Payrun
Pay the crew without the spreadsheet
Problem
Payroll for eleven people on variable hours takes a day: pull the rota, chase the missing timesheet, apply the overtime rule someone remembers, type it into the payroll system, discover an error after payment. Every month, forever.
Why now
Nothing new technically. Payroll software is old and good and priced for companies with a payroll person, which is exactly what an eleven-person firm does not have.
Solution
Hours flow from the rota you already keep, the rules apply themselves, and the run is a review rather than an assembly. Errors surface before payment, when they are free to fix, instead of after.
Who it is for
A small firm with hourly staff and no payroll function, currently doing it by hand. Eleven people on variable hours takes a day: pull the rota, chase the missing timesheet, apply the overtime rule someone remembers, retype it, then find the error after payment. It happens every month, forever, and nobody in the building enjoys any part of it.
What you could earn from Payrun
Say you build Payrun and charge your own customers $29 a month, the price the score suggests. The numbers below are the revenue that would come from them. This is money you earn, never a fee you pay UpgradIQ, and we never take a cut. It is arithmetic off the price, not a promise the customers arrive on their own.
See what Payrun produces
Hours flow from the rota you already keep, the rules apply themselves, and the run is a review rather than an assembly. Errors surface before payment, when they are free to fix, instead of after.
Your build kit for Payrun
Start the build and the kit opens two steps in, then drip-feeds the rest one phase at a time. Every phase is a copy-paste prompt for your agent with its own verification before the next unlocks, so Payrun moves from an empty folder to a running MVP without you ever holding the whole plan in your head.
Progress saves across every device, and the workspace always reopens on the exact step you left, so a build that runs over several weeks survives them instead of dying in a browser tab you eventually close.
How you actually build it
Connect your coding agent once. It pulls the current phase straight from your kit over MCP: the exact prompt, the outcome to aim for, and the check to run before it moves on. You review and ship, it does the typing.
No copy-paste juggling, no thread to lose. The kit stays the single source of truth, and your agent works through it one phase at a time, verifying its own work at each step before the next phase is unlocked.
Take the context file, free
This is the AGENTS.md that keeps your coding agent on scope for the entire build: what Payrun is, who it is for, the stack, the non-goals, and the rules it must follow. Copy it into your project now, no account needed, and your agent is briefed before you write a line.
# Payrun Pay the crew without the spreadsheet ## What this is Hours flow from the rota you already keep, the rules apply themselves, and the run is a review rather than an assembly. Errors surface before payment, when they are free to fix, instead of after. ## The problem it solves Payroll for eleven people on variable hours takes a day: pull the rota, chase the missing timesheet, apply the overtime rule someone remembers, type it into the payroll system, discover an error after payment. Every month, forever. ## Who it is for A small firm with hourly staff and no payroll function, currently doing it by hand. Eleven people on variable hours takes a day: pull the rota, chase the missing timesheet, apply the overtime rule someone remembers, retype it, then find the error after payment. It happens every month, forever, and nobody in the building enjoys any part of it. ## Stack Next.js + Postgres ## Non-goals Do not build features outside the core job above. This product exists to do one thing well. Every extra feature is a reason it does not ship. ## Rules for the agent - Build one phase at a time. Do not run ahead into later phases. - Validate input at every boundary where data enters. - Never put a permission or plan check in client code. - Ask before adding a dependency that a few lines would cover. - If something is ambiguous, say so rather than inventing a requirement. --- Context file from UpgradIQ · idea payrun · prompts kit-v4
Then start free to get the ten-phase kit and run the first prompt.
The path to a running MVP
Foundation
Scaffold the stack, then wire the data model and sign-in. It is the skeleton Payrun stands on, and it goes up in an evening rather than a lost week of config.
The product
Build the core feature end to end, then wire how it charges. This is where Payrun finally turns into something that a stranger will actually pay you for.
Ship it
Test and harden, deploy it live, then open the launch-day toolkit that lands the first ten users who prove it.
Is Payrun for you?
- You want revenue reasonably soon, not a science project
- You can give it evenings and a couple of weekends
- You can reach Small firms with variable-hours staff
- You are not ready to talk to a first real customer
- You want it fully passive, with zero maintenance
- You expect it to find its own customers without you
The 3 sections that decide whether you should actually build it, plus the full kit, are one click away.
3 more sections decide whether you build Payrun
You have the case and the plan. Pro opens how it makes money, the one risk that kills it, and the build notes, plus the 10-phase kit that takes Payrun to a running MVP, on this idea and all 200.
How it makes money
Main risk
Build notes
What is free here, and what Pro unlocks
Frequently asked
Is Payrun actually validated?
It scored UIQ 79 with a GO verdict, weighed across eight sub-scores on the same rubric as every idea. GO means 75 and above, so demand and buildability were judged, not guessed.
What stack does it use?
Payrun is built on Next.js + Postgres, chosen because a coding agent can carry most of it. You are not fighting infrastructure, you are shipping the feature that matters.
How long to a running MVP?
The kit is ten phases, drip-fed one at a time so you always know the single next step. An evening and a weekend for the lighter builds, a few focused weeks for the deeper ones.
What does the $29 a month mean?
It is the price the model suggests Payrun could charge its own customers, not a fee to us. It is here so the money question is answered before you build, not after.
Which agent do I need?
Any capable coding agent: Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable, or Bolt. Every phase is a copy-paste prompt with its own check, so the agent does the typing and you keep the judgement.
What is free versus Pro?
The whole case above is free: the problem, timing, solution, buyer, and the full score. Pro adds how it makes money, the one risk that could kill it, and the full kit that carries Payrun from an empty folder to a running MVP.
More like Payrun
All 14 Fintech ideasBuild Payrun, not just read about it
You have the problem, the timing, the solution and the buyer. A plan opens how it makes money, the risk that kills it, and the kit that takes it to a running MVP.
Start building Payrun