a “wait and see” approach, particularly if finances are tight. Instead of outright turning down your proposal, they could suggest putting it on the back burner until next quarter or next year, once the economic climate is deemed more stable, or after resolving a more urgent priority.

But delaying support of HR comes with its own costs, many of which are hidden until they start affecting the bottom line. These include:

Lost time and bandwidth

Manual processes burn hours each week that could be spent on strategic work. Additionally, SHRM found that understaffed HR teams were 10% less likely to describe themselves as effective, pointing to a clear link between resource strain and performance.

Compliance blind spots

While 70% of HR professionals and 74% of HR executives believe they’re managing compliance well, only 48% of U.S. workers agree, according to SHRM.

Worker misclassification is just one area of red tape concern that may be causing this gap. Research by the Economic Policy Institute finds that up to 30% of companies are misclassifying their workers, which is risky since this can trigger misclassification penalties of up to $25,000 per violation (for example, in California), plus IRS back taxes, interest, and potential audits.

Add to that the incoming EU Pay Transparency Directive, which requires companies to produce detailed salary benchmarks and reporting by 2026. Penalties for non-enforcement are set at the member state level. In Finland, for example, fines are proposed to range between €5,000 and €80,000.

For HR teams without automated systems, achieving compliance means months of manual work, at the risk of legal exposure and reputational damage if they fail to meet key compliance deadlines.

Delayed hiring and lost productivity

HR teams that lack the right resources often struggle to move quickly, leading to extended time-to-hire and bottlenecks in onboarding. The global median time-to-fill rate is 38 days for each open vacancy, rising to 55 days in countries like Germany. Each of these days spent recruiting represents another day of lost output. Even after someone starts, a disjointed onboarding experience can delay their time to full productivity and place an extra burden on the team around them.

3. Define the benefits and expected ROI, and connect to business goals

After articulating the cost of standing still, it’s also imperative to highlight the tangible benefits that a particular HR technology investment will bring to your organization.

Rather than listing features or generic improvements, frame each benefit in business language your leadership team cares about: time, money, risk, or strategic advantage.

Use simple “problem → impact → solution” statements like the following to structure your case, including relevant quotes and real-life success data to bolster the point.

Problem 1: “We’re losing months per hire in new locations due to document processing and benefits admin.”

• Impact: “That’s time we’re not hitting quota or delivering value.”
• Solution: We could follow the lead of Telin, which reduced onboarding time in new locations from months to days with Deel, accelerating time to productivity for every new hire.

Problem 2: “Our HR team spends 20+ hours a week on manual data entry.”

• Impact: “That’s equivalent to half an FTE per month, which is time that could be used for strategic projects.”
• Solution: We could win back 278+ hours per month and cut HR workload by 80% if we follow DevBase ’s approach and automate 20 admin workflows with Deel.

Problem 3: “We’re juggling multiple systems across countries with no visibility or unified process.”

• Impact: “This creates compliance risks, drains bandwidth, and makes reporting nearly impossible, especially for lean teams managing global operations.”
• Solution: Cohabs replaced seven disconnected payroll systems with one unified platform using Deel’s Global Payroll, HRIS, and PEO. As a result, they saved an estimated 960 hours of admin time per month and expect to halve their payroll workload by the end of 2025.

Problem 4: “We manage HR data in Google Sheets.”

• Impact: “This leads to bottlenecks, errors, and lost visibility.”
• Solution: Feedier found that its HR admin workload was slashed in half when it centralized 100% of its employee data by switching to Deel’s HRIS.

4. Estimate costs and compare options

Like any presentation to the C-suite, the focus is on money. Executive leadership wants a firm understanding of the costs involved in your HR tech investment and its impact on the bottom line. They’ll also want reassurance that you’re familiar with the details of these figures.

Start by estimating the total cost of ownership. This should include:

• Software licenses or subscription fees
• Implementation or setup costs, if any (Deel, for example, offers zero implementation costs and can be fully operational in a matter of days)
• Training and change management needs
• Time to value, including how long before the benefits begin to outweigh the costs?

From here, compare the cost of your proposed solution against your current approach. This is where spreadsheets and manual systems start to show their hidden costs. The following are illustrative examples:

• Manual onboarding = Lost productivity from 2-5 day ramp-up delays per new hire (avg. $500–$1,000 per hire)
• Disconnected data sources = Time spent pulling headcount or attrition data manually (est. 12 hours/month x HR/analyst hourly rate)
• Contractor misclassification risk = Legal exposure, back taxes, and fines (especially in global markets)
• Repetitive admin work = Admin hours spent on tasks like updating employee records, payroll changes, tracking PTO manually

5. Tailor your message to different stakeholders

Even the most compelling business case for HR systems needs to be framed with your audience in mind. A CFO, CEO, and IT lead will all evaluate your proposal through very different lenses, so make sure you’re speaking the right language.

Structure your case around the following key elements:

• Problem: What’s broken or inefficient today?
• Impact: What’s the cost of doing nothing and continuing as-is?
• Solution: What tool or system are you proposing?
• Benefits: What will it unlock? For example, time savings, cost savings, reduced risk, or better planning?
• Cost: What investment do you require, and how does this compare to the forecasted payoff?
• Timeline: When will the business realize the value?

6. Anticipate objections and address them head-on

Leadership wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t grill you on the details. As gatekeepers to the company’s investment opportunities, they need to make sure their decision-making is watertight. Often, this means they’ll present objections, legitimate or otherwise, to test the strength of your business case.

Here’s how you can respond to common types of pushback:

7. Present your case with confidence

If you’ve completed all the above steps, the final piece of the puzzle is to present your business case with conviction. The facts matter, but so does your delivery. Confidence signals to the C-suite that this is a strategic investment that’s ready to roll.

Here’s how to make your presentation land:

• Use data and visual aids like ROI summaries, time-saved charts, or compliance risk comparisons that make your message easier to absorb and harder to ignore.
• Focus on outcomes, not features.. Instead of listing product capabilities, emphasize what the business will gain, such as fewer payroll errors and stronger compliance.
• Paint the future state.. Help leadership envisage what daily operations could look like with the right HR software in place. Are processes automated? Is HR freed up for strategic work? Is your org ready to scale confidently?

Even better if you can showcase a track record of success. Take it from Bitpanda CHRO Lindsay Ross, who had used Deel at a previous company and already knew the value it delivered. When she moved to Bitpanda, the decision to switch from a legacy vendor to Deel was easy as it was equipped with a ringing endorsement.

If you’ve piloted a tool, used it in a past role, or have colleagues who’ve succeeded with it, make that part of your case. A proven solution with a strong advocate behind it is much more likely to get leadership over the line.

Deel’s HR software makes the business case for you

The strongest business cases are built on clear outcomes, and Deel delivers them out of the box. From onboarding and global payroll to compliance, performance, and employee experience, Deel’s platform helps HR teams prove their value at every stage of growth.

Here’s how its key capabilities reinforce your business case:

• One platform across 150 countries: Manage payroll, onboarding, compliance, performance, and benefits for direct employees, EORs, and contractors, all in one place
• Built-in compliance and global payroll: Deel handles taxes, local documentation, classification, and contracts, so you don’t have to arrange legal cover every time you hire abroad
• Rapid onboarding with zero setup fees: Deploy the system in minutes, with no implementation costs, vs legacy tools that can take months to configure
• Centralized data and powerful insights: From org charts and time-off to compensation, benefits, and equity, Deel’s people analytics support smarter decision-making
• Seamless integrations and enterprise-grade security: Connect to your existing tech stack with 100+ integrations while meeting GDPR, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 standards
• Backed by a global support team and in-house experts: Deel operates its own payroll and compliance team in-house, with no third-party vendors, so you always have a single trusted partner
• Success in real terms: 35,000 companies globally, from startups to enterprises, trust Deel to handle their workforce across borders. From these, Deel has onboarded 650,000+ workers and processed $10B in payments.

Don’t let great HR ideas die in the budgeting process. Talk to Deel to estimate your ROI and get your C-level approval faster.